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• A Possible Slavic Etymology of Hungarian kullancs ’tick’

  9 p.

  Ádám Galac

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  324

  The present article is dedicated to the etymology of the Hungarian noun kullancs ”клещ (lat. Ixodes ricinus)”. The Slavic origin of the word was assumed in the 19th century, however this idea was rejected in the 20th century owing to phonetic reseasons. After a short overview of the history of the research of this word, arguments are lined up in favour of the fact that the phonetic difficulties can be ignored or at least taken as irrelevant when comparing the Hungarian word  kullancs with its Slavic equivalents. Therefore, it is inevitable to raise the question of its Slavic origin again.

• The Images of the Slavic Peoples in Albert Škarvan´s Diaries from 1896 to 1926

  Natalya Korina

  Views:

  133

  The paper discusses the images of the Slavic peoples in Albert Škarvan’s diaries from 1896 to 1926, first published in 2019. Albert Škarvan was a Slovak intellectual of the Austro-Hungarian Empire of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the follower of L. Tolstoy’s ideas and Christian religious philosophy. He produced philosophical reflections about the Slavic peoples of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Slovaks, Czechs, and Serbs) in comparison with Russians and made an attempt to determine their historical mission and spiritual potential. His diaries contain many critical mentions as well as suggestions as to how to improve the situation of Slavic peoples, primarily of Slovaks, in the European dimension. This article is one of a series of papers on Albert Škarvan manuscripts.

• Slovak Verbs of Aquamotion (in Contrast with Other Slavic Languages)

  17 p.

  Kaname Okano

  Views:

  391

  This paper studies the semantics and distribution of Slovak verbs with the meaning of aquamotion in contrast with other contemporary Slavic languages. As pointed out in previous studies in lexical typology, the lexicalization pattern of the semantic field of aquamotion differs in many languages of the world and there are subtle but significant differences even between closely-related languages such as Slavic. As far as the Slovak language is concerned, there still does not exist a detailed study of aquamotion verbs and their lexicalization patterns. This paper applies the theoretical framework of lexical typology and analyses the lexicalization patterns of the following three semantic zones: the semantic zone of swimming and flowing (plávať, plaviťsa), the semantic zone of liquid motion (tiecť, prúdiť, liaťsa), and the semantic zone of diving and immersing (ponáraťsa, potápaťsa, topiťsa). This paper aims to reveal which semantic parameters are relevant for the lexicalization of the semantic field in question, and to demonstrate the distribution of the Slovak verbs describing aquamotion. In addition to that, our analysis deals with some contrastive aspects to point out similarities and differences between Slovak and other Slavic languages such as Russian, Polish, Serbian and Vojvodina Ruthenian.

• Hungarian–South Slavic film relations: An introduction

  Imre Szíjártó

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  277

  This study is an introduction to a larger work on Hungarian and Southern Slavic film relations. After reviewing the theoretical and conceptual considerations, the paper attempts to interpret the concepts of national film and transnational film, and it also outlines the types of Hungarian–Slovenian, Hungarian–Croatian, and Hungarian–Serbian film relations. Thus, from the Southern Slavic community, the study focuses on Slovenian, Croatian, and Serbian culture and film. Films from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia, and their Hungarian dimensions are also referenced, but the primary focus is the film culture of the three countries neighboring Hungary.

• Diachronic Identity, Variability and Homonymy in the Etymologization of Soundsymbolic Words (on the material of Slavic languages)

  Zhivka Koleva-Zlateva

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  270

  In etymology, the diachronic identity of words and morphemes is proved by the joint application of the comparative historical method regarding sound form and the method of semantic typology (semantic parallels) regarding semantics. This rule is fully applicable, however, only for arbitrary signs of the languagein which the nonexclusivity of phonetic laws has been proved. The article shows that the definition of diachronic identity insound symbolic words is complicated by their very nature as iconic signs, processed by the right hemisphere of the brain, which predetermines their disobedience to phonetic laws, formal variability and the rather frequent presence of homonyms. The pragmatic, functional and structural properties of sound symbolic words are also taken into account.

