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Internet Search Techniques for Translators by
December 2011
Stop
Searching, Start
Finding!
Course documentation: http://web.ticino.com/multilingual/internet/course.htm
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WWW Search Interfaces for Translators
The Internet offers translators
instant access to a vast source of information, but looking for relevant
information without the right tools can be like searching for a needle in a
haystack. In a fast-paced world with technology constantly progressing and the dictionary printing industry
struggling to keep up with the changing language—and with clients who have come
to expect instant turnaround—translators can ill afford to waste precious time
surfing the Internet in vain for terminology: what we need is instant access to
relevant information that will enable us to deliver high-quality translations
within the tightest of deadlines. The WWW
Search Interfaces for Translators and other techniques presented in this
course provide just that.
In
this course, Tanya Harvey Ciampi will present a series of Internet search
techniques specially designed to help translators sift out relevant information
from the Internet, separating the wheat from the chaff: she will reveal fast
and effective methods for locating definitions
and translations of terms in
various languages in free online glossaries,
dictionaries and so-called “parallel
texts”, i.e. equivalent texts available in two or more languages.
Tanya
Harvey Ciampi grew up in Buckinghamshire (England) and the Italian-speaking
canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland. She obtained her diploma in
translation in Zurich in 1993 and now lives in Maggia, Ticino.
Her
past employers include Rank Xerox Language Technology Centre/Ford Motor Company
in Slough, England, and Merrill Lynch International Investment Bank in London.
She currently works as a freelance
Website:
www.multilingual.ch
Internet Search Techniques for Translators
Part 1:
Finding Glossaries and Lists of Abbreviations on the Internet
1. Introduction to Internet searching
2. WWW Search Interfaces for Translators
3. Finding glossaries using the WWW
Search Interfaces for Translators
4. Finding abbreviations using the
WWW Search Interfaces for Translators
5. How do search engines interpret our queries?
6. “Page Not Found” error and how to deal
with it
7. Understanding the various components
of a URL
Part 2:
Advanced Search Techniques
8. Basic vs
advanced search techniques
9. Search syntax: “+”, “-“ and quotation
marks (“ “)
10. Advanced search syntax: Boolean
operators AND, OR, AND NOT and NEAR
11. Field searching to restrict your search
to a specific part of a web page
12. Overview of Google search syntax
13. Case sensitivity
14. Other features available in Google
15. General rules for improving your results
Part 3:
Finding Parallel Texts on the Internet
16. Finding parallel texts on the
Internet
17. Finding parallel texts
on separate pages using the WWW Search Interfaces for Translators
18. Finding parallel texts on
the same page using the Search Engine Tricks
19. Finding parallel texts
by going directly to a website with parallel texts
20. Advantages and
disadvantages of using a website’s own SE as opposed to a general-purpose SE
23. Setting up macros in MS Word to run
specific Internet searches
PART 1: FINDING GLOSSARIES
AND LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS ON THE INTERNET
1. Introduction to Internet searching
The
Internet is an indispensable too when it comes to searching for the meaning of
terms we cannot find in our paper or electronic dictionaries. Imagine you had
to translate the term gull wing
and had no idea of its meaning (field of electronics; the term refers to a
particular form of lead (DE: Anschluss) on electronic components, sometimes spelt "gullwing").
How would you go about finding the meaning of the term gull wing on the Internet?
Where would you go? What would you search for?
If
you haven’t yet opened Internet Explorer, do so now.
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TIP: To open
a new window in Internet Explorer, press Ctrl-N (=File/New
window): Press Ctrl, then,
holding it down, press the N key. That way, your current window
will remain open and you can return to it whenever you want (with Alt-Tab in the same way: see below). |
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TIP: A quick
way to enter the full Internet address (URL) of a website ending with
“.com” is to enter the main part of the URL (e.g. google)
in your browser's address bar, then press Ctrl (holding it down) and
then the Enter key briefly
(then release Ctrl). That way, "http://www."
and ".com" (or “.ch”, “.de” etc.
depending on your computer’s default settings) are entered automatically
(e.g. http://www.google.com). |
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TIP: To
switch between various windows that are open, hold down the Alt key to the left of the spacebar (DE: Leertaste) (see
below) with your left thumb while you press the Tab
key (see below) once briefly
with your left index finger and then release the Alt key as well. If you
have more than two windows open, you may press briefly and release the Tab
key (whilst holding the Alt key
down) for the required number of times until the window that you would like to
switch to is highlighted. Choose a window, then
release the Alt key. Depending on your computer, you may also be
able to left-click on the required window icon with your mouse. On some computers these methods may not
work, in which case you will need to click on the icons in the taskbar at the
bottom of your screen instead. |
Now back to our
term gull
wing. Modify the search criteria below and see how your changes affect
the number of search results. Begin with a general search, then either
broaden or narrow down your search to produce more relevant results
(keywords: leads, printed circuit board, printed circuit boards, PCB,
electronic component, electronic components, electronics):
|
Search
engine: |
Enter
your search criteria here: |
No.
of results |
|
Words anywhere on page |
gull
wing |
|
|
The
phrase (=exact sequence of words) |
|
|
|
Now
add the term printed circuit board |
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|
|
Now
add printed circuit boards, PCB and PCBs as variants (pages must contain one
of these terms at least) |
|
|
|
Additionally, the pages must
contain one of the following terms: lead/leads |
Page
found: Degarmo's Materials and Processes in
Manufacturing (p. 1166) |
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Alternatively, you could search Google Books: |
"gull wing" lead OR leads (Then
search for "gull wing" inside a book) |
|
|
…
or Google Images: www.google.com Click on “Images” (DE: Bilder, FR: Images, IT: Immagini). |
"gull
wing" lead OR leads |
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|
|
TIP: General
tip for moving forwards quickly from one word to the next (this works in MS
Word, in the Google search box, in the URL of a web page
etc.): |
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TIP: Open hyperlinks on the search
engine's results list in a new window by either 2)
Right-clicking on the hyperlink, then selecting Open in new window. That way, you can simply close a page that
you have opened when you are finished with it and return to the Google
results list. This technique can be used for links on
most web pages. However, if it does not work, an alternative technique
is to open a new window first by pressing Ctrl-N, then simply left-click on the hyperlink in
question. |
2. WWW Search Interfaces for Translators
The WWW Search
Interfaces for Translators are a powerful terminology research tool for
translators, enabling you to find the following resources in various languages:
- Dictionaries and glossaries (definitions of general and technical terms);
- Lists of abbreviations (the long forms of abbreviations);
- Parallel texts (translations of terms in context) on separate pages (as opposed to on the same page).
The WWW Search
Interfaces for Translators are located at www.multilingual.ch.
This tool is not intended as a replacement for paper and electronic
dictionaries but rather as a supplementary resource. When you use the WWW
Search Interfaces for Translators, your search is narrowed through the
addition of specific search criteria to produce fewer and more relevant results than a standard search for your term on its
own.
