Högskolan i Skövde

This paper identifies the theory of the General Communication System with its view of information as stable, storable and transferrable entities and the machine translation inspired search for the language of thought as the main trends in past cognitive scientifically relevant research in translation. The present reorientation with its remarkably different set of research questions is introduced. The contextuality of cognition, the twofold process of interpretation by meaning and sense construction and the development of cultural and expert competences are depicted as the foundation of a cognitive scientifically coherent picture on translation. Finally, it is shown how the introduction of the concept of compatibility revolutionizes the epistemological foundation of translation: the theory of linguistic reproduction is abandoned, and translation is seen as active construction of new meanings and situations.