Le dernier refuge des gens compliqués : de l’intérêt des chiffres et des mathématiques en traduction

Grounded in both the works of cognitive sciences scholars like Kahneman and Pinker and, above all, in real-life examples, this contribution strives to demonstrate how having recourse to mathematical reasoning can be a source of simplification for translators – at least in pragmatic translation, and...

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Main Author: Nicolas Froeliger
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Bologna 2025-08-01
Series:MediAzioni
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Online Access:https://mediazioni.unibo.it/article/view/22583
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author Nicolas Froeliger
author_facet Nicolas Froeliger
author_sort Nicolas Froeliger
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description Grounded in both the works of cognitive sciences scholars like Kahneman and Pinker and, above all, in real-life examples, this contribution strives to demonstrate how having recourse to mathematical reasoning can be a source of simplification for translators – at least in pragmatic translation, and more specifically in technical or specialized translation. Some may argue that this is not the obvious choice, yet I shall try to demonstrate the flaws of this argument. Starting from the assumption that the translation of mathematical elements should by no means be literal, I argue that numbers are not only a language (itself translatable into everyday language), but also an element of culture. It is also shown that, paradoxically, the universe to which mathematics invites us is essentially a relaxing one, among other things, because it invites us to reason in terms of categories. It thus reminds us that translators should never give up on understanding and that to understand, one must represent the translated phenomena in concrete terms. Only by so doing, we make ourselves understood. This raises anew the question of expertise in translation, of the linguistic nature or otherwise of this operation, of the relationship between the analog and the digital, which spurs us to include the numerical aspects of documents to be translated into our approach, and of the profile of current and future translators, at a time when machine translation is becoming almost universally prevalent.
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spelling doaj-art-1b3f0923d76b4f4e91a2c642e1e5cb4d2025-08-20T03:43:50ZengUniversity of BolognaMediAzioni1974-43822025-08-0147A14A3110.6092/issn.1974-4382/2258320968Le dernier refuge des gens compliqués : de l’intérêt des chiffres et des mathématiques en traductionNicolas Froeliger0Université Paris CitéGrounded in both the works of cognitive sciences scholars like Kahneman and Pinker and, above all, in real-life examples, this contribution strives to demonstrate how having recourse to mathematical reasoning can be a source of simplification for translators – at least in pragmatic translation, and more specifically in technical or specialized translation. Some may argue that this is not the obvious choice, yet I shall try to demonstrate the flaws of this argument. Starting from the assumption that the translation of mathematical elements should by no means be literal, I argue that numbers are not only a language (itself translatable into everyday language), but also an element of culture. It is also shown that, paradoxically, the universe to which mathematics invites us is essentially a relaxing one, among other things, because it invites us to reason in terms of categories. It thus reminds us that translators should never give up on understanding and that to understand, one must represent the translated phenomena in concrete terms. Only by so doing, we make ourselves understood. This raises anew the question of expertise in translation, of the linguistic nature or otherwise of this operation, of the relationship between the analog and the digital, which spurs us to include the numerical aspects of documents to be translated into our approach, and of the profile of current and future translators, at a time when machine translation is becoming almost universally prevalent.https://mediazioni.unibo.it/article/view/22583pragmatic translationmathematicsdigital literacyterminologytechnical translation
spellingShingle Nicolas Froeliger
Le dernier refuge des gens compliqués : de l’intérêt des chiffres et des mathématiques en traduction
MediAzioni
pragmatic translation
mathematics
digital literacy
terminology
technical translation
title Le dernier refuge des gens compliqués : de l’intérêt des chiffres et des mathématiques en traduction
title_full Le dernier refuge des gens compliqués : de l’intérêt des chiffres et des mathématiques en traduction
title_fullStr Le dernier refuge des gens compliqués : de l’intérêt des chiffres et des mathématiques en traduction
title_full_unstemmed Le dernier refuge des gens compliqués : de l’intérêt des chiffres et des mathématiques en traduction
title_short Le dernier refuge des gens compliqués : de l’intérêt des chiffres et des mathématiques en traduction
title_sort le dernier refuge des gens compliques de l interet des chiffres et des mathematiques en traduction
topic pragmatic translation
mathematics
digital literacy
terminology
technical translation
url https://mediazioni.unibo.it/article/view/22583
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