Translation creates a traffic between the SL and the TL. What will travel will depend on the requirement of the TL speech community, or on what their readers / speakers are interested in or on what is the strong point about the SL speakers / writers / institutions. But, this culmination of communication, in itself is, not always accomplished with a degree of finesse; nor is it understood in the way it is accepted by the SL readers. But nevertheless, it is still worth raising questions like what for does one do a translation, or why is it done after all, and what are its imperatives? Any typical definition of translation - namely, that it is a process of 'decoding' of message in one language (SL) and 'encoding' of the same message into another language (TL) - must account for the fact that it is a 'complex cognitive process' executed inevitably through a 'mental operation'. This process of 'encoding' and 'decoding' - which results through 'mental operation' - is an obligatory prerequisite for the toil of translation, or in other words, these two are the phases in the processes of translation in which the assignment of structures to translated texts begins and ends, and being translator, none of us can elude that. Through mental operation both tasks are executed and for language processing in the source language from where a text has to be transformed as an output into a target language, the substance of message is abstained inviolate. In translation a source message written in text has to be transformed in written form in the target language. The activity partakes a general mechanism of mental operation and can be only performed by a bilingual who is capable of processing two (or more - depending on the translation target) languages in such a way that the message remains intact while the code is changed. In course of this activity, different psychological mechanisms are called into play and this is precisely because of the different constraints imposed by one on the other. Or, de facto, to push this even further: no translation work is possible without an accompanying appropriate mental operation. |
Undoubtedly research into translation has increased dramatically over the last many decades, whereas there has been remarkably little research aimed at cognitive aspects of translation. And even whatever little research is placed before us is limited in its orientation. The cognitive version of translation model here is not an absolutely new or unique approach but is surely to be viewed as a fresh effort for a wide coverage of issues so that all aspects of cognitive version of translation to be included.
Translation is a complex cognitive process could be well understood if one tries to read into a translator's mind and if the following questions are answered: Given a task of translation to be accomplished, what happens in the translator's mind starting from his reception of the original or source text / constructs / signals? How does he decide re-encode the same elements of interpretation in the target language? How does the translator's understanding of the SL message get reproduced into the TL? A careful glance at the issues involved and a serious attempt to answer will definitely satisfy the core of cognitive explanation of translation and will set out the line of departure from the other approaches to translation studies. The operation of mental system as to how translators interpret the understanding of one language text into another language should clearly occupy the central importance to human functioning in the domain of intellection. |
"The effort toward cognitive embedding of translation process finds justification in the fact that translation, like any other usage, is a goal directed action. Any activity, either physical or cognitive, controlled, stimulated and obstructed by certain factors may be broadly divided into two: individual or environmental -- and the same can be resorted to in the toil of translation if one considers 'it' as an activity". |
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In fact, it is , clearly accessible to the eye that translation is a complex cognitive activity as it doesn't take place in a vacuum and is not a gamble either. It is an action directed towards both the source language text and the reader of the target language text. |