• Books have their own fate…: Gregor, Ferenc: A szlovák nyelv magyar elemei [The Hungarian elements of the Slovak language]. Budapest, Kairosz Kiadó, 2023, pp. 953. ISBN: 978-963-514157-9

  Klára Agyagási

  Views:

  268

  Ferenc Gregor, the most prominent Hungarian researcher of the Slovak language, did not live to see the publication of his magnum opus. The present review has two goals: on the one hand, to commemorate an outstanding scholar who persevered on his own path in the pursuit of scholarly value, accepting all the difficulties of a lonely struggle, and whose efforts were crowned with success, albeit posthumously, thanks to the next generation of scholars; and, on the other hand, to draw attention to the significant linguistic and cultural influence that Hungarian dialects have had on the language of the Slovaks living in the northern region of the historical Kingdom of Hungary. This influence manifested itself in several waves and in several geographical regions and took on different thematic characteristics depending on the historical situation. Using a wide range of written sources, Ferenc Gregor identified nearly 1,000 Hungarian lexemes in the vocabulary of local variants of the Slovak language. Since Gregor accurately documented all cases where the Hungarian words in question also entered other Slavic languages of the Carpathian Basin, his work is significant not only for its outstanding value in contact linguistics, but also from an areal linguistic perspective.

• An insight into Russian history from the Middle Ages to the present: Tamás Krausz,Klára Radnóti and Endre Sashalmi (eds.): Apologia Historiographiae: Az orosz történelem évszázadai[Apologia Historiographiae: Centuries of Russian history]. Budapest, Martin Opitz Kiadó, 2023. Pp. 557. ISBN: 978-615-6388-37-7

  Anna Katalin Kádár

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  246

  The collection of studies presented in the volume is a scholarly and informative compilation celebrating the birthday of Professor Gyula Szvák. It publishes new research results by Hungarian scholars into the historical past of the Central and Eastern European Slavic peoples and Russians. The volume is thematically rich, with short studies on the medieval Mongol rule, the political ambitions of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and many other topics. The value of the book lies in the fact that the editors have made it possible – with a view to completeness – to present analyses by outstanding Hungarian representatives of the discipline of Russian Studies.

• With them or without them? Jangfeldt, B.: Mi és ők: Az orosz eszme története [Us and them: History of the “Russian idea”]. Swedish to Hungarian translation by Imre Bartók. Budapest, Helikon Kiadó, 2024, pp. 224. ISBN: 978-963-620-057-2

  András Bozorády

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  247

  Jangfeldt's book Us and Them: History of the "Russian idea" was published in Hungarian translation in 2024. The author is a Swedish writer and translator from Russian, associate professor of Slavic languages ​​at Stockholm University. The aim of the review is to show what ideological and philosophical currents Jangfeldt's book discusses, and how all of these have influenced Russian history and culture in the past 300 years.

• Phraseology in Interdisciplinary Research - Svět v obrazech a ve frazeologii II / The world in pictures and in phraseology 2. Ladislav Janovec (ed.). Praha: Univerzita Karlova, 2021. 552 s. ISBN 978-80-7603-201-9

  Natalia Korina

  Views:

  263

  A critical review of the scientific anthology Svět v obrazech a ve frazeologii II [The world in pictures and in phraseology 2] published in 2021 in Prague (ed. L. Janovec) presents and introduction in its contents and structure to the presented approaches to phraseology research. Mostly pragmatical, cultural linguistic and communicative orientation of the anthology confirms the relevance of interdisciplinary approaches in linguistics. The papers are being considered in the context of actual trends in linguistics, including wide interdisciplinary parallels and critical analysis of certain tendencies.

• Litvins as a Medieval Baltic-Slavic Ethnic Group in Kastuś Tarasaŭ's Novel “The Pursuit of Grunwald”

