Tertium comparationis

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Tertium comparationis is a Latin term of rhetoric and literally means "the third of comparison ". This is used to denote

  1. the commonality of two different objects or facts to be compared with one another in metaphors and in metonymy .
  2. in logic a third member of a comparison; a third term, within the scope of which the other two terms enter.

Example: In the term Pol go e.g. B. the two terms North Pole and South Pole . From a linguistic point of view, however, this example is a hyperonymy relationship .

A comparison presupposes that two objects have at least one property in common. The common property on which the comparison is based is called tertium comparationis .

The most common uses are metaphors and comparisons , especially, but not exclusively, in poetry . Usually one aspect of the comparison is implied rather than explicitly mentioned.

  • For example, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the German Ideology call money "the standing tertium comparationis of all people and things" (that is, people and things are always comparable on the basis of their monetary value).
  • A simpler example: “A child like a whirlwind.” The tertium comparationis is “impetuous”.

Based on the technology and science are comparisons based on quantifiable properties, these are referred to as physical quantities .

In German constitutional law , the tertium comparationis plays a key role in observing the principle of equality in accordance with Article 3 I GG.

See also

literature

  • Klaus-Dieter Baumann, Hartwig Kalverkämper (Hrsg.): Contrastive technical language research. Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 1992, ISBN 3-8233-4529-X .
  • Ernst Oldemeyer: On the phenomenology of consciousness. Publishing house Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-2924-0 .

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