Before taking a
look at www.multilingual.ch, here is
another useful tip:
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TIP: Add this
current web page to your Favorites as
follows: Select Favorites/Add to Favorites. From now on, you can call this page up
(faster than typing in the full URL every time) by clicking on Favorites and selecting the page. Now open a new
window in Internet Explorer (as we saw earlier) by pressing |
NOTE:
It is essential to double-check information found on the Internet before
relying on it.
3. Finding glossaries using the WWW Search Interfaces for
Translators
Open the WWW
Search Interfaces for Translators at www.multilingual.ch/search_interfaces.htm.
Example: How to find a definition of gull wing using
these search interfaces.
Using the
Google glossary search interface:
1. First select the language of your
search term (in this case: English)
in the menu on the left;
2. Enter your term in the glossary
search interface on the right using quotation marks (" ") for
phrases (=exact sequences of two or more words);
3. Select a technique from the drop-down list (begin with the default one, i.e.
the first one listed);
4. Click on the Find button;
5. If you need to narrow your search
further (in the case of many irrelevant results), try adding defining
keywords (but be careful not to restrict your search too much by using
irrelevant keywords). In this example, you could add “electronic”,
“electronics” or “PCB”) either in the search interfaces or in the Google search
box, before the other search criteria, followed by a space.
NOTE: Each
search interface comprises various techniques (see drop-down list), the first being generally the most effective
as it uses the most common terms: try this one first.
The glossary
search interface at www.multilingual.ch/search_interfaces.htm
can be used to find definitions of the following types of terms when
your paper or electronic dictionaries are of no help:
1. Specialist terms in all fields,
e.g. gull-wing components (field of
electronics);
2. Company-specific terminology;
3. Neologisms (=newly coined terms and phrases), e.g. “shopgrifting”=“the
activity of purchasing something from a shop, using it, and then returning it
within a specific period in order to get a full refund”. (From “shop” + “grift” [=swindle, cheat someone out of their money];
intentional resemblance to the word “shoplifting” [=stealing from a shop]);
4. Jargon or slang expressions, e.g. “dog and bone” => “telephone” (Cockney rhyming slang) or “shuffle shame”
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EXERCISES: Now, working
in pairs, try the examples below using the Google glossary search
interface at www.multilingual.ch/search_interfaces.htm.
Exercise
2:
(EN) Find a definition of the English term "no-brainer"
(slang). Exercise
3:
(FR) Find a definition of the French "marché
haussier" referring to stock markets. Exercise
4:
(IT) What does the Italian "cavallo di Troia" refer to?
(context: computers) Exercise 5: (EN) What does the English slang term "apples and pears" mean? (this time, use the slang interface) |
If you want these Interfaces to work for other
languages, the words that you need to translate into another language
are “glossary”, “dictionary” etc. The operators “OR”, “intitle:”
and “inurl:” etc. remain as they are.
[ Download Adobe Acrobat Reader for free at the following address: www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
]
4. Finding abbreviations using the WWW Search Interfaces for
Translators
The abbreviation
search interface at www.multilingual.ch/search_interfaces.htm
works the same way as the glossary search interface.
|
EXERCISES: Working
in pairs, try
the examples below using the Google abbreviation
search interface at www.multilingual.ch/search_interfaces.htm.
"HDU" (context: name of a hospital department): you could restrict your search by adding a defining keyword such as “medical” or “hospital” (in English, i.e. the same language as the abbreviation) without the quotation marks. Answers: Answer:
............................................................................................................................................... Exercise
3:
(FR) What does the French abbreviation "CIJ" stand for?
Context: United Nations (UN)/Organisation des Nations Unies
(ONU). Answer:
.............................................................................................................................................. |
TIP: Abbreviations
may also be found using the glossary search interfaces.
In order to refine
your search further (which can sometimes be necessary when you are searching
for glossaries, abbreviations and parallel texts), you
will need to understand exactly how search engines work and the search
techniques available for narrowing a search (obtaining fewer, more relevant results) and
broadening a search (increasing your
results to cover different spellings etc.).
5. How do search engines interpret our queries?
Search engines (SEs) do not actually understand
the individual words that you type into the search box: they simply search
their databases for pages containing the exact
sequence of characters that you have entered. For example, if you search
for "film club inglese", the search engine
will not understand that you mean the same as "English Film Club" and
will search only for the exact Italian expression that you entered, ignoring
any pages containing "English Film Club" that do not also contain the
Italian phrase. You need to consider this every time you perform a search.
What search
engines do understand is search
syntax. Bear in mind that different SEs have different search syntaxes, and not all SEs offer all of the search techniques listed below
(e.g. Google is not “case sensitive”).
·
Case sensitivity, i.e. the ability to
recognize lower- and upper-case
letters (a vs. A) (DE: Groß-/Kleinschreibung)
·
Wildcards (*,
?) (DE: Platzhaltersuche)
·
Boolean operators: AND, OR, AND NOT and NEAR (DE: Operatoren)
·
Fields: intitle:, inurl:, site: etc. (to restrict your search to specific
parts of a web page)
IMPORTANT: Boolean operators and fields remain the same when searching in different languages.
6. "Page Not Found" error and how to deal with it
This sort of error
indicates that the URL (Internet address) of the page in question has changed
and that the page is no longer available at the address that you have entered.
Possible
reasons for this problem include
changes to the host name (= domain name), file name or file location
(the file may have been moved or deleted).
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|
Possible
solutions:
1. Cut the URL back directory by directory ( /…/ ) until you reach a
page from which you can browse to the correct page. Sometimes you will find a
search facility on the website; 2. Try again later: the server may simply be temporarily down. 3. If you came across this error message while
attempting to access the page from a Google
hit list (Google search results), then try Google's Cached link (DE: "Im Cache" / FR: "En cache" / IT: "Copia cache") next to each page on
the hit list: On the cached version of the page, your search terms are
highlighted in different colours. 4. Search for the page on the website in question via
Google using "site:". |
Example:
A page supposedly
located at the following address contains information on the kakapo parrot.
However, the link appears to be wrong:
http://www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds/birdsongs/
(keyword: kakapo)
Solution 1:
Use the site's own search engine at http://www.pbs.org to look for "kakapo".
(Correct URL: http://www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds/songs/ )
Solution 2:
Alternatively, search the www.pbs.org website via Google by entering the following search
criteria:
site:www.pbs.org kakapo [this
search targets this specific website only; “kakapo” is so
specific, we needn’t add further
search terms]
(we shall look at this technique
later on)
With this
Google-based technique, if the page is missing when you try and open it, click
on Google’s Cached link.