  Victor Khalipov

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  79

  Ethnically colored characters based on stereotypical representations of different peoples occupy an important place in the fiction of any nation. At the same time, works of art may depict not only representatives of modern nations, but also those of ethnic groups that have now disappeared, and sometimes even those that never existed at all. A special literary discipline, imagology, is concerned with the study of this issue. In contemporary Belarusian literature, the Litvin ethnotype occupies an important place, as it is a relevant component of certain types of modern Belarusian identity. Its presence is particularly noticeable in works on historical themes. One such text, significant for the national literary tradition, is Kastuś Tarasaŭ's novel The Pursuit of Grunwald (1986), thematically devoted to the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 between the combined forces of Poland and Lithuania and the knights of the Teutonic Order. In this work, the imago of the Litvin occupies a fairly clearly defined position as the self-image, serving to describe his own people and his homeland in the past, in relation to which characters of all other nationalities are positioned as hetero-images. In Kastuś Tarasaŭ's work,  Lithuanians are a Slavic-speaking ethnic group of mixed Baltic-Krivich origin, diversified in terms of religion (Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and pagans), whose representatives make up the military and political elite of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The author attributes the following characteristics to them: brave, harsh, cruel, stubborn, persistent, fierce, reckless, short-sighted, and unreasonable. These traits do not fully correlate with the current stereotypical perceptions of modern Belarusians about themselves, which had developed by the end of the 20th century.

• The beginnings of the collective identity of Slovaks in the Central European context

  Peter Káša

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  294

  The study analyses the linguistic, literary and cultural contexts of the formation of Slovak national identity during the Enlightenment and the early national movement. The Slovak intellectual elite identified and defined Slovaks and the Slovak nation in terms of modern Austrian statehood, traditional Hungarian patriotism and cultural Slavism. The study shows that modern Slovak nationalism was already richly structured atits beginnings, adopting diverse ideological impulses and establishing relations with neighboring Slavic and non-Slavic cultures. 

• Ecological terminology: The term "use of natural resources " in Russian texts of various registers

  Krisztina K. Kovács

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  287

  The relevance of this paper stems from the rapid development of ecological knowledge, accompanied by the active formation and integration of new specialized terminology. Due to a growing interest in issues of applied ecology, sustainable development, and rational use of natural resources, ecological vocabulary is steadily expanding and becoming established in texts of various genres and functional styles. This dynamism necessitates a linguistic analysis of word formation of new terminology and the use of specialized vocabulary in the context of the environment. The paper examines the specifics of how the term prirodopol'zovanie “use of natural resources” functions in Russian-language texts representing different functional styles such as scientific, official-administrative, and journalistic texts.

• Interferences in the Field of Literature and Philosophy: Contact Points in the Poetry of Russian and Hungarian Authors: Dukkon Ágnes: A veszélyes szépség útjain. Eszmék, témák, kapcsolatok a klasszikus orosz irodalom világában, L'Harmattan Könyvkiadó – Uránia Ismeretterjesztő Társulat, Budapest, 2021, 340. p. ISBN: 978-963-414-702-2

  Ildikó Regéczi

  Views:

  188

  The Hungarian literary scholar Ágnes Dukkon set herself a great task to complete in her new monograph by undertaking to offer a broad overview of the entire 19^th century epoch of Russian literature through monitoring the transformation and evolution of the literary motive of dangerous beauty [ужасная красота]. While focusing on the concrete correspondences between a variety of literary worlds, the study presents interpretations of works by A.S. Pushkin, M.Y. Lermontov, F.I. Tyutchev, N.V. Gogol, I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoyevsky, M.Y. Saltikov-Shchedrin, N.S. Leskov, and L.N. Tolstoy. At the same time, however, the author of this monograph never fails to keep in mind the conceptual context of the artistic texts by analyzing their relationship with the topical contemporary philosophical ideas of the age. For the Hungarian readers, the chapters incorporating the conclusions of research aimed at Russian–Hungarian connections, conducted with the methodology of historical poetics, comparative literary studies, intertextuality, and biographism, are of special interest. The scholarly findings of this renowned researcher would definitely deserve to be translated in the future into an international language.

• In Memoriam Prof. István D. Molnár (1941–2026)

  Éva Fórián

  Views:

  72

• The relationship between Excellent People by Chekhov and the ideological position and artistic attitude in the late short stories of Leo Tolstoy

  Ildikó Regéczi

  Views:

  409

  In Chekhov and His Prose (first published in 1965), the author, Thomas G. Winner contends that the subject matters of a few of Chekhov’s short stories written in the 1880s (such as «Хорошие люди» [Excellent People]) were created in the spirit of Leo Tolstoy, yet the one called «Несчастье» [Misfortune], written also in 1886, already marked the beginning of a series of texts that can be interpreted directly as “a light parody” of Anna Karenina (1873–1877) as well. The basic question posed here concerns whether there is really a significant difference that can be observed between the above two works and whether they reveal this sharp difference in the reception of Tolstoyan ideas that Winner's monograph suggests. The paper seeks to answer this query on the basis of the interpretation of Excellent People and the textual representation of the issue of goodness. In this analysis, particular attention is given to the way in which Tolstoy's ideas are represented and to the author's poetic choices that bring the text close to Tolstoy's late short stories.

