Cognitive Context And Lexical Translation

This paper is intended to illustrate a new notion: cognitive context and its realization in lexical translation. Cognitive context first appears in Sperber& Wilson's Relevance: Communication and Cognition which is usually considered as a theoretical basis for cognitive science. In order to gain a proper understanding of the notion of context, the author reviews previous studies of context: Malinowski's context of situation and Halliday's register. Through the review, the author finds that Malinowski and Halliday overestimate the value of outside world and consider context static. On the contrary, Sperber& Wilson hold that context is dynamic and should be constructed in communication. Theirresearch is a development compared with previous studies. But theyneglect the value of the outside world. Considering the two kinds ofideas and Xiong's model, the author eventually forms his own idea, that is, context is a psychological construct and includes nearly everything. Here the author holds that context consists of three parts: situational element, working memory and long-term memory. When interpreting specific utterances, we will utilize one of the three parts. As to the selection of these parts, we believe, the principle of relevance should be the guideline. Some stimulus in the utterance will activate some components of the cognitive context and make it most relevant. In our view, the model covers previous studies. The model aims to shed light to the study of translation. So in the following text, we discuss the realization of the model in lexical translation from three aspects: the utilization of situational element in translation, the utilization of workingmemory in translation and the utilization of long-term memory in translation. Through the analysis, we can see the value of the model to translation studies.