THE TYPOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIVE ROLE OF SUPPORT-VERB CONSTRUCTIONS IN OLD HUNGARIAN IN TRANSYLVANIA
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Abstract
Author's coordinates: Babeș-Bolyai Tudományegyetem, Bölcsészettudományi Kar, Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca str. Horea 31
Email: ballo.ignac@gmail.com
Support-verb constructions can be defined in the broadest sense as semi-compositional, verbo-nominal phrases consisting of a semantically dominant nominal in the nominative or accusativecase, with or without an inflectional suffix, eventually with a postposition, and a desemanticizedsupport-verb, similar to auxiliary verbs, the constructions being often interchangeable withoutany semantic difference with monolexemic verbs or nominals that are derived from the nominalelement of the phrases, and their frequent use is generally a feature of specialised languages. After a historical sketch of different approaches to support-verb constructions from thenormative perspective of language cultivation, respectively from the descriptive perspective of linguistics, on the basis of linguistic data collected from the Historical Dictionary of theHungarian Language in Transylvania I examine those constructions in which the verbalconstituent is one of the verbs ad, ejt, esik, fog, folytat, hagy, művel, szerez, tart, tesz, űz, vall, vesz, vet and visel. In analyzing the data, I use a model of categorization based on prototypetheory and – showing the complex internal structure of the analysed verbal groups – I distinguishbetween prototypical support-verb constructions, those with verbal content and a nominalelement that is not an action noun, those with a monolexemic verbal variant independent of theform of the nominal component in the periphrastic construction, those that cannot be replaced bya simple verb, and those that are direct results of language contact. The final part of the paperattempts to (partially) answer the question regarding the nature of the inherent communicativefunction of support-verb constructions which, despite the linguistic economy and the essentiallysynthetic character of the Hungarian verbal system, ensures the historical continuity of the use of analytic verbo-nominal constructions, dating back to the late Old Hungarian period.
Keywords: support-verb construction, language cultivation, prototype theory, variativity, iconicity.
Full Text - PDF (Magyar)
Email: ballo.ignac@gmail.com
Support-verb constructions can be defined in the broadest sense as semi-compositional, verbo-nominal phrases consisting of a semantically dominant nominal in the nominative or accusativecase, with or without an inflectional suffix, eventually with a postposition, and a desemanticizedsupport-verb, similar to auxiliary verbs, the constructions being often interchangeable withoutany semantic difference with monolexemic verbs or nominals that are derived from the nominalelement of the phrases, and their frequent use is generally a feature of specialised languages. After a historical sketch of different approaches to support-verb constructions from thenormative perspective of language cultivation, respectively from the descriptive perspective of linguistics, on the basis of linguistic data collected from the Historical Dictionary of theHungarian Language in Transylvania I examine those constructions in which the verbalconstituent is one of the verbs ad, ejt, esik, fog, folytat, hagy, művel, szerez, tart, tesz, űz, vall, vesz, vet and visel. In analyzing the data, I use a model of categorization based on prototypetheory and – showing the complex internal structure of the analysed verbal groups – I distinguishbetween prototypical support-verb constructions, those with verbal content and a nominalelement that is not an action noun, those with a monolexemic verbal variant independent of theform of the nominal component in the periphrastic construction, those that cannot be replaced bya simple verb, and those that are direct results of language contact. The final part of the paperattempts to (partially) answer the question regarding the nature of the inherent communicativefunction of support-verb constructions which, despite the linguistic economy and the essentiallysynthetic character of the Hungarian verbal system, ensures the historical continuity of the use of analytic verbo-nominal constructions, dating back to the late Old Hungarian period.
Keywords: support-verb construction, language cultivation, prototype theory, variativity, iconicity.
Full Text - PDF (Magyar)
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How to Cite
BALLÓ, I.-N. (2026). THE TYPOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIVE ROLE OF SUPPORT-VERB CONSTRUCTIONS IN OLD HUNGARIAN IN TRANSYLVANIA. Nyelv-és, (1). Retrieved from https://nyirk.inst-puscariu.ro/index.php/nyirk/article/view/208
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