Problematyka przekładu The Getty’s Research Institute Art and Architecture Thesaurus na język polski

Abstract

This article focuses on the selected terminology from the field of Christian sacral building interiors – pulpits, altars, baptismal fonts, galleries, triforiums, tribune (stories), and naves. Definitions of the listed terms are extracted from The Getty’s Research Institute Art and Architecture Thesaurus and then compared with Polish dictionaries and literature in order to examine whether it is possible to translate the American dictionary and create a functional multilingual thesaurus for Polish users. The terms pose several problems in translation since none of their semantic fields completely overlap. The said problems may be overcome by: stretching or limiting the semantic fields of the Polish terms, adding new phrases or borrowings to the Polish language, adding descriptions in parentheses to the records and descriptions of the said records, adding the place of origin, or a combination of all the ideas presented above. The article also discusses problematic issues with The Getty’s Research Institute Art and Architecture Thesaurus itself.