Studia Linguistica Hungarica

Idiomaticity and analogy in inflection

László Palágyi — 2024-12-20

There has been little discussion on two problems of spatial cases, which might relate to lexical-semantic classification: neither the issue of semantic opacity, nor alternation has been dealt with in depth. The present paper has as its objective to broaden our current knowledge on Hungarian spatial cases by exploring how they correlate with lexical-semantic classes. The paper focuses on the Hungarian bidimensional spatial case system in which the so-called ON-configuration, IN-configuration, and AT-configuration markers express the
image schema of the Ground, and, at the same time, they also express whether the Ground is a source, a location, or a destination in relation to the Figure. The paper argues that inflection is lexically organized, and analogy is responsible for the productivity of constructions as well as for the semantic opacity (idiomaticity) of inflected word forms. It also argues that locative alternation is mainly due to the highlighting of different semantic substructures in the nominal’s meaning, to metonymy, and to differences in semantic grounding. Through typical linguistic examples and corpus analyses, the relationships between ON-configuration, IN-configuration, and AT-configuration markers and some lexical-semantic classes are demonstrated. As for cognitive motivation, perceptual experiences are obviously crucial to the establishment of a morpholexical cluster. However, based on an analysis of relatively opaque word forms, the paper argues that speakers tend to overlook kinaesthetic perceptual experiences when an already established exemplar cluster gains a new member by analogical extension mainly based on culturally accessible associative information.

The acquisition of Hungarian recursive possessives

Ágnes Langó-Tóth — 2024-12-20

The objective of this paper is to address two principal inquiries. The first question to be addressed is the age at which children begin to comprehend and produce recursive possessives in a manner that is consistent with the adult data. Secondly, what patterns of comprehension and production are observed prior to this age.

The acquisition of recursion tends to occur at a later age in the language learning process (Roeper 2011, Hollebrandse–Roeper 2014 and Roeper–Oseki 2018), and therefore the cross-linguistic literature indicates that the age of comprehension of recursive constructions is around 5–6 years and the age of production is around 7–9 years. The data will demonstrate that the acquisition of Hungarian recursive possessives can be dated earlier than previously thought. The experiments conducted indicate that comprehension of the structure under study reaches ceiling-level performance at the age of four, while the production of the full structure occurs at the age of six. In the event of an error, the target structure is typically only partially produced.

The structure of the paper is as follows: Section 1 describes linguistic recursion, Section 2 discusses the acquisition of recursion, Section 3 presents the syntactic features of recursive possessives. In Section 4, the previous cross-linguistic and Hungarian results on the structure under investigation are presented in detail. Section 5 presents the main experiments. Finally, Section 6 summarises the conclusions.

Differentiation of metaphorical meanings of verbs that are (also) synonymous in their literal meanings

Éva Hrenek — 2024-12-20

This paper constitutes part of a larger research project and is devoted to studying a type of synonymy in which the relevant verbs are fairly close to one another not only in their literal meanings but in their metaphorical uses as well. In particular, the paper offers an analysis of the meanings of three Hungarian verbs, szúr ‘pierce’, bök ‘poke’, and döf ‘stab’. The discussion is based on componential semantics within the so called organic-dialectical theory of language (see, e.g., Zsilka 1981) that attributes a decisive role to meaning components in metaphorisation processes, too. It also builds on relevant fundamental insights of functional cognitive linguistics (see,
e.g., Dancygier (ed.) 2017, Tolcsvai Nagy (ed.) 2017).

In the framework of this discussion, I seek answers to two interrelated questions: (i) Why do certain metaphorical meanings of the verbs szúr, bök and döf diverge from one another? (ii) How can the limits of their synonymy be established?

The meanings of the relevant verbs and the synonymy relationship(s) across them are detected with the help of the Mazsola search engine (Sass 2008) in data gleaned from the Hungarian Gigaword Corpus (HGC, see Oravecz et al. 2014). The paper surveys definitional aspects of the semantic system of the verbs szúr, bök and döf, and compares their meanings that are especially close to one another, those that are less close but still synonymous, and those that are not synonymous at all. Then, it will be explored what characteristic differences can be seen across metaphorical meanings of those verbs, how the traits (meaning components) that define them change over time, and whether there is any connection between the changes of those meaning components and the differences in meaning.

