MA Wisniewska Katarzyna

Description of Force Dynamics and Cognitive Retention in Literary and Audiovisual Translation

Tieteellinen tutkimus / siihen pohjautuva työ | Kolmivuotinen

The presented research is concerned with the notion of Force Dynamics in the context of Cognitive Retention in translation. The main aim of the study is to find out whether Force-Dynamic event structures are retained in translation and subtitling based on different language pairs. The global aim of the entire research is to model certain aspects of the cognitive process of translation based on ideas derived from Cognitive Semantics, with a special focus on Force Dynamics. The study follows the theoretical framework mostly developed by Talmy, as well as the schema coined by Mäkisalo and Lehtinen in which the linguistic and cognitive information retention level is distinguished. The idea is to explore the extent to which information is retained at both these levels in literary and audiovisual translation. The study aims at testing the results against the Cognitive Retention Hypothesis, according to which translation is likely to retain more cognitive than linguistic similarities. Based on the existing research and available evidence, it is anticipated to prove its validity. The stated issues are being investigated based on small-scale self-compiled corpora of fragments of literary texts and subtitles by taking a multimodal approach in which the stated hypothesis is to be validated or discredited with the use of quantitative data obtained, whereas the qualitative part of the study is to analyse how Force Dynamics is expressed if it is retained in the translation process.