Language technology and speech technology are cover terms for two interrelated directions of research that involve an encounter between computer technology and written, respectively spoken, language and enable computers to give responses that are similar to those of human speakers and listeners and are based on knowledge derived from the regularities of natural language. In our case, the particular natural language at hand is Hungarian; this paper gives an overview of current research on that language within the area of language technology and of the results of Hungarian linguistics in general that this emerging discipline has been able to make use of.

Keywords: language technology, computational linguistics, Hungarian linguistics.

Prószéky Gábor

This paper scrutinizes the various definitions of the notion of ‘style’ in sociolinguistics. In this

examination, the vantage point is the Labovian notion of ‘contextual style’. The paper deals in detail with the definitions of style in the variationist paradigm, with the functionalist notion of ‘register’ as compared to the concept of style, with Bell’s model and with the approaches to style in Hudson’s and Coupland’s alternative sociolinguistic paradigms. As a result of this investigation, we recommend a comprehensive approach to style in sociolinguistics, one that is compatible with the functionalist approach to language.

Keywords: functional linguistics, contextual style, variational paradigm, register, audience

design, referee design, item-based paradigm.

Simon Gábor

The literature discusses the place and significance of data in linguistic inquiry, the possibilities of using data and ways of accessing them, primarily in the context of synchronic analysis. The issue of data attestation in historical linguistics is usually given less attention. This paper discusses the latter issue, based on experiences in investigations of Old Hungarian and summarizing the problems related to the study of linguistic material coming from earlier periods. The author furthermore surveys some more general issues pertaining to the relationship between linguistic research and linguistic data, as well as the changes of that relationship.

Keywords: data collection, philology, Old Hungarian, historical linguistic insights, intuition,

introspection.

Dömötör Adrienne

In a former study (MNy. 107: 276–98), the author has ascertained that the Greek diploma on

the foundation of the Monastery in the Veszprém Valley is the earliest known text surviving from the Carpathian Basin written during the time of Hungarian rule and that it was probably issued around the year 980, even though the Diplomata Hungariae Antiquissima dated it to around 1018. This much earlier date of issue throws new light upon several fundamental questions related to a charter from the year 1109, enumerating the properties of the Monastery. The author analyses four important problems. He formulates both the legal reasons and legal goals that may have led to the issue of this ?judgement-charter’ by comparing the differences of the properties of the Monastery listed in the Greek foundational diploma and the later charter. One of those reasons could have involved the right to collect decimation tax from the people of the Monastery. According to the author’s explanation, the 1109 charter omits reference to the Archbishop’s supremacy – contrary to the diploma of foundation –, because the king’s commissioner interpreted the reference to the Metropolitan authority in the Greek charter as it was valid at the time of foundation in the hierarchy of the Byzantine Church, but not in 1109 under the Roman Church governing at the time. The author explains why King Saint Stephen was mentioned as the founder of the Monastery, albeit it was in fact founded by his father, Dux Géza. Finally, the author gives his views on the real meaning of the charter’s enigmatical reference to a certain auctor monasterii.

Keywords: charter of the Monastery in the Veszprém Valley, judgement-charter of 1109, Saint Stephen of Hungary, the Synod of Tarcal, Metropolitan authority, Byzantine Church in Hungary, auctor monasterii.

Holler László