Exploring the Ideological Dimension of Interpreting Activities-Towards Expansion of Interpreting Studies

Against the background that interpreting is increasingly perceived only as a tool of language transfer following the professionalization of interpreting and its training in China in the past two decades, this article proceeds from the multi-dimensional epistemology of interpreting which argues that interpreting is not only a bilingual cognitive processing behaviour, but also an inter-personal and cross-cultural mediation activity and a socio-cultural activity. It points out the defect of interpreting studies in focusing on cognitive process(ing) while overlooking the dimensions of inter-personal and cross-cultural mediation and socio-cultural and ideological manipulation. After uncovering the covert relations between interpreting and ideologies, this article proposes a framework for exploring the ideological dimension in interpreting activities, which outlines the research themes and methods. Relevant examples are analysed in illustration of various themes and methods.