| FIBA Basketball World Cup,hosted by Federation International Basketball Association(FIBA)every four years,is the highest-level world tournament for men’s national teams.2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup was hosted in China for the first time ever.As China became increasingly active in the international arena,a growing number of international sports events was held here.Thus the demand for interpreters,especially for liaison interpreters in charge of events preparation,foreign affairs and media coverage,turned to be huge.Against this background,it is crucial for liaison interpreters to clarify their roles.Although analysis of liaison interpreters’ roles is numerous,such analysis targeted sports events is still rare.From 31st August to 15th September,2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup was held in 8 host cities.The author worked as a liaison interpreter for the Organizing Committee of Foshan division.Based on the real interpreting practice,this report probes into the pre-task preparation,interpreting process and task in organizing a sports event.Guided by Erving Goffman’s Participation Framework,the report investigated the social interaction and the complexity of interpreters’ roles in a bilingual context.The analysis showed that in sports events,interpreters did not just play the traditional roles as “conduit” or “coordinator”.More often than not,they shifted among multiple roles,such as “author”,“animator” and “principal”.This role shift influenced the participation ways of interlocutors and finally affected the outcome of communication.The author hopes that this report could give some inspirations and references for novice interpreters serving sports events. |
