Cover not available

Article published In: Insights in Translation for Specific Purposes: Special issue of Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 2:1 (2016)
Edited by Antonella d’Angelis, Estefanía Flores Acuña and Francisco Núñez-Roman
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 2:1] 2016
► pp. 124–141

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Cognition and metaphor as bases for the Principle of translatability and the Principle of synonymy

 | University of Seville (Spain)
Published online: 21 June 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.2.1.07sal
The problem of equivalence in translation is sometimes falsely related to the translation of lexical meanings. In this paper we take the problem to the field of mapping cognitive functions among mental categories and their representations as concepts. This requires engaging all lexical and grammatical resources of the linguistic system and not solely considering vocabulary as the source of knowledge and information found in texts, be they oral or written. Thus, the problem of equivalence is solved by accepting the basic principles of translatability and synonymy, defined in terms of those mental contents that are behind the interpretation of complex linguistic expressions.
References (18)
Chomsky, Noam. 1986. Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin and Use. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1988. Language and Problems of Knowledge. The Managua Lectures. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard, Stephen Matthews, and Maria Polinsky. 1996. The Atlas of Languages: The Origin and Development of Languages Throughout the World. New York: Facts on File.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Croft, William, and D. Allan Cruse. 2004. Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cruse, D. Allan. 1986. Lexical Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Meaning in Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fauconnier, Gilles. 1984. Espaces mentaux. Aspects de la construction du sens dans les langues naturelles. Paris: Les éditions de minuit.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gershkoff-Stow, Lisa, and David H. Rakinson. 2009. Building Object Categories in Developmental Time. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goddard, Cliff. 2002. “The Search for the Shared Semantic Core of all Languages.” In Meaning and Universal Grammar — Theory and Empirical Findings, Volume I1, ed. by Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka, 5–40. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hofstadter, Douglas. 2001. “Analogy as the Core of Cognition.” In The Analogical Mind: Perspectives from Cognitive Science, ed. by Dedre Gentner, Keith J. Holyoak, and Boicho N. Kokinov, 499–538. Cambridge Mass.: The MIT Press/Bradford Book.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hohulin, E. Lou. 1986. “The Absence of Lexical Equivalence and Cases of its Asimmetry.” Lexicographica 21: 43–52.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kanerva, Pentti. 1988. Sparse Distributed Memory. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kirk, Robert. 1986. Translation Determined. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Murray, David. 1991. Forked Tongues. Speech, Writing and Representation in North American Indian Texts. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sager, Juan Carlos. 2012. La traducción especializada: Teoría y práctica profesional. Córdoba/Sevilla: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Córdoba — Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Quine, Willard van Orman. 1960. Word and Object. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Whorf, Benjamin Lee. 1956. Language, Thought and Reality. Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, Anna. 1996. Semantics: Primes and Universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue