translations - best practice?

Hi,

can somebody tell me how to use the translations table?

translation_id, name and description are clear ;-)

But how to use section_id, section_type and language_id?

Am I right that application_, area_ and right_define_name should be used
to build constants and the translations table is nice to display
user-friendly information for 'stupid users' in the application
administration?

Thanks for your help!

regards,
Matthias