Cognitive Science 0201 - Translation of discourse

This course will begin with an introduction to Discourse Coherence Theory, which appeals to David Hume's psychological principles to explain why a given text is interpreted as being (in)coherent. This theory will allow us to establish an evaluation metric for translation: one translation is better than another translation if it better preserves the psychological principles used to interpret the original text. We will explore this hypothesis via case studies of several texts which are written in languages other than English and are ambiguous. We will analyze the ambiguity in the original text and in its English translations, compare the analyses, and thereby test our hypothesis about translation. Although students do not need prior knowledge of languages other than English, they should be enthusiastic to study and analyze languages other than English. A prior course in linguistics, literary analysis or philosophy is suggested, but not necessary.

Mind, Brain, and Information Independent Work Quantitative Skills Writing and Research In this course, students are expected to spend at least six to eight hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time. This time includes reading, writing, research.