Cognition and Comprehension in Translational Hermeneutics

2021

Cognition and Comprehension in Translational Hermeneutics

Komplexes Denken
Eine Herausforderung auch für die Hermeneutik?

Since at least the latter half of the 20th century, scientific theorizing has been marked by a tendency to focus increasingly on the concept of complexity. However, within the field of Translation Studies, we continue to work primarily with non-complex, uni-dimensional models. The relationship between the source text and the target text is commonly established in uni-dimensional terms, that is: either via sense (linguistics, hermeneutics) or via the function or skopos (Skopos theory, functionalism). Terms like equivalence (Nida, Kade) and adequacy (Vermeer) are also based on uni-dimensional models. In the late 1980s, Neubert suggested a two-dimensional approach using the notions of content and purpose to overcome uni-dimensional models. In my paper I would like to present a more complex approach to translation based on semiotics and interpretation philosophy. It consists of two levels: the intratextual level focusing the interrelation of signs (word, sentences, texts) within texts, and the extratextual level focusing the interrelation of signs with extratextual phenomena. Each level is divided into three dimensions. I use the concepts of meaning, function, and information to describe what a translator has to take into account on the intratextual level to be able to elaborate an equivalent target text, i.e. a text that fits into the constraints of a given linguistics settings. In addition to that, I use the concepts of sense, purpose, and form to describe what a translator has to take into consideration on the extratextual level to elaborate an adequate target text, i.e. a text that fits into the constraints of a given translatological setting. Whereas the uni-dimensional arrow just stands for the simple relation between source and target text, this new model establishes a whole translational space between both texts which is able to show the complexity of translational decisions to be taken.