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), which means no 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).On the other hand, there are areas where translation does have official status as an important specialist field requiring unique skills. In these areas, 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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References

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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