Translation and Interpreting

Abstract

Advances in technology, increase in communicative needs, evolving conceptualizations of the role of translators and interpreters, more attention paid to processes (rather than products), increasingly nuanced approaches to abilities and quality as well as a diversity of lenses and perspectives used to study phenomena have resulted in more interdisciplinary types of studies in both translation and interpreting. This diversity requires a more direct engagement with related disciplines. Evidence of the growth in translation and interpreting studies (TIS) is the number of scholarly journals, the interest of publishing companies in this area of study, and the appearance of new doctoral and master’s programs in TIS. Scholars in TIS have also developed their own methodological approaches to researching TIS-related issues as they also borrowed freely from related disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. This chapter provides an overview of the most salient issues in TandI and the qualitative and quantitative methods most commonly used to investigate phenomena in TIS.