Magyar Nyelvőr

Bańczerowski, Janusz: The mechanism of word cooccurrences and the linguistic image of the world
Knowledge of the image of the world as it is encoded in a given language may be of great help in understanding the mechanism of word cooccurrences. On the other hand, the study of collocations in a broad theoretical framework may deepen our knowledge of linguistic categorisation and the axiological system of a language. The linguistic image of the world and the mechanism whereby words cooccur are interdependent. This idea is exemplified by the author via an analysis of a number of Hungarian set phrases like lyukas emlékezet 'defective (lit.: leaky) memory', elveszítette a türelmét 'he lost his patience', felrúgta a munkáját 'he quit (lit.: kicked over) his job', megszakította (vkivel) az ismeretséget 'he broke off all relations (with sy)'. The author also points out that the study of collocations may provide useful information concerning the workings of the axiological system of a language. This point is confirmed by a number of attributive constructions analysed in this paper.