• The abnormal “new normal”: The concept of the “new normal” as a framing structure in social media discourse: A cognitive-discursive analysis

  Nava Vanda Sahverdova

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  413

  This study is devoted to the analysis of the concept of the "new normal" and the description of its frame structure in everyday usage within social media discourse. Based on a cognitive-discursive approach, the study examines the transformation of the meaning of the expression "the new normal" from its original economic-political term into a polysemous linguistic tool for expressing evaluation, anxiety, and rejection. Using comments from social media platforms (such as Facebook, Telegram, and LiveJournal), the study identifies frames and thematic groups in which this concept is actualized: the moral and value devaluation, the cultural-civilizational crisis, ideological pressure, the normalization of violence, the mediatization of tragedies, and the social adaptation to post-COVID realities. The analysis shows that the "new normal" functions in media discourse as a marker of normative transformation and a cognitive representation of crisis phenomena. The concept serves as an ironic label, a means of stigmatization, emotional evaluation, and as a tool for expressing identity and describing the "other" amid global and local changes.

• Historical Data and the Modern Linguistic Landscape of the City of Berehove (Transcarpathian region, Ukraine)

  Volodymyr Shylov

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  191

  The first mention of Berehove dates back to 1063 when the Hungarian prince Lampert (the youngest son of the Hungarian king Béla I) built his palace here. Until the beginning of the 16^th century, the village (since 1247 the town) bore the name of its founder (first “Lampertháza” and then “Lampertszász”). In 1504 (according to other sources, in 1499), the name “Beregszász” appeared for the first time. The modern Ukrainian name for the city is “Berehove” (in Russian “Beregovo”), but the old Hungarian version “Beregszász”is also sometimes used. Now it is a city of regional importance with a population of about 26 thousand people (according to the latest official data from 2001), located in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine, a few kilometers from the Hungarian border.

• Cognitive Models of the Concept of “Normality”

  Nava Vanda Sahverdova

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  100

  This study examines the concept of “normality” in contemporary Russian public discourse of recent decades in the context of uncertainty in normative frameworks. In contrast to the previously analysed construction “new normality,” which exhibits a marked and metalinguistic function, “normality” functions primarily as a background cognitive-discursive category, serving as a tool for evaluation and categorization. The data for the study is drawn from the RuTenTen corpus. The methodological framework is based on cognitive-discursive analysis aimed at identifying typical patterns of usage and reconstructing the conceptual structure. The analysis reveals the main cognitive models of the concept of “normality,” including spatial, scalar, processual, and institutional metaphors, as well as models of masking, simulation, and axiological inversion.

• Identity Problems from Historical, Cultural and Literary Aspects

  7 p.

  Andrea Posta

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  426

  This critique focuses on the latest part of the publication series by the Slavic Historical and Philological Association entitled “Individual and Collective Identities”, which is of great importance for the field of Russian Studies in Hungary as it provides a regular platform for academics with annual conferences. In the three main chapters of the book, identity is approached in different contexts from a historical, cultural, and literary point of view. For this reason, we can say that this collection stands out due to its interdisciplinary nature and complexity serving as a useful resource for those who deal with identity issues.

• Rácz, Ildikó Mária: A lét és a szerelem szentsége. Ivan Bunyin művészi világképe. L’Harmattan, Budapest 2020, 373 pp. ISBN 978-963-414-681-0

  Ágnes Dukkon

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  316

  This review presents a critical analysis of the monograph on Bunin by the Hungarian researcher Ildikó Mária Rácz. The author describes the main thematic blocs of the volume, for example, the influence of classic Russian literature on Bunin (Turgeniev, Tolstoi, Chekhov, and Tiutchev), the role of Eastern philosophy in the evolution of Bunin’s art, the connection between the modern psychological concepts (Freud, Jung) and the short stories as Mitya’s love or The grammar of love.