(Backup example: Search for Guardian article titled “A
wealth of attractions” featuring “Ascona and Lake
Maggiore”:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/visit-switzerland/ticino-ascona-lago-maggiore-switzerland)
7. Understanding the various components of a URL
Example of a URL: http://www.abc-bank.com/g/pb/products.html
(URL = Uniform Resource Locator = electronic address of a web page)
http:// = hypertext transfer protocol (language used by computers to
communicate with one another)
www = world wide web
abc-bank = host name (also called
“domain name”)
com = extension (sometimes also referred to as “domain”)
g = directory (here, the "g" might stand for “German”)
pb = subdirectory containing the file
"products.html" ("pb" might stand
for "private banking")
products.html = file name (".html" = file extension, the
equivalent of “.doc” for Word files)
PART 2: ADVANCED SEARCH
TECHNIQUES
8. Basic vs
advanced search techniques
A basic search offers limited search possibilities, while an advanced search allows greater refinement. Search engines often have a special page for advanced searching, where you can set certain conditions for the keywords in your search query without having to enter any syntax yourself. The conditions that you set are then applied through the use of Boolean operators (OR, AND, AND NOT and NEAR) and/or field operators (e.g.: intitle:, inurl:, site:).
Google advanced search page: www.google.com/advanced_search
However, you can
be in greater control of your searches if you learn exactly how the most important operators actually work
so that you can enter them yourself (on www.google.com)
in your search queries.
|
|
Always
make sure that you are using the correct
syntax for the type of search that you intend to perform.
Check the search engine's HELP
files before carrying out a search to familiarise yourself
with the required syntax. |
Google advanced search syntax:
EN: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=136861
DE: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=de&answer=136861
FR: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=fr&answer=136861
IT: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=it&answer=136861
9. Search
syntax: "+", "-" and quotation marks (" ")
·
Quotation marks
(" ") are used to indicate an exact
sequence of words (referred to as a "phrase") as opposed to all of the words anywhere on the page.
Example: “country music” [NOTE: no
space between quotation marks and phrase]
·
"+" is
used to indicate that the page that you are looking for MUST contain the word
or phrase that follows.
Examples: +glossary /
+"medical dictionary"
[NOTE: no space after “+”]
NOTES:
1) When “+” is the default search technique (which is usually the case), it
may be omitted;
2) “+” is useful for forcing a search engine to accept words that it
might otherwise ignore, for example articles (the, a etc.), prepositions (to,
of etc.) or words which are being ignored for some reason, for example because
the search engine believes that you have spelt them incorrectly. Example:
a search for “Maggia” (place name) sometimes produces pages featuring “maggio” (Italian for “May”) instead, so we can force the
word by entering +Maggia.
·
"-" is
used to indicate that the page that you are looking for MUST NOT contain the
word or phrase that follows. The "-" is best used when you are
getting a large number of irrelevant results of a specific nature which you
wish to exclude:
Examples [Google syntax / NOTE: no
space after “-”]:
"gull wing"
-aeroplane -aircraft
"how to store your garden
produce" -inurl:amazon [or: -isbn]
"wish
you a * festive season" -"wish you a happy festive season"
NOTES:
1) In the second search we are
looking for web pages providing information on the subject while excluding
books on the amazon.com website;
2) The third search—using the asterisk (*)—can be very useful for finding alternative
words in a given phrase. In this example, we are looking for the phrase
above containing words other than “happy”.
10. Advanced search syntax: Boolean operators AND, OR, AND
NOT and NEAR
Boolean operators:
AND, OR, AND NOT and NEAR. Some SEs allow you to write these in lower-case letters (and, or etc). If in doubt,
use upper-case letters.
AND is used to search for web pages
containing all of the terms connected by AND.
OR is used to search for pages
containing any of the terms connected by OR.
AND NOT is used to ignore pages
containing the term following the AND
NOT.
NEAR is used to find pages that
contain the two terms either side of NEAR
close to one another (within about 10 words of one another):
Example:
Which of the following six pages will be found with the search criteria listed
below?
Note: The dots represent large
portions of text (more than 10 words) in between
|
Page
1 |
Page
2 |
Page
3 |
Page
4 |
Page
5 |
Page
6 |
|
. . . Lexicon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . .. . . . . Fonds d'investissement canadiens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
Lexikon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fonds . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Finanzlexikon. . . . . . . .
. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . |
Lexikon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Der
Fondsmanager bestimmt das endgültige Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fonds . . . . . . . . . . . . . verantwortlich für zwei Aktienfonds |
Steuer-Lexikon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . Der Fonds konnte seine Benchmark
in allen drei Zeitperioden schlagen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . |
Finanzlexikon. . . . . . . . . . . Aktienfonds . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fonds . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
Börsenlexikon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . Aktienfonds ist ein Fonds, der hauptsächlich in Aktien investiert. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . die Autoren des Lexikons . . |
1) Search
criteria: Lexikon AND Fonds Answer: 2,3,4
|
|
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
|
Lexikon |
x |
P |
P |
P |
x |
x |
|
Fonds |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
|
Search criteria
met |
x |
P |
P |
P |
x |
x |
2) Search
criteria: Lexikon OR Finanzlexikon [NOTE: OR = at least one] Answer: 2,3,4,5
|
|
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
|
Lexikon |
x |
P |
P |
P |
x |
x |
|
Finanzlexikon |
x |
P |
x |
x |
P |
x |
|
Search criteria
met |
x |
P |
P |
P |
P |
x |
3) Search
criteria: Aktienfonds NEAR Fonds [NOTE: NEAR =
about 10 words] Answer: 6
|
|
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
|
Aktienfonds NEAR Fonds |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
P |
4) Search
criteria: Fonds
AND NOT investissement Answer: 2,3,4,5,6
|
|
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
|
Fonds |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
|
investissement |
P |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
|
Search criteria
met |
x |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
5) Search criteria: Aktienfonds
AND Lexikon OR Finanzlexikon [NOTE:
OR takes precedence over AND] Answer: 3,5
|
Term |
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
|
Aktienfonds |
x |
x |
P |
x |
P |
P |
|
Lexikon |
x |
P |
P |
P |
x |
x |
|
Finanzlexikon |
x |
P |
x |
x |
P |
x |
|
Search criteria
met |
x |
x |
P |
x |
P |
x |
[
More information about search
engines can be found on the following websites:
Search Engine Showdown (search engine news &
features): www.searchengineshowdown.com
Pandia (comprehensive search engine tutorial): http://pandia.com
Advanced
search query syntax and rules for various SEs: www.pandia.com/q-cards/index.html
Search
engine newsletter: www.pandia.com/post
Research Buzz (Internet research
newsletter: search engines, databases etc.): www.researchbuzz.com
Search Engine Watch (web searching
tips): http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/
Search Engine Report newsletter: http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/
Motori di ricerca (SE features, news & newsletter): www.motoridiricerca.it
Moteurs de recherche (SE
features & news): http://outils.abondance.com
Actu Moteurs newsletter: www.abondance.com
Handbuch Internet Recherche
(search techniques and tips): www.werle.com/intagent/index.htm
Suchmaschinen - Magazin @-web:
www.at-web.de
PCtipp (computer and Internet news incl.
newsletter): www.pctipp.ch ]
11. Field searching to restrict your search to a specific
part of a web page
The most useful field search techniques available in
Google are the following:
|
Google |
Use
this syntax to restrict your search to… |
|
intitle: |
…the
text in the blue bar at the top of each web page. This usually describes the content of the web page.
