High-quality Translation Research Articles

Readers have to work harder to understand a badly translated text: an eye-tracking study into the effects of translation errors

ABSTRACT Texts are translated to be read and provide access to otherwise inaccessible information or experiences. Scant empirical interest in how translations are read and received by readers is surprising in the context of our knowledge about the features of translations, and the systematic ways in which they differ from originally written texts. In this paper, we explore the impact of translation quality on the reading experience by analysing the cognitive effort involved in reading and text comprehension. Two groups of participants (n = 64) were eye-tracked as they read either a low-quality translation (with errors) or a high-quality translation (without errors) of the same source text. Overall, the errors contributed to longer dwell time when reading the entire text but did not significantly affect the participants’ comprehension scores. A more in-depth analysis of the impact of translation errors on the reading experience shows that it depends on the amount of confusion errors cause to the reader when building a coherent model of the entire text.

An Eco-Translatological Study of the English Version of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China IV

With the rapid development of China’s foreign relations, the effective dissemination of external publicity texts through high-quality translations has become a pivotal task in enhancing communication between China and the world. Xi Jinping: The Governance of China IV compiles President Xi Jinping’s speeches, talks, addresses, instructions, and congratulatory letters during his presidency, offering significant insights into Chinese political culture. This paper employs Eco-translatology to identify representative cases from the book and analyze the application of translation principles, strategies, and techniques in translating Chinese political texts. Specifically, the study examines translators’ adaptation and selection practices. It investigates the three-dimensional transformations of language, culture, and communication within the English rendition of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China IV.

Domestication and Foreignization of Humor Elements in the Translation of 2 Broke Girls

With the development of globalization, films and TV series from foreign countries, as an important vehicle of culture, have sprung up and are appreciated by viewers due to high-quality subtitle translation. Thus, subtitle translation has become an important part in the field of translation research. Since its launch in China, the famous American sitcom 2 Broke Girls has achieved universal praise among audiences. This recognition is attributed not only to its intriguing plot but also to the excellent subtitle translation, in which domestication and foreignization, two key translation techniques, play an important role. Although many scholars have already conducted research and discussions on domestication and foreignization, there is still a lack of studies on the application of these two techniques to this drama. Therefore, taking this sitcom as an example, through an analysis of domestication and foreignization methods and of the humorous elements in the drama, this paper explores the characteristics, advantages, and limitations of these two translation methods in their practical application in the drama, focusing on specific scenarios for research. It is found that domestication and foreignization play a crucial role in driving the plot forward and enhancing the comedic effect of this sitcom. In the process of translation, translators should combine these two translation strategies well to achieve a better effect.

Analyzing And Assessing the Translation of Quranic Terms based on the Tridimensional Exegetic Analysis Model, salah as a Case Study

The study investigates the hypothesis that there are certain conceptual gaps between the source and target concepts and proposes a translation strategy to avoid that distortion of the intended meanings. It starts from the premise that producing a high-quality translation of Quranic concepts could be attained if the distinctive features of source and target concepts are delimited based on an onomasiological terminological approach and a tri-dimensional textual approach. The objective is to assess an equivalent of a Qur’anic term based on its conceptual match or mismatch with the source concept and to propose improved versions that meet the needs of readers of Quranic translations irrespective of their cultural backgrounds. Thus, after attaining the conceptual delimitation of the Quranic concept of salah, an analysis is conducted to check whether its features are well conveyed in the equivalent “prayer”. Salah is delimited in the Quran (intratextuality), Sunnah (intertextuality), and the historical sociocultural contexts (contextuality).

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 Study of Fang Huawen’s Chinese Version of Rebecca from the Perspective of Skopos Theory

This paper analyzes Fang Huawen’s Chinese version of Rebecca from the perspective of Skopos Theory. By obtaining the different descriptions in the novel, such as linguistic description, mental description, and environmental description, the essay focuses on discovering how the translator uses Skopos Theory during his translation. Through the analysis, the thesis finds out that Fang’s version combines the features of the original texts and the expression habit in Chinese, which fully demonstrates the original texts. The language of Fang’s version is brief and clear, and the content is coherent, meanwhile, this translation showcases the message from the original text to a great extent. Through studying Fang’s version, the thesis analyzes the translation strategies comprehensively by using the principle of fidelity, conference and skopos. Based on the above three principles, translators can adopt a variety of translation strategies, including domestication, foreignization, addition and subtraction, to translate high-quality translations to meet the needs of readers and disseminate the culture of other countries.

