No. 4 (2024): Hermeneutics, Specialized Communication, and Translation

The convergence of translation studies and research oriented towards specialized communication on the one hand and, on the other, translation studies and hermeneutics more broadly has been observable for several years. This issue of the Yearbook of Translational Hermeneutics aims to bring together research and theory-building at these interfaces from an intercultural and transcultural perspective. The scholarly investigation of translation in the sense of transcultural specialized communication (i.e. specialized translation and interpreting) encompasses theoretical and empirical approaches drawn from such diverse disciplines as translation studies, linguistics (text linguistics, language for special purposes, legal linguistics, business linguistics, etc.), communication studies, cultural studies, and the respective areas of study they imply (law, economics, technology, medicine, etc.). Translational hermeneutics, in turn, is fed by a variety of approaches ranging from understanding in terms of the art and craft of interpretation which is performed by the translating individual, through to approaches to translation and translation research informed by literary studies, cognitive science, and sociology (including the sociology of understanding), and also philosophically oriented approaches, especially those framed by phenomenological and philosophical hermeneutics. It can therefore be assumed that a more in-depth study of hermeneutics, specialized communication, and translation, has the potential to embrace a variety of scholarly approaches and can moreover accommodate a wide range of topics and questions.