Syntax of Hungarian: a new comprehensive series is to be published

A new syntax series is launched about the Hungarian language in English as the result of a collaboration between 5 prestigious universities and the MTA (Hungarian Academy of Sciences). The series about the Hungarian syntax, which is troublesome for many, may show how developed the Hungarian linguistics is, and may also popularise the language, reports Beol.hu and Infostart.hu.

While several publications have appeared about such Indo-European langages as English, French, Dutch, Swedish or Russian, it is important to note that these are widely-spoken languages in countries where the financial background for such publications is also given, reports István Kenesei, Hungarian linguist and editor-in-chief of the new series.

The Hungarian language can be interesting for researchers because, in the last 50-60 years, a number of publications have documented it. The 1st out of the eight volumes of the series, the editors of which are Gábor Alberti and Tibor Laczkó, is called Nouns and Noun Phrases, and it is already available in bookstores. This volume is composed of 2 volumes, altogether 1257 pages, and is published by the Amsterdam University Press. Thanks to the MTA, both volumes of the 1st volume are available here for free. (Click on open access!)

The comprehensive work can help find the place of the Hungarian language in the world as it is not like any other languages and is not related to any other cultures or nations.

The research, documented in the books, describes the Hungarian grammar in more depth than before and it also examines linguistic phenomena which have not been investigated so far.

To make this series possible the dedication and hard work of 50 Hungarian linguists were needed during the research conducted between 2012 and 2016. Besides the linguists of the MTA, 5 Hungarian universities also participated in it including the University of Debrecen, the Eötvös Loránd University, the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, the University of Pécs and the University of Szeged.

Hungarian experts aimed to provide a comprehensive review of the linguistic results achieved in the last 50 years and also remedy to the shortcomings of the previous studies. Besides nouns and noun phrases, the oncoming volumes also consider the structure of Hungarian sentences, adverbs and postposition, verbs and verbal groups, subordinated clauses and coordinated clauses and the characteristics of the language.

Finally, István Kenesei also emphasised that right after the Indo-European languages dominant in the world, Hungarian is one of the best-documented languages. Its influence and dominance can be compared to languages such as Japanese, Chinese or Arabic, spoken by a greater number of people.

We are very happy about the new series and we hope that you will read it with pleasure while discovering the beauty of the language 🙂

Source: beol.hu; infostart.hu