Translation, Interpreting and Culture: Old Dogmas, New Approaches (?), Nitra, Slovakya, 26 - 28 Eylül 2018, ss.111
As Translation Studies expands its scope on both theory and practice due to its
interdisciplinary character, new forms of translation and interpreting have started to
emerge or legitimize themselves within the field. Sports has been one of the intensely
practiced interpreting fields either professionally or unprofessionally due to its global
character, yet it was not a subject of Translation Studies until the last decade. Although
scholars of Translation Studies did not regard it as a field worthy of their attention
before, now it has become an area to study on with growing interest among translation
researchers. Therefore, this type of interpreting should be carefully defined
considering its multidimensional character. One of its dimensions is the relation to
community interpreting. This paper aims to discuss the dimensions and dynamics of
sports interpreting and focus on its characteristics, thus, illustrating the similarities
between community interpreting and sports interpreting. The paper deals with issues
mostly experienced in and specific to community interpreting, yet observed in sports
interpreting as well, such as ethical issues and professionalism. After a comprehensive
literature review, the corpus of the study is presented. Exemplary cases from the media
and one-to-one interviews with sports interpreters in Turkey are analysed with a
special focus on professionalism. The similarities between sports interpreting and
community interpreting are also analysed. As a result, the paper can contribute to the
definition of sports interpreting and foreground its overlooked dimension – the socalled community interpreting – within interpreting settings, thus locating this type of
interpreting in Translation Studies.
Keywords: sports interpreting, community interpreting, interpreting in context,
professionalism, ethical issues