Question 1. What is semantic equivalence, and what might it become if we thought about it more carefully?
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Douglas Robinson
Abstract
Question 1 explores semantic equivalence from its beginnings in a famous 1892 essay by Gottlob Frege (A, sections 1–9), through two linguistic subdisciplines that have been variously applied to translation: Componential Analysis (CA: B, sections 10–23) and the Qualia Structure theory of James Pustejovsky (QS: C, sections 24–51). A quale (plural qualia) is the smallest cognitive piece of phenomenological experience; it is often defined as “There is something it is like for me to experience something.” Quale theory tends to dominate the rest of Q1, in fact, beginning with Pustejovsky’s theorizing of qualia structure in linguistic semantics (24–31) and continuing first with an application of QS theory to translating by Johnston and Busa (32–38), then with connections to (a) heteroglot (de)stabilizations of language in Mikhail Bakhtin (39), (b) environmental affordances in Anthony Chemero (40), and (c) quale consciousness in Charles Sanders Peirce (41–51). We then set about rethinking semantic equivalence (D, sections 52–70), first by running several more riffs on qualia, as emotional interpretants in Peirce (52–54) and as shared in Peirce, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and John Searle (55–58), then by exploring the implications for quale theory of (a) post-Kantian social constructivism (59–61), (b) Michael S. Gazzaniga on the confabulatory left-brain interpreter (62–64), (c) the mirror neurons (65–67), and (d) the questions that will be posed about deverbalization in Q3 linked up with Peirce on qualia (68–70). The Conclusion (E, sections 71–74) returns us to the implications of all this for translation, on the basis that translation is one channel of human social communication, and quale theory is ultimately about the cognitive underpinnings of all human social communication.
Abstract
Question 1 explores semantic equivalence from its beginnings in a famous 1892 essay by Gottlob Frege (A, sections 1–9), through two linguistic subdisciplines that have been variously applied to translation: Componential Analysis (CA: B, sections 10–23) and the Qualia Structure theory of James Pustejovsky (QS: C, sections 24–51). A quale (plural qualia) is the smallest cognitive piece of phenomenological experience; it is often defined as “There is something it is like for me to experience something.” Quale theory tends to dominate the rest of Q1, in fact, beginning with Pustejovsky’s theorizing of qualia structure in linguistic semantics (24–31) and continuing first with an application of QS theory to translating by Johnston and Busa (32–38), then with connections to (a) heteroglot (de)stabilizations of language in Mikhail Bakhtin (39), (b) environmental affordances in Anthony Chemero (40), and (c) quale consciousness in Charles Sanders Peirce (41–51). We then set about rethinking semantic equivalence (D, sections 52–70), first by running several more riffs on qualia, as emotional interpretants in Peirce (52–54) and as shared in Peirce, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and John Searle (55–58), then by exploring the implications for quale theory of (a) post-Kantian social constructivism (59–61), (b) Michael S. Gazzaniga on the confabulatory left-brain interpreter (62–64), (c) the mirror neurons (65–67), and (d) the questions that will be posed about deverbalization in Q3 linked up with Peirce on qualia (68–70). The Conclusion (E, sections 71–74) returns us to the implications of all this for translation, on the basis that translation is one channel of human social communication, and quale theory is ultimately about the cognitive underpinnings of all human social communication.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Part I. Questions for equivalence theories
- Question 1. What is semantic equivalence, and what might it become if we thought about it more carefully? 10
- Question 2. What is dynamic in Nida’s dynamic equivalence? 41
- Question 3. What is the deverbalized sens in the théorie du sens ? 67
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Part II. Questions for Descriptive Translation Studies
- Question 4. How are norms formed? 94
- Question 5. What is the legal status of Gideon Toury’s laws of translation? 133
- Question 6. In what sense does a translator narrate? 188
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Conclusion
- Question 7. What exactly is the translator’s visibility, and how can it be achieved? 220
- References 247
- Index 265
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Questions for equivalence theories
- Question 1. What is semantic equivalence, and what might it become if we thought about it more carefully? 10
- Question 2. What is dynamic in Nida’s dynamic equivalence? 41
- Question 3. What is the deverbalized sens in the théorie du sens ? 67
-
Part II. Questions for Descriptive Translation Studies
- Question 4. How are norms formed? 94
- Question 5. What is the legal status of Gideon Toury’s laws of translation? 133
- Question 6. In what sense does a translator narrate? 188
-
Conclusion
- Question 7. What exactly is the translator’s visibility, and how can it be achieved? 220
- References 247
- Index 265
