Tertium comparationis in the studies of film translation

Abstract

The paper attempts to present a review of the term tertium comparationis (TerComp) in the studies of film translation. For many years this issue has attracted the attention of linguists and translators trying to determine a common reference platform for both the compared elements of linguistic systems and the realization of those systems in specific speech acts (texts). In the studies of film translation as a polysemiotic text, TerComp requires separate attention. The starting point for this study is the same assumption as in A. Bogusławski that the superior TerComp is a concrete situation of the use of linguistic signs. For the purpose of the studies of film translation, this situation was specified more precisely. It was determined that in the case of film translation, a two-type situation should be considered: external, i.e. a communication situation in which the compared elements of the text were used and a situation within a film as polysemiotic communication, in which only verbal messages – which are in different intersemiotic relations with the visual code, also with the audio code – are translated and, at the same time, remain in interlingual relations with the original verbal text – in the case of voice-over and subtitles. TerComp in film translation is an important criterion in translation choices, determining the equivalence between the original and the translation, helping to identify translation units and to search for pairs of translation equivalents.