Cognitive Approaches to Specialist Languages

(Tina Sui) #1

Chapter Five
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application of appropriate linguistic and pragmatic strategies, as
well as cognitive effects analogous to the ones extracted by source
language recipients. This should lead to a correct interpretation of
the cognitive and linguistic patterns of the source language term.
However, the translators’ efforts to transfer the communicative
metaphorical contents in its original context may often demand a
greater information processing effort on the part of the target
readers, which should prompt translators to be very careful with
their choices.

The idea behind these two assumptions is to make sure that translators
manage to help target language receivers recognize and understand the
original intention comprised in a financial metaphor and, consequently,
extract the correct inferences with the minimum processing effort. To
achieve this goal, it is convenient that translators should have expert
knowledge of financial terminology, which implies a linguistic, pragmatic,
cultural and specialist understanding of the subject, in order to accomplish
adequate target language solutions. It goes without saying that translators
should begin their work at a cognitive level, where they will determine: (a)
what the author’s intention was in choosing a particular financial
metaphor; (b) how this intention manifested itself in the metaphor
selected; (c) what cognitive mechanisms were offered by the author in
order to trigger his/her readers’ understanding; and (d) what inferences the
recipients accessed after reading that financial metaphor in its context
(Mateo 2014; 2015). This pre-linguistic stage originates in specific and,
sometimes, idiosyncratic source language professional contexts, which
may not coincide with the target language equivalent ones. The
translator’s first task will consist of trying to narrow these conceptual gaps
between the two languages. This process begins with the adjustment of the
original cognitive information to the application of the related inferential
mechanisms capable of triggering adequate and equivalent responses in
target users. This operation should materialize in lexical representations,
where source language financial metaphors are conveniently coded in the
target language equivalents which comprise analogous cognitive,
linguistic, pragmatic and cultural stimuli.
Translators are considered facilitators that aim at connecting addressors
and addressees who use different cognitive, linguistic and cultural codes.
This implies the performance of parallel tasks conditioned by two different
mental structures at stake, with the source language arrangement which
has to be inferred and transferred into an equivalent target language form.
However, as stated above, translators must be aware of the fact that their

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