Status of translators

David Katan
University of Salento
Table of contents

As a profession, translation may be one of the oldest, but it still has “no official status” (Gouadec 2007: 245) or rather, no “relative social or professional position”. What is more there are no agreed indicators of the translator's status (Grbic 2010), and the concept itself is “a complex, subjective and context-dependent construct” (Dam & Zethsen 2008: 74). That said, status, here, will mean that translation is valued as an important specialist field requiring unique translating skills; and that competence and quality are considered key requisites for working professionally. Three contexts will be discussed: the academic, the market, and that of the translators themselves.

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Further reading

Dam Helle. V. & Korning Zethsen, K
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Gouadec, Daniel
2007 Translation as a Profession. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Sela-Sheffy, Raqefet & Shlesinger Miriam
(eds) 2009 Profession, Identity and Status: Questions of Role and Identity – Part 1. Special issue of TIS 4 (2).  TSBGoogle Scholar
(eds) 2010 Profession, Identity and Status: Questions of Role and Identity – Part 2. Special issue of TIS 5 (1).  TSBGoogle Scholar