Evidence for an Experience-based Theory of Meaning Found in the Process of Translation

19 bilingual speakers of English and Japanese were asked to translate two texts which were manipulated to make it difficult for them to access any prior experience related to the contents of the texts. They were then given the same texts with the titles which enabled them to relate the texts to their experience and were asked to translate the texts again. Without the title, the participants did not understand the texts and resorted to a literal translation. With the title, the participants were able to replace the abstract words with concrete words and provide additional information not present in the source language to justify the relation between the sentences. The results suggest that (1) literal meaning as found in dictionaries, have nothing to do with the language user's understanding of the text; (2) accessing one's memory of relevant experience is crucial to understanding; (3) the link between the source language and its free translation lies in the language user's experience; and (4) mental models are used as an interface in the process of translation.