English Translation Research Articles

Adequacy of the physician workforce for preparing for future society in Korea: an English translation

Adequacy of the physician workforce for preparing for future society in Korea: an English translation

Castoriadis in Search of Origins: Exploring Archaic Greece

Abstract The essay discusses the English translation of the first volume of Castoriadis´s seminars on Ancient Greece; its main focus is on the question of a primordial Greek grasp of the world, expressed in the metaphors of chaos, abyss and meaningless disorder, and on the religious imaginary that developed around this core. Arguments for and against a religious revolution in Homeric Greece are considered. A concluding section deals with the philosophical transformation of mythological themes.

Research on the Reform of English Translation Course Instruction amidst the Prevailing Trend of Machine Translation

In recent years, machine translation technology has surged forward at an astounding pace, permeating numerous sectors and dramatically elevating both the efficiency and accessibility of translation services. Nevertheless, this technological advancement presents unprecedented challenges to conventional English translation pedagogy. Given the growing ubiquity of machine translation, a critical question arises: How can we refine and enhance the content and methodologies of translation courses to bolster students' translation competencies, especially their translation quality and adaptability when leveraging machine translation tools? This has become an urgent issue within the realm of translation education. Against this backdrop, this article endeavors to investigate novel approaches to reforming English translation course instruction. The objective is to nurture translation professionals who excel not only in language skills but also in the application of technology, thereby fulfilling the heightened expectations for translation work in the future society.

A Practical Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted College English Translation Teaching

With the advent of the digital age, it has become an inevitable trend to integrate advanced artificial intelligence technology with English translation teaching in colleges and universities. This paper aims to explore the practical application of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted English translation teaching in colleges and universities, analyze its advantages in improving teaching efficiency, promoting personalized learning, and providing intelligent tutoring, and put forward corresponding strategies and suggestions. Through specific cases, this paper demonstrates the actual application effect of AI in translation teaching and looks forward to the future development direction.

Directionality and Individual Differences in Consecutive Interpreting

This study aims to examine the students’ consecutive interpreting in English and Turkish. This study was carried out with 32 senior students who are native Turkish speakers at the Department of English Translation and Interpreting. The students were required to render the speeches chosen from the EU Speech Repository, a speech bank for interpreting studies, in the En-Tr and Tr-En directions, respectively. The students were audio-recorded. In addition, students’ working memory (WM) capacities were determined by conducting digit span and word span tests, and attention levels were determined by conducting monolingual and bilingual Stroop test. The data was assessed with the overall assessment score of consecutive interpreting performance, total duration, pauses, linguistic errors, participants’ individual differences (WM and attention level), and directionality. The recordings were transcribed and assessed by two experts. A detailed error analysis was performed using MAXQDA Analytics Pro Academic. Students with higher WM levels also have better performance in the En-Tr direction, yet this is not observed in the Tr-En. This can be explained by the fact that students have more difficulty and spend more time interpreting to L2 due to their language proficiency in translation (such as lack of vocabulary, difficulties related to structure, etc.). There was no significant relationship between students' attention skills and interpreting performance. Differences were also observed in the errors and strategies used by students depending on directionality. It is expected that this study will contribute to understanding the consecutive interpreting process, revealing the main difficulties, and thereby contributing to interpreter training.

SOCIAL IDENTITY AND ITS IMPACTS ON YOZO OBA’S ALIENATION IN “NO LONGER HUMAN”

This research is conducted to understand social identity development and its impacts on alienation experienced by Yozo Oba, the main character in Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human (1958). This study applies the Social Identity Theory (SIT) by Trepte & Loy (2017) and Fromm’s theory of alienation (in Nadhiroh, 2015) to analyze how Yozo’s experiences influence his social identity development and how it affects his actions throughout his life. This research uses a qualitative descriptive approach and a close-reading method to collect and analyze the data. The primary data is the English translation of the novel by Donald Keene (1958), and secondary data is collected from journals, articles, and books related to SIT and the theory of alienation. The analysis of Yozo Oba using the principles of Social Categorization, Social Identity, and Self-Esteem from SIT, and the concept of alienation from oneself, alienation from others, and alienation from society shows that Yozo Oba developed a dissatisfying social identity which affected his experience and behaviors, and led him to feel alienation from himself, others, and the society.

