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Magyar Nyelvőr135. évfolyam 1. szám (2011. január-március)

Tartalom

Nyelvművelés

  • Nyomárkay István :

    Philology: the study of linguistic contacts (Hungarian influence on 16th-century Croatian legal terminology)

    The basis of all philological research is the concrete text, whether written or spoken (and recorded). Texts help us determine the source, intermediary, and target languages in processes of lexical borrowing and language contacts in general. Texts make it possible to reconstruct the linguistic world view that underlies them. It is in this context that we investigate the relationship of contemporary Hungarian and Croatian translations, as well as the Latin original, of István Werb.czy's Tripartitum (1514). We cover concepts such as borrowing, reborrowing, loan translations and semantic calques.

    Keywords: Werb.czy, Balázs Veres, Ivan Pergoši., loan translation, semantic calque, reborrowing

  • Bańczerowski Janusz :

    Metatextemes enhancing text-internal reasoning

    This paper introduces meta-operators (metatextemes) that signal the most important turning points of text-internal reasoning: defining the problem, accepting axioms, drawing conclusions, and presenting the results. These metatextemes play a special role in the correct reconstruction and comprehension of content, sometimes that of very complex content. They guide the addressee by defining the character of the piece of information introduced, making her aware of the correct interpretation of the given fragment of text. Due to such orientation, the addressee will correctly recognise those fragments and integrate them easily into a logical whole. Meta-operators of reasoning very often occur paragraph initially, in a position where the addressee's attention is best concentrated. Thus, the addressee receives proper instructions and will pay sufficient attention to the process of reasoning, correctly reconstruct the sender's way of thinking, and interpret his intentions appropriately. The facts that the constructions at hand are formulated in the imperative and involve a (pronominal/implicit) subject in rhetorical inclusive first person plural are not accidental, either.

    Keywords: meta-operators (metatextemes), text-internal reasoning, defining problems, accepting axioms, drawing conclusions, presenting results

Nyelv és stílus

  • Baranyiné Kóczy Judit :

    Text types and deixis: the function of spatial deixis in Hungarian folk songs

    This paper uses a cognitive linguistics approach to investigate the operation of spatial deixis in a group of Hungarian folk songs involving natural scenes. The occurrence of distal spatial deictics in a text initial position presupposes direct interaction between speaker and listener on the one hand, and directs the listener's attention to a perceptually accessible object of nature, opening up new dimensions and scenes in subsequent portions of the text. This operation removes the referential scene from the fictive scene of attention in which spatial relationships may metaphorically refer to the speaker's temporal and socio-cultural distance as well. Spatial deixis, therefore, is an important means of the direction of attention: it often initiates a chain-like process of several redirections of attention, a process that constitutes an important semantic mechanism, or scenario, with respect to folk poetry. The results of the study may contribute to a deeper understanding of natural scenes in Hungarian folk songs.

    Keywords: spatial deixis, direction of attention, cognitive linguistics, folk song, folk poetry

  • Kökényesi Nikoletta :

    Quantitative methods and their application in a stylistic analysis of texts in journalese

    This paper investigates journalistic writings of the past twenty years with textological, stylistic, and quantitative methods. Using a selected corpus, it presents the changes that the language of the press has undergone in that period. The investigation of the material tells us whether the changes in journalese and journalistic style have language specific reasons or whether social, literary, artistic, etc. processes also had some influence on them. The quantitative approach makes it possible to compare characteristic features of journalese across periods. Objective data and figures give us support for observing and analysing the changes and for drawing conclusions from them.

    Keywords: textology, stylistics, quantitative methods, stylistic statistics, index of sentence complexity, standard deviation, variability

A nyelvtudomány műhelyéből

  • Fehér Krisztina :
    Anyanyelv és közösség [143.28 kB - PDF]EPA-00188-00062-0050

    Mother tongue and community

    In this paper, we offer an unusual account of the problem of the classical interpretations of what language is, based on the history of language cultivation and in particular on the nineteenthcentury orthologue/neologue controversy. On the basis of the theoretical and historiographic analysis presented, we finally come to the idea of a metaphorical network representing the language of a community in which neither absolute linguistic norms nor the familiar concepts of homogeneous language use, langue, or "ideal speaker" make any sense: given that the network emerges out of more or less close contacts among physically attested individual languages, it can do nothing but circumscribe a dynamic and heterogeneous concept of the "language of a community".

    Keywords: mother tongue, speech community, language reform, language cultivation, linguistic network

  • Pap Andrea :

    On strategies of linguistic impression management (The implementation of Leech's politeness principles in Hungarian language use)

    This paper explores Hungarian-specific features of polite language use on the basis of discourse completion tests involving a panel of college students, university students, and young professionals of 20 to 30 years of age. The theoretical grounding is provided by politeness maxims, the basic categories of Geoffrey Leech's universal (but also interculturally underpinned) theory. By following politeness principles, speakers strive for diminishing the impression of impoliteness that their partners may get. Analysing the linguistic corpus, it can be observed that the most prominent driving force of Hungarians' polite linguistic activity is the principle of modesty. In order for communication to be successful, and meet communicative demands as well as ethical expectations, several principles are simultaneously adhered to, that is, strategies are realised in a complex manner. Utterances involve shortened forms, slang expressions, and euphemisms, but also strong language.

    Keywords: linguistic impression management, discourse completion tests, politeness principles, politeness maxims, principle of modesty

  • Kovács László :
    Hálózatkutatás és szociolingvisztika [76.90 kB - PDF]EPA-00188-00062-0070

    Network science and sociolinguistics

    The paper briefly introduces some possible points of intersection of sociolinguistics and network science. It is pointed out that the study of networks is not a novel area within sociolinguistics; what is more, network science and sociolinguistics had "found each other" earlier on, inasmuch as linguists envisaged speech communities as social networks. Finally, the author adduces examples of how certain results of contemporary network science can be used in sociolinguistic investigations. He does not (indeed, could not) have the intention of revealing all points of contact; rather, the paper is intended as a kind of "eye opener", hoping that a closer interaction between network science and sociolinguistic research may thereby be encouraged. As Milroy (1987, 216) put it, "the network concept may be claimed to have a very general and possibly universal applicability".

    Keywords: network science, sociolinguistics, social networks, propagation of language change

  • Pintér Lilla :
    Obviáció a magyar nyelvben [101.45 kB - PDF]EPA-00188-00062-0080

    Obviation in Hungarian

    The aim of this paper is to analyse obviation (or with another term: the subjunctive disjoint reference effect) in Hungarian. I try to find the reason why the subject of the subjunctive clausal complement is in certain cases obligatorily disjoint in reference from the matrix subject. First of all, I survey the previous proposals, for example the Avoid Pronoun Principle, the Binding Theory approaches and the infinitive/subjunctive rivalry. I argue for the following solution: the infinitive clausal complement (which introduces a dependent world and has a dependent subject) blocks the subjunctive clausal complement (which also introduces a dependent world but has an independent subject) each time if possible. After examining the Hungarian data, I claim that obviation occurs under the following four conditions: 1. The subjunctive clausal complement must have an infinitival clausal complement variant, too. 2. The embedded subject has to be responsible for what happens in the embedded clause. 3. The embedded subject cannot be in focus position. 4. The embedded subject cannot have any clitic attached to it.

    Keywords: obviation, subjunctive disjoint reference effect, infinitive/subjunctive rivalry, blocking, subject dependency, world dependency.

Kisebb közlemények

Szó- és szólásmagyarázatok

  • Büky László :
    Csinógli [55.41 kB - PDF]EPA-00188-00062-0110

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