The Termini Online Hungarian–Hungarian Dictionary and Database describes the lexicon of the Hungarian language as spoken in the countries surrounding Hungary. It is considered to be a general dictionary of Present-day Hungarian. Each entry contains authentic sample sentences to illustrate the use of the headword, making it possible to examine the special use of a word or construction in a grammatical and pragmatic context. The lexicographical database is edited online in eight countries. The editors of the dictionary are members of the Termini Hungarian Language Research Network. Online editing makes it possible for the dictionary to expand – even simultaneously – as a result of activity in eight countries. In the present study, the authors review the novelties and peculiarities of the dictionary in some detail, touching on the following topics: dictionary structure, IT support, database character, multimedia elements, and labelling system.
online dictionary, lexicographical database, Hungarian language variants, language contacts, style, etymology
This paper is based on the material of the Termini dictionary and analyses the corpora of three regions exhibiting linguistic contacts with Southern Slavic languages: Vojvodina (Vajdaság), the Drávaszög region, and the Prekmurje region (Muravidék). It concentrates on items of the terminology of schooling in the Hungarian language use of the three speech communities, focusing on terminological contact phenomena involving the vocabulary of education and training. Following a typology of borrowings exemplified by a variety of lexemes, it discusses some terminological challenges that make it either necessary or desirable to borrow a linguistic model of the majority languages in some form – as a result of direct or indirect processes of borrowing. Analyses of items taken from the Termini dictionary, characterizing a variety of regions, and involving a number of different approaches to the issues that arise, can be seen to be an area of continuous research these days. Lexicological studies add new dimensions to the research on the differentiation of the Hungarian word stock, emphasising the importance of the retention of intralingual diversity.
Termini dictionary, Vojvodina, the Drávaszög region, the Prekmurje region, lexical borrowing, terminology of education
In this study, I analyse terminological and sociological aspects of ten educational terms found in the Termini Hungarian-Hungarian dictionary. By writing this study I intend to draw attention (1) to the border-crossing activities of the Termini Hungarian Language Research Network, having been pursued for two decades, (2) the usefulness of the Termini Hungarian-Hungarian dictionary, built and expanded by the Research Network almost from the beginning, and (3) the further potential of the dictionary. The dictionary contains everyday contact elements of the Hungarian communities of eight countries, as well as the words and independent word-forms of the Hungarian community of the motherland, which have been marginalised in relation to the Hungarian community. The dictionary thus lends itself to multi-perspective comparison and analysis. (4) My aim is also to show that we have not only witnessed the linguistic disintegration of Hungarian communities in the Carpathian Basin, but also that of the educational systems of the surrounding countries. And although apparently similar in structure, different practices have developed in each of the neighbouring countries. The different development of education systems, as illustrated by the presentation of the ten terms under scrutiny, highlights a number of problems, one of which is simply the disadvantage a pupil is exposed to when moving from one country to another. This disadvantage is compounded if the parents do not have sufficient knowledge of the public education in the country concerned and lack the linguistic competence to interact to obtain information. As migration is westward, with Austria being the destination country among the neighbouring countries, learning about the educational policies and opportunities for school progression in Austria is vital for migratory movements, and exploring differences in educational terminology is a useful linguistic-sociolinguistic exercise.
educational terms, Termini Hungarian-Hungarian dictionary, Termini Hungarian Language Research Network, education systems
The paper gives a foretaste of the Subcarpathian material of the Termini Hungarian-Hungarian dictionary, showing how close correlations can be seen between social and political changes occurring in Hungarian-speaking regions outside Hungary and the extension of the material of that online dictionary. The analysis points out that the varieties of Hungarian in the surrounding countries necessarily exhibit divergent developments in an intimate relationship with the social, political, economic, and cultural state of affairs observable in the individual countries. The authors also draw the readers’ attention to the fact that a number of loanwords are used in the Hungarian varieties of the neighbouring countries that are known in several regions, rather than in just one, and that some of these are also included and exemplified in the online dictionary.
Termini dictionary, Subcarpathia, word borrowing, language and society, online dictionary
A nyelvtudomány műhelyéből
The paper analyses the distribution of the finite verbs in imperfective or simple past tense in five Hungarian diaries written in the 1830s and 1840s. The investigation is focused on the verb mond ‘say, tell’. This verb is construed in the corpus almost exclusively in the imperfective past tense, usually as the main (matrix) clause, with a reconstrued quotation by the act of saying in a subordinate clause, with the hogy ‘that’ conjunction. This highly subjectivized use of mond ‘say, tell’ in the entries of the diaries perspectivizes the linguistic activity of a participant with epistemic immediacy. The quoting act is evoked from a participatory, witnessing perspective by the diary writer. This simulative perspective profiles the narrated quoting as an ongoing continuous process through the imperfective past, while the simple past tense expresses events completed prior to the processing time. This type of construal shows the close and dynamic relation between the diary communication situation and the evoked quoting situation, in contrast with other activities described often in the simple past tense in the diaries.
diary, immediacy, imperfective past, past, simple past, temporality, wittnessing
The paper presents a unique construction of possessing, in which the fact of the possessing is marked three times. On the regent of the construction (which refers to the possessed thing) there is a possessive suffix, and two other linguistic elements refer to the possessor. Both are personal pronouns, the first is in nominative, the second is in dative case. The study looks through the role of this structure in the secondary grammaticalization of the suffix. The paper suggets that the grammaticalization is not a one way, linear path. First, because there can be junctions in the grammaticalizational paths. Second, because in the semantic extension, the newly appearing functions may have an effect on the already existing system. The paper offers a corpus based analysis on how emphasizing the possessor can be related to the ethical dative function. The ethical dative usually occures on the personal pronoun in the first or second persons (nekem, neked) and refers to a figure that is highly involved in the communicative situation. Thus, both structure types (the three times marked possessing and the ethical dative) elaborate emphasizing personal relations in the communicative situation.
possession, ethical dative, dative case, grammaticalization, secondary grammaticalization
This study investigates two aspects of Hungarian intonation: the presence of melodic peaks in general yes-no questions and the issue of under what circumstances yes-no questions can end with a rising final inflection. The normative realization of standard yes-no questions in this language is characterised by an end-falling contour, a rise-fall. The intonation of this contour involves a rise or a plateau (or a combination of the two) from the last main-accented syllable to the penultimate syllable, from where the melody falls. Still, in short, maximally disyllabic yes-no questions or emphatic yes-no questions with the last main accent stretching over up to two syllables, the rise-fall is realised phonetically only as a moderate rise. There are certain lexical items, however, the presence of which makes it possible to apply a falling-rising contour besides the standard rising-falling one. These yes-no questions imply divergence from the unmarked meaning, and an ultimately rising melody at the end of the question. According to a perception test administered to 30 Hungarian informants, the melodic peak of general yes-no questions can be displaced to the antepenultimate syllable or even to the one before that, without changing the interpretation of the utterance as a question by listeners – but the most natural position is still the penult. Yes-no questions including a special question particle can effectively be accompanied by a falling-rising melody, but listeners find its presence less natural than end-falling contours in those utterances.
yes-no interrogatives, rising final inflection, peak, fall-rise, rise-fall
Szemle
A Nyelvőr hírei