ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on concepts like intermediary, mediator, gatekeeper and non-person. The presence of interpreters affects in certain ways - expected and unexpected-the communication between the expert and the layperson. In taking initiatives to defend their own interests, interpreters will necessarily influence the progression and the content of the current exchange. Concurrently with the compartmentalization and diversification of a society, the intermediary's role is routinized and subsequently professionalized. Gulliver describes mediators' strategic roles on a continuum, representing the range of strengths of interventions. A 'non-person' enjoys the privileges of being able to address anyone or to ignore being addressed without causing a redefinition of the situation. To understand gatekeeping and gatekeepers in modern society it is necessary to study its inter-cultural, inter-ethnic and inter-lingual dimensions. Interpreting in face-to-face interaction is gradually becoming recognized as a part of the everyday life of public institutions. The number of research projects devoted specifically to this kind of interpreting is, however, still very small.
