A Cognitive Analysis On The Selection Of Translation Strategies Based On Memetics

To translators, selecting translation strategies has always been a complicatedand controversial problem. The most frequently discussed translation strategies areforeignization and domestication. Besides, literal translation and free translation,semantic translation and communicative translation are also embraced.The key theoretical goal is to inquire into the inner process of translator’scognitive activity during translating. A qualitative and introspective method adoptedin our research is based on translation cognitive study. By a thorough analysis of theinformation process in translator’s brain, we made the translator’s thinking activityspeak aloud in selecting translation strategies. Through a study on the relationshipbetween translator’s cognitive ability and translation quality, we found the importanceof cognition to translation. Then, the thesis brought out a new angle in analyzingtranslation strategies, that is, Chesterman translation memetics, a dynamic and opensystem, mainly consists of five parts, namely, source-target meme, equivalence meme,untranslatability meme, free vs. literal meme and all-writing-is-translating meme.In his translation memetics, Chesterman thinks the key problem is what theactual experiences in translator’s brain are, how about the self-awareness of thetranslator and how the translator’s decision making process works. Based on theabove theories, this thesis attached great importance to the analysis of translator’scognitive process in selecting translation strategies and translator’s cognitive ability inmaking the right decision.