Semiosic Translation: Embodied Cognition, Semiotics, and the Dynamics of Meaning-Making

This new edition of a book on translation from a semiotic standpoint celebrates ten years of Semiosic Translation, a theory of translation and translating that encompasses the dynamic process of transforming signs across diverse semiotic systems, transcending conventional linguistic translation to embrace comprehensive cross-modal semiotic interactions. The present book should be read as a compilation of past errors and new theoretical paths that, considered as a whole, illuminate the interconnected, fluid nature of sign exchange, challenging traditional theoretical constraints such as Jakobson’s trichotomy or rigid Peircean classifications. Conceptual progression by chapter 1. Introducing Semiosic Translation – Defines core principles: inclusivity, rejection of sign hierarchies, and sensory-driven meaning. 2. Translation in Semiotics – Critiques traditional models (Locke, Peirce, Jakobson) and reframes translation as sign-system interplay. 3. Translating Wittgenstein’s Bild – Defines the key term Bild in Wittgenstein´s Tractatus and the Philosophical Investigations as a recursive sign system, challenging its reduction to “picture.” 4. Semiosic Translation of the Tractatus – Models translation as non-deterministic sign action using Peircean abduction and Wittgenstein’s rule-following paradox. 5. Celan’s Holocaust Poetry as Anti-Semiosis – Trauma disrupts sign-object-interpretant chains, creating a semiotic void. 6. Bayesian-Heuristic Translation – Frames translation as uncertainty negotiation, using bodily semiosis to construct preferred futures. 7. Fairy-Tale Adaptations in Cinema – Examines metaleptic translation in Sucker Punch, revealing unstable subjectivity. 8. Semiosic Subtitling – Explores multimodal subtitling as semiotic anchoring in language learning. 9. Systemic Functional Linguistics & Semiotic Metaphors – Expands process-type analysis to social-semiotic contexts. 10. Response to Critics – Counters misreadings (e.g., Jia’s semiosphere critique); asserts translation as semiosis’s generative core. 11. Bioorthogonal chemistry & predictive semiosis – Models molecular interactions as entropy-reducing sign systems.