Machine Translation-Friendly Language for Improved Machine Translation Output in Academic Writing

Academic writing aims to disseminate scholarly knowledge to a target audience in concise language. During this process, translators sometimes translate academic texts into foreign languages, so that the output of scholarly research can be read by speakers of different languages. In such cases, translators are to translate the source text into the target language in a clear and comprehensible language. This paper discusses how the authors of scholarly texts can structure their writing properly, so that they can help translators compose clear and concise translation output. Although the knowledge and skills of the translator are a key consideration in ensuring the quality of translated texts, the source text itself is highly influential in the quality of the output. Furthermore, although they might partially differ from one language to another, academic writing has some well-established conventions. Therefore, translators might experience some problems when they translate scholarly texts. This study aims to pinpoint such issues and to offer viable strategies that could be used for solving them before the translation process. Commonly encountered problems that impair the quality of the translation output are as follows: wordiness, ambiguous expressions, failing to consider the discourse structure of the target language while organising the source text, using conjunctions carelessly, using the passive voice unnecessarily, using indirect language to express ideas, using synonymous words sequentially, typos, and other similar problems. Though experience in academic translation can help solve some of these issues, it might not be possible to produce good translation output if the source text is poorly written. Success in academic translation can be achieved through collaboration between the author of an academic text and its translator. For this reason, it is necessary to raise the awareness of writers and translators on this issue.

A Study on Translator’s Subjectivity of Dream of Red Mansions Based on Polysystem Theory

With the development of The Times, translation studies are no longer limited to text and syntax, but have expanded from in-text studies to out-of-text studies. Translation activities are carried out in two cultural contexts. Therefore, from a new translation perspective, the translation process pays more attention to the target language culture and the influence of various social, cultural and economic factors on translation activities, thus developing the translator's subjectivity. The status of the translator is gradually revealed, which makes the translation closer to the target language culture and expands the target audience. Based on the comparison between traditional translation theory and multi-system theory, this paper takes the translation of Dream of Red Mansions as an example, and has an in-depth study of the translator's subjectivity in the translation process through comparison and analysis, emphasizing the important effect of the translator's subjectivity in translation activities,so as to provide references for how to produce high-quality text translation.

An optimized Transformer algorithm: Implementation for intelligent English translation

There is an increasing demand for high-quality translations in the realm of intelligent English translation. This paper optimized the traditional Transformer algorithm by enhancing position coding and the softmax layer. Bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLST) was employed to realize position encoding, capturing both contextual and positional information simultaneously. Additionally, the softmax function was replaced with the sparsemax function to obtain sparser results. The translation performance of some algorithms on Chinese and English datasets was compared and analyzed. It was found that that the optimized Transformer algorithm performed better than the RNNSearch, ConvS2S, and Transformer-base algorithms in terms of bilingual evaluation understudy (BLEU) score on the test set. It achieved an average BLEU score of 23.72, representing an improvement of 1.56 over the RNNSearch algorithm, 1.17 over the ConvS2S algorithm, and 0.73 over the Transformer-base algorithm. The parameter quantity of the optimized algorithm was 6.83 M, which was 0.05 M higher than the Transformer-base algorithm. Furthermore, its running time was 4,862.76 s, showing a marginal increase of 0.21% compared to the Transformer-base algorithm. These findings validate the reliability of the optimized Transformer algorithm for intelligent English translation and its potential practical application.

Cascaded Multi-path Shortcut Diffusion Model for Medical Image Translation

Image-to-image translation is a vital component in medical imaging processing, with many uses in a wide range of imaging modalities and clinical scenarios. Previous methods include Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and Diffusion Models (DMs), which offer realism but suffer from instability and lack uncertainty estimation. Even though both GAN and DM methods have individually exhibited their capability in medical image translation tasks, the potential of combining a GAN and DM to further improve translation performance and to enable uncertainty estimation remains largely unexplored. In this work, we address these challenges by proposing a Cascade Multi-path Shortcut Diffusion Model (CMDM) for high-quality medical image translation and uncertainty estimation. To reduce the required number of iterations and ensure robust performance, our method first obtains a conditional GAN-generated prior image that will be used for the efficient reverse translation with a DM in the subsequent step. Additionally, a multi-path shortcut diffusion strategy is employed to refine translation results and estimate uncertainty. A cascaded pipeline further enhances translation quality, incorporating residual averaging between cascades. We collected three different medical image datasets with two sub-tasks for each dataset to test the generalizability of our approach. Our experimental results found that CMDM can produce high-quality translations comparable to state-of-the-art methods while providing reasonable uncertainty estimations that correlate well with the translation error.

