Looking Toward the Future of Cognitive Translation Studies

Abstract

Cognitive approaches to translation and interpreting may be considered the oldest empirical research area of modern translation studies (TS). This chapter argues that what is happening is simply that the research area is getting crowded; that the old map of TS with its division of labor has become untenable; and that the theoretical edifice of cognitive approaches to translation and interpreting needs to strive for internal coherence, rather than trying to cohere with all approaches within TS. Conference interpreting had become an object of study proper for researchers of cognition when translation research started focusing on the development of machine translation systems, inspired by Noam Chomsky's views on language, which exceeded his generative framework. The chapter also explains two major cognitive trends TS researchers will be adhering to in the next years: computational translatology, and cognitive translatology.