Ethics in the Fuzzy Domain of Interpreting: A 'Military' Perspective
The Translator, (2001)Zusammenfassung
Military interpreters are being trained to perform locally during peace support operations. This dynamic environment suggests that their ethical role should be seen as situated and enacted rather than as responding to pre-established norms. We first discuss epistemological issues concerning communication and then offer a pragmatic description of face-to-face mediated encounters. Instead of reasoning in terms of fidelity and equivalence when assessing an interpreter's behaviour, we turn to fuzzy logic and probability, in light of the indeterminant nature of communication as described here. Interpreting samples taken from the first military interpreter training course in Italy are analyzed in terms of peculiar ethical issues resulting from the military context. Suggestions are offered as to how to deal with these at a metacommunicative level.