Comparative Analysis of Online Translators in the Machine Translation System

The article presents a comparative analysis of various online translators in the machine translation system. The author of the study focused on finding out the effectiveness and accuracy of the translation, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the three most common online translators: Google Translate, DeepL and Microsoft Translator. The article begins with an overview of current trends in the field of machine translation and the need for online translations based on this context. The research methodology is selected in the article, in particular, the selection of individual online translators for comparison and the criteria for evaluating their work. The researcher analyzes the quality of translations for various types of texts, including common phrases, technical terms, complex sentences, etc. Attention is also paid to different language pairs and ensuring the availability of rarer languages in electronic translation. The article reveals such aspects as accuracy of translation, speed of work, recognition of context and idiomatic expressions, availability of additional functions and capabilities that ensure better translation quality. The author thoroughly highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each system, provides clear information about the use of integrations, available functions and additional capabilities of each translator. In the final part of the article, the author provides conclusions and recommendations regarding the use of online translators in the machine translation system. The research highlights that each electronic translator has its own advantages and limitations, and the choice depends on the specific needs of the user. In addition, the author emphasizes the need for constant updating and improvement of online translators to increase their accuracy and efficiency. This comparative analysis will help simplify the selection of the optimal translation software for users who require high-quality machine translation for their professional activities or everyday needs.

Research on the Global Communication of Traditional Chinese Medicine from the Perspective of Cognitive Linguistics

Chinese medicine is one of the important traditional cultures of the Chinese nation, a typical representative of the unique wisdom of the nation, and an influential worldwide cultural label of the country. In this paper, the theory of Cognitive Linguistics is used to enhance the depth of cultural communication of traditional Chinese medicine, to make up for the shortcomings of single language, mode and means in the communication research of traditional Chinese medicine at home and abroad, and to provide innovative research routes for the communication of traditional Chinese medicine at home and abroad, such as cognitive neuroscience and artificial intelligence big data, which conform to the development of the times. From a practical point of view, it will provide solutions for the internal and external communication of Chinese medicine more empirically and scientifically, and more effectively promote the Chinese medicine culture to take root in the local area and go global. Especially, it will gain the recognition of the younger generation who are good at obtaining information from new media through high-quality audio-visual translation products of Chinese medicine, so as to build a human health community with Chinese medicine as an important part.

PECULIARITIES OF SUBTITLED TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENTARY FILMS BASED ON THE EXAMPLE OF ANCIENT EGYPT EXPLAINED IN 12 MINUTES

High-quality translation from a foreign language plays a key role in the commercial and creative success of any film. Due to the growing need for this type of translation, highlighting the specifics of documentary film translation will be useful for novice documentary translators and professionals interested in various types of translation. Background. Documentary is a widespread and one of the most interesting genres of cinema for people of all ages. Subtitling as a type of audiovisual translation allows viewers not only to get closer to the original story of the event broadcast in another language, but also to hear authentic speech and other elements of the video. Purpose. The purpose of this article is to identify the specifics of the subtitled translation of documentaries and to identify the translation transformations used in the translation of such a film genre. To do this, it is necessary to identify the essence of subtitling; consider the requirements for the compiling subtitling, identify the difficulties that translators may face in the process of subtitled translation; analyze translation transformations in the subtitled translation of documentaries. Materials and methods. The practical material for the study was the short documentary film Ancient Egypt explained in 12 minutes, published on the YouTube video hosting channel Captivating History. To solve the tasks set, both theoretical and practical research methods were used: analysis of literature on translation theory and subtitled translation as a special aspect of audiovisual translation; analysis of translation transformations during subtitled translation of the documentary film Ancient Egypt explained in 12 minutes. Results. The results of the study showed that subtitling is a complex and creative task for a translator. Subtitles for films allow you to create an emotional contact between the reader and the author of the film, to focus his attention on important information and, most importantly, to preserve the authenticity of the documentary material. In the subtitled translation of documentary films, it was revealed that the most common transformations are transliteration, omission, generalization and functional substitution. Practical implications. The results of the research can be used by novice translators and professional translators when translating documentaries.

