Home On the origins of semiosic translation, the role of semiosis in translation and translating and the nature of sign systems: Response to Jia
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

On the origins of semiosic translation, the role of semiosis in translation and translating and the nature of sign systems: Response to Jia

  • Sergio Torres-Martínez EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: October 19, 2020

Abstract

In this response paper, I trace the origins of semiosic translation and explain why Jia’s interpretations are theoretically problematic. I also demonstrate that the view of translation endorsed by Jia is untenable from a cognitive perspective, since both perception and action are affordances of the living organisms and hence are not restricted to the “thinking mind” within a Lotmanian semiosphere. Finally, since translation is not a special case of semiosis, I show that semiosic processes, and not individual signs, are the source of all types of translations.


Corresponding author: Sergio Torres-Martínez, Escuela de Idiomas, Universidad de Antioquia, Calle 67 Número 53-108, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia, E-mail:

References

Allen, Micah & Marios Tsakiris. 2019. The body as first prior: Interoceptive predictive processing and the primacy of self-models. In Manos Tsakiris & Helena De Preester (eds.), The interoceptive mind from homeostasis to awareness, 27–45. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780198811930.003.0002Search in Google Scholar

Ammereller, Erich. 2004. Puzzles around rule-following: PI 185–242. In Erich Ammereller & Eugen Fisher (eds.), Wittgenstein at work: Method in the philosophical investigations, 127–146. London & New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780203569443Search in Google Scholar

Berntson, Gary G., Peter J. Gianaros & Manos Tsakiris. 2019. Interoception and the autonomic nervous system: Bottom-up meets top-down. In Manos Tsakiris & Helena De Preester (eds.), The interoceptive mind from homeostasis to awareness, 3–23. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780198811930.003.0001Search in Google Scholar

Clark, Andy. 2011. Supersizing the mind: Embodiment, action, and cognitive extension. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1007/s11098-010-9598-9Search in Google Scholar

Corcoran, Andrew W. & Hohwy Jakob. 2019. Allostasis, interoception, and the free energy principle: Feeling our way forward. In Manos Tsakiris & Helena De Preester (eds.), The interoceptive mind from homeostasis to awareness, 272–292. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780198811930.003.0015Search in Google Scholar

De Vignemont, Frédérique. 2019. Was Descartes right after all? An affective background for bodily awareness. In Manos Tsakiris & Helena De Preester (eds.), The interoceptive mind from homeostasis to awareness, 259–271. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780198811930.003.0014Search in Google Scholar

Eco, Umberto. 1976. A theory of semiotics. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.10.1007/978-1-349-15849-2Search in Google Scholar

Ellis, Nick C., Ute Römer & Matthew B. O’Donnell. 2015. Second language constructions: Usage-based acquisition and transfer. In John Schwieter (ed.), The Cambridge handbook of bilingual processing, 234–254. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781107447257.010Search in Google Scholar

Gibbs, Raymond W.Jr. 2005. Embodiment and cognitive science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511805844Search in Google Scholar

Gorlée, Dinda. 2004. On translating signs: Exploring text and semio-translation (Approaches to Translation Studies 24). Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi.10.1163/9789004454774Search in Google Scholar

Goschler, Juliana. 2013. Motion events in Turkish-German contact varieties. In Juliana Goschler & Anatol Stefanowitsch (eds.), Variation and change in the encoding of motion events, 115–132. Amsterdam: Benjamins.10.1075/hcp.41.05gosSearch in Google Scholar

Haugeland, John. 1995. Mind embodied and embedded. In Yu-Houng Houng & Jih-Ching Ho (eds.), Mind and cognition, 207–237. Taipei: Academia Sinica.Search in Google Scholar

Hoffmann, Dorothea. 2018. Restrictions on the usage of spatial frames of reference in location and orientation descriptions: Evidence from three Australian languages. Australian Journal of Linguistics 39(1). 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2019.1542927.Search in Google Scholar