When you run a Google search, you will see the “titles” of pages found listed
as links. Example:
intitle:glossary
"gull wing" |
|
site: |
…the
name (or part thereof) of the domain on which a particular web page is
located (e.g. http://www.leo.org or
http://dict.leo.org/forum) on a
server Example:
site:leo.org
Vorsprung "site"
may also be used to search for sites with a specific "extension" (sometimes also referred to as
"domain"), i.e. the part of the URL that indicates the country or
type of website (e.g. http://www.leo.org)
(others: de, uk, ch, gov, org, com etc.) Example: site:uk “Vorsprung durch Technik” |
|
inurl: |
…any
part of the Internet address. Use
"inurl:" if you wish to specify the domain on its own or the domain in conjunction with the directory
name that follows or simply a
directory name on its own. Examples: inurl:dict.leo.org "Vorsprung durch Technik" inurl:dict.leo.org/forum "Vorsprung durch Technik" site:leo.org
inurl:forum "Vorsprung
durch Technik" These
examples search for the term "Vorsprung durch Technik" in the forum section of www.leo.org (the number
of results will be similar but often not identical). |
Examples: (NOTE: No space after the colon; Click on the Google
examples below to run the corresponding search!)
|
Google
search criteria |
Remarks: |
|
BMD intitle:"medical
dictionary"
(BMD=bone mineral density)
|
Finds
a glossary containing the medical abbreviation “BMD”. To
broaden your search and increase your results, break down phrases
(the 2nd example also finds e.g. "dictionary of medical
terms", "The medical equipment dictionary") |
|
Fondsmanager
site:ubs.com |
Finds
the term “Fondsmanager” on the website www:ubs.com. This
type of search is useful for finding pages containing your keyword on a
specific website that does not have
its own search facility, providing the pages are in the database of the SE
that you are using. |
|
Finds
a page registered in the UK featuring the city name “Carlisle” and the title
containing "restaurants" (1) or “indian
restaurants” (2). |
|
|
inurl:guardian.co.uk “bird flu” site:guardian.co.uk
“bird flu” inurl:jobs übersetzer
deutsch französisch [This
can be a good way of finding job advertisements. “Jobs” is often used as a
directory name for job sections of websites] |
Note:
"www" is omitted here (allowing a vaster search). This search finds
pages containing the phrase “bird flu” on pages with “guardian.co.uk” in the
URL (e.g. in the following sections of the website:
http://www.guardian.co.uk, http://society.guardian.co.uk
http://politics.guardian.co.uk).
|
Search engines
modify their search syntax from time to time. If in doubt, refer to the search
engine’s help files.
Examples of
cases in which field searching can
be very useful:
EXAMPLE 1
Imagine you are
translating an English text on investment funds into German (your search term:
“asset manager”, EN>DE). You know that the following banking websites contain
parallel texts on the subject in various languages, which you could use for
terminology:
http://www.credit-suisse.com
http://www.ubs.com
http://www.raiffeisen.ch
http://pdf.funds-sp.com/pdf/ (Standard
and Poors) NOTE: specific section/directory (“pdf”).
Using Google and
the field search syntax mentioned
above, you may restrict your search to target one or more specific websites at
the same time:
Search criteria in Google:
“asset manager” OR “asset
managers” site:credit-suisse.com OR site:ubs.com OR
site:raiffeisen.ch OR inurl:pdf.funds-sp.com/pdf
NOTE:
a) site: can be used with or without “www”. Including “www” makes your search
more specific and can reduce the number of results. For example, it will
exclude pages with addresses such as http://financialservices.ubs.com/…,
where “financialservices” might be a subsection of
the website.
b) inurl:funds-sp or site:funds-sp.com
would be too vague since all the pdf files that we
are interested in searching through are located specifically in the section and directory http://pdf.funds-sp.com/pdf/ (besides, not all of the
rest of this specific website is available in different languages). IMPORTANT: “site:pdf.funds-sp.com”
would be wrong, since “pdf”, here, is not part of the
host name (= domain name) but is a subsection
or subdirectory: “site” can only
be used with the domain name (in this case: “funds-sp.com”).
This Google-based
search technique is particularly useful when the search facility of the website
that you are interested in (e.g. www.ubs.com) is unreliable or temporarily
unavailable.
Example of parallel texts found:
EN: https://www.credit-suisse.com/externalassetmanagers/en/technologie/onlineloesungen/index_8.jsp
DE: https://www.credit-suisse.com/externalassetmanagers/de/technologie/onlineloesungen/index_8.jsp
(=> DE: Vermögensverwalter)
EN: http://pdf.funds-sp.com/pdf/EN_1008829_P1.pdf
(Aviva)
DE: http://pdf.funds-sp.com/pdf/DE_1008829_P1.pdf
(=> DE: Vermögensverwaltungsgesellschaft)
EXAMPLE 2
Abbreviations can
sometimes have many different meanings, so instead of searching for a general
list of abbreviations to find out what the political abbreviation “HIPC” stands
for, search for it specifically on the EU website as follows:
inurl:europa.eu
HIPC [or, alternatively, site:europa.eu
HIPC]
(equivalent to: HIPC inurl:europa.eu
// HIPC site:europa.eu)
=>
HIPC=heavily/highly indebted poor countries
Imagine that you
are having trouble finding an English translation of the German term Leiterplatte. You
could search the online terminology
forum at www.proz.com.
To search the Proz terminology forum through Google use: inurl:proz.com "your term" or site:proz.com
"your term"
Leiterplatte inurl:proz.com English OR englisch
Or, more
restrictive: inurl:proz.com intitle:Leiterplatte
deutsch OR german
(we can restrict our search this way with “intitle:”
because the proz.com website often includes the terms being discussed in the
title of the web page in question. In order to use “intitle:”
this way, you would need to know that that was the case).
Alternatively: go
to Google Books and search for: intitle:dictionary Leiterplatte.
EXAMPLE 4
You could also
combine this sort of search with a search in various online bilingual German/English dictionaries. To find an English
translation of the German Wettbewerbsvorsprung:
Wettbewerbsvorsprung site:proz.com OR site:leo.org OR site:websters-dictionary-online.org OR
site:dict.cc English
I have included
“English” as it is usually present on the pages that I am targeting on these
websites. This addition narrows down the search, helping to avoid irrelevant
pages (for example discussions on www.proz.com concerning possible French translations etc.).
