Human translation and Machine Translation (MT) aim to solve the same problem (i.e. translating from one language into another) in two seemingly different ways.
There are many Natural Language Processing (NLP) / Computational linguistics efforts towards improving the work of translators and interpreters (for example Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools, electronic dictionaries, concordancers, spell-checkers, terminological databases and terminology extraction tools, translation memories, partial machine translation of template documents, speech recognition systems for automatic subtitling, etc.). In turn, the NLP field makes use of the work and the knowledge of professional translators and interpreters in to build models for automatic translation – e.g. by using parallel aligned text and speech corpora for text and speech machine translation learning, human evaluators of machine translation output, human annotations for automatic MT post-editing or using eye-tracking for learning editing patterns of professional translators, etc.
While there have been many workshops and conferences representing both sides: 1) Machine Translation in NLP (e.g. WMT, EAMT conferences), and 2) Automatic tools for translators and interpreters in Translation/Interpreting studies (e.g. Translating and The Computer, and the MT Summit conferences), there has not been a common publication & discussion venue for both sides.
What makes our workshop unique is that it is a unified workshop which welcomes the contributions of both fields towards each other.
This workshop addresses BOTH the most recent developments in contributions of NLP to translation/interpreting and the contributions of translation/interpreting to NLP/MT. In this way it addresses the interests of researchers & specialists in both areas and their joint collaborations, aiming for example to improve their own tasks with the techniques & knowledge of the other field or to help the development of the other field with their own techniques & knowledge.
Submissions are invited on the following and other similar topics:
Theoretical papers and practical applications on applying translation techniques & knowledge to NLP and machine translation
Theoretical papers and practical applications on applying interpreting techniques & knowledge to NLP and machine translation
Pre-editing and post-editing of machine translation
NLP approaches & systems for building educational tools & resources for interpreters
NLP approaches & systems for building educational tools & resources for translators
Computer-assisted translation tools, such as translation memories, machine translation, etc.
Translation resources, such as corpora, terminological databases, dictionaries
Computer-assisted interpreting software, such as interpreters workbench, etc.
Interpreting resources, such as corpora, terminological databases, dictionaries
User requirements for interpreting and translation tools
Methodologies for collecting user requirements
Human accuracy metrics and human evaluation of machine translation
Theoretical papers with translators/interpreters views on how machine translation should work/what output should produce
Human-in-the-loop in automatic generation of inter-lingual subtitles
Given the focus of the workshop, submitted papers should underline their interdisciplinarity and how they gain insights/make contributions from one field to another (human vs automatic translation/interpreting).
Researchers and practitioners in the two fields are invited to submit full papers describing original completed research, short papers presenting ongoing research ideas and demos of working systems. Both theoretical ideas and practical applications are welcome.
The workshop will organise a poster session, should enough submissions be collected.
The workshop will also include a round table featuring discussion of how both fields can be of use to each other, and an invited talk of a well-known researcher in the field.
A special issue of a journal on this topic is planned. Authors of accepted papers will be invited to submit extended versions of their articles. More details will be announced in the Second call for papers.
IMPORTANT DATES
Submission deadline: 28 June 2017
Acceptance notification: 28 July 2017
Camera-ready versions: 16 August 2017
Workshop Date : 7 September 2017
SUBMISSION DETAILS
Papers should be submitted through the START system at: https://www.softconf.com/ranlp2017/hitit/
We invite three types of submissions (both theoretical ideas and practical applications are welcome):
full papers which present unpublished original research. Their lengths should not exceed 8 pages (plus up to 2 pages for references)
short papers which present work in progress. Their lengths should not exceed 6 pages (plus up to 2 pages for references)
demo papers describing working systems. Their lengths should not exceed 4 pages (plus up to 2 pages for references).
In addition to the papers, the authors will be expected to demonstrate the systems at the workshop.
Submissions should follow the RANLP2017 guidelines, available at: http://lml.bas.bg/ranlp2017/submissions.php.
The reviewing will be blind, so papers should not include the authors’ names and affiliations, self-references revealing the author’s identity, and acknowledgments of funding or assistance.
