ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to shows the similarities and differences between machine translation and human translation as a warning against assimilating human cognition to the workings of computers. It attempts to dispel the basic ambiguity which has become a feature of the word 'translation' and to show, from problems experienced by machine translation programmes, the difference between a machine working to formalised rules and the mental processes of human translators. Marianne Lederer aim is not to examine machine translation in detail but to highlight the principles on which it is based in order to compare it to human translation. The source text is modified to make it accessible to machine translation. Post-editing varies in thoroughness depending on the public aimed at. Revision is minimal when a text merely has to supply information to readers familiar with the subject matter. The source text is modified to make pre-editing accessible to machine translation.