This method of
combining specific keywords and field searching techniques is the basic idea
behind the WWW
Search Interfaces for Translators, which essentially automate the search process by
adding the necessary search criteria to narrow your search to glossaries,
lists of abbreviations or parallel texts.
More fields in
Google: www.google.com/help/operators.html ]
12.
Overview of Google search syntax
|
Google |
Remarks |
|
|
phrases |
"soap
making" |
Finds
pages containing the exact phrase (i.e. exact sequence of words) |
|
Boolean |
soap
natural "home made" |
Finds
pages with all three terms. Note: AND is the
default operator in Google, so no need to add it. |
|
Boolean |
"the
art of soap making"
|
Finds
pages containing the phrase “the art of soap making” but not the term “amazon” (1) or not on pages on the amazon.com website in
particular or on any other web page advertising books in general (2). |
|
Boolean |
"guide to soap making" OR "guide to making soap" OR "how to make soap" |
Finds pages containing any of the three
phrases (at least one). |
|
truncation |
NOT
AVAILABLE |
SEs which offer
truncation would allow for example: Fondsmanag*, which
would find: |
Example of a
query in Google:
(Purpose
of this search: to find pages with either dictionary
or glossary in the title and with
investors, bull market and either finance or financial anywhere on the page)
intitle:dictionary OR intitle:glossary
investors "bull market" finance OR financial
NOTE:
1)The most important terms should be
placed up front in case any terms in excess of a limit are ignored (if there is
a limit, it is usually the last few words that are ignored);
2) Boolean “OR” applies to the two terms (words or phrases) either side of it.
Note that no brackets are needed in Google as "OR" takes priority
over “AND”;
3) The default operator is “AND” so you do not need to write it;
4) To find phrases (i.e. exact
sequences of words) in the title, use quotation marks, e.g.: intitle:"list of terminology".
CAUTION:
Be careful not to
limit your results unnecessarily by adding irrelevant
additional keywords or introducing spelling
mistakes.
Choose highly relevant extra keywords (only if necessary) that you would expect to find on the page that you are looking for (in the case above, we were looking for a page featuring a definition of the term “bull market”). If you get very few results at first, don't add any extra keywords: in this case, there is no point in narrowing your search further: instead, you need to do the opposite, i.e. broaden your search.
Definitions
and translations of terms may also
be found in Google Books (http://books.google.com) in online
copies of printed monolingual/bilingual dictionaries:
Example:
Search for a German translation of the English financial term “bull market”:
intitle:wörterbuch OR intitle:lexikon "bull market" [in Google
Books]
The most effective
search syntax here is “intitle:” (to refer to the
title of books). Notice that in this search string, we have combined German search terms with an English keyword.
|
EXERCISES
USING GOOGLE’S ADVANCED SEARCH FEATURES: (see section 11
for syntax)
Human
resources department / Human resource department Your
search criteria and the number of pages found: ........................................................................................................................................... Exercise
2:
Go to Google and search for pages on the German website www.at-web.de providing information about either Froogle (one of Google’s specialized search
services) or the concept known in German as Trunkierung (you will need to
run two separate searches). Your
search criteria: ...........................................................................................................................................
Your
search criteria: ........................................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................... Exercise
4:
(EN>FR) Go to Google Books
(http://books.google.com) and search for a French translation
of the English term “bear market”
or an English translation of the German “Datensicherung”. Remember that the most useful
search method on Google Books is “intitle:”. For best results, combine the two languages in your
search. Your
search criteria: ............................................................................................................................................ |
13. Case sensitivity
Case
sensitivity: In search engines that
are case sensitive, whenever you capitalize any of the
letters in a word or phrase, the SE will find ONLY that particular spelling variant.
Example: eXcursion (= a product by Digital Equipment Corporation)
=> finds this spelling variant only
In search engines that are case sensitive,
to find ALL variants (and therefore leave your options open), use all
lower-case letters:
Example: siemens => finds siemens,
Siemens, SIEMENS, SIEmens etc.
NOTE: Google is not case sensitive so it
does not matter what combination of upper- and lower-case letters you use.
[
More about case
sensitivity:
http://web.ticino.com/multilingual/internet/case_sensitivity.htm]
14.
Other features available in Google
|
Features... |
Available in Google? |
|
Proximity
searching with NEAR |
NO |
|
Word
wildcard (*) |
YES |
|
Truncation
(letter wildcard *) |
|
|
Exclusion
of specific terms |
YES,
with "-" Finds: deepest,
heartfelt, profound,… |
|
Case
sensitivity (ability to recognize upper-/lower-case letters:
e.g. "Recess" (place name) vs
"recess") |
NO |
|
Indexing
of pdf, ps, xls, doc, ppt, rtf etc. files |
YES |
|
Context
visible in search engine results list |
YES |
|
Cache
(search engine's own copy of pages that it has indexed in case files on the
web go missing) |
YES |
The word wildcard (*) is useful for finding one or more missing
words in a phrase (anywhere except the first or last word of a phrase).
Examples of
searching with the word wildcard (*) to find
missing words in phrases:
1) Find the two missing words in the famous quote from Neil
Armstrong:
"one small step for man one * * for mankind" ("* *" stands for two missing words).
Finds: giant leap
2) Find a verb and an adjective to complete the sentences below:
"was * by a * feeling of guilt" or "were * by a * feeling of guilt"
You may search for
these two phrases either together or separately, connecting them with “OR”:
"was * by a * feeling of guilt"
"were * by a * feeling of guilt"
"was
* by a * feeling of guilt" OR "were * by a * feeling
of guilt"
NOTE: To
broaden your search, avoid adding a
subject (such as he,
she, we or they). The verb alone is quite sufficient.
Finds: was assailed by a nagging
feeling of guilt / was haunted by a gnawing feeling of guilt
was hampered by a sharp
feeling of guilt / were shadowed by a constant feeling of guilt
3) Find an
adjective for the financial term “Outperformance” used in German:
"eine
* Outperformance" or, alternatively: "die * Outperformance" / "einer * Outperformance" / "seine * Outperformance"
Finds: eine kräftige
Outperformance
eine deutliche Outperformance
eine starke Outperformance
eine langfristige Outperformance
eine solide Outperformance
die leichte Outperformance
NOTE: The asterisk is placed between words with a space on either side, never at the beginning or end of a phrase: To search for a word in either of these positions,
you do not need an asterisk: simply search for the rest of the phrase on its
own.
