Co-agency in healthcare interpreting: The interpreter’s sociocultural and interpersonal role in clinical communication

Mány, Dániel (2026) Co-agency in healthcare interpreting: The interpreter’s sociocultural and interpersonal role in clinical communication. PORTA LINGUA, 2026 (1). pp. 13-18. ISSN 1785-2420

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Abstract

This study examines interpreter co-agency in healthcare settings through three French–Hungarian medical interpreting assignments conducted in Hungary between 2023 and 2025. Moving beyond the traditional conduit model, it conceptualizes healthcare interpreters as co-agents whose work is shaped by the clinical situation and co-constructed with patients and healthcare professionals. Adopting a participant-researcher design, the analysis draws on data triangulation across written agreements, pre-assignment correspondence, and post-assignment field notes. The findings show that healthcare interpreters are expected to manage sociolinguistic and pragmatic choices (e.g., forms of address, degree of formality, register shifts, and culturally sensitive terminology), to mediate administrative and systemic differences between healthcare systems, and to contribute to the interpersonal organization of clinical interaction. In high-stakes contexts such as cancer, HIV diagnosis, and emergency care, these expectations extend to negotiating emotional presence, physical proximity, gendered constraints, and interpreting modes. The study concludes that co-agency is an expectation-driven and structurally embedded feature of healthcare interpreting, shaped not only within consultations but also through institutional arrangements and preparatory communication.

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