Reconsidering Translation Criterion From The Perspective Of Mental Representation

Although some scholars approaching translation from cultural and philosophical perspective discard the notion of translation criterion (TC hereafter) in recent years, it remains one of the core issues in translation studies. It is significant to translation activity since it serves as the direction, goal of translation and the standard for translation quality assessment. From different perspective, drawing on different disciplines, the studies of translation vary and different translation criteria emerge. However, although translation study based on mental representation (MR hereafter), a basic human cognitive tool, already exists, there is still no explicit TC in light of it. Based on linguistics and psychology especially information processing psychology which centers on MR, Bell depicts a translation process model, nevertheless, he leaves out the notion of TC. Hence, a TC in light of MR will enrich translation studies.MR is a widely used term in cognitive psychology and psychological linguistics. Through experiments, it is concluded that MR are realized through the following forms: imagery, proposition, concept, and schema. Jackendoff interprets MR in his own way and argues for conceptual structure concerning language comprehension and production. Based on MR, linguists have found that human comprehension of sentences are mainly propositional excluding when surface form of language conveys some attitudes such as figure of speech, jokes, etc. Human comprehension of discourse consists of three levels of MR:surface representation, propositional representation and mental model.Incorporating MR knowledge and human language comprehension knowledge into translation studies, MR of source text (ST hereafter) readers and target text (TT hereafter) readers are compared. Sometimes, MR of ST readers and TT readers are basically the same due to similar life experience; Sometimes, MR between two language readers differ since different attributes or features are attached to the same object; Occasionally, readers’ MR differ because of previous knowledge structure, which is not confined to different language readers. Translators’MR is complex according to the psychological translation process and the communication role they play. Their MR should encompass all three levels, surface representation, propositional representation and mental model as well as appropriate language schemas and knowledge schemas of both languages.After discussing ST readers’, TT readers’MR and Translators’MR, a TC in light of MR can be drawn:producing the same or most similar MR in TT readers’mind as that exists in ST readers. If not all three levels of MR can be achieved, translators can adopt some strategies to achieve some levels. According to the TC proposed, a practical principle is also drawn:Translators should adapt to cognitive context (language schemas and knowledge schemas) of source language while comprehending ST and adapt to cognitive context of target language while transferring the grasped MR into linguistic form. TC in light of MR is possible due to similar human living experience; it is non-linguistic and independent from language since it draws on human cognition to access language meaning. Hence it explains the fact that people in different times have different understanding of the same text.