1           CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Communication or conveyance of a message generally seems simple yet it is one of the most intricate processes. The complexity deepens further with an existence of, for instance, linguistic differences between the sender and the receiver. In such cases, translation comes in handy. The need for seamless communication, and growing interpersonal interaction in the face of a continuously globalizing world has made translation one of the major field of research. The overall aim is to ease communication or improve it as the world becomes a ‘village.’ Undoubtedly, language is one of the major unifying factors that can be used to forge and strengthen relationships among various countries and people despite the large racial and linguistic diversity of the universe. The past decades have seen practitioners, linguistic researchers and other experts delve into the concept of translation with a view to comprehending its very microcosm and unearthing vital tenets that will eventually improve the entire process. As such, numerous empirical studies focusing on the cognitive approach have surfaced. Of course, this overlies the new reorientation of focus from product as the primary study object as in the normative translation and interpretation studies. The current concentration focuses on receiver texts and the link they have with the texts from the source. It is, however, important to understand that this shift has formed the scope of translation and interpretation research from time immemorial, and cannot be considered new under any circumstance. The only new aspect of this is the fact that researchers have begun to give this aspect and unwavering attention which implies some form of usefulness or importance in the need to ameliorate translation and interpretation.  For the purpose of this research two elements, translation and interpretation, since they are often used interchangeably, will be referred to as ‘mediation’ to ease comprehension of the discussion. Consequently, the interpreter or translator will be called a ‘mediator’ by virtue that they stand between the sender and the receiver.

The cognitive approach and the component theories have majorly focused on dissecting the various stages and processes involved in the mediation of language. Unlike any other theoretical frameworks before, especially those that have exclusively prioritized the sender and receiver in the process of language mediation, the cognitive approach is largely viewed as revolutionary. From this standpoint, the assumption shifts from previous argument that language mediation is a ‘normal activity’ to a more complex view that distinguishes the cognitive processes involved in mediation and those involved in reading as aspects of communication. Furthermore, the cognitive approach introduces psychological, cultural, and social contexts in the comprehension of the process of language translation. Most importantly, cognitive approach to translation and the theories therein attempt to comprehend and expatiate the dynamics of a translator or mediator’s brain or mind. Some of the basic questions that these theories try to answer include how the mediators give meanings to the situations and information that they handle on a daily basis, their mechanisms of decision-making, the manner in which their linguistic and cultural backgrounds play a part in their overall understanding, and how they become competent in their profession of translation. Notably, the following study also examines the cognitive approach together with the theories with a bid to answering these questions, however, from a subsuming argument that the past studies on cognitive approach to translation never restricted their findings to such intelligent behavior as problem solution, translation, and learning. The overall objective is to examine the dynamics of the cognitive processes that facilitate and enable translation.

1.1         The Research Problem

Padilla, Bajo and Padilla (1999) notes, as has already been mentioned, that the past body of research in translation gave an exclusive focus to the source and the receiver of the information with a corresponding focus on the interrelationship between source language (SL) and target language (TL) or source text (SL) and target text (TT). The differences between these two quarters resulted in lack of focus in the studies and overt omissions that have left a huge gap and created the need for an approach that closes the gap. As such, focusing on the mediator seemed easy; hence, the emergence of the cognitive approach with respect to the mediator rather than the sender or the receiver of the message. The actual justification is that the researchers need a framework that breaks down not only the details of the two languages but also the process for a detailed examination. Besides, Kairong (2013) notes that the previous translation models were largely theoretical hypotheses with insufficient empirical evidences, at least most of them if not all. It is on such grounds that models like interpretive theory of translation (ITT), as a component of the wider framework of cognitive approach, were proposed. Such traditional methods like the Think-aloud Protocol anchored on general data that would be somewhat challenging to interpret. Given the two major problems above, there is a deeply rooted need for theoretical frameworks that are not only entirely feasible but also relevant to empirical laboratory tests aimed at gathering riveting information on the translator’s cognitive abilities and how they dictate the translation process. With the emergence of the cognitive approach, researchers, just like this study, are hoping to gain a better understanding of the translation process from the standpoint of the translator and their cognitive abilities. The move from mere hypotheses to actual and workable cognitive models justify this research as a major contributor to the overall quest for improvement of the translation process. There is a general understanding (or postulation) that adoption of cognitive approaches and their theoretical models will eventually reorient the T and I (translation and interpretation) field through implication of a more central or focal role of the individual mediator.

