Inferential Patterns in the Translation of Financial Metaphors
103readers – the same or equivalent inferential processes that were activated
by the original message (in our particular case aided by metaphors).
Broadly speaking, the inferential system can be explained as a human
cognitive mechanism that adapts to the way each language interprets a
given conceptual universe through its culture and language usage.
Inference is a fundamental cognitive process that humans employ in
recognizing and, therefore, understanding the informative and
communicative intentions of their interlocutors. This is an essential issue
in the translation process. Inference would be, then, the cognitive response
to the problem of existence, in all languages, of more concepts than words
that describe them. By using inferential procedures, translators can:
a) isolate and categorize the meanings that can help satisfactorily
interpret a text in a conceptual and cognitive level (different
concepts for the same words).
b) choose the target language solutions that best suit the addressors’
source language communicative intentions, with the support of the
cultural context and encyclopedic knowledge, and materialize them
in appropriate linguistic forms.Inference is, in short, a mental mechanism used to bridge the
communication gap that may exist between what an author writes and
what the reader or translator interprets. This universal cognitive structure –
based on the use of similar intellective conducts in the process of
utterance/text interpreting in any language – also has an individual side in
the sense that, although we all share and use the same inferential
procedures, the results are far from being equal for all. As a psychological
capacity, personal linguistic proficiency, as well as cultural knowledge and
expertise may vary in different translators – similarly assumed text
interpretations may result in different and sometimes divergent translation
outcomes. Cultural knowledge and the skill in the languages, coupled with
professional experience, or even certain social and cultural subtleties, may
prompt radically diverse interpretive results in different translators.
Inferential issues in financial metaphors and their
translation
The language of finance is one of the most dynamic and creative fields of
new specialized terms or neonyms. In the past eight years (2007–2015),
the world economy was struck by a deep financial crisis that brought most
economies to a standstill, but which – paradoxically – has helped to enrich