A study on the use of translated policy terms “rural revitalization/vitalization” —A corpus-based analysis of Chinese government website news
乡村振兴政策术语英译名使用研究——基于中国政府网新闻语篇的语料库分析

摘要

针对乡村振兴战略的官方英译存在“rural revitalization”与“rural vitalization”并用现象，文章采用语料库方法，以2017—2025年中国政府网英语新闻语篇为语料，通过对使用频率、高频词、主题词及文本语境的对比，探析两种译名的使用差异。研究发现：两种译名的使用频率在政策提出初期未有明显区分，但在2021年出现转折，“rural revitalization”成为主导；高频词与主题词揭示“rural vitalization”多用于“政策发布话语”，而“rural revitalization”多关联“国家战略话语”；文本语境表明2021年之后，“rural revitalization”作为国家战略的核心术语，用于宏观部署、制度安排和顶层设计，“rural vitalization”则逐渐回归其“激发活力”的本义，成为特定语境下的辅助性表达。官方政策术语译名使用差异是政策递进与语义差异的综合结果，应遵循阶段性统一原则，及时推进术语规范，敏锐反映政策表述的演进。

Abstract

The official English translation of China’s rural revitalization strategy features two coexisting variants: “rural revitalization” and “rural vitalization.” Using a corpus of English news texts from the Chinese Government Website (2017–2025), this study conducts a comparative analysis of their usage frequency, high-frequency words, keywords, and textual contexts. The results show that the two terms were used with similar frequency in the early stage of policy introduction, but a clear shift occurred in 2021, after which “rural revitalization” became dominant. High-frequency words and keywords indicate that “rural vitalization” is more typical of policy announcement discourse, while “rural revitalization” is more closely associated with national strategic discourse. Textual analysis reveals that after 2021, “rural revitalization” has been consistently used as the core term in macro-level planning, institutional arrangements, and top-level design, whereas “rural vitalization” has largely reverted to its original sense of “stimulating vitality,” serving only as an auxiliary expression in specific contexts. These differences reflect the interplay between policy evolution and semantic nuance. In translation practice, official terms should follow a principle of phased standardization, with timely alignment to evolving policy discourse.