The starting point for this paper is the interdisciplinary character of interpreting studies. The author states that the most easily recognizable approaches to interpreting studies have been the cognitive-psychological, the neuro-physiological, the translational, the linguistics-centred, the intercultural and the sociological. The paper examines the research of the 1990s in view of the question whether interpreting studies should be considered as an application field for linguistics, cognitive sciences, translation or cultural studies, or as an autonomous research field.