Semiosic translation

Abstract

AbstractThe present article explains the tenets of an updated version of semiosic translation. Many of the ideas in this paper have been brewing for some time. For example, the integration of the Peircean notions of sign and abduction and the Wittgensteinian concepts of rule-following, complex-fact, and hypothesis. It turns out that this synthesis leads to some new proposals about translation semiotics that seek to move the field from the reification of objects, concepts and practices toward a broader conception of translation and translating centered on the translator’s agency. What this means is, among other things, that semiosic translation avoids a delimitation of signification (things and actions conveying meaning) by rejecting any conceptual appeals tinged with foundationalism. Rather, my argument will concentrate on elucidating the unpredictability of semiosis as a determinant of all forms of translation across sign systems.