The Bifurcation of Linguistic Mediation: A Critical Inquiry into the Epistemological and Ethical Divergence of Translation and Interpretation

Abstract

This article examines the fundamental professional, cognitive, and ethical distinctions between translation and interpretation, challenging the persistent tendency to treat them as interchangeable forms of language transfer. Drawing on comparative theoretical analysis, professional standards, and functional technology assessment, the study demonstrates that the two modalities are governed by opposing operational constraints. Translation is characterized by non-immediacy, permanence, and verifiable fidelity, relying on sustained analytical processing and research-based accuracy. Interpretation, by contrast, operates under conditions of immediacy and ephemerality, prioritizing communicative fluency, real-time decision-making, and ethical judgment under cognitive pressure. The findings confirm that these constraints produce mutually exclusive skill sets and professional identities, making role conflation both pedagogically flawed and ethically risky. The study further argues that technological developments, including AI-assisted language tools, reinforce rather than dissolve this dichotomy by automating structured translation tasks while amplifying the irreplaceable human role of the interpreter as a situated ethical and intercultural mediator. By framing the translation–interpretation divide as a foundational issue in linguistic mediation, this article contributes to broader humanistic discussions of knowledge transmission, ethical accountability, and intercultural agency in a globalized world.