THREE TERMS FOR ONE: EKSEMPL, PELDA AND PRILIKA. AN ATTEMPT AT SEMANTIC AND GENRE NUANCING IN THE TRANSLATION OF THE LATIN TERM EXEMPLUM

Abstract

One of the largest text groups preserved in medieval written sources can be identified as exempla. Yet, their definition as a (small) genre remains open with respect to many aspects. Some of their traits show a certain degree of overlapping with the parable, paradigm, and simile. Exempla are often incorporated into medieval sermons, as is the case in the analysed source: the Glagolitic collection Disipul (the Croatian translation from Latin of Johannes Herolt’s Sermones Discipuli). Medieval authors, among them Herolt, used the term exemplum in various places in texts which had the general function of exemplification. Exemplum is a term which in the Middle Ages was used to denote short narrative forms (exemplum in the narrower sense) and rhetorical figures. The Croatian Glagolitic Disipul has three lexemes from various idioms (eksempl, pelda, prilika) that were used to translate the single Latin term exemplum. The study of different semantic connotations of these lexemes showed that they were used with a certain degree of consistency. Exemplum is translated by the lexeme pelda when it denotes a paradigmatic example, but rarely when it denotes a rhetorical figure. The lexeme prilika is used in places where exemplum pertains to a rhetorical figure, a Biblical parable, but rarely when it pertains to a paradigmatic example. Yet where the Latin exemplum denotes a short narrative form, it is translated exclusively as eksempl. It was possible to determine that short narratives (eksempl) were clearly differentiated from the person/act/virtue to be admired and imitated (pelda, prilika).The analysis of the effort of the Croatian Glagolitic translator to use certain terms consistently also indicates which principles he was guided by when deciding which of the three lexemes to choose when translating the Latin exemplum. This allows us to draw the conclusion that, in the context of the ambiguity of the Latin term exemplum, the Croatian translation of the sermon collection Disipul is unique, as it is among the earliest testimonies to a Croatian translator’s effort to introduce a measure of accuracy and stability in the use of terminology.