Ideologies Underlying Chinese-English News Translation Strategies: A Critical Discourse Analysis of An Example from China Daily

With the aim of revealing the interplay between ideologies and translation strategies in the English translation process of Chinese political discourses, this research delves into the critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the English translation of the 2024 New Year Message by Chinese President Xi in China Daily. By examining the translation strategies like domestication, foreignization, addition, literal translation, and free translation, the study uncovers that these translation strategies are adopted in order to portray China as a nation developing with promising prospects. The primary research findings reveal how these strategies align with key ideologies including modernization and progress, stability and long-term planning, China’s global role and commitment to cooperation, cultural heritage and national pride, and people-centered development. Through the critical analysis of how these strategies reflect and reinforce these ideological narratives in shaping the international perceptions of the status quo and future direction of China’s growth, this research provides insights into the complex relations between translation choices and ideologies.

A Study on the Translation of Instructions for Heat-Clearing and Detoxifying Traditional Chinese Medicines under the Functional Equivalence Theory

Heat-clearing and detoxifying traditional Chinese medicines are an important part and distinctive advantage of China’s medical and health undertakings. Traditional Chinese medicine is an outstanding traditional culture of the Chinese nation and a unique and significant health resource in our country. The rapidly growing international market has created excellent opportunities for the export of heat-clearing and detoxifying traditional Chinese medicines. Currently, the English translation of instructions for proprietary Chinese medicines lacks unified translation standards and the guidance of translation theories. The existing English translations of instructions for proprietary Chinese medicines in our country have problems such as confusion and non-standardization. Therefore, the research on the instructions of heat-clearing and detoxifying medicines under the functional equivalence theory is highly significant. This paper takes several common heat-clearing and detoxifying medicines available on the market as examples, analyzes the problems and their causes in the translation of the instructions from the perspective of the functional equivalence theory, and finds more reasonable and standardized translation methods. It helps foreign consumers understand the characteristics and functions of traditional Chinese medicine, thereby stimulating their consumption desires. This paper studies the translation process using the functional equivalence theory, investigates the structure and language features of the instructions for traditional Chinese medicine, and discusses the corresponding translation strategies for the instructions of heat-clearing and detoxifying traditional Chinese medicines at the lexical and syntactic levels respectively to achieve functional equivalence.

An Analysis of English Translation of The Book of Poetry from the Perspective of Feminist Translation Theory

The Book of Poetry is the earliest collection of poems in China, reflecting the ancient social life of 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, which is a microcosm of the society at that time, and also an important work for the study of female consciousness in the years during the Book of Poetry. Feminist translation theory is the combination of translation theory and culture, which emphasizes the translator’s intervention in the text, which is of great significance to the text translation with bright feminist color. This paper takes the translated texts of Xu Yuanchong and James Legge as the research object, makes a comparison between the two English versions of the Book of Poetry under the guidance of feminist translation theory, analyzes the embodiment of feminist consciousness in the two versions, for the purpose of exploring how feminist translators’ self-consciousness plays a specific role in translation practice, and how the two translators use the strategies in the theory to intervene the translations.

Reinterpreting the Participle ὁ αἴρων in John 1:29. A Proposal for “who carries”

In John 1:29, John the Baptist, upon seeing Jesus, exclaims: ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου. Most prominent English translations render the Greek participle ὁ αἴρων in John 1:29 as “who takes away.” However, the authors of this article present evidence that John 1:29 contains an intertextual reference to the figure of the Servant of YHWH from Isa 53:7. In light of this, the proper interpretation of the participle ὁ αἴρων is better understood as “who takes up and bears. “Therefore, the proposed translation of John the Baptist’s words in John 1:29 is: “Behold, the Lamb of God who carries the sin of the world.”

Response accuracy of GPT-4 across languages: insights from an expert-level diagnostic radiology examination in Japan.

This study aims to investigate the effects of language selection and translation quality on Generative Pre-trained Transformer-4 (GPT-4)'s response accuracy to expert-level diagnostic radiology questions. We analyzed 146 diagnostic radiology questions from the Japan Radiology Board Examination (2020-2022), with consensus answers provided by two board-certified radiologists. The questions, originally in Japanese, were translated into English by GPT-4 and DeepL and into German and Chinese by GPT-4. Responses were generated by GPT-4 five times per question set per language. Response accuracy was compared between languages using one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni correction or the Mann-Whitney U test. Scores on selected English questions translated by a professional service and GPT-4 were also compared. The impact of translation quality on GPT-4's performance was assessed by linear regression analysis. The median scores (interquartile range) for the 146 questions were 70 (68-72) (Japanese), 89 (84.5-95.5) (GPT-4 English), 64 (55.5-67) (Chinese), and 56 (46.5-67.5) (German). Significant differences were found between Japanese and English (p = 0.002) and between Japanese and German (p = 0.022). The counts of correct responses across five attempts for each question were significantly associated with the quality of translation into English (GPT-4, DeepL) and German (GPT-4). In a subset of 31 questions where English translations yielded fewer correct responses than Japanese originals, professionally translated questions yielded better scores than those translated by GPT-4 (13 versus 8 points, p = 0.0079). GPT-4 exhibits higher accuracy when responding to English-translated questions compared to original Japanese questions, a trend not observed with German or Chinese translations. Accuracy improves with higher-quality English translations, underscoring the importance of high-quality translations in improving GPT-4's response accuracy to diagnostic radiology questions in non-English languages and aiding non-native English speakers in obtaining accurate answers from large language models.

