The Liaison Interpreter’s Role as an Intercultural Mediator: A Cognitive-Pragmatic Approach

Abstract

Liaison interpreting is a type of interpreting performed in cross-cultural communications. The role of liaison interpreters has been studied by scholars for many years. For a long time, interpreting has been regarded as a communication activity, which solely converted languages and transferred the linguistic meaning of the original utterances. However, the practitioners and researchers began to realize that interpreting is a bilingual as well as bicultural communication activity. It bridges the cultural gap for people who don’t share the same language or cultural background. Therefore, this paper proposes an account of the liaison interpreter’s role as intercultural mediator as an alternative to other accounts of the interpreter’s role in the literature on liaison interpreting. The account of the liaison interpreters’ role as intercultural mediator is derived from the principles of a theoretical framework that draws on the findings of the theory of sense (Seleskovitch and Lederer, 1995) and Sperber and Wilson’s (1986, 1995) relevance theory of communication (RT). The account provides the basis for formulating a clearer definition of the concept of intercultural mediation in the context of liaison interpreting (LI). With data from authentic examples from interpreters’ actual performance, this paper intends to analyze interpreter’s role as an intercultural mediator in interactions within the framework of cognitive-pragmatic approach (CPA). In order to enhance liaison interpreters’ competence of cultural mediation, the paper then provides some implications for interpreters training in China.