Cognitive Approach to Equivalence in Biological Terms Translation

Abstract

This study is aimed at accounting for the properties and values of Conceptual Equivalence and the perceptual simulation of such properties in the conceptual system where synonyms and other patterns compete for activation when translating terms and texts of biological science. The study takes as an approach the twofold perspective: Cognitive Semantics and Cognitive Terminology. The point of departure of the paper is the assumption that specialized translation is not to be taken merely as a substitution of chains of juxtaposed signifiers and syntactic sequences configured in the surface structure of texts falling within molecular biology as a pure science. Rather, translation, we assume, is equally a dynamic, constructive and situational process entailing a constrained activation of the conceptual network symbolized by each term within a semantic frame or cognitive model in a given context, as well as the activation of a network of frames and models textually or extra-textually surrounding the term. Taken as such, achieving the Conceptual Equivalence essentially requires sufficient knowledge of conceptual structures used by scientists and experts in their definitions of the lab-grasped phenomena.