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Article published In: Target
Vol. 34:1 (2022) ► pp.98–129

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Simple and complex cognitive modelling in oblique translation strategies in a corpus of English–Spanish drama film titles

ORCiD logo with link | University of La Rioja
 | University of La Rioja
Published online: 9 April 2021
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https://doi.org/10.1075/target.20010.pen
Abstract
This article provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the translation of English drama film titles into Peninsular Spanish, drawing on cognitive modelling and following preliminary findings in Peña-Cervel, María Sandra. 2016. “Motivating Film Title Translation: A Cognitive Analysis.” Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación 661: 301–339. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar. Our study is consistent with the epistemological and ontological grounding of Cognitive Linguistics (Samaniego-Fernández, Eva. 2007. “El impacto de la lingüística cognitiva en los estudios de traducción [The impact of Cognitive Linguistics on Translation Studies].” In Problemas lingüísticos en la traducción especializada [Linguistic problems in specialized translation], edited by Pedro A. Fuertes-Olivera, 119–154. University of Valladolid: Secretariado de Publicaciones e Intercambio Editorial.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and contributes to satisfying one of the major challenges Rojo-López and Ibarretxe-Antuñano (Rojo-López, Ana María, and Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano. 2013a. “Cognitive Linguistics and Translation Studies: Past, Present and Future.” In Cognitive Linguistics and Translation: Advances in Some Theoretical Models and Applications, edited by Ana María Rojo-López and Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 3–30. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 10) identify for present-day Translation Studies: To reveal the conceptual substratum that guides the translation process. Our approach does not rely on an exhaustive classification of clear-cut and well-defined translation techniques, but rather on a broad distinction between direct and oblique strategies. We demonstrate how the notion of cognitive operation, as proposed by Ruiz de Mendoza-Ibáñez, Francisco José, and Alicia Galera-Masegosa. 2014. Cognitive Modeling: A Linguistic Perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, can help elucidate the sometimes seemingly arbitrary relationship between original English titles and their counterparts in Spanish, especially in cases of traditionally so-called free translations. Stands-for relations, such as expansion and reduction, are shown to play a fundamental role in the translation process and the fruitful combination of cognitive operations into conceptual complexes is explored. Our study attempts to go beyond descriptive adequacy in order to achieve explanatory adequacy.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Film title translation research
  • 3.Cognitive Linguistics, Translation Studies, and cognitive operations
  • 4.Methodology and corpus design
  • 5.A quantitative approach to the data
  • 6.Cognitive operations in the translation of English drama film titles into Spanish
    • 6.1Metonymic expansion and reduction operations
      • 6.1.1Cases of a single expansion or reduction operation
      • 6.1.2Metonymic complexes
    • 6.2Parameterization and generalization
    • 6.3Saturation or completion
    • 6.4Contrast, echoing, and strengthening
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
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