4) Example:
"hat seine Benchmark" or "konnte seine Benchmark nicht"
Finds: hat seine Benchmark mühelos übertroffen
hat seine Benchmark erreicht
konnte seine Benchmark nicht schlagen
|
EXERCISES
USING GOOGLE’S WORD WILDCARD (*):
Your
search criteria: Exercise
2:
Find adjectives to modify the noun “Anstieg”
in Anstieg der Zinssätze
(Refine your search by adding “ein” (or “einem”, “eines” etc.) or “der”
(etc.) and inserting the word wildcard in your search. |
15. General
rules for improving your results
|
GENERAL
RULES: The examples below show Google syntax
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
If the WWW
Search Interfaces for Translators consistently produce no results, try searching for your term on its own. If you are
finding no or very few pages containing your term, the interfaces will not be
of any use as their function is that of narrowing your search.
PART 3: FINDING PARALLEL TEXTS ON THE
INTERNET
16. Finding parallel texts on the Internet
Parallel texts
are equivalent texts available in two or more languages and can be a valuable
source of terminology for translators. Unlike bilingual dictionaries, which
provide many possible translations for a given term – leaving you with the task
of choosing the correct translation – parallel texts provide a specific translation in a specific context.
The parallel
text search interfaces at www.multilingual.ch can be used to find parallel texts on separate web
pages (as opposed to on the same page) providing translations of all
sorts of terms in various languages when your paper or electronic dictionaries
are of no help, for example:
1. General terms
2. Compound terms that may not be in your dictionaries (e.g. verhandlungssicher)
3. Set phrases (e.g. solange der Vorrat reicht)
4. Specialist terms (e.g. elektromagnetische Verträglichkeit)
5. Company-specific
terminology
|
|
|
Example of parallel texts on separate
pages:
http://ec.europa.eu/publications/archives/booklets/move/13/txt_en.htm
If we click on the link to the German version we
find...
http://ec.europa.eu/publications/archives/booklets/move/13/txt_de.htm
Examples
of parallel texts on the same page:
ken-manuals.novena.ims.hr/languages/NL/support/manuals/C929.pdf
or:
www.bleachinggel.com/anleitungen/gebrauchsanweisung.pdf
In both cases (parallel texts on separate pages/on
the same page), it can be useful
to open two separate browser windows to
compare the texts in both languages side be side). Open
a new browser window if necessary with
CTRL-N.
Different techniques for finding
parallel texts
|
|
Parallel texts on the same page may be found using the Search Engine Tricks for
Finding Parallel Texts on the Same Page: http://web.ticino.com/multilingual/internet/search_engine_tricks.htm
(we shall see these shortly). |
Characteristics of parallel texts on
SEPARATE pages:
Example of
parallel texts on separate pages:
http://europa.eu/pol/cfsp/index_en.htm
http://europa.eu/pol/cfsp/index_de.htm
When searching for a term in Google, there are various characteristics to look out for on pages that are listed among the search results which might suggest the existence of a page in your target language.
NOTE: In the URLs (Internet addresses) above,
"en" and "de" are language codes indicating the language of
the page in question, each suggesting the existence of the same page in a
different language.
Characteristics suggesting the existence of a page in
another language:
A) Language codes
in the URL in the form of a directory
name:
Example: www.xxx.ch/italienisch/page.htm
[here, “italienisch” (in German) suggests that the same page exists
in German]
www.xxx.ch/italiano/page.htm
[here, “italiano” suggests that the same page exists in another
language]
www.xxx.ch/i/page.htm
[here: “i” may indicate “Italian” given the domain “.ch”]
B) Language codes
in the URL in the form of a prefix or
suffix to a file name:
Example: www.xxx.ch/page-ita.htm
C) A combination of both of the above:
Example: www.xxx.ch/it/page-ita.htm
D) A drop-down list for language selection:
See: http://europa.eu/pol/cfsp/index_en.htm
E) A text link (e.g. “English version” / “Seite auf Deutsch”) to a page in a different language.
F) A flag link to a page in a different
language.
How to locate a page in a different language:
Once you have
identified a page that suggests the
existence of a corresponding page in another language (possibly your target
language), proceed as follows:
1) Firstly, open a new browser window
by pressing Ctrl-N: you may need to place the cursor in the address bar
beforehand by left-clicking it. This will allow you to have both language
versions of the page open at once for comparison purposes.
You can now switch from one page to the other with Alt+Tab
(first press “Alt”, then (together) “Tab” 
)
or, if you have a large monitor screen, place the two windows side by side.
2) Look for a language link on the page in the form of a drop-down language selection list, a text link or a flag link (example: http://europa.eu/pol/cfsp/index_en.htm) and click on it.
3) If no language selection features are provided on the page
itself, try changing the language code(s) directly in the URL to obtain the page in your target language:
Changing the language code in the URL:
(try the name (or
abbreviation) of the language in different languages!)
Example
1: http://www.xyz.com/english/solutions/new.html
might become:
=>
http://www.xyz.com/deutsch/solutions/new.html
or:
=>
http://www.xyz.com/german/solutions/new.html
Example
2: http://www.xxx.ch/e/products_en.htm might
become:
=>
http://www.xxx.ch/d/products_de.htm
or:
=>
http://www.xxx.ch/g/products_ge.htm or:
=>
http://www.xxx.ch/de/products_deu.htm or:
=>
http://www.xxx.ch/ge/products_ger.htm etc.
NOTE: This will only work providing
the other parts of the URL remain the same for the other language (so, for
example, if the directory name “solutions” (example 1) changes to “loesungen”, for example, for the German pages, or if the
file name “products” (example 2) changes to “Produkte”
for the German pages, this technique will not work).
3) Delete the language code altogether:
http://www.xyz.com/english/loesungen/new.html might
become:
http://www.xyz.com/loesungen/new.html
NOTE:
Again, this will only work providing the other parts of the URL remain the same
in the other language.
4) Cut the address back to the main URL (e.g.
http://www.xyz.com)
and discover the language code used for the pages in your target language; then go back to the page in question and replace the code.
5) Cut the address back to the main URL and browse to the
same location in your target language by observing the directory names in the
URL or browsing the sitemap.
|
|
|
Example: Look at
the URL below:
http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/food_safety/international_dimension_enlargement/f83002_en.htm
It contains "en" indicating the language of the page, suggesting the existence of parallel texts.
On the page above,
locate the term "mad cow
disease".
Now open a new
browser window (File/New window or Ctrl-N) and open the French
version of the same page by either clicking on the language link (drop-down menu) or changing the language code in
the URL to “fr”.
What is the French
term for "mad cow disease"? (To locate the corresponding section in
long files, you could search for a unique term situated close to your
search term which is likely to remain the same in the other language, for
example people’s names, figures such as section numbers or dates,
etc.
Notes on
locating your term on a web page which you have opened:
NEVER include quotation marks (“ ”) when searching for a term on a web page with CTRL-F: Quotation marks are just used in Google to specify that you are searching for an exact sequence of words (=phrase).
A search for
“mad-cow” will not find “mad cow” (without the hyphen) and vice versa. So, if
in doubt, to make sure you don’t miss any instances of the term, search for both variants separately or, better still,
search for either “mad” or “cow” on their own. Choose the more specific term
(as a search for “mad” will also find words such as “made”, for example,
wasting your time.).