A preliminary exploration of feminist translation strategies

Abstract Interventionist feminist translation theory prompts translators to identify and rectify sexist notions in source texts. It encourages critical awareness and reinterprets texts through a feminist lens. Based on interventionist feminist translation theory, this research investigates how depictions of women’s physical charm, often unnecessary and rooted in stereotypes, are handled in translations. Focusing on seven instances from Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Trilogy — a notable Chinese science fiction work debated for its sexism —, the study contrasts the source text with its English and Spanish translations. By analysing the selected fragments of the Chinese novel and the unmissable alterations to the original in the target texts, this paper demonstrates how the techniques of elision and adaptation can help translators iron out the sexist implications. The findings contribute to our understanding of feminist translation strategies for addressing sexist elements in literary works.

From Verses to Paragraphs: Macrostructure Shifts and Their Implications in English Translations of the Qur'an

This paper examines the macrostructural shift from verse to paragraph structure in English translations of the Qur'an, focusing on the transition from a running-text format to paragraph divisions. It addresses the Qur'an's unique linguistic and structural complexities and evaluates the impact of this shift on the fidelity to the source text and preservation of meaning. The paper also explores how this approach affects cross-cultural understanding and religious interpretation, assessing whether a paragraph format can adequately retain the original functions and meanings of Qur'anic suras in English. By analysing the strategies modern Qur'an translators use, the study demonstrates that the shift from verse to paragraph is a non-obligatory macrostructural change, reflecting considerations of the translator’s objectives and the target audience's cultural and linguistic context. This shift is a deliberate choice, not dictated by language, but by the translator's goals of accessibility and skopos in the target text.

Az epitheton ornansok Petőfi Sándor A helység kalapácsa című művében és fordításaiban

Observing literary names and fictional name translations is essential in applied onomastics, contrastive stylistics and literary comparatistics. This paper examines the significance and characteristic function of the proper names and epitheta ornantia in the mock epic poem entitled A helység kalapácsa [‘The Hammer of the Village’], both in the source language text and in the Russian and English translations of the poem. The Petőfi text contains a multitude of epitheta ornantia, either in conjunction with proper names in fixed noun constructions or dispersed throughout the text. The latter adjectives serve as substitutes for proper names. The Russian and English versions of the proper names with epitheta ornantia are mainly equivalent to the source language versions. The proper names are primarily unaltered. In Russian, they are either transliterated or translated in meaning. The epitheta ornantia are usually word-by-word translations, sometimes with additions or omissions.

Two Verse Novels — Two “Onegins”: Interlingual and Intercultural Translation

This article explores the connection between two literary works: Alexander Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” and Vikram Seth’s verse novel “The Golden Gate,” written more than 150 years after Pushkin’s text and referred to by critics as the “Eugene Onegin of San Francisco.” The aim of this study is a comparative analysis of the two novels, high-lighting Pushkin’s influence on the Anglophone text by the Indian author. Through the analysis, it is concluded that there are numerous borrowings present in Seth’s novel, including the Onegin stanza, the formula for introducing the main character, and various allusions and direct references to Pushkin’s text. The research material also encompasses the English translation of “Eugene Onegin” by Charles Johnston, which influenced Seth. The novelty of this research lies in the consideration of “The Golden Gate” as a form of double translation: both interlingual and intercultural. It is demonstrated that Seth’s work emerged as a result of the English translation of Pushkin’s verse novel, which served as a pretext that he reinterpreted within the context of twentieth-century American culture. This double translation unites two authors, two cultures, and two epochs.

A Comparative Perspective of “Engaged Buddhism” and “Renjian Fojiao” (“Humanistic Buddhism”) in Chinese Speaking Discourse: Exclusivism, Inclusivism, or Pragmatism?