Double submission is allowed, but authors will be asked to declare it at the time of submission. Submissions will be reviewed by at least two members of the Programme Committee. Authors of accepted papers will receive guidelines as to how to produce the final camera-ready versions of their papers for inclusion in the proceedings. The workshop proceedings will be uploaded in the ACL Anthology. A printed version will be available at the conference upon request.
FURTHER INFORMATION & CONTACT DETAILS
Conference organizers contact person:
Irina Temnikova, e-mail: irina.temnikova@gmail.com
Guest editors:Anna Strowe (University of Manchester)Richard Mansell (University of Exeter)Helle V. Dam (Aarhus University)This special issue focuses on the normative expectations around translators, including norms around translator identity, as well as around hiring or selection processes and understandings of competence or expertise. By applying the concept of norms to the area of translators and translatorship, we hope to connect conversations about the multiple intersecting systems of values that underpin those norms, often silently, ranging from beliefs about education, language skill, and qualification, to understandings of professionalism, economics, and translation itself, while continuing to explore the dimensions and qualities of translator identity and presentation. The norms themselves are at the centre of the topic, along with the values from which they emerge and with which they engage, but as with investigation of other types of norms, they must be extrapolated from available forms of data, for example texts by and about translators, or trends in hiring or training.As scholarship in translation studies has broadened, first from linguistic approaches to cultural and sociological approaches, and then to a focus on the translator, we have increasingly come to understand that we must view translation as a socially-situated practice or set of practices, carried out by agents whose behaviour and choices are influenced by a variety of external as well as internal factors. A large part of the focus has been on using this perspective to better understand the choices that are made in translating – that is, the specific textual decisions made by translators – but interest has also grown significantly in questions that move beyond textual choices and comparative textual analysis. There are significant threads of scholarship for example on the cultural or structural aspects of non-professional translation and interpreting (e.g. Antonini et al. 2017; Pérez-González and Susam-Saraeva 2012), the relationships between translation and activism (e.g. Boéri 2024; Gould and Tahmasebian 2020; Tymoczko 2010), and the impact of emerging technologies and digital spaces on perceptions of translatorship (e.g. Zhang et al. 2024), among many others.Norms have long been a productive tool for translation studies, but existing articulations and uses have focused on the translational norms that we understand as governing micro- and macro-level translation choices. Meylaerts (2008) discusses individual translators and their identities and profiles in relation to the norms of translation and the profession, following Simeoni (1998) in connecting these to Bourdieu’s notion of habitus. However, behaviour around translator identities and characteristics, such as hiring or self-presentation, can also be examined in terms of norms. In a recent article, Strowe (2024) suggests considering translator selection as norm-driven could help us better recognize the values and decisions around translator recruitment and deconstruct assumptions around translator choice and identity.These norms are reflected in patterns in hiring trends, the translation industry, job advertisements, and translators’ websites or blogs, for example, but they also inform a variety of aspects of how translatorship is constructed. The self-image and presentation or representation of translators is informed by beliefs about what responsibilities, tasks, and capacities are involved in being a translator, areas that intersect both with culturally constructed notions of what constitutes and delimits translation itself (see Tymoczko 2007) and with what forms of social, cultural, and legal understandings we have about various agents’ forms of responsibility for texts (see Bantinaki 2020; Pym 2011).The special issue will collect both empirical studies that explore areas related to translator norms, and articles exploring either the theorization of translator norms or the methodological possibilities of this kind of work. Potential questions to explore include (but are not limited to) the following:How might we theorize norms around translator identity, self-presentation, hiring etc.?What kinds of translator norms can be identified within the LSP industry or in other contexts in which translation is done?What differences are there in translator norms across different contexts or domains, and how do these differences affect practices of translation?How can we understand projections of translator image as a form of representation of translator norm? • How are translator norms changing in the face of developments in digital technology?What kinds of research methods facilitate the exploration of translator norms?This is an open call, and the editors particularly welcome proposals from researchers whose workintersects with translator identity or self-presentation;looks at industry expectations around translators and hiring practices;seeks to describe and delimit the spaces of human agency and identity around translation amidst the growing presence of AI.Submission Abstracts of up to 300 words should be submitted by November 24 to Anna Strowe by email (anna.strowe@manchester.ac.uk). Once invited to do so by the editors, selected authors will be asked to submit an article of between 7000 and 8000 words, including references, through the journal’s online portal no later than May 30, 2026.A full schedule of dates plus the bibliography is available here: https://benjamins.com/series/ts/callforpapers.pdf
