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Translation and Foreign Language Learning

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ArticleInterdisciplinary Studies of Translation http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.09.022

A Comparative Study of AI-powered and Human Translation of Metaphors in Political Discourse

Jinghua Zhang*, Hua Lei

College of Liberal Arts, Xi'an Technological University, Xi'an 710021, Shaanxi, China.

*Corresponding author: Jinghua Zhang

This paper is a phased achievement of the 2024 Graduate Education and Teaching Reform Project in Xi’an Tech-nological University, “Reform of Intelligent Translation Teaching for MTI Programs in the AI Era” (No. XAGDYJ240220), the 2025 Graduate Education and Teaching Reform Project in Xi’an Technological University, “Research and Practice on Multimodal Paths of ‘Ideological and Political Education in Curriculum’ in Postgraduate Public English Teaching” (No. XAGDYJ250216), and the 2024 Project for the Construction of School-Enterprise Joint Practice Courses (No. XAGDYJ240812)
Published: September 30,2025

Abstract

Translating metaphors presents a challenge for translators as metaphors involve human thinking and cognition from cognitive linguistics. AI-powered translation exhibits great efficiency through its algorithm and computation. The study compares AI and human translation of metaphors in political discourse in order to explore whether AI-powered translation demonstrates an ability to convey nuanced contextual meanings in target language. The human translation is represented by what is retrieved from the platform of the multilingual corpora of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, and AI-powered translation is represented by rendering through ERNIE Bot large model. The findings indicate that, in AI-powered translation, metaphors in political discourse are literally preserved in target language even when these metaphors are rooted in historical and cultural contexts rather than being universal. The study suggests a hybrid model with human translators and AI collaboration so as to preserve the clarity and readability of political metaphors.

Keywords

Metaphors; Cognition; AI-powered translation; Political discourse

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How to cite this paper

A Comparative Study of AI-powered and Human Translation of Metaphors in Political Discourse

How to cite this paper: Jinghua Zhang, Hua Lei. (2025). A Comparative Study of AI-powered and Human Translation of Metaphors in Political Discourse. Translation and Foreign Language Learning1(2), 330-334.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.09.022