Lexical need as a two-way reality cognition tool

Authors

  • Mark Kit Language Interface Inc., New York , Language Interface Inc., Nowy Jork
  • Elena Berg Уральский Государственный Юридический Университет [Ural State Law Academy], Ekaterinburg; Language Interface Inc., New York , Уральский Государственный Юридический Университет [Ural State Law Academy], Jekaterynburg; Language Interface Inc., Nowy Jork

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11649/cs.2014.016

Keywords:

lexicography, dictionary, translation, semantic representation, lexical unit, lexical need, cognition, linguistic competence

Abstract

In this paper a concept of lexical need is introduced and its application in research of cognitive aspects of translation is discussed. Further discussion elaborates mechanisms of development of translator’s lexical space in the course of translation. Authors discuss the importance and special nature of low-frequency lexical units and difficulties encountered when studying their usage and suggest that the lexical need concept help these studies. Lexical need analysis can be also used to learn specifics of translator’s lexical space and then to take measures for selection of translators and improvement of their skills.

References

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Kit, M., & Kit, D. (2012). On Development of “Smart” Dictionaries. Cognitive Studies | Ètudes cognitives, 12, 115-127. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11649/cs.2012.009

Mandelbrot, B. (1966). Information theory and psycholinguistics: a theory of words frequencies. In P. Lazafeld, N. Henry (Eds.), Readings in Mathematical Social Science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Montenurro, Marcelo A. (2001). Beyond the Zipf-Mandelbrot law in quantitative linguistics. Facultad de Matematica, Astronomia y Fisica. Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Ciudad Universitaria, 5000 Cordoba, Argentina. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/pdf/cond-mat/0104066.pdf

Zipf, George K. (1949). George K. Human Behavior and the Principle of least Effort. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.

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Published

2014-09-04

Issue

No. 14 (2014)

Section

Cognitive Approaches to Semantics and Contrastive Linguistics

License

Copyright (c) 2014 Mark Kit, Elena Berg

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.