Life Writing and Translation Thursday 18 – Friday 19 June 2026 University of Geneva Abstract of no more than 250 words (bibliography excluded) in English or French are now invited and should be submitted to lifewritingtranslation@unige.ch by 16 November 2025. Notifications of acceptance will be distributed at the beginning of February 2026. Please find more information on abstracts on the Conference website: https://www.humanmovement.cam.ac.uk/events/translating-conflict-and-refuge-language-displacement-and-politics-representation
APTIS25 Online Conference at the UCL Centre for Translation Studies (3–4 November 2025) “Better together: how can industry and academia collaborate to empower future language professionals?” The UCL Centre for Translation Studies (CenTraS) is looking forward to hosting the APTIS25 online conference. The APTIS25 conference (“Better together: how can industry and academia collaborate to empower future language professionals?”) will take place on 3–4 November 2025 via Zoom Webinar. We encourage submissions from both academic and industry speakers. Please see our Call for Contributions as well as the Types of Contributions section to know more about the contributions that APTIS25 will be welcoming. If you would like to contribute to APTIS25 by presenting a talk or a roundtable, please visit the Submit a Proposal section, where you will find the link to send your abstract. Please kindly refer to the Key Dates to know more about submission and registration deadlines. https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/aptis25ucl
APTIS25 Online Conference at the UCL Centre for Translation Studies (3–4 November 2025)“Better together: how can industry and academia collaborate to empower future language professionals?”The UCL Centre for Translation Studies (CenTraS) is looking forward to hosting the APTIS25 online conference. The APTIS25 conference (“Better together: how can industry and academia collaborate to empower future language professionals?”) will take place on 3–4 November 2025 via Zoom Webinar.We encourage submissions from both academic and industry speakers. Please see our Call for Contributions as well as the Types of Contributions section to know more about the contributions that APTIS25 will be welcoming. If you would like to contribute to APTIS25 by presenting a talk or a roundtable, please visit the Submit a Proposal section, where you will find the link to send your abstract.Please kindly refer to the Key Dates to know more about submission and registration deadlines.https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/aptis25ucl
Hieronymus is the first Croatian journal dedicated exclusively to publishing research and professional articles in the field of translation studies and terminology. The journal has the following key goals: (1) to promote translation studies and terminology in Croatia and the broader region, where these two disciplines are not always recognized; and (2) to enhance local researchers’ visibility in the international translation studies community. For the Research Section of the journal, we welcome empirical studies with clear goals and well-defined methodology in any area of translation studies or terminology. In addition, papers presenting and discussing any area of professional translation or terminological practice are invited for the Professional section. Contributions by early career researchers (pre-Ph.D. or recently obtaining a Ph.D.) as well as young professionals are gladly accepted. In both sections of the journal, contributors from Croatia and the broader region are particularly welcome, in line with the journal’s mission outlined above. The preferred languages are English and Croatian. We accept submissions throughout the year, but for consideration in issue 12 (to be published in December 2025), submissions need to be sent by 30 March 2025 at the latest. Submissions will first be considered by the Editorial Team and, if they pass this initial screening, they will be forwarded for a double-blind peer review. Authors whose papers are accepted for publication must certify that their work has not been previously published. All papers are published in Open Access under the Creative Commons 4.0 open license. For information on citation style and formatting, please consult our Contributors page and Submission Guidelines. Please send your contributions to the following addresses: knikoli@ffzg.unizg.hr sveselic@ffzg.unizg.hr If you have any queries regarding this call, please do not hesitate to contact us
