Parallels Between Goffman’s Interaction Order and Interpreting Interaction in Community Interpreting

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to descriptively show to what extent the interaction sociological approach of the interaction order, developed by the American sociologist Erving Goffman, has points of contact with interpreter interaction in community interpreting. The focus of this work is on the phenomenon of ‘face-to-face interaction’, with an emphasis on social structures and individual actions within a social situation or setting. To provide a global understanding of the application of Goffman’s interactional order, the terms situation, institution and interaction, which are embedded both in the concept of interactional order and in interpreter-mediated interaction, are explicated selectively. It is assumed that the findings on the face-to-face situation according to Goffman, as presented from the perspective of interaction sociology, reveal similarities to the conceptualisation of interpreter-mediated interaction in community interpreting. It seems that these points of connection can contribute to a better understanding of the complex socio-institutional framework that encompasses the interpreting process and its effects on the actors involved. Consequently, this work can provide encouragement for more work on ethnomethodological case studies in interpreting research.

Keywords

• interactional order
• community interpreting
• interpreting interaction
• situation
• interaction