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Introducing New Hypertexts on Interpreting (Studies): A tribute to Franz Pöchhacker
Edited by Cornelia Zwischenberger, Karin Reithofer and Sylvi Rennert
[Benjamins Translation Library 160] 2023
► pp. 148–167

Who is an interpreter?

Introducing a flexible map of translation and interpreting phenomena

| University of Graz , Austria

Although so-called ‘non-professionals’ are no longer instrumentalised in research solely in order to compare and contrast them with ‘professionals’, this does little to change the lasting perception of two clearly demarcated categories. Such a differentiation may be meaningful in some contexts, but it often over-simplifies and certainly perpetuates a hierarchical order. In my contribution, I will present an alternative, flexible typology in the form of a map that tries to take into account the multifaceted variety of interpreting and translation phenomena that we encounter in social practice. This typology is based on the empirical insight that a binary differentiation between ‘professional’ and ‘non-professional’ translation or interpreting is not always sufficient to capture adequately the complexity of empirical practice.

Keywords: translation, interpreting, categories, categorisation, classification, typology, professional translation/interpreting, non-professional translation/interpreting
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction or: A tendency to categorise
  • 2.The professional translator/interpreter as a core category
  • 3.The trouble with binary oppositions and the social force of categorisation
  • 4.A navigable map of translation and interpreting phenomena
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 April 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.160.08grb
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