CTT 2024

Topics

CTT targets a broad audience, encouraging submissions by translators, tool builders and users, researchers and students, and developers alike who work with/on creative-text translation in terms of domain and the use of language technology in those domains. Topics include but are not limited to:

• computer-assisted/machine translation in marketing

• computer-assisted/machine translation of literary works, including poetry and prose

• computer-assisted/machine translation in audiovisual translation

• computer-assisted/machine translation in subtitling

• computer-assisted/machine translation in multilingual content creation

• resources (models, datasets, tools) for multilingual (or even parallel) creative-text translation

• user studies on creative-text CAT/MT

• limitations of current language technology in creative domains

About the workshop

In an era where technological advances continuously reshape the potential of language technology, the workshop on “Creative-text Translation and Technology" (CTT), aims to delve into the application of translation technology, such as Machine Translation (MT) and Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT), in the realms of marketing, literature, poetry, audiovisual translation, and multilingual content creation on social media.

The importance of this workshop stems from advancements in Neural Machine Translation (NMT) and, more recently, the impact of Large Language Models (LLM) on the field. High-quality NMT systems have drastically improved the efficiency and accessibility of translation across various languages, including low-resource languages, and LLMs have shown remarkable performance across language-related tasks, including translation, paraphrasing, and automatic post-editing.

This technological leap has not only democratized information across linguistic barriers but has also opened new avenues for creativity and cultural exchange. As global digital platforms become increasingly multilingual, there is a growing need for innovative translation solutions that cater to diverse and creative content, making this workshop highly relevant and timely.

At the same time, the nuanced demands of creative-text translation underscore the value of human translators. While language technology has made significant strides in accuracy and fluency, the subtleties of language in creative domains – such as idiomatic expressions in literature, emotional nuances in poetry, or cultural references in marketing – often elude even the most advanced algorithms. Given the steep process, it is therefore worthwhile to discuss and present how language technology can be used within creative domains and how new systems could alleviate shortcomings of the last generation.

This workshop aims to bring together a diverse group of participants – including researchers, educators, professional translators, users, and system developers – to explore and discuss these themes. It will serve as a platform to discuss how human expertise and technological innovation can synergistically enhance the translation of creative material. 

Organizing committee

For questions, you can contact Bram at bram.vanroy@kuleuven.be. 

Bram Vanroy has a broad background in computational linguistics, experimental translation studies, and machine translation. He currently specializes in large language modelling and its application to creative domains in the ERC project "TENACITY" of Tim Van de Cruys (grant agreement 101089081). Bram was part of the organization committee of, among others, the Workshop on Automated Translation for Sign and Spoken Languages (AT4SSL) in 2023 and the EAMT conference on machine translation in 2022.

Marie-Aude Lefer is an associate professor in translation studies at UCLouvain, where she acts as head of the Louvain School of Translation and Interpreting. Her current research interests include technology in translator education, machine translation post-editing training, and translation quality evaluation. Marie-Aude has co-chaired the organization of several international conferences and workshops, and edited nine volumes and special issues. 

Lieve Macken is an associate professor of Translation Technology at the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication of Ghent University (Belgium), where she also teaches Machine Translation. She coordinates the Computer-Assisted Language Mediation postgraduate programme and the European Master's in Technology for Translation and Interpreting (EM-TTI). In her research she often combines product- and process-based approaches to compare different methods of translation (human translation, machine translation, post-editing, computer-aided translation). She was guest editor of the Special Issue ``Advances in Computer-Aided Translation Technology'', of the peer-reviewed journal Informatics (2019). In June 2022 she successfully co-organized EAMT2022, together with CrossLang. 

Paola Ruffo is a researcher in the field of Computer-Aided Literary Translation (CALT). She is a Marie Skłodowska–Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Ghent University, working on 'Developing User-centred Approaches to Technological Innovation in Literary Translation (DUAL-T)'. She was the main organiser of the 13th International Postgraduate Conference in Translation and Interpreting (IPCITI) and of the first ``Co-publication by PGRs with their supervisors'' workshop at the University of Bristol in 2022.

Programme committee

• Lynne Bowker, UOttawa

• Joke Daems, Universiteit Gent

• Ana Guerberof Arenas, University of Groningen

• James Hadley, Trinity College Dublin

• Damien Hansen, Université de Liège

• Alina Karakanta, Leiden University

• Dorothy Kenny, Dublin City University

• Waltraud Kolb, University of Vienna

• Maarit Koponen, University of Eastern Finland

• Antoni Oliver Gonzalez, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

• Minna Ruokonen, University of Eastern Finland

• Mehmet Şahin, Boğaziçi University

• Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov, University of Turku

• Arda Tezcan, Universiteit Gent

• Antonio Toral, University of Groningen

• Susana Valdez, Leiden University

• Chantal Wright, ZHAW School of Applied Linguistics