The Cognitive Basis of Translation

According to a widely held belief, translating consists essentially in a process of linguistic substitution. Surprisingly, this simplifying view according to which a translator’s main task is to find equivalent words and expressions seems to be quite common even among language professionals. While such a naive “common sense” understanding of translation is not necessarily in conflict with professional translational practice, it certainly does not provide an adequate conceptual orientation for the development of translation support tools.