Hermeneutik und transkulturelle Fachkommunikation: textuelle Horizonte, translatorisches Handeln und Translationskultur

The present paper focuses on the interface of hermeneutics, trans­lation and interpreting, culture, and specialized communication. The aim is to further outline and specify a hermeneutic approach to the theory and empirical investigation of transcultural specialized communication (spe­cial­ized translation and specialized interpreting) from the perspective of Trans­lationswis­senschaft (translation and interpreting studies). This will be done through a transdisciplinary synopsis of concepts and methods from philo­soph­ical hermeneutics, translation and interpreting studies, social and cul­tur­al sciences, research on language for special purposes, and the linguistics of the spe­cialized text. These concepts’ capacity to describe and explain the in­ter­play of understanding and action of the individual socio-cognitive subject who functions as a professional agent in the translational process of so-called hu­man translation and interpreting will be elaborated and subsequently brief­ly illustrated by referring to practices of transcultural specialized com­mu­nication and by suggesting methods of investigation. Special attention will be devoted to the role of textual and discursive horizons in transcultural spe­cialized communication. These enable translation culture(s) and thus pro­fessional translatorial understanding and action.