Investigating the Effect of AI Literacy on the Quality of Technical Translation
-
Authors:
Ke Xu Wenhui Tang Zhuangyuan Tian Qianhui Luan Leiyu Shi / Linguistics / 2025,7(2): 150-164 / 2025-06-25
- Keywords: AI literacy; instrumental competence; technical translation
- Abstract: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly seen as a collaborator for translators. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on whether AI literacy can predict the quality of English-Chinese scientific translations. This mixed-methods study investigates how AI literacy influences the quality of scientific translation, with a focus on its impact on terminology accuracy, fluency, and stylistic coherence. The experiment involved student translators (n=29) who major in translation instead of computer science, translating two texts on computer science with high and low text complexity. Participants could choose whether to use AI at their own free will. Their AI literacy is quantified by the time spent on AI tools, usage frequency, and the number of AI tools used. Quantitative data is corroborated by the Think-Aloud Protocol (Jääskeläinen, 2000) and the postexperiment interviews. The quality is assessed using Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM) (Lommel et al., 2014) by two qualified raters. Our findings show that 1) AI literacy significantly increases the quality of the conceptual scientific passage, but not on the operational scientific passage; 2) student translators with high AI literacy perceive AI as an indispensable tool for high-quality scientific translation, while participants with low AI literacy show distrust. Ultimately, we concluded that AI can serve as an effective tool supplementing the translator’s lack of domain knowledge. Nevertheless, the translators’ competence in bilingual knowledge remains of paramount importance in producing accurate, fluent, and stylistically coherent scientific texts. Therefore, we recommend that AI literacy be incorporated into the technical sub-competence of the current mainstream translation competence models.
-
Research on the Preparation of Modified Polyacrylic Acid Superabsorbent Resin and Its Potential Application in Fruit Preservation in Combination with Chinese Herbal Medicine Composites
- Authors:
- Keywords: Superabsorbent Resin; Salt Resistance; Biodegradation; Fruit Preservation
- Abstract: In order to enhance the water absorption capacity and degradation performance of acrylic acid superabsorbent resin (PAA), this paper used 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS) and naturally degradable macromolecular carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as modifiers and adopted the aqueous solution polymerization method to prepare modified polyacrylic acid (PAA) superabsorbent resin. The results showed that when the content of acrylic acid was 21%, and the contents of AMPS, CMC, cross-linking agent and initiator were 20%, 1.8%, 0.02% and 2% of the mass of AA respectively, the water absorption capacity of the prepared PAA superabsorbent resin in deionized water increased from 483 g/g before modification to 875 g/g, and the water absorption capacity in physiological saline was 238 g/g. The degradation rate of the modified PAA in cellulase was 64.8%. It can be seen that the modification with CMC and AMPS can improve the water absorption, salt resistance and degradation performance of PAA resin. Meanwhile, the composite material of modified PAA superabsorbent resin and Chinese herbal medicine powder can prolong the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. The research results can provide a reference for the further research of fruit preservatives and a new idea for the expanded application of superabsorbent resins.
-
Conceptual Domain Transfer in the Grammaticalization of Demonstratives
- Authors:
- Keywords: distance; evidentials; focus markers; kakari musubi
- Abstract: Data from the world’s languages illustrate that demonstratives grammaticalize as temporal auxiliaries/copulas, as focus markers, and as visual evidentials. However, these studies were done on the basis of individual languages or a specific grammaticalization path. In contrast, this paper argues that the various grammaticalization patterns of demonstratives reported in the world’s languages are not totally isolated, but rather can be united by a single feature, distance: i.e., the spatial distance from the deictic center is conceptually transferred to temporal and evidential /epistemic (speaker’s certainty associated with focus markers) domains. Moreover, since studies of this type of semantic extension are often concentrated on languages of Africa, the Americas, and Oceania, this paper adds cases from the Japonic languages to broaden the applicability of the proposed conceptual domain transfer, especially from space to epistemicity (focus). Specifically, this paper discusses the development of the cleft-like kakari musubi construction in Old Japanese and Old Okinawan, in which proximal, mesial, and distal demonstratives grammaticalized as focus markers are used in assertive, assertive/interrogative, and interrogative sentences respectively. It argues that such pathways represent a cognitively sound conceptual domain transfer from space to epistemicity and an embodied inverse relationship between spatial distance and epistemic certainty.
-