Understanding the Social Dimensions and Context in HIV Research: Instrument Adaptation Is More Than Just Translation

Abstract There is a shortage of health-related questionnaires developed specifically for African countries' cultural contexts and local languages. Researchers have translated some tools to the target local languages. However, poor-quality or even high-quality translation can lead to an instrument that is not comparable with the original language if linguistic nuances, and cultural differences are not considered. This can affect the validity and reliability of the research data. The objective of this commentary was to highlight limitations of the commonly accepted forward–backward translation approach and the importance of more rigorous cultural and linguistic adaptation processes in social and behavioral research related to HIV.

INNOVATING LITERARY EDUCATION: A MULTIFACETED APPROACH TO TEACHING FOREIGN LITERATURE IN SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES

In the dynamic field of education, the teaching of foreign literature faces challenges. In Scandinavia, known for high-quality education, innovative methods are crucial for instilling a deep appreciation for global literary works. This article explores diverse approaches to enhance engagement, cultural understanding and critical thinking among students. Leveraging audio-visual resources, including videos and interactive presentations, creates a vibrant learning environment in Scandinavian classrooms. This fosters a deeper connection between students and foreign literature, resonating with the tech-savvy younger generation. In embracing the digital age, teachers use online platforms and tools like discussion forums and virtual book clubs to encourage interactive engagement. These digital tools enhance critical thinking and analytical skills by exploring diverse perspectives. Immersive VR literature tours allow students to virtually step into the settings of foreign literary works, providing a unique and memorable learning experience. This stimulates creativity and deepens understanding of cultural and historical contexts. Recognizing language diversity, utilizing high-quality translations broadens access to foreign literature. This inclusive approach allows students to appreciate literary expression across linguistic boundaries. Guiding students in creating digital storytelling projects using podcasts, videos, and blogs enhances creativity and communication skills. This hands-on approach prepares students for the modern digital world. Infusing play into literary education through quizzes and interactive simulations makes the study of foreign literature enjoyable and engaging. In conclusion, innovative methods in Scandinavian countries aim to cultivate globally aware individuals. These multifaceted approaches not only enhance the study of foreign literature but also foster critical thinking, cultural understanding, and a lifelong love for literature. By integrating multimedia, embracing digital tools, and promoting interactive learning, teachers in Scandinavia ensure their students embark on a literary journey that transcends borders, enriching their intellectual and cultural horizons in an evolving educational landscape.

Language Translation Tool

The Language Translation Tool project aims to develop an advanced, user-friendly software application that facilitates accurate and efficient translation between multiple languages. Leveraging the latest advancements in neural machine translation (NMT) and artificial intelligence (AI), the tool is designed to overcome the limitations of traditional translation methods, providing high-quality translations in real-time. The core of the tool is built on state-of-the-art transformer models, such as OpenAI's GPT-4 and other comparable architectures, which have been fine-tuned on extensive multilingual datasets. This allows the tool to not only translate text with remarkable accuracy but also to understand context, idiomatic expressions, and cultural nuances, ensuring that the output is both grammatically correct and contextually appropriate. Key features of the Language Translation Tool include: The project also emphasizes data privacy and security, ensuring that user data is handled with the utmost confidentiality and compliance with international data protection standards. In conclusion, the Language Translation Tool project represents a significant step forward in bridging language barriers, fostering global communication, and promoting cross-cultural understanding through innovative technology. The successful implementation of this tool promises to revolutionize how individuals and organizations interact in an increasingly interconnected world.

