Translation Skill-Sets in a Machine Translation Age

Has the translator become a mere variant of the technical communicator? This question arises as soon as the translator’s profession is touched by the technology of Translation Memory and Machine Translation. What Pym suggests here is that new elements have come into play in the continuum between a “start text” and a “translated text”: a set of databases, but also the use that people might make of translations in the long run. Focusing on in-training translators using TM/MT, Pym lists ten specific transversal skills that easily adapt to this ever-changing perspective introduced by technology. This is a starting point that sheds light on the translator as actor in the marketplace, but also as professional figure able to work with other professionals (other translators, or clients).