Skills and Profile of the New Role of the Translator as MT Post-editor

Abstract

This paper explores the skills and profile of the new role of the translator as MT post-editor in view of the rising interest and use of MT in the translation industry. After a brief review of the relevant literature declaring post-editing (PE) as a profession on its own, the paper goes on to identify the different tasks involved in PE processes, following the work of Krings (Krings, 2001). Then, a series of competences are defined and grouped into three main categories: core competences, linguistic skills and instrumental competences. Finally, a description of the controlled translation scenario of MT PE is advanced taking into account the overall scenario of any translation project, including client description, text domain, text description, use of glossaries, MT engine, MT output quality and purpose of the translated text.