The aim of this paper is to define the place of the linguistic figure known as antonomasia among the various types of linguistic images. In particular, the author introduces the major types of antonomasia: periphrasis, periphrastic metaphor, plain metaphor, metonymy, and synecdoche. He takes his examples primarily from the language of the media, but he also cites examples from works of fiction. On the basis of a thorough analysis of those examples, he concludes that antonomasia partially overlaps with all kinds of linguistic images and with periphrasis, but cannot be equated with any of them. (Periphrasis, given that it does not involve a figurative element, is not taken to be a linguistic image by the present author.)

Keywords: antonomasia, figure, linguistic image, periphrasis, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche.

Kemény Gábor
MTA Nyelvtudományi Intézet
Miskolci Egyetem

The paper is based on a previous assumption of the author (Békési 1993) claiming that conjunctions of the de ‘but’ type, among other possibilities, may represent an opposition between two deductive (syllogistic) conclusions. Departing from that assumption, the paper tries to find differences between two synonymous conjunctions, de ‘but’ and csakhogy ‘however’, both expressing constraining contrariness. The author argues that, in the presence of similar first clauses (expressing some conclusion), de has a general role, while csakhogy has a special role. That distinction is recognised via the analysis of numerous examples and is said to consist in the fact that the last clause of a de-relationship may represent any one of the three terms of a syllogism, whereas that of a csakhogyrelationship, if used adequately, can only be a minor premise.

Keywords: linguistic economy, deduction, abduction, double syllogism, minor premise, conclusion, expectation-deleting contrariness, constraining contrariness.

Békési Imre
Szegedi Tudományegyetem

On Moldavian Hungarians and the ethnonym csángó

Fundamental documents of Hungarian linguistic geography published in the second half of the twentieth century, in particular, An Atlas of the Moldavian Csango Dialect and An Atlas of Hungarian Dialects in Romania, as expected, made it possible to clarify some fundamental issues with respect to Hungarians living in Moldavia. It became clear that, in accordance with the bipartition known previously, the dialect of an archaic group of Moldavian Hungarians exhibited typological correspondence with the Mezoség dialect spoken in Transylvania, as members of that group had originally come from that territory, whereas a larger group was related to the Székely both in dialect and in origin. The ethnonym csángó had originally been an external, and pejorative, name for the archaic group but, as time went by, its use spread onto the whole group (and even to other Hungarian groups living in an edge situation or in language islands) both in professional and popular usage. On account of its semantic vagueness and offensive overtones, the present author does not recommend the use of that term in professional contexts. With respect to the etymology of the term, again on the basis of linguistic geography and sociolinguistics, he claims and proves that the name csángó, earlier claims to the contrary notwithstanding, is an external name, a catchphrase-based cognomen coming from the Székely and based on the fact that the archaic group, unlike the Székely themselves, used the most frequently occurring, hyperonymous verb csinál ‘do’ in a variety pronounced as csán. Pejorative exonyms of similar provenance and history are not unknown in the literature; see, for instance, names like Moken ‘an ethnic group in Thailand’, Hungarian digó ‘Italian’, or Maori wiiwii ‘Frenchman’.

Keywords: Moldavian Hungarian, linguistic geography, internal grouping, origin of Moldavian Hungarians, etymology of the ethnonym csángó, hiperonym, distribution of csinál ~ csán ‘do’, catchphrase-based cognomen.

Péntek János
Babes–Bolyai Tudományegyetem

Computational palaeographic relations of the Bodrog-Alsóbu rovash relic and a reading attempt

This article presents a new approach to deciphering the earliest known Szekely-Hungarian rovash relic, the clay twyer from Bodrog-Alsóbu (Hungary). The proposed method combines the results of linguistics and computational palaeography. Each symbol of the inscription on the clay twyer fragment can be interpreted as a rovash grapheme, a conclusion derived from genealogical ties rooted in ancient Phoenician, Greek, Anatolian, or Aramaic graphemes. The proposed reading attempt was compared with former ones, and the correctness of the new one was proved. Furthermore, a reconstruction of the ancestor of the Szekely-Hungarian Rovash script, the Proto-Rovash script, is presented with its descendant graphemes.

Keywords: Carpathian Basin Rovash, clay twyer fragment from Bodrog-Alsóbu, computational palaeography, grapheme, Old Turkic script, Proto-Rovash, Steppean Rovash, Szekely-Hungarian Rovash.

Hosszú Gábor
Budapesti Muszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem

Zelliger Erzsébet
Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem

A corpus linguistic study of differences between spelling practice and the norms laid down in the rules of orthography may yield a number of conclusions both for orthography research and for language planning. Within that broad field of study, a quantitative analysis of texts in large corpora is especially well suited to give answers to a number of important questions, answers that are both exact and representative with respect to the whole of written language use in Hungarian. In this paper, the authors demonstrate, in the form of an analysis of a large corpus, the usefulness of quantitative corpus-based orthography research. The case study focuses on the way a specific rule of orthography is observed or ignored: on the spelling practice concerning expressions that involve a participle in -ó/-o, or a compound headed by such a participle, in an attributive role. With reference to paragraph 112 of the current Rules of Hungarian Orthography (1984), a method is proposed whereby differences between orthographic rules and spelling practice can be explored exactly and comprehensively. The authors think that their procedure makes it possible to carry out orthography planning on an empirical basis by using large corpora, thereby making it more well-founded and more efficient.

Keywords: orthography, writing as two words, writing as one word, compounds, present participle, attribute.

Pethő Gergely
Debreceni Egyetem

Verécze Vikt ória
Debreceni Egyetem

Fehér Krisztina
Debreceni Egyetem