Answer: maladie de la vache folle
IMPORTANT:
When you find parallel texts, bear in mind that one text will be the original,
and the other will be a translation, and often it is not immediately obvious which is which. However,
the two texts found might even both be translations from another language (beware
of bad translations!).
|
EXERCISE: (EN>DE) Locate the German versions of the English pages below to see how the
term "freedom of movement for goods” is translated: Tips: |
17. Finding parallel texts on separate
pages using the WWW Search Interfaces for Translators
Example: (DE>FR) How to find a French translation of the
German "elektromagnetische Verträglichkeit" using the WWW Search
Interfaces for Translators at www.multilingual.ch
Using the Google
parallel text search interface:
1. First select
your source language (DE) in the
menu on the left;
2. Enter your term in the parallel text
search interface on the right for the desired language combination
(DE>FR) using quotation marks (" ") for phrases;
3. Select a technique from the drop-down
list (try technique 1 first);
4. Click on the Find button.
NOTE: The search interfaces consist of various techniques
(see drop-down list): the first is generally the most effective as it uses the
most common words.
The Google
parallel text search interface (technique 1) finds the following web page:
German page: http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/734_5/a3.html
Click on the French language link to
find:
French page: http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/734_5/a3.html
Sometimes the language link will take you all the way back to the default (or “index” or “home”) page in the target language rather than to the corresponding page in the target language. In that case, you can try either changing the language code directly in the URL (once you have discovered the language code used for your target language) or browsing to the corresponding page in your target language (by observing the directory names in the URL and locating the corresponding areas on the website in your target language).
|
|
NOTE: Search
engines often try out new search
algorithms (=a set of rules, or a unique formula, that a search engine
uses to determine the relevance—and therefore the ranking—of a web page in
relation to specific keywords). Therefore, they may sometimes ignore some of
your search terms, so that the results that you obtain may not always be 100%
relevant. TIP: Always look at the URLs of pages listed in the search engine results to identify the most promising sources and avoid wasting time opening pages that may turn out to be irrelevant. If you activate
the “status bar” in your browser (under “View”), when you hold your mouse over
a page title in Google’s hit list, you will see the full URL of the page at
the bottom of your screen, including any language codes that might be hidden
owing to very long URLs being cut short. |
Over time, you
will acquire a feel (based on the URLs listed in Google) for which pages are
more likely to have parallel texts, and which websites are more authoritative
than others (pages less likely to provide (reliable) parallel texts: forums,
blogs, pages with extensions indicating countries in which neither of the
languages (source/target) is spoken etc.).
EXERCISES:
Working in pairs, try the examples
below using the Google parallel text search interfaces
at www.multilingual.ch/search_interfaces.htm
to find parallel texts on SEPARATE pages.
Exercise
1 (FR>EN): Find an English translation of the French
financial term "marché haussier" referring to stock markets. Your
search technique:
….................................................................................................. Exercise
2 (EN>FR): What is "fixed-rate loan"
in French? Your
search technique: ....................................................................................................... Exercise
3 (EN>DE): Find a German translation of the English
"accession treaty"
relating to the European Union. Your
search technique:
………............................................................................................ |
18. Finding parallel texts on the same page using the
Search Engine Tricks
Characteristics
of parallel texts on the SAME page: See Search Engine Tricks [handout…]
These techniques
are an alternative to the parallel
text search interfaces: They are used to find parallel texts on the same
page as opposed to on separate pages.
|
EXERCISES: Working in pairs, try the exercises below to find parallel
texts on the SAME page directly in Google using the Search Engine
Tricks for Finding Parallel Texts on the Same Page (NOT the Search
Interfaces). For each exercise, make a note of your search criteria.
Exercise 1
(DE>FR):
What is the French name of the Swiss permit called a "Niederlassungsbewilligung" in German?
(keyword: "autorisation") Exercise 2
(FR>EN):
Find an English translation of the French "marché
haussier" referring to stock markets. Exercise 3
(DE>EN/FR): Find an English (or French) translation of "bei sachgerechter Lagerung" referring to the length of storage of a
chemical substance. Exercise
4 (DE>FR/IT): Find the French or Italian translation of the German
"Nichtbetriebsunfallversicherung".
(keywords: assurance, assicurazione) |
[
Examples of web pages found:
1) http://www.droit-bilingue.ch/rs/520_1-24-d-f.html (Wehrpflichtersatzabgabe)
2) http://www.vpb.admin.ch/franz/doc/57/57.15.html (autorisation
d'établissement)
http://biblio.parlament.ch/e-docs/139037.pdf
3a) http://www.ubs.com/1/e/about/bterms/content_b.html
3b) http://www.linguee.de/deutsch-englisch/uebersetzung/sachgerechte+lagerung.html (proper storage)
4a) IT: http://www.sz.ch/documents/Information_it.pdf
(assicurazione contro gli infortuni non professionali)
4b) FR: http://www.fromarte.ch/download/vertraege/lohnabrechnung/de.pdf
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/missoc/2002/li_part8_fr.htm
(Assurance-accidents non professionnels /
assurance obligatoire pour les accidents non professionnels) ]
19.
Finding parallel texts by going directly to a website with parallel texts
If you know of an
authoritative website that has parallel texts in the languages and subject that
you are interested in, you can go directly to that website and use the
site's own search facility to locate parallel texts based on your specific
keyword.
For example, for
any EU-related subjects, you could try the European Union's website:
http://europa.eu/geninfo/query/advSearch_en.jsp
[
See my list of websites with
parallel texts at http://web.ticino.com/multilingual/Multilingual_websites.htm (also available through www.multilingual.ch under WWW Search Interfaces for Translators,
then click on the link in the menu on the left). ]
This can be a
little time-consuming and may not always work as well as a Google-based search.
Therefore, alternatively, you could restrict your search to one or more such
websites in Google using the search syntax “site:” or “inurl:” (example: site:europa.eu “mad cow disease”).
Parallel text
corpuses
(online translation memory databases) that can be searched either way:
DE/EN, SP/EN, FR/EN, PT/EN: http://www.linguee.de (example…)
Various languages: http://www.ttn.ch/TSM.ASP?
Various languages: http://iate.europa.eu/iatediff/
20. Advantages and disadvantages of using a website's own SE
(as opposed to a general-purpose SE)
Advantages of
using a website's own SE:
Sometimes, a
website's own SE will cover more of the website's pages. Two main reasons:
firstly, it takes general-purpose SEs (e.g. Google
and Yahoo) some time to discover new pages on the websites around the world; secondly,
some pages are not accessible to general-purpose search engines (e.g. the
content of databases).
To use a website's own SE: Go to the website, find the search facility and
search for your term.
