Machine-readable Literature: ”Spoken Language” in Mikszáth’s Short Stories

Abstract

Literary scholars have deployed the concept of “spoken language” to describe Kálmán Mikszáth’s fiction since the success of his short story collections entitled A tót atyafiak (Slovak Kinsmen, 1881) and A jó palócok (The Good Palots, 1882). Although this stylistic concept has become a key characteristic feature of Mikszáth’s oeuvre, no attempt has been made to elaborate on its definition. As scholarship assumes a clear-cut and measurable distinction between the written “literary” and “spoken” language, this paper claims that this spoken language has quantifiable linguistic markers. This is demonstrated by the morphological analysis of Kálmán Mikszáth and Mór Jókai’s fictional writings.