• Linguistic Analysis of the Development of the Term “Greenwashing” Through the Prism of Variology

  Krisztina K. Kovács

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  70

  This article examines the variability of the ecological neologism “greenwashing.” Based on an analysis of the media context and various corpus platforms, the main types of variability (graphic, morphological, and syntactic) are revealed. Semantic variability is also presented depending on the context. Particular attention is paid to the process of determinologization in the context of the mediatization of scientific knowledge.

• A Big Change Starts Small – Pronominal Clitics in 12-15th Century Old Russian Chronicles

  14 p.

  Beáta Györfi

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  514

  East Slavic languages, in contrast with South and West Slavonic ones did not retain enclitic pronominals. In Old Russian (ОR) however, these forms were widely used. As manuscripts suggest, they dissapeared from the language by the end of the OR period, i. e. by the 15th-16th centuries. The paper gives an overview of the use of enclitic pronominals in the text of five OR chronicles relying on the diachronic corpus of Russian National Corpus. The analysis focuses on the  distribution of clitic pronominals, their placement, clusterizing properties and deviating constructions. The last section is devoted to the placement of the investigated phenomenon in the complex of parametric variation envoked by the disintegration of the tense-aspect system.

• From Gregory of Nyssa to Boris Akunin and Eugene Vodolazkin – and beyond : “the language, which I spake and fram’d”: Linguistic Presence: Collection of Academic Papers in Honour of Arpad Kovacs’s 80th Jubilee. Edited by A. Molnár and M. Hoványi. Budapest, ELTE Eötvös József Collegium, 2024, pp. 416. ISBN: 978-615-5897-67-2

  Márk Murányi

  Views:

  272

  This review discusses the Festschrift published in honour of Professor Árpád Kovács’s 80th birthday. Professor Kovács is an eminent Hungarian scholar whose research on Russian Literature (mainly on Dostoevsky’s oeuvre) and innovations in literary theory are well-known, respected and followed by the Slavic studies specialists throughout the world. The volume consists of 30 papers written by Professor Kovács’s friends, colleagues and admirers. In the high standard and innovative approach of each paper, the volume is undoubtedly worthy of Professor Kovács’s legacy and represents the unique approach to literary texts which he established during his career.

• Hero of Contemporary Russian Prose: Anna Skotnicka, Szczelina. Bohater współczesnej prozy rosyjskiej i jego światy, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków 2020, 335 s. ISBN: 978-83-233-4771-2

  Elżbieta Tyszkowska-Kasprzak

  Views:

  276

  The text contains a review of the monograph by the Polish literary critic Anna Skotniсka A fissure: A hero of contemporary Russian prose and his worlds. The author considers incompleteness, absence, and insufficiency as a property of the existence of the character of the works of Russian writers of the late 20^th to early 21^st centuries. The sources of this problem, according to Skotnicka, can be seen in the state of disintegration of the social, psychological and mental image of the world in a changing reality, especially historical changes: the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as political, cultural and social transformations. With these phenomena, the Polish literary critic also connects the concept of chaos, which is characteristic of the postmodern perception of the world as disunited, incomprehensible, alien in relation to people. Skotniсka considers these problems based on the works of Mikhail Kuraev, Svetlana Aleksievich, Roman Senchin, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Vladimir Makanin, and Mikhail Shishkin. The author refers to the current achievements of the humanities, especially philosophy. The work is innovative and stimulates reflection on the state of the modern human.

• The Cult of Pushkin in the Context of Popular Literature Over the Course of a Century (1837–1937): Kalavszky Zsófia: A totális Puskin. Populáris műfajok a Puskin-kultuszban, 1837–1937 [Zsófia Kalavszky: The total Pushkin. Popular genres in the Pushkin cult, 1837–1937]. Budapest, Reciti, 2024, 398 p. ISBN: 978-963-672-015-5

  Ildikó Regéczi

  Views:

  83

  The publication of Zsófia Kalavszky’s monograph is a landmark event in the field of Russian studies in Hungary. In this thorough scholarly work, Kalavszky explores the nature of the Pushkin cult, offering important findings into the century following the Russian poet’s death and tracing his evolution into an iconic figure. Rather than focusing on commemorative texts by literary giants, she ventures into the realm of popular literature to track the shifts in the myth surrounding Pushkin, reflecting changes occurring in specific historical eras and within the receiving audience. The monograph conveys in-depth expertise in a way that makes it an engaging read for a broad audience.