The Interpreter as Cultural Mediator
Abstract
This paper introduces the general scope and background of a doctoral research project on cultural mediation in business encounters mediated by an interpreter, and aims to show how the interpreter’s intercultural sensitiveness and competence can lead to better understanding between the two parties.
The growing number of intercultural encounters that has followed globalisation and major immigration flows has led to rising interest in intercultural studies. Actually, many such meetings happen with the mediation of an interpreter, who acts as both a linguistic and cultural mediator. Against this background, the paper analyses encounters in business contexts involving Italians and U.S. Americans. Due to the introductory nature of this presentation, resorting to certain over-generalisations will be rather frequent, especially when dealing with the cultural characteristics of large groups of people. The reason for this is simply to help better identify the three main fields that the research project aims to combine, that is interpreting studies, intercultural studies and Italian/English business communication.
This article is composed of three main parts. The first part briefly introduces the parameters based on traditional definitions of culture which can be of particular interest to this study. The second part is a brief overview of interpreting settings and techniques, defining the extent to which cultural mediation is possible in each. The third part focuses on liaison interpreting in business settings, arguably one of the contexts in which the interpreter can give a greater contribution to communication in terms of cultural mediation.
In this work, the term ‘interpreter’ will be used to refer exclusively to professional interpreters, thus leaving out all those figures who occasionally use their knowledge of other languages to facilitate communication between two or more people not speaking the same language.
Full text article
References
Angelelli, C. (2000) Interpretation as a Communicative Event: A Look through Hymes’ Lenses, in Meta, XLV, 4, pp. 580-592
Bargiela-Chiappini, F. and Harris, S. eds. (1997) The Languages of Business: an International Perspective, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press
Bochner, S. ed. (1981) The Mediating Person: Bridges between Cultures, Cambridge Mass., Schenkman Publishing Company
Boylan, P. (2001) Cross-cultural Accommodation through a Transformation of Consciousness in Koch K. and Muggin T., Globalisation, foreign languages and intercultural learning, SIETAR-UK Conference, South Bank University, London
Boylan, P. (2000) To Be or Not to Be: Success or Failure in Intercultural Communication in Lynch D. and Pilbeam A. eds. Heritage and Progress. From the past to the future in intercultural understanding, Bath, LTS/SIETAR, pp.106-116
Brown, P. and Levinson, S. C. (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage, Cambridge University Press
Ehlich, K. and Wagner, J. (1996) The Discourse of Business Negotiation, Berlin/New York, Mouton de Gruyter
Frank, S. (2003) Getting to Know the Italian Job, consulted on www.dialogin.com on January 12, 2004
Gentile, A., Ozolins, U. and Vasilakakos, M. (1996) Liason Interpreting: A Handbook, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press
Gile, D. (2001) The Role of Consecutive Interpreting in Interpreter Training: a Cognitive View, Communicate! consulted on www.aiic.net on April 12, 2003
Gudykunst, W.B. (1994) Bridging Differences: Effective Intergroup Communication 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, Sage
Hall, E.T. and Reed Hall, M. (1990) Understanding Cultural Differences, Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural Press
Hall, E.T. (1989) Beyond Culture, New York: Anchor Books
Harris, P. and Moran R. (1991) Managing Cultural Differences 3rd ed. Houston, Gulf Publishing
Hofstede, G. (2001) Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organisations across Nations, Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications
Katan, D. (1999) Translating Cultures: An Introduction for Translators, Interpreters, and Mediators. Manchester, St. Jerome Publishing
Kondo, M. (1990) What Conference Interpreters should not be Expected to do. The Interpreter’s newsletter, 3, pp. 59-65
Lewis, R. D. (1999) When Cultures Collide. London, Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Platt, P. (2002) Out of Context (adapted from an article originally published in the New England Financial Journal) consulted on www.pollyplatt.com on November 11, 2003
Reynolds, S. & Valentine, D. (2004) Guide to Cross-Cultural Communication. Upper Saddle River, Pearson – Prentice Hall
Reynolds, S. (2003) Analyzing Time in Cross-cultural Communication: A different approach. Time: Linear, Flexible or Cyclical? ABC Europe 2003 Conference
Samovar, L., Porter, R. and Stefani, L. (1998) Communication Between Cultures 3rd ed. Belmont, Wadsworth Publishing
Schäffner, C. (1996) Translation as cross-cultural Communication in Hoffmann, C. ed. Language, Culture and Communication in Contemporary Europe, Clevedon, Multilingual Matters pp. 152-164
Scollon, R. and Wong Scollon, S. (2001) Intercultural Communication 2nd ed. Oxford, Blackwell Publishing
Spencer-Oatey, H. (2000) Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport through Talk across Cultures, London/New York, Continuum
Taft, R. (1981) The Role and Personality of the Mediator in S. Bochner ed. The Mediating Person: Bridges between Cultures. Cambridge, Schenkman pp. 53-88
Trompenaars, F. and Hampden-Turner, C. (1997) Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business 2nd ed. London, Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Vincent Marrelli, J. (1989) On Cross-purposes in Cross-talk in L.Curti, T. Frank et al. eds. Il muro del linguaggio: tragedia e conflitto, Naples, IUO/DIPLLO/Intercontinentalia, pp. 465-488
Wadensjo, C. (1998) Interpreting as Interaction London/New York, Longman
Wierzbicka, A. (1986) Italian Reduplication: Cross-Cultural Pragmatics and Illocutionary Semantics in Linguistics, 24, pp. 287-315.
The New Oxford Dictionary of English, in The Oxford Pop-up English Language Reference Shelf (2000), Oxford University Press
Authors
Copyright (c) 2003 Giovanna Pistillo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This journal provides immediate and free open access to all its content and is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This means readers are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, as long as proper attribution is given. This policy is consistent with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.