《经济学人》社论的机器翻译及译后编辑问题探析

An Analysis of Machine Translation and Post-Editing Issues in The Economist’s Editorials

摘要: 本文旨在研究基于LLM的机翻系统在《经济学人》社论英译汉中所出现的典型问题及译后编辑重点。本文首先简要回顾了机器翻译与译后编辑的相关研究，以及新闻社论的文本特点与翻译标准，继而采用个案研究法与对比研究法，以《经济学人》2026年5月刊社论“From cyber-security to biosecurity”的英译汉实践为研究对象，对比DeepSeek-V4-Pro、豆包Doubao-Seed-2.1-Turbo模型的输出译文与人工译后编辑版本，从专业术语、搭配与表达、句式结构、隐喻修辞等维度系统考察了AI翻译在新闻社论中的典型问题。研究发现，两个系统在术语的概念化处理、语序调整、被动语态转换、定语从句逻辑显化、对隐喻修辞的把握等方面存在不足，而译后编辑的核心任务可概括为“去欧化、显逻辑、调语气”。本文指出，在“数智翻译时代”，人类译者应与机器翻译系统保持“竞合”状态，一方面充分利用技术带来的效率提升，另一方面持续强化自身在英汉对比意识、语体敏感度和语境推理能力方面的优势。

Abstract: This paper aims to investigate the typical problems and post-editing priorities of LLM-based machine translation systems in the English-to-Chinese translation of The Economist editorials. It begins with a brief review of relevant studies on machine translation and post-editing, as well as the textual features and translation standards of news editorials. Adopting a case study approach and a comparative research method, the study takes the English-to-Chinese translation practice of the editorial “From cyber-security to biosecurity” published in the May 2026 issue of The Economist as its research object. It compares the output translations of the DeepSeek-V4-Pro and Doubao-Seed-2.1-Turbo models with a human post-edited version, and systematically examines the typical problems of AI translation in news editorials from four dimensions: terminology, collocation and expression, syntactic structure, and metaphorical rhetoric. The findings reveal that both systems exhibit deficiencies in the conceptualization of terminology, word-order adjustment, passive-voice conversion, logical explication of attributive clauses, and the handling of metaphorical rhetoric. The core tasks of post-editing can be summarized as “de-Europeanization, logical explication, and tonal adjustment”. This paper argues that, in the age of digital intelligence translation, human translators should maintain a state of “coopetition” with machine translation systems: on the one hand, they should make full use of the efficiency gains brought by technology; on the other hand, they should continuously strengthen their advantages in English-Chinese contrastive awareness, stylistic sensitivity, and contextual reasoning ability.