The Role of the Original in Solving the Semantic Questions in the Material for the Dictionary of the 16th-Century Slovene Protestant Writers

Abstract

According to Erasmus Rotterdam's translation theory, the original and the definition of its meaning constitute the basic semantitc, and, thus, lexicological criterion for the translation in sixteenth century as well as in the present. For that reason, the author made a comparison of the dictionary lexical item in the context with the original biblical lexicon a priority in her work. She had to answer the question whether the information of the original language, primarly Hebrew, is expressed in the target languges, i.e., sixteenth-century Slovene, and what the deviations, i.e., the Protestant writers' creative contribution, were. The original provides the basis for solving more complex semantic questions. For thorough insight into the relationship between the Slovene equivalent and the original one must determine the degree of semantic overlap and the discernible semantic deviations in the information conveyed. In the redaction, it is most important that the original be included in the semantic explications of ambigious basic or auxiliary meanings of a dictionary headword.