COGNITIVE BASIS OF MAKING CREATIVE DECISIONS IN TRANSLATION ACTIVITIES

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to systematize, refine and supplement the available theoretical knowledge about translation creativity according to the trends of the 21st century. The author describes the available results of searching for creativity in target texts, and exploring it in the translation process, namely in different phases of the translation process, expertise, problem-solving processes, and promoting creativity in translation teaching and learning. The paper provides a cognitive mechanism scheme that launches creative ideas in translation activities. A key component of this mechanism is a cognitive focus – a sort of conscious reasonable integration of cognitive orientations, translation strategies and mental operations, actualizing weak associative links between mental representations available in the information field of the translation subject, in most cases leads to making creative translation decisions that require high efforts. The results of the study showed that translation creativity goes beyond the limits of linguistic creativity, and is realized both with the help of linguistic (ready-made speech word forms or new word-formations), and paralinguistic (color gamut, graphic neologisms, etc.). The examples considered in the article show that generalization, concretization, modulation and language compression are the most productive mental operations of generating creative translation decisions. Strategies for domestication and transcreation also contribute most to the development of translation creativity.