“I will tell it to you in first person singular”

Andrea Pap — 2024-12-20

This paper focuses on person-marking constructions in Hungarian slam poetry in a functional cognitive framework. With the help of the Slam Poetry subcorpus elaborated by ELTE’s Research Group in Stylistics, person-marking constructions for expressing the speakers in the texts (first person singular and plural verbs) are annotated in the subcorpus. We assume that based on the phenomenon of foregrounding (van Peer–Hakemulder 2006), the role of intersubjectivity increases as these 1st person singular and plural forms help
focus on the protagonist, the slammer (Holt–Groeben 2005, Langacker 2008). The utterances are analysed according to speech act theory, based on the functions of social actions (Tátrai 2011: 89–90). The research question aims to determine the types of prototypical semantic and communicative patterns which can be identified in the analysed texts. The results of the analysis 1) show the proportion of first person singular and plural verbs in the subcorpus, 2) help observe those linguistic tools, grammatical, pragmatic and semantic patterns and socio-cultural factors which can play a role in the direction of listeners’ attention, as well as the typical topics on which attention is focused.

Movement as the focus?

Kata Heller — 2024-12-20

This paper analyses two songs with lyrics and music video. The analysis is based on the fact that these songs were created by the Hungarian National Tourist Office in order to promote Hungarian landscapes and cities.

Each song of this type is supposed to show the beauty of the selected Hungarian landscape, but the two songs presented in this paper seem to fail in this aim. Since the name of the project for which these songs were created is Road Movie, the lyrics were examined from the perspective of the film genres of American and European road movies. By matching the focus of these genres to the focus of the lyrics, verbs were analysed to understand more about verbs that express movement or mental states/changes.

The results show that verbs can be associated with visible or mental movement. Furthermore, the music videos show some elements of these film genres, although there may be some discrepancies with the lyrics. The paper attempts to merge cognitive semantics research and film studies.

Apostrophic patterns in Hungarian contemporary popular music lyrics

Fruzsina Krizsai — 2024-12-20

There is a decades-long tradition of linguistic and literary research into Hungarian-language song lyrics, in which the systematic work of the ELTE DiAGram Stylistic Research Group has been a key factor. In this context, the present research aims to investigate contemporary Hungarian popular music lyrics with the aim of providing a more comprehensive picture of contemporary music lyrics as lyrical discourses through the apostrophic patterns found in these lyrics and the socio-cultural relations and attitudes represented in the apostrophic discourses. The qualitative study, which analyses 27 Hungarian-language popular music lyrics, also attempts to identify possible genre schemas along the characteristics of the apostrophic patterns. By characterising the sample, the analytical procedure also highlights subtle distinctive features of different genres of lyrical texts, thus providing a perspective beyond the investigation of popular music lyrics.

Studia Linguistica Hungarica 36 (2024)

Authors — 2024-12-20

Studia Linguistica Hungarica was originally a yearbook of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), under the full title of Annales Universitatis Scientiarium Budapestiensis de Rolando Eötvös Nominatae, Sectio linguistica. It formed part of a collection of university yearbooks in various disciplines, and served the purpose of making the results of ELTE-based research in linguistics available to an international audience beyond the iron curtain. The first volume of the yearbook appeared in 1970, and a total of 26 volumes were published by 2005. From 1990, financial problems hindered year-by-year appearance.

Throughout this period, Annales was edited by Prof. István Szathmári. The articles were written in a variety of languages including English, German, French, Latin, Russian, Spanish, and others. Thematically, they covered the most diverse fields of research on a wide range of languages.

The journal now re-appears with a new title, new editorial and advisory boards, and under very different circumstances. Studia Linguistica Hungarica publishes peer reviewed papers with a thematic focus on Hungarian and a general theoretical and typological orientation. Contributions adopting a usage-based cognitive theoretical perspective are especially, but not exclusively, welcome. The thematic scope of the journal ranges from semantics, syntax, and phonology to pragmatics, text linguistics and stylistics, from both descriptive and historical viewpoints. A single issue is published per year, with papers written in English.