Hu, Gengshen. 2003. Translation as adaptation and selection. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 11(4). 283–291. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2003.9961481.Search in Google Scholar

Huang, Xinyu, Xiangqing Wei & Runze Liu. 2020. Rethinking cultural terminology translation: Jakobson’s triadic division of translation revisited. Chinese Semiotic Studies 16(1). 47–70. https://doi.org/10.1515/css-2020-0002.Search in Google Scholar

Jia, Hongwei. 2019. Semiospheric translation types reconsidered from the translation semiotics perspective. Semiotica 231(1/4). 121–145. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2017-0151.Search in Google Scholar

Kirsh, David. 1995. The intelligent use of space. Artificial Intelligence 73. 31–68.10.1016/0004-3702(94)00017-USearch in Google Scholar

Kroonen, Guus. 2013. Etymological dictionary of Proto-Germanic. Leiden & Boston: Brill.Search in Google Scholar

Landau, Barbara, Kirsten O’Hearn & James E. Hoffman. 2010. Tethering to the world, coming undone. In Kelly S. Mix, Linda B. Smith & Michael Gasser (eds.), The spatial foundations of language and cognition, 132–156. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199553242.003.0007Search in Google Scholar

Leino, Jaakko. 2010. Results, cases, and constructions: Argument structure constructions in English and Finnish. In Hans C. Boas (ed.), Contrastive studies in construction grammar, 103–136. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/cal.10.06leiSearch in Google Scholar

Lotman, Juri. 1990. Universe of the mind: A semiotic theory of culture. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Magagnin, Paolo. 2019. Ecologia e ideologia nei translation studies cinesi. Sinosfere 7. http://sinosfere.com/2019/10/01/paolo-magagnin-ecologia-e-ideologia-nei-translation-studies-cinesi/ (accessed 11 June 2020).Search in Google Scholar

Morris, Charles. 1971 [1946]. Signs, language, and behavior. In Charles Morris (ed.), Writings on the general theory of signs, 366. The Hague: Mouton.10.1037/14607-000Search in Google Scholar

Nadin, Mihai. 2012. Reassessing the foundations of semiotics: Preliminaries. International Journal of Signs and Semiotic Systems 2(1). 1–31. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijsss.2012010101.Search in Google Scholar

Passingham, Richard E. 2008. What is special about the human brain?. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199230136.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Patrão, André. 2018. Linguistic relativism in the age of global lingua franca Reconciling cultural and linguistic diversity with globalization. Lingua. 210–211. 30–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2018.04.006.Search in Google Scholar

Peirce, C. S. 1931–1958. Collected Papers of Charles S. Peirce. [Hartshorne C. & Weiss P. (eds.), 1931–1935; Burks, Arthur (ed.), 1958.]. Cambridge: Harvard University Press [electronic edition Charlottesville: Intelex Corporation.].Search in Google Scholar

Pelc, Jerzy. 2000. Semiosis and semiosics vs. semiotics. Semiotica 128(3/4). 425–434. https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.2000.128.3-4.425.Search in Google Scholar

Römer, Ute, Matthew B. O’Donnell & Nick C. Ellis. 2014. Second language learner knowledge of verb-argument constructions: Effects of language transfer and typology. The Modern Language Journal 98(4). 952–975. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12149.Search in Google Scholar

Seuren, Pieter A. M. 2013. From Whorf to Montague: Explorations in the theory of language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199682195.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Slobin, Dan I. 1996. From “thought and language” to “thinking for speaking”. In John Gumperz & Stephen C. Levinson (eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity, 70–96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Spivey, Michael. 2007. The continuity of mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195170788.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Talmy, Leonard. 2000. Typology and process in concept structuring (Toward a cognitive semantics 2). Cambridge: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/6848.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Torres-Martínez, Sergio. 2015. Semiosic translation: A new theoretical framework for the implementation of pedagogically-oriented subtitling. Sign Systems Studies 43(1). 102–130. https://dx.doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2015.43.1.05.10.12697/SSS.2015.43.1.05Search in Google Scholar

