Directionality in Translation Processes and Practices

Abstract: In this article an attempt is made to systematically approach directionality in translation processes and practices from a cognitive point of view. Within the framework of cognitive semantics, it is argued that translation is an instance of conceptual metaphor, whereby conceptual structures of the target language are mapped onto the source text in order to make it understood by the TL reader. The relevance of this position for the study of translation becomes obvious when considered against existing practices in professional and nonprofessional translating. Thus, the directionality from target to source is experimentally shown to correlate with another type of directionality, namely, translating from or into one's mother tongue, and can explain observable facts in the performance of translation tasks.Résumé: Cet article propose une étude du caractère directionnel du processus de la traduction envisagé d'un point de vue cognitif En termes de sémantique cognitive, la traduction apparaît comme une métaphore conceptuelle, c.-à-d. une projection de structures conceptuelles de la langue-cible sur le texte-source en vue de la compréhension de ce dernier par le lecteur du texte-cible. La direction qui va de la cible à la source est en corrélation avec un autre type de direction, la traduction de ou vers la langue maternelle de l'auteur. Cette corrélation rend compte de certains pratiques traductives.