Chapter 2. Infoautopoiesis and translation

Abstract

A biosemiotic perspective of translation entails the study of signs and meaning in living organisms, an infoautopoietic process existing since the origin of life. Infoautopoiesis makes the external environment meaningful to the organism, so it can mould it in its own image to satisfy its needs, and be moulded in turn. Self-created internalised semantic information results from interpreting environmental sensory signals as “differences which make a difference”. The content of individuated, inaccessible internalised semantic information may be translated into externalised syntactic expressions that comprise outward artificial expressions that lack semantic content. Yet, despite our ability for creation of sophisticated syntactic information, we are unable to make them produce semantic information. In short, infoautopoiesis is fundamental to translation at any level.