a borítólapra  Súgó epa Copyright 
Magyar Nyelvőr131. évf. 4. sz. (2007. október-december)

Tartalom

Nyelvművelés

  • Bańczerowski Janusz :
    A fej nyelvi képe a magyar nyelvben [235.51 kB - PDF]EPA-00188-00049-0010

    The Linguistic Image of 'Head' in Hungarian

    In this paper, the author makes an attempt to reconstruct the linguistic image, in Hungarian, of the notion denoted by fej 'head'. The analysis is based on the Hungarian National Corpus, relevant dictionaries and encyclopaedias, proverbs, phraseologisms, as well as linguistic data collected from everyday speech. The prototypical features of 'head' yielded the following aspects of description: (1) the situation of the head within the human or animal body (the head is part of the body, hence the word fej activates the whole human/animal body and profiles the body part concerned); (2) the external appearance of a head: its shape and structure (we refrained from a detailed anatomical analysis presupposing a scientific perspective of orientation and restricted our attention to the linguistic image); (3) the function of the head that is categorized, in the most general structure, as ACTIVITY (a domain from which several subdomains can be derived by concretisation or specification); and (4) ways of conceptualising the notion of 'head'.

    The analysis provided makes it clear that, in order to reconstruct the linguistic image of the notion of head in Hungarian, a cognitive basis consisting of several domains has to be taken into consideration. The richness and multifariousness of the linguistic material, the multiplicity of polycategorial manners of conceptualisation suggest that the view of the world emerging behind the word fej faithfully reflects the extraordinary significance of that body part in peoples' lives.

  • Balázs Géza :
    Hatalom és helyesírás [159.51 kB - PDF]EPA-00188-00049-0020

    Power and Spelling

    This paper discusses certain phenomena, features, and signs of power or hierarchical roles in writing, writing habits, and especially in spelling (including the regulation of orthography and its everyday practice in offices as well as in popular contexts). The overall framework is anthropoand socio-semantic, and the material investigated is based on concrete observations, especially data drawn from Hungarian sources. The major manifestations, mechanisms, and signs of power discussed here include the following: belief in the magic power of writing, choice of type of writing, regulation of orthography (spelling reform, language reform), nostalgic romanticism, degradation, ways of catching readers' attention, discrimination, and counter-cultural forms of expression.

  • Bíró János :

    An Empirical Study of Acronyms

    The author's main aim was to present new problems or inconsistencies emerging in the spelling of acronyms. This is important since acronyms constitute a part of the Hungarian word stock that is undergoing changes at the fastest rate today. Deficiencies in the 11th edition of the Rules of Hungarian Orthography have been clearly pointed out by this empirical study, suggesting furthermore that phenomena diverging from the orthographical norms have to be traced back to some serious reason(s). A deeper understanding of those reasons could be based on an even more extensive study. One thing is certain: in creating the 12th edition of the rule book, tendencies occurring in the everyday practice of writing ought to be taken into consideration, and gaps in the regulations have to be filled in in accordance with the general logic of Hungarian orthography.

A nyelvtudomány műhelyéből

  • Imrényi András :

    Experimental Models of Hungarian Word Order, 2. Domains and Relations in the Hungarian Clause

    The second part of a two-part series, this paper aims to provide a radical alternative to standard generative models of the Hungarian clause. Key theoretical features of the new model include (1) a connectionist (relational network theoretic) commitment to defining word order in terms of association and activation patterns rather than discrete units and symbol manipulation, and (2) a cognitive functionalist commitment to viewing grammar not as a self-contained system but as something inextricable from the broader picture of cognition and communication. The paper also offers an "organic" perspective on the clause, with the predicate analysed as a nuclear clause, or proto-statement, in turn embraced, elaborated and operated on by differentialized components of clausal organization.

  • Batár Levente :
    A beszólás mint beszédaktus [163.37 kB - PDF]EPA-00188-00049-0050

    Offence as a Speech Act

    This paper introduces 'offence' as a new kind of speech act. We can consider it to be the opposite of 'compliment'. The author suggests that verbal aggression is so common in everyday life that it needs to be thoroughly examined. He conducted a questionnaire survey of twelve questions with the participation of two groups of teenagers, 13–14 and 16–17 years of age, respectively. The first six questions concerned physical, and the last six questions referred to linguistic, aggression.

    The main goals of the research were the following: (1) To see the difference, if any, between the utterances of the two age groups. (2) To find out whether it is physical or verbal aggression that makes people respond in a more aggressive way. (3) To reveal how the level of verbal aggression changes in utterances depending on the speaker or on the seriousness of the insult.

  • Szolcsányi Ákos :
    A heterogén többes szám [139.53 kB - PDF]EPA-00188-00049-0060

    The Heterogeneous Plural

    This paper discusses the use and meaning of the Hungarian morpheme -ék "and company". Its previous classifications are introduced, with a special comparison with the anaphoric possessive marker -é "that of, belonging to". It is proposed that -ék does not merely function the way its name suggests but is used for other purposes, as well. The paper discusses the items provided by English and Spanish for the function of -ék, as well as the use of the Hungarian morpheme in translations from those languages. Finally, miscellaneous examples of grammatical oddities and problems with respect to pluralization are given, irrespective of the actual linguistic sign used.

  • Kuna Ágnes :

    Spoken-Language Effects in 16–17th Century Medical Prescriptions

    This paper introduces medical prescriptions as a distinct text type, on the basis of 16–17th century Hungarian examples. The primary communicative function of medical prescriptions is giving instructions, a function that occurs in widely divergent forms in those early text samples. Old prescriptions did not have a constant and predefined structure. Nevertheless, in most cases, they began with an initiator, followed by the list of components and procedures required, and were often concluded by a note serving persuasion. The world of the text was complex, the sender and the recipient were not as clear-cut as they are today (doctor and pharmacist, respectively). Further components of the world of text (point of view, temporal and spatial structures, etc.) require further study, involving pragmatic aspects, too. Another interesting field of research could be the analysis of related instructional texts (like cooking recipes, gardening manuals, etc.).

Szó- és szólásmagyarázatok

Kisebb közlemények

A Nyelvőr hírei