Norms, constraints, risks:

A usage-based perspective on sociocognitive constructs in corpus-based translation studies (and beyond)

UCCTS 2021Bertinoro, 9-11 September 2021

Halverson, Sandra L. & Haidee Kotze. In press. Sociocognitive constructs in translation and interpreting studies (TIS): Do we really need concepts like norms and risk when we have a comprehensive usage-based theory of language? In Sandra L. Halverson & Álvaro Marín García, eds. Contesting Epistemologies in Translation and Interpreting Studies. London: Routledge.

The problem of defining sociocognitive constructs

Toury, G. (1995). Descriptive translation studies – and beyond. John Benjamins.Toury, G. (2012). Descriptive translation studies – and beyond (revised edition). John Benjamins.

Critiquing recent critiques of the norm construct:Robinson (2020) and the 4EA paradigm

Robinson, D. (2020). Reframing translational norm theory through 4EA cognition. Translation, Cognition & Behavior, 3(1), 122-142.Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2008). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. Penguin.

Connecting it all up:A usage-based view of normativity

Top-down norms(norms-as -legitimation)

Bottom-up norms(norms-as-convention)

Individual norm →Cumulative norm (‘aggregate

complexes of individual minds’

(Harder 2012, 300)

‘Just as you can have (more or less shared)

representations of the way the world actually is, you

can have representations of the way it ought to be,

and the two do not have to coincide with each other, or with the way the world

actually works.’

(Harder 2012, 197)Backus, A., & Spotti, M. (2012). Normativity and change: Introduction to the special issue on agency and power in multilingual discourse. Sociolinguistic Studies, 6(2), 185-208.Bybee, J. (2010). Language, usage and cognition. Cambridge University Press.Harder, P. (2012). Variation, structure and norms. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 10(2), 294-314.Kruger, H., & Van Rooy, B. (2017). Editorial practice and the progressive in Black South African English. World Englishes, 36, 20-41.

Connecting it all up:A usage-based model of translation (norms)

Robinson, D. (2020). Reframing translational norm theory through 4EA cognition. Translation, Cognition & Behavior, 3(1), 122-142.Toury, G. (2012). Descriptive translation studies – and beyond (revised edition). John Benjamins.

Conclusion:Do we need a separate theory of translation norms if we have a usage-based theory of language?

Norms are a useful construct –

but should be theorised within a general theory of linguistic communication to avoid theoretical solipsism in TIS