Distinguishing Between the Communicative Practices of Mediation and Translation

Abstract

The article is devoted to the discursive phenomenon of mediation, which is often identified with the phenomena of linguistic, cultural and intercultural mediation. The author shows that the social communicative practice of mediation is a special type of communicative interaction. The author distinguishes between the terms "mediation" and "translation" and defines the essential characteristics of two different discursive phenomena based on the comparison parameters traditionally used to compare mediation and court. The article considers the differences between the two communicative practices on the following grounds: free / non-free choice of mediator; the purpose of mediated communication; the mediator's role in communication; the possibility/impossibility of terminating negotiations; confidentiality of communication; the duration of communicative interaction; the language of communication; the removal of psychological tension in communication. As a result of the analysis, it turns out that the coincidence of the parameters of mediation and translation is possible only in an interlingual situation of conflict dialogue.