Theories of linguistics and of translation and interpreting

Linguistics is the academic discipline that focuses on languages, and since translation involves language centrally, many scholars interested in translation and interpreting have looked to linguistics for theoretical and methodological input. Equally, linguists have studied languages in contact with each other in situations involving translation or interpreting in order to understand their similarities and differences. Some scholars fall equally comfortably into both the linguistic and the translation studies discipline; however, a number have striven to keep their discipline firmly independent of linguistics and to develop theories and research methodologies of their own. This chapter charts the history of the relationship between the study of languages and of translation and interpreting in the 20th and 21st centuries.