Review of García (2019): The Neurocognition of Translation and Interpreting

Abstract

Since the beginning of Translation and Interpreting Studies (TIS), multiple disciplines have been involved in the field, making it “a house of many rooms” (Neubert and Shreve 1994, vii). As process-oriented TIS started to attract increasing attention, researchers began to employ concepts, methods, and tools from psychology, psycholinguistics, and cognitive science to explore the ‘black box’ of translation. It was not until recently that cognitive neuroscience has become a source of inspiration for translation and interpreting (T&I) researchers. The stated aim of The Neurocognition of Translation and Interpreting is to introduce neurocognitive research into the study of interlingual reformulation (IR) and to examine and interpret “neuropsychological, neuroscientific, and behavioural evidence on highly prominent topics for TIS” (5). Although researchers in the area of cognitive TIS are its main intended audience, this book also seeks to address the T&I community in general as well as the fields of bilingualism and neurolinguistics. The author, Adolfo Garcia, who has a background in TIS, linguistics and neuroscience, explains how the processes of T&I can be boldly and innovatively investigated using methods from cognitive neuroscience.