BEYOND EQUIVALENCE: A HERMENEUTIC FRAMEWORK FOR TRANSLATIONAL UNDERSTANDING

Abstract

Hermeneutics – the philosophy of interpreting meaning – has long informed literary criticism and theology, yet its contributions to translation studies are still unfolding. This article synthesises classical hermeneutic insights and recent empirical findings to propose an integrated model in which translation is viewed as a recursive dialogue between text, translator, and socio-historical context. After reviewing key philosophical foundations, we map hermeneutic principles onto contemporary process-oriented translation models and illustrate their explanatory power through literary and technical cases. We argue that a hermeneutic lens clarifies why purely algorithmic equivalence fails to capture intercultural meaning and offers pedagogical benefits for cultivating critical reflexivity in translators. The conclusion outlines research trajectories for integrating cognitive logging methods with hermeneutic theory in an era of machine-mediated multilingual communication.