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Article published In:
Target
Vol. 35:4 (2023) ► pp.621–648

Cognitive prosodies, displacements, and translation

Tropes on the move in persuasive discourse

ORCID logo | The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley,
This article introduces the cognitive prosodies model as a way to explain how some rhetorical features in persuasive texts differ across languages and rhetorical traditions, which may inform the process of translating highly rhetorical, persuasive texts. By drawing on a multidisciplinary framework grounded in comparative rhetoric, the semiotics of advertising, cognitive linguistics, and studies of rhetorical phenomena based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and event-related potential (ERP), it first describes persuasion as a textual process that weaves specific ‘static’ versus ‘dynamic’ rhetorical mechanisms. These activate varying cognitive efforts and speeds in semantic processing that differ between languages and textual genres. The second half of the article presents a corpus-based study of six English and Spanish presidential speeches on immigration – and their translations – by three consecutive Mexican and US presidents. Through the lens of the cognitive prosodies model, the analysis quantitatively and qualitatively scrutinizes how source and target texts behave and how the model can inform rhetorical awareness in translation practice.
Keywords: cognitive prosody, translation of persuasion, comparative rhetoric, cognitive linguistics, neuro-rhetorical approaches to translation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Rhetoric, translation, and cognition
  • 2.Rhetoric as manipulation of cognitive energy
  • 3.Cognitive prosody as a rhetorical feature
  • 4.Comparing cognitive prosodies: An analysis of translated immigration policy discourse
    • 4.1Hypothesis, corpus, and methodology
    • 4.2Results
    • 4.3Discussion
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Note
  • References
  • List of source texts (speech transcripts)
  • List of target texts (unspecified authorship)
Published online: 17 January 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.21039.dav
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List of source texts (speech transcripts)
Bush, George W. 2006. “Bush’s Speech on Immigration.” May 15, 2006. Transcript, [URL]
Calderón, Felipe. 2010. “Declaraciones del presidente Calderón de México durante ceremonia de llegada” [Remarks by President Calderón of Mexico at Official Arrival Ceremony]. May 19, 2010. Transcript, [URL]
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Obama, Barack. 2014. “Obama’s full speech on immigration.” November 20, 2014. Transcript, [URL]
Peña Nieto, Enrique. 2018. “Mensaje del Presidente Enrique Peña Nieto” [Message by President Enrique Peña Nieto]. April 5, 2018. Transcript, [URL]
Trump, Donald. 2019. “Read the Full Transcript of President Trump’s Oval Office Address on the Border Wall.” January 8, 2019. Transcript, [URL]
List of target texts (unspecified authorship)
Bush, George W. 2006. “Discurso del Presidente a la Nación Sobre la Reforma Inmigratoria” [President Bush Addresses the Nation on Immigration Reform]. May 15, 2006. [URL] [URL]
Calderón, Felipe. 2010. “Remarks by President Calderón of Mexico at Official Arrival Ceremony” [Declaraciones del presidente Calderón de México durante ceremonia de llegada]. May 19, 2010. [URL]
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