Expansions Using Depictions

*Presented in ASL*

The meanings of words do not reside in the words themselves nor do they reside as pre-existing structures in the mind. Word meaning is dynamically created in our minds while we hear/see/create utterances. This inevitably causes problems when communicating, especially communicating something that was originally created in a completely different language — such is the plight of the interpreter and the translator. There are multiple problems that can arise; however, we will focus on one for this workshop: minimal utterances that communicate a maximal amount of information conceptually and how to manage the conceptual transfer into another language. In other words, when should I expand when using depiction? Relying on cognitive studies we see how language works in the mind. This has lead to a working proposal for how to manage a situation where the source does not explicitly say something, but it does communicate it conceptually. In addition, when is too much? What kind of parameters should we impose on ourselves so that we do not change the meaning of the source utterance? These points will be discussed in this workshop with the aim to provide tools on how to determine what can be brought from our conceptual world into the target language.