TRANSLATION FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES AS

BASED ON COGNO-CULTURAL ANALYSIS

Jasmina Djordjevic, PhD

Faculty of Law and Business Studies Novi Sad,
Serbia

SUMMARY
Theme:
Scientific, professional and official translations (SPOTs) approached from the
point of view of cogno-cultural analysis of a source text.
Rationale:
1. Scientific, professional and official texts are products of a particular model of
conceptualising reality (MCR).
2. SPOT is the transfer of an artefact from the source model of conceptualising
(SMC) into an equivalent target model of conceptualising (TMC).
3. This transfer may be seen as a conceptual shift between the conceptual
mapping systems of the source language and the target language as based on
the respective cultures.
Aim:
Illustrate the procedure of translation as based on the coceptual shift between
the SMC and the TMC so as to prove both relevance and necessity in SPOTs.

BACKGROUND
Mandelblit's 'Cognitive Translation Hypothesis (1995)
established in the area of translating metaphors
Two schemes of cognitive mapping conditions:
a) Similar Mapping Conditions (SMC), based on
similarities established between new and existing
concepts and
b) Different Mapping Conditions (DMC), based on the
differences established between new and existing
concepts
Basic assumption: much more time and effort are needed
to translate metaphors because the translator is "required
to make a conceptual shift between the conceptual
mapping systems of the source and target languages"

EXAMPLE

COGNO-CULTURAL APPROACH IN
TRANSLATION

THE APPROACH ILLUSTRATED IN ONE

SPOT
SPROVODNICA
Za prenos umrle osobe (prenos urne)
A

PODACI O UMRLOJ OSOBI

Porodino, (za udate

devojako) oevo i roeno
ime:

Xxxxx Yyyyyyy

Dan, mesec, godina, mesto i 20.09.1937, Gnjilane,

Srbija
zemlja rodenja:
Dravljanstvo:

Dan, mesec, godina, sat,

mesto i zemlja gde je smrt
nastupila:
Uzrok smrti:
Da Ii je umrla osoba bila
sahranjena:

TRANSIT PERMIT
For the remains of deceased (urn transport)
A

INFORMATION ABOUT THE DECEASED

1 Family name(maiden name) Xxxxxxxxx Yyyyyyy

father's name and first
name:
2 Day, month, year, place and 20 September 1937,
country of birth:
Gnjilane, Serbia
3 Citizenship:

Sebian

4 Day, month, year, hour,

place and country where
death occurred:

26 December 2009, 22:00,

BASSERSDORF ZH,
SWITZERLAND

Prirodna

5 Cause of death:

Natural cause
No

Ne

6 Was the deceased

previously buried:

Srbija
26.12.2009 22:00,
BASSERSDORF ZH,
VAJCARSKA

CONCLUSION
The translator will most probably go
through a different process of cognitive
mapping in the TL when searching for an
equivalent, which is most likely to be
found in the appropriate cognitive domain
of the TL, but may, quite frequently, be
entirely different from the term in the SL
cognitive domain.

THANK YOU !

Jasmina Djordjevic, PhD

Faculty of Law and Business Studies Novi Sad
Serbia
djordjevic.jasmina@gmail.com