A dictionary, just like the Bible, can be called the book of books, the number one book of the language of each nation. Anatole France is often quoted as saying “a dictionary is the whole universe in alphabetical order”, a book that contains all other books: you just have to retrieve them. Its author, the lexicographer, plays an important social role by inevitably contributing to the emergence and development of linguistic norms, even though he does not want to set norms, and should not even be expected to do so. By presenting the dominant stock of words and expressions, the dominant use of the given language, he participates in its legitimization, dissemination, and the formation of future linguistic norms. Bilingual and multilingual dictionaries that contain plenty of language-dependent cultural stereotypes, on the other hand, can be seen as a kind of intercultural bridge between and across languages. The paper sketches the major challenges of a lexicographer’s work, the organisation of the micro- and macrocosmos of a dictionary, including the difficulties it involves, and also digresses to a comparison of printed and digintal/online dictionaries.

Keywords: theoretical lexicography, practical lexicography, dictionary making.

The present paper analyses the semantic and stylistic makeup of current Hungarian neologisms in the process of linguistic change, in a functional-cognitive framework. The aim of the analyses is (i) to present case studies of the possibility of a semantic and stylistic analysis of neologisms of diverse grammatical structures based on examples collected by the author; (ii) to explore the possibilities of presenting linguistic change in general and neologisms in particular in the process of education, and (iii) to give examples of the mental processes that language users exhibit while using neologisms, taken from relevant data gleaned from questionnaires administered in a number of different years, and in organic unity with the analyses offered previously. The paper illustrates the analyses by graphical representations in terms of the theory of conceptual integration (blending). The content of mental spaces as represented in the figures is determined on the basis of participants’ answers in the questionnaire studies.

Keywords: neologism, linguistic change, semantic-stylistic analysis, metonymy, metaphor, conceptual integration.

Sólyom Réka
Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem

Due to well-known historical reasons, quite a few monarchs of Hungary were of foreign origin and their first language was not Hungarian. Hence, the simple issue (that is nevertheless significant for the culture and national self-respect of Hungarians) of whether the kings and queens of Hungary spoke Hungarian is surrounded by uncertainty and a number of conjectures. The author’s aim is to collect the available pieces of information, to supplement them by some new pieces, and to inspire further studies of the issue. Relying on her experience and knowledge as a language teacher, she presents a coherent picture of the mastery or otherwise of Hungarian of kings who ruled the country for a substantial amount of time (and their spouses), filling in gaps in the relevant chapters of historical biographies in a number of cases.

Keywords: language acquisition, languages learning, mastery of a language, language teacher, language skills.

Szili Katalin
ELTE Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem

In a fragmentary Latin passional from the fifteenth century, kept in the Library of Esztergom Cathedral (MSS. I. 178.), two Hungarian text fragments can be found on the inside of the front and back covers, respectively. The first text fragment can be related to St Paul’s letter to the Romans 11.33–36, from János Sylvester’s 1541 translation of the Bible, while the second can be related to the Te deum of the Peer Codex, but neither of them is a direct copy of those texts. In the case of the first fragment, the effect of an earlier written text can be suspected, and in the case of the second, oral tradition may have played a role. Thus, the parallels give but limited chance for establishing the time of writing. On the back cover, in almost identical handwriting, the names of two possible owners can also be read: gregorius chompor, and gergiu? ?zucz de comiati. The unique letter shapes and the system of orthography represented in a limited data set also fail to give us sufficient clue for an unambiguous clarification of the circumstances of emergence of the fragments.

Keywords: Te deum laudamus, St Paul’s letters, fragment, text publication, system of representation of sounds, reading, circumstances of emergence.