ChatGPT：（一）结合ChatGPT的译前编辑初探

首先先简要介绍一下译前编辑和受控语言两个概念。

何为译前编辑呢？

译前编辑与译后编辑都是用来提升机器翻译译文质量的手段。译前编辑需要在翻译之前对源语言进行处理，在词汇、句法、语篇等方面对源语进行调整，从而更便于翻译。译后编辑需在翻译之后对目的语进行优化处理，对术语、风格和语法等方面进行检查和编辑。好比一个是菜品的烹前预处理，一个是菜品烹后再加工，两者都是为了菜品更为精致，从而更受客户喜爱。

何为受控语言？

根据新加坡翻译服务商andovar官网（https://blog.andovar.com/controlled-language）介绍，“Controlled language is a subset of natural language with a restricted grammar and vocabulary that reduces or eliminates ambiguity and complexity”，即——受控语言是自然语言下的一个分支，其利用有限的语法和词汇以减少不确定性和复杂性。

《劳特里奇翻译技术百科全书》（Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Technology）（Chan Sin-Wai, 2015）在Controlled Language这一章节介绍了受控语言的定义及分类。其定义如下：“Controlled natural languages tackle these kinds of problems by restricting the size of the grammar and vocabulary in order to reduce or eliminate ambiguity and complexity inherent in natural languages.”

因此可以得知，受控语言能够在语法和词汇层面着力降低文本因模糊和复杂所带来的理解困难。根据这本书，在机器翻译用途方面，“The primary objective of using controlled language for MT is to limit lexical ambiguity in the source language and to rule out complex sentence structures in order to ease the processing and achieve better translation results.”也就是说，受控语言通过限制源语言的词汇歧义和排除复杂句结构来简化处理和获得更佳翻译效果。

规则：

对于受控语言的使用，翻译学者Sharon O’Brien在Controlling Controlled English——An Analysis of Several Controlled Language Rule Sets论作中基于Lexical（词汇）、Syntactic（句法）、Semantic（语义）三个层面给出了一套详细的规则。在词汇层面，还包括词汇选用，拼写，代词等诸多细节规则，可见作者考量之细微。我们可根据这套规则结合所修改文本情况合理应用。（由于篇幅有限，大家可自行检索该文献详细阅览）

源语言文本：

The first phenomena that we now recognize to be caused by electrons were noticed during the nineteenth century when inventors like Edison were studying electrical effect’s in evacuated glass bulbs and tubes. Sometimes certain areas of the almost completely evacuated vessel would become luminous and glow with blue, green or red light. Though these effects were exploited to produce colourful discharges—now well known as the fluorescent neon-tubes used in advertising—the cause of these phenomena was then unknown.

上文是一段电子科学相关英语文本。细看该文本可发现文中从句、过去分词短语等复杂结构特征明显，还涉及一些专业术语。这在一定程度上增加了理解和翻译的难度。那么接下来就需要给ChatGPT加点Prompt，再佐以Controlled Language调料来优化源语言文本啦。

小编基于上面这段文本给出了自己的ChatGPT Prompt：

Suppose you are an English translator and reviser, please help me revise the following text about technology, so that the text is easy to be understood and translated into Chinese. Based upon rules of controlled language, you should, lexically make sure that the vocabulary is simple, and syntactically make sure the sentence structure is simple and rule out using passive voice.

The first phenomena that we now recognize to be caused by electrons were noticed during the nineteenth century when inventors like Edison were studying electrical effect’s in evacuated glass bulbs and tubes. Sometimes certain areas of the almost completely evacuated vessel would become luminous and glow with blue, green or red light. Though these effects were exploited to produce colourful discharges—now well known as the fluorescent neon-tubes used in advertising—the cause of these phenomena was then unknown.

（当然，自己能力有限，这段指令如有问题，还请大家指正）

ChatGPT所给修改后译文如下：

During the 1800s, inventors like Edison studied electrical effects in glass bulbs and tubes from which the air had been removed. They observed that some parts of the nearly empty bulb would light up and emit blue, green, or red light. These colorful discharges were later used in advertising through fluorescent neon tubes. However, at that time, the reason behind these phenomena remained unknown.

对比原文本和修改后文本可发现，ChatGPT修改后版本字符数更少，句子复杂度更低。在可读性方面，还利用弗莱士-金凯德难度级数测评（数值越大，难度越高），发现修改后文本可读性也得到提高。

这些都是有利于译者理解的一面。但是，小编也发现了问题，修改后版本中“The first phenomena that we now recognize to be caused by electrons”所强调的意思似乎在ChatGPT修改时也被一并省去了，这可不利于译者在轻松理解的同时再现原文意思。为了确定这不是偶然之举，小编尝试输入了将近十次上述Prompt和原文，然而还是发现这一问题在每次所给结果中仍未得到解决。最后，小编还在Prompt后面追加了“Most importantly, do not distort the meaning of the original text.”可是，结果表明，这样一来，ChatGPT似乎又变成了耳边风，意思较好地保留了，但文本的复杂度却没减轻多少。