Role

The concept of role has grown out of studies in the social sciences and can be broadly defined, after Parsons, as a set of expectations associated with individuals acting in particular social positions. Limiting the role of the interpreter to conveying the original message also continues to inform professional codes of conduct. Scholarship on sign language interpreting, for instance, engages with the challenge of enabling communication in situations of inequality, and sign language interpreters in the United States were among the first to question traditional standards of professional behaviour. Research demonstrating the variety of activities performed by interpreters has stimulated interest in the different functions that interpreters may legitimately carry out in dialogue interpreting. Interpreting has been discussed as a form of cultural mediation, leading to extensive debate in the literature, where it has been associated with the notion of advocacy and with lack of professionalism. An alternative to this view involves shifting the focus from difference to plurality.