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

  17 p.

  Kaname Okano

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  290

  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.

• 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:

  132

  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.

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

  Zhivka Koleva-Zlateva

  Views:

  212

  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.