Torres-Martínez, Sergio. 2017. Working out multiword verbs within an applied cognitive construction grammar framework. European Journal of Applied Linguistics 5(1). 55–86. https://doi.org/10.1515/eujal-2016-0003.Search in Google Scholar

Torres-Martínez, Sergio. 2018a. Semiosic translation. Semiotica 225(1/4). 353–382. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2016-0227.Search in Google Scholar

Torres-Martínez, Sergio. 2018b. Exploring attachment patterns between multi-word verbs and argument structure constructions. Lingua 209. 21–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2018.04.001.Search in Google Scholar

Torres-Martínez, Sergio. 2019a. A semiosic translation of the term “bild” in both the Tractatus logico-philosophicus and the philosophical investigations. Semiotica 227(1/4). 77–97. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2016-0137.Search in Google Scholar

Torres-Martínez, Sergio. 2019b. A semiosic translation of Paul Celan’s Schwarze Flocken and Weggebeizt. Semiotica 231(1/4). 279–305. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2017-0102.Search in Google Scholar

Torres-Martínez, Sergio. 2019c. Introducing semiosic translation. Medellín: Self-published Monograph.Search in Google Scholar

Torres-Martínez, Sergio. 2019d. Agentive cognitive construction grammar: Exploring the continuity of environment, body, mind, and language. Medellín: Self-published Monograph.Search in Google Scholar

Torres-Martínez, Sergio. 2020. Translating Wittgenstein: A semiosic translation of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Semiotica 233(1/4). 91–123. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2017-0111.Search in Google Scholar

Verhagen, Ari. 2005. Constructions of intersubjectivity: Discourse, syntax and cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1984 [1922]. Werkausgabe, band 1: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus/Tagebücher 1914–1916/Philosophische Untersuchungen. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2020-10-19
Published in Print: 2020-12-16

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. Covenantal trust and semioethics: A reflection on interpersonal and intercultural summoning
  4. The semeiotic self
  5. Peirce’s diagrammatic reasoning and the cinema: Image, diagram, and narrative in The Shape of Water
  6. The three approaches to the semiotics of power
  7. Musical meaning and indexicality in the analysis of ceremonial mbira music
  8. The intersemiotic affordances of photography and poetry
  9. Graphic analogies in the imitation of music in literature
  10. Exploring the politics of visibility: Technology, digital representation, and the mediated workings of power
  11. Smart objects in daily life: Tackling the rise of new life forms in a semiotic perspective*
  12. The dagoba and the gopuram: A semiotic contrastive study of the Sinhalese Buddhist and Tamil Hindu cultures
  13. The Selfish Meme: Dawkins, Peirce, Freud
  14. Towards a semiotic model of interlingual translation
  15. Intermedial references and signification: Perception versus conception
  16. The “material function” in cinema: Resolving the paradox of the glitch
  17. Extending the embodied semiotic square: A cultural-semantic analysis of “Follow your Arrow”
  18. Time embodied as space in graphic narratives: A study in applied Peircean semiotics
  19. The origin of editorial images: Recycling, culture, and cognition
  20. Imago Dei: Metaphorical conceptualization of pictorial artworks within a participant-based framework
  21. On the origins of semiosic translation, the role of semiosis in translation and translating and the nature of sign systems: Response to Jia
  22. Special section: A sociosemiotic exploration of identity and discourse (Le Cheng, Ning Ye and David Machin, guest eds.)
  23. Introduction: A sociosemiotic exploration of identity and discourse
  24. The misleading nature of flow charts and diagrams in organizational communication: The case of performance management of preschools in Sweden
  25. A tentative analysis of legal terminology diachronic changes and the problem of communication effectiveness in legal settings
  26. Re-exploring Language development and identity construction of Hui nationality in China: a sociosemiotic perspective
  27. Evidentiality of court judgments in the People’s Republic of China: A semiotic perspective
Downloaded on 18.11.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/sem-2019-0118/pdf
Scroll to top button