What Does the Translator Translate? Thought, Language and Culture

Abstract

The paper addresses the issue of untranslatability as the resultant of three basic factors, which constitute the content of a translated message and which are interconnected in various proportions: thought originating in the mind, culture as the background for human thinking, and language as a tool for expression. The illustrative material is constituted by four messages: the verbal (textual) layer of the first three is accompanied by the context in the form of a drawing, while the context in the last message is evoked by means of a grammatical structure. In describing the message interpretation mechanisms in the context provided, the author avails of the theory of mental spaces by Fauconnier (1985).

Keywords

• untranslatability
• message
• mental spaces theory