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arXiv · 2511.16811

From Representation to Enactment: The ABC Framework of the Translating Mind

Michael Carl·Takanori Mizowaki·Aishvarya Raj·Masaru Yamada·Devi Sri Bandaru·Yuxiang Wei·Xinyue Ren
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Abstract

Building on the third-wave Extended Mind (EM) theory and radical enactivism, this article suggests an alternative to representation-based models of the mind. We build on the ABC framework in which translation is not understood as the manipulation of static interlingual correspondences but an enacted activity, dynamically integrating affective-evaluative, behavioral-enacting, and cognitive-inferential (ABC) processes. Drawing on affordance theory, we argue that the translating mind is the dynamically organized process through which the translator and its environment constitute and transform a landscape of enlanguaged translation affordances for action, that emerges through loops of brain-body-environment interactions. This non-representational account reframes translation as skillful participation in sociocultural practice, where meaning is co-created in real time through embodied interaction with texts, tools, and contexts.

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Michael Carl, Takanori Mizowaki, Aishvarya Raj, Masaru Yamada, Devi Sri Bandaru, Yuxiang Wei, Xinyue Ren. 2025-11-20. From Representation to Enactment: The ABC Framework of the Translating Mind. https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.16811

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