The significance of cognitive linguistics in teaching translation

Abstract

The objective of this article is to point out the advantages of applying the assumptions of cognitive linguistics in teaching translation. The underlying inspiration for analyzing this issue was a suggestion propounded by Elżbieta Tabakowska to use the assumptions of the cognitive approach to translation, first in translation theory and then in translation practice. The application of the assumptions of cognitive linguistics in teaching translation is justified because linguistics itself relies on interdisciplinarity, which is equally important for the theory and practice of translation, and consequently emphasizes the significance of mutual cooperation between separate fields of science in order to create the most comprehensive description of the analyzed phenomenon. In the first part of the analysis, the author focuses on a number of theoretical issues discussed by cognitive linguists which are important in a translator’s work, in particular on the theory of metaphor. In the second part, the author presents the practical application of the theory based on her own translations. The author’s decision to choose the poetry of a French Parnassian poet Leconte de Lisle, translated by the author into Polish, as the area of research is not random, because the translation of the poems most explicitly demonstrates the advantages resulting from the knowledge and use of the methods of cognitive linguistics in the practice of translation. In her analysis, the author focuses on two out of three types of metaphors distinguished by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, namely, structural and orientational metaphors.