Det epistemologiske grunnlaget for tolking

Forståelse og fortolkning i et fenomenologisk og hermeneutisk perspektiv

Abstract

In the past thirty years, the dialogical perspective on language in interaction has been dominant within research on interpreter-mediated conversations. In this article, I point to some overlapping features between dialogism, phenomenology and hermeneutics in issues of meaning and terms of understanding. I argue that phenomenological concepts, such as intentionality and intersubjectivity, and hermeneutical concepts, such as horizon of understanding, the hermeneutic circle and pre-understanding, may provide further insight into interpreted conversations. The purpose of the article is to show that the idea of an interplay between the subject and the world, which is central to phenomenological and hermeneutical thinking, may hold the key to a more holistic understanding of what happens between the interlocutors when the ‘miracle of understanding’, as Gadamer puts it, takes place. Simultaneously, this perspective helps elevate the discussion of meaning and understanding from the specific conversational context to a more general and abstract philosophical level.

Keywords: interpreting, translation, meaning, understanding, hermeneutics, phenomenology