The two modern concepts, “Engaged Buddhism” and renjian fojiao 人間佛教, with the variety of its English translations (such as “Humanistic Buddhism”), were developed and discussed with and without reference to each other over several decades. This article raises the question of how “Engaged Buddhism” has been portrayed in the Chinese-speaking world. It therefore reflects on a hybrid conceptual history and distinguishes between “concept-unaffected” and “concept-affected” (“concept-affirming”, “concept-negating”, and “concept-corresponding”) positionings in the Buddhist world, as well as a “concept-distancing” and “concept-processing” scholarship of Buddhist studies. The concept of “Engaged Buddhism” has been rendered with various Chinese terms in mainland China and Taiwan, e.g., “rushi fojiao” 入世佛教 (Buddhism that Enters the World), “canyu fojiao” 參與佛教 (Participatory Buddhism), and “zuoyi fojiao” 左翼佛教 (Left-Wing Buddhism). As can be seen from a rich body of sources, its discussion among Chinese-speaking Buddhists and scholars increased over the past twenty years and has been strongly characterized by comparisons with “renjian fojiao”, which can lead to different currents, such as exclusivism, inclusivism, and pragmatism.

Constellation of the Five Constant Virtues in English Translations of <i>The Analects</i>

The five constant virtues (<i>rén</i>, <i>yì</i>, <i>lǐ</i>, <i>zhì</i>, and <i>xìn</i>) are central to Confucian philosophy and have grown in influence over time, shaping not only traditional moral teachings but also contemporary practices in business management and personal development. However, limited research has explored how these virtues are translated and conceptualized in English versions of <i>The Analects</i>. This study aims to address this gap by examining how the five constant virtues are formed, related, and legitimized across four major English translations, spanning different historical periods. To achieve this, a mixed-methods approach is employed, integrating both qualitative and quantitative analyses. First, a multi-parallel corpus is established, enabling a detailed quantitative examination of how the five constant virtues are expressed across different translations. This analysis highlights variations in the rendering of these key concepts in each text. In parallel, Legitimation Code Theory’s (LCT) constellation analysis is applied for the qualitative component of the study. This approach explores the relationships among the virtues and how translators have conceptualized and structured these interrelations. Results indicate a reduction in variation over time, suggesting a stabilization in how the virtues are conceptualized. While translations consistently represent simpler pairings of virtues, differences emerge when more complex constellations involving all five elements are considered. These findings reveal how philosophical perspectives and temporal contexts shape translation, impacting the way Confucian virtues are legitimized and structured.

Defending a Legacy: Heinrich Bullinger’s Preface to Zwingli’s Opus articulorum (1535)

This article presents the first English translation of Heinrich Bullinger’s preface to Huldrych Zwingli’s Opus articulorum of 1535. This source, which has received little attention in previous scholarship; is placed in the context of efforts to bring Luther and the Swiss Reformed closer together after the death of the Zurich Reformed on the question of the Lord’s Supper. Bullinger’s preface is an apologetic manifesto in favor of Zwingli’s orthodoxy and continuity with the Church Fathers. It is argued that Bullinger’s strong commitment should be interpreted as a signal sent to Wittenberg that a rapprochement with Luther was not to be achieved at the expense of Zwingli’s theological legacy.

On Translated Modern Iraqi Fiction in English: Target Readership Perspective

English translation of modern Iraqi fiction remains uncharted territory mainly from target readers’ perception. For this purpose, the paper aims to investigate the target ordinary readers’ perception of modern Iraqi novel translated into English using a collected corpus of reviews published in Goodreads online review platform. The study adopts a case study approach to examine target readers’ comments on Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013), translated by Jonathan Wright (2018). The novel has succeeded in reaping a number of international literary awards; it was also on the shortlist for the Man Booker International Prize in 2018. This paper draws on non-professional (ordinary) readers’ reviews to explore how English literary readers have welcomed, although slowly, the presence of contemporary Iraqi fiction. In line with this view of readership, a corpus of 164 text reviews and 2030 ratings were collected from Goodreads platform and analyzed to understand the ordinary English-speaking readership perception of the translated novel as to the features of a favorably received translation of Iraqi fiction. Therefore, the study has two aims to address: first, to identify the key features which may impede/enhance the non-professional readers’ enjoyment of the translated novel under study; second, to introduce a brief account of modern Iraqi translated fiction. The study is significant in that it helps to encourage future research on readers’ reception of modern Iraqi fiction translated into other languages and also to fill in a gap in literary translation studies on target ordinary readers’ perspective.

Teaching Strategies in Business English Translation Based on Ecological Translation

This paper addresses the singularity of the teaching evaluation system and the limited practical teaching resources in business English translation. It proposes a diversified teaching evaluation system based on ecological translation, expands practical teaching resources, and emphasizes the importance of teaching cultural differences and strengthening ecological translation theory. This approach aims to innovate and optimize the teaching mode of business English translation, thereby improving the quality of teaching and promoting students’ deep understanding and application skills of business English. Consequently, this strategy brings new opportunities for development in the field of business English education.