World Book and Copyright Day | When translation keeps literature alive across languages

A picture theory of language says it is the link between words and the real world. It starts very early. One points to a cow and says to a toddler: “Look — cow. Say it? Say ‘cow’” Thereafter, it is unlikely that the child will point to a cow and say ‘tree’. Why? Its caretakers have made sure that the object-word pair has been imprinted.

The theory expands to say that behind all meaningful thoughts that people have are arrangements of pictures achieved by the plod of hard work and the flight of the imagination. Feelings and emotions are the invisible ‘gesso’ or primer before words are painted on the canvas of the mind.