1.2         Aims and Objectives

The aim of this study is to investigate the cognitive process of interpreting, examine the aspects of decoding and understanding a spoken message, and analyse the process of reconstructing the massage by encoding it. Reiteratively, it is to be understood that the process is more than what most may consider a ‘normal activity.’ In conjunction with the primary aim, the following objectives will shape the entire research:

          i.            Establishing a cognitive approach understanding to three basic stages of language mediation namely the relationship established between the speaker and the mediator with the former as the source and the latter as the first target or recipient, the cognitive mechanism of the of the translator (mediator) with respect to the translation process, and the establishment of the communication between the translator (the second sender) and the final message recipient.

        ii.            Examining and understanding psycholinguistic and cognitive psychology models that are effectual in translation.

      iii.            Comprehending the memory processes in mediation which encompasses translation and interpretation through pinpointing of the processes and variables that affect the entire translation process, and possibly, their interconnection.

These objectives and the main aim of this study colludes to provide an analysis of the process of language mediation (T and I) from a cognitive point of view.

1.3         The dissertation structure

The general outlay of this study comprises five sections namely the introduction, literature review, research design and methodology section, findings and discussion, and the conclusion. Each of these sections represents a chapter. The introduction introduces the reader to the topic and acts as their window into the subsequent parts of study. It is a summary of the project and the details therein. Elements like the research problem, aims and objectives as well as the relevance and contribution of the research form part of the introduction. The succeeding literature review section examines the past literature directly or indirectly related to this scope of study. It consists of books, journals, manuscripts, periodicals, news articles, and research papers on translation or interpretation or both, especially the cognitive aspects of the same. In this study, elements of the literature review will be more similar to the items in the aims and objective sub-section. It is noteworthy that all the pieces of literature used in this section will be less dependent on their date of publication, and more dependent on their relevance to this study in terms of content. The weaknesses and strengths of these literature pieces will be taken into consideration as part of improving the reliability of the findings and enhancing validity of this research. The research design and methods presents the techniques used in the conduction of this research including data collection and their subsequent analysis. As a recap, depending on its appropriateness, quantitative and qualitative methods of research forms part of this section. Application of whichever technique facilitates the collecting of data whose presentation and analysis leads to the next section of the research-research results and discussion. The final chapter of this dissertation is the conclusion which brings together the major points in the research. Other elements of the conclusion chapter includes recommendations for future research.

1.4         Conclusion: relevance and contributions of the study

The essence of communication is not just to facilitate the sending and receiving of information, but to help in the use of the sent information to trigger some sort of action. That is only possible when the sent message is correctly decoded by the sender. Given the linguistic differences between people, that may not always be the case. Translation, thus, becomes a fundamental aspect of communication in the contemporary world. In the same vein, its improvement is pertinent to its overall effectiveness as a means of advancing the effective communication agenda. The following research is set in the background of a growing quest to improve translation through understanding of the theoretical models of translation especially the newly developed cognitive framework. In particular, the discussion is relevant in the sense that it deviates from the normative theories that are considered to be riddled with functional and application ineptitude and lack of synchrony with the existing empirical techniques.

The following research will, therefore, contribute to the entire field through provision of an analysis about the mediation process that will not be only of immense benefit to the professionals but also learners, and any other interested parties. In particular, the study forms a cornerstone of research in this field, as well as offer a strong point of reference for future research. The information herein can be used as basis for formulation of various linguistic policies and streamlining of communication between two people speaking different languages. It should also be recalled that the major justification for this study is the need to examine the validity of the cognitive approach and champion for its adoption. On that note, the study serves to fill the gap in research in this field and shape the studies from a variety of perspectives.  On the overall, this research is entirely necessary and relevant since it is of immeasurable importance to the scope of research.

2           CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW: THEORETICAL ASPECTS AND KEY SUBJECTS

2.1         Introduction

The literature review section serves to present an in-depth examination, analysis, and evaluation of all the past and present literature within this scope of research. It is to be noted, however, that some of the literature that will form part of this analysis are not directly related to the study topic, but remain relevant due to the fact that they cover a certain topic that is of interest to this study. Periodicals, research papers, manuscripts, journals, books, and magazines are some of the types of literature that will be reviewed in this section. Translation refers to the conveyance of meaning of texts from a source language (SL) through communication of its equivalent in the target-language (TL). Away from the linear and simple appearance of the translation process, it is intricate in the sense that language mediators often face intrusion of SL usage in the translation process which may complicate the meaning they attempt to convey. In digression, however, the intrusion has been known to enrich and shape the target language. Darwish (1989) views the translational process as a multifaceted process encompassing three concomitantly running activities. The activities include data transfer from the source to the text language, text analysis and translation and subject matter research, and incessant learning and personal development. As a communication process, however, Zethsen and Askehave (2012) asserts that translation consist of three major stages. It is important to note that the process of translation for a written language is different from that of a spoken language; that is, the steps and stages are distinct. Applying Darwish (1989)’s outline to written translation, three stages: translation, editing, and proofreading complete the process.