IMPORTANT: When using a website's own search engine, you may
want to consult the Help file first to discover the search syntax that you need
to use.
Disadvantages
of using a website's own SE:
Sometimes a
website's own SE can be less flexible in terms of its search syntax: Boolean
operators (AND, OR, AND NOT and NEAR) and field searching (intitle:, inurl:
etc.).
Sometimes only simple searches are possible: "+" = with,
"-" = without, " " (quotation marks) = the exact phrase.
Besides, sometimes
the website's own search engine may not have indexed
all of the website’s pages or, worse still, the search engine may not be
working at all.
If you suspect that to be the case, go to a general purpose SE such as
Google and search for your term by restricting your search to that particular
website as follows:
In Google: site:www.nameofwebsite.com
"your key phrase"
site:nameofwebsite.com "your key phrase" (broader
search by omitting “www”)
Examples:
site:www.ibm.com "computer aided design"
site:ibm.com "computer aided design" (broader search => more results)
21. The invisible web
The invisible web contains
information to which general-purpose search engines such as Google do not have
access, for example:
- The content
of sites requiring a log in (user name & password);
- The content of some databases (e.g. company product catalogues,
dictionaries in the form of databases, such as the EU’s terminology database
IATE: http://iate.europa.eu
) etc.
Examples of
invisible web content:
=> RS Catalogue http://www.rs-components.com (available in various languages)
The RS Catalogue is an enormous catalogue
of industrial products ranging from safety labels through electronic components
to office equipment and loads more. It is available in many languages and may
be used as a sort of multilingual illustrated technical dictionary.
Example: DE,
EN
and FR
pages on head protection (note that the pages are not necessarily
identical)
[ English: http://rswww.com
German: http://www.rs-components.de/
French: http://www.radiospares.fr/
Italian: http://www.rs-components.it/
Spanish: http://www.amidata.es/
MORE LANGUAGES: http://www.rs-components.com ]
Browse the
websites in parallel (with two browser windows open at the same time) or find a
product on the website in your source language, then search for the same product
on the website in your target language by stock
number using the Advanced Search (most of the time, the stock numbers are
usually the same in both countries).
=> Google Book Search http://books.google.com/
Google Book Search is a search facility providing access to all sorts of printed books (travel guides, technical
manuals, dictionaries, novels and much more: generally more authoritative
information than that obtained via a regular web search).
E.g. search for "machu
picchu was discovered by"
to find out who discovered Machu Picchu or "machu picchu was discovered
in" to discover
the date.
=> The subscriber content of the Encyclopedia Britannica http://www.britannica.com
22. Additional resources
www.multilingual.ch,
click on “Translator Sites”.
Selected keyboard
shortcuts for Windows:
http://web.ticino.com/multilingual/internet/selected_keyboard_shortcuts_for_windows.htm
23. Setting up macros in MS Word to run specific Internet
searches
Most of the search
techniques that we have looked at can also be set up as macros in MS Word, enabling you to run a specific Internet search on a particular term that you have
highlighted in Word by simply clicking on
an icon in your toolbar.
Just a few
examples:
Google-based
searches (targeting one or more websites) for translations in …
1) Banking: "your term" site:ubs.com OR
site:credit-suisse.com OR site:snb.ch
(https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22your+term%22+site:ubs.com+OR+site:credit-suisse.com+OR+site:snb.ch)
2) Tourism: "your term"
inurl:myswitzerland.com
3) EU: "your term" site:europa.eu +en +"eur lex" [NOTE:
"+en" is useful for translations into EN]
4) DE/EN general language dictionaries:
"your term" inurl:dict.uni-leipzig.de
OR site:dict.leo.org OR site:www.dict.cc
OR site:odge.de OR site:odge.info
OR inurl:proz.com
Direct
searches targeting specific websites:
5) DE/EN
translation memory (other combinations available: query will need modifying):
http://www.linguee.de/search?query=your
term
MACRO CODE to cut & paste (from “Sub” to “End
Sub”) into Word:
Example 1 above
(banking macro):
Sub Banks()
'
' Banking macro
' Macro created by Tanya Harvey Ciampi
'
Dim theTerm, myURL As
String
Dim oIE As Object
On Error GoTo MainStop
If Selection.Type = wdSelectionIP
Then
theTerm = Selection.Words(1).Text
Else
theTerm = Selection.Text
End If
theTerm = Replace(theTerm, vbCr, "")
' Remove any soft returns in the phrase that you have highlighted
theTerm = Replace(theTerm, vbLf, "")
' Remove paragraph breaks in the phrase that you have highlighted
theTerm = Trim(theTerm) '
Remove any spaces
myURL =
"http://www.google.ch/#hl=en&q="
myURL = myURL &
"%22" ' add opening quotation marks
myURL = myURL & theTerm ' add closing quotation marks
myURL = myURL &
"%22"
myURL = myURL &
"+site:ubs.com OR site:credit-suisse.com OR site:snb.ch"
Set oIE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
' Activate the Internet Explorer window i.e. bring it to the foreground
oIE.Visible
= True
' Navigate to the URL created above
oIE.Navigate
(myURL)
MainStop:
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
MsgBox "This macro searches Swiss bank websites
through Google for the word or phrase that you have highlighted in Word. First
you need to highlight a term..." & vbCr
& "" & vbCr
End If
End Sub
Example 5 above
(DE/EN translation memory macro):
Sub Linguee()
'
' Linguee.de macro
' Macro created by Tanya Harvey Ciampi
'
Dim theTerm, myURL2 As String
Dim oIE As Object
On Error GoTo MainStop
If Selection.Type = wdSelectionIP
Then
theTerm = Selection.Words(1).Text
Else
theTerm = Selection.Text
End If
theTerm = Replace(theTerm, vbCr, "")
' Remove any soft returns in the phrase that you have highlighted
theTerm = Replace(theTerm, vbLf, "")
' Remove paragraph breaks in the phrase that you have highlighted
theTerm = Trim(theTerm) '
Remove any spaces
' Search the linguee.de translation memory database
myURL2 = "http://www.linguee.de/search?query="
myURL2 = myURL2 & theTerm
Set oIE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
' sleep 0.3 ' waits 0.3 seconds by carrying out the sleep macro to allow
completion of the the previous command
' Activate the Internet Explorer window i.e. bring it to the foreground
oIE.Visible
= True
' Navigate to the URL created above
oIE.Navigate
(myURL2)
MainStop:
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
MsgBox "This macro searches the translation
memory website linguee.de for the word or phrase that
you have highlighted in Word. First you need to highlight a term..." &
vbCr & "" & vbCr
End If
End Sub
Similar macros can
also be set up to run a search in your
own electronic dictionaries installed
on your computer. Once installed, you can simply highlight a term in Word
and click on an icon in your toolbar to run a search!
If you have never
created a Word macro before, you might want to seek advice from an IT specialist
to help you set up these macros.