Some Peculiarities of Translation of Medical Texts (on the Example of Cardiological Material)

Medicine is one of the most dynamically developing fields, requiring from translators not only specialised skills, but also basic knowledge of medicine. The present study is devoted to the study of specific features of medical texts and ways of their translation from English into Russian. The aim of the study is to identify the most overlooked problems that may be encountered when translating medical texts and to provide solutions to them. The subject of the study was the peculiarities encountered during the translation from English into Russian of the original practical manual on electrocardiography. The methodological basis of this study was formed by the solid sampling method, descriptive method and method of linguocultural analysis of linguistic material. As a result of the study, a number of features is identified that require increased attention when working with medical texts: borrowing words from Latin and Greek, the use of complex abbreviations and acronyms, the transition to gender-neutral pronouns, the translation of mnemonics, differences in classifications and health care systems. The ways of their translation are also analysed, and appropriate equivalents are selected. The methods of their translation are also analyzed and the appropriate equivalents are selected. General recommendations for overcoming the highlighted translation difficulties are given. Knowledge of morphemes of Greek and Latin origin, the ability to adapt the translation to the realities of another country, continuous professional development will help to overcome difficulties in translation. The skills of working with dictionaries and handbooks play an important role in the translation of a professionally-oriented vocabulary layer and the choice of expressions suitable for the meaning. In conclusion, the competencies that a translator in the medical field should possess in order to perform a high-quality adequate translation of medical texts are given.

Examining the Cultural Connotations in Human and Machine Translations: A Corpus Study of Naguib Mahfouz's Zuqāq al-Midaqq

The translation of culture-specific terms constitutes a major challenge for professional translators as it necessitates a thorough understanding of both the linguistic and cultural elements. With rapid technological advancement over the past few years, machine translation has enhanced translation quality. This study investigates the transability of cultural connotations in the Arabic-English translation of Naguib Mahfouz’s Zuqāq al-Midaqq. A descriptive qualitative research design was adopted to achieve the intended goals of the study. The data comprised human and machine translations from Google Translate and ChatGPT. Through qualitative content analysis, the translations were compared for accuracy in transferring the cultural connotations prevalent in the Arabic source text. The findings revealed that the human translation showed greater naturalness and accuracy in rendering cultural connotations. Machine translation has struggled with rhetorical devices, idioms, and cultural nuances. The results also indicated that the AI-enhanced machine represented by ChatGPT captured the cultural elements more effectively than Google Translate. The study concluded that human expertise remains essential for the high-quality translation of literary works to maintain cultural significance. The findings can inform translator training and guide improvements to AI-enhanced translation for literary texts.

Multilingual Information Retrieval Using Graph Neural Networks: Practical Applications in English Translation

Multilingual information retrieval using graph neural networks offers practical applications in English translation by leveraging advanced computational models to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of cross-lingual search and translation tasks. By representing textual data as graphs and utilizing graph neural networks (GNNs), this approach captures intricate relationships between words and phrases across different languages, enabling more effective language understanding and translation. GNNs can learn complex linguistic structures and semantic similarities from multilingual corpora, facilitating the development of more robust translation systems that are capable of handling diverse language pairs and domains. The paper introduces a novel approach termed the Multilingual Ant Bee Optimization Graph Neural Network (MABO-GNN) for addressing optimization, classification, and multilingual translation tasks. MABO-GNN integrates ant bee optimization algorithms with graph neural networks to provide a versatile framework capable of optimizing objective functions, improving classification accuracy iteratively, and facilitating high-quality translations across multiple languages. Through comprehensive experimentation, the efficacy of MABO-GNN is demonstrated across various tasks, languages, and datasets. in optimization experiments, MABO-GNN achieves objective function values of 0.012, 0.015, 0.011, and 0.013 in Experiment 1, Experiment 2, Experiment 3, and Experiment 4, respectively, with convergence times ranging from 90 to 150 seconds. In classification tasks, the model exhibits notable performance improvements over iterations, with BLEU scores reaching 0.84 and METEOR scores reaching 0.78 in the fifth iteration. The translation results showcase BLEU scores of 0.85 for English, 0.82 for French, 0.79 for German, 0.81 for Spanish, and 0.75 for Chinese, indicating the model's proficiency in generating high-quality translations across diverse languages.

Analysis of the Application of Case-Based Teaching Method in Translation Teaching

With the continuous deepening of China’s opening-up policy and the increasingly close cultural exchanges among countries, the demand for translation talents has been gradually increasing during the stage of international communication. Cultivating high-quality and practical translation talents has become a key focus in the current field of education. Therefore, in translation teaching, it is necessary to pay attention to the introduction of case-based teaching methods, enhance the practical characteristics of translation activities, and adapt to the current changes in the international situation. This article mainly expounds on the advantages of the case-based teaching method in translation teaching and proposes the application direction of this teaching method in practical activities for reference by relevant personnel.