General Knowledge: A Basic Translation Problem Solving Tool

International audienceMany theorists deplore the fact that since the 70's, in North America, education has been focused on specialized disciplinarian knowledge, sometimes leading to overspecialization, to the detriment of general knowledge. As far as translation is concerned, overspecialization may lead teachers and learners to focus unduly on language skills and techniques, thus undervaluating the importance of general knowledge, rather than lexis only,, as necessary to understand conlexts and utterance circumstances. Some specialists of translation didactics insist on the role of "cognitive complements" and on the importance for translator apprentices to be able to "summon up" extralinguistic knowledge at the appropriale moment to produce a translation which is both acurate and logical. This paper examines what kind of general knowledge may be useful in translotor training in order to provide learners with cognitive essentials and critical capacity otr which they may rely when making discriminating translation choices