AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
CULTURAL AND LITERARY CONCRETIZATIONS OF LANGUAGE SPECIFICS FROM THE
NATIONAL MINORITY ASPECT
a
PATRIK ŠENKÁR
J. Selye University, Faculty of Education, Department of Slovak
Language and Literature, Bratislavská cesta 3322, 945 01
Komárno, Slovak Republic
email:
a
senkarp@ujs.sk
This study has been produced as a part of the VEGA project No. 1/0034/17
“Transculturalism and Bilingualism in Slovak and Hungarian Literature”.
Abstract:
The main objective of this contribution is to introduce the characteristic
features and language specifics which are present in the cultural and literary work
(1989-2018) of Alexander Kormoš, a Slovak poet living in contemporary Hungary.
Based on creative bilingualism of individual texts, it highlights the individual creative
language of the author, his diverse concretizations in terms of the centre and the
symbolic periphery. It also uses an overall interpretive approach of its collections as
well as the aspect of some exchange of cultural code or the impact of "codification".
As a special feature of the contribution can be identified the search for the original
essence of the lyrical subject on the basis of “used and applied“ languages with the
help of multilingualism, viewed from the aspect of mutual contact of the Slovak and
Hungarian language in poetry (language and its concretization).
Keywords: culture, literature, language, minority, interpretation
Introduction
Language is a system of symbols: linguistics is a scientific study
of the language, especially in terms of structure, development
and function. Language as a tool of communication is a natural
phenomenon of our civilized society. It is a link between the
individual and society, since language acquisition: “…is one of
the most important factors in forming personality and shaping
one’s view of the world, as language is one of the most crucial
forms of human communication, a medium between the
individual and the outside world” (Puskás, 2014, p. 54).
However, on the basis of its specificities and peculiarities it
varies and is differentiated e.g. the local use of language is
specified geographically. This statement is also valid in
international environment.
The author and his creative language concretizations are
therefore particularly important in such a specific chronotope.
The poet is a kind of link between mutual, as well as cultural
relations in the background of understanding Central European
nations and the national minorities (Zelenka, 2013). The author
can make a contribution with his work (also) as a member of a
national minority. A multitude of cultures is created in the
background of universality based on spiritual principle.
Therefore, there is a hidden persistence in cultures under the
condition of universal development. Language, as a specific
factor in a certain sense is “…a mirror of the social and cultural
life of the nationality in its organic relationship with the life of
the national majority”
(Kormoš, 1990b, p. 44).
1 The aspects of diversity of Slovak language in a minority
environment
One of the external prerequisites of the language is the social
status. According to this, the Slovak language represents a
dynamic category in development horizon. In addition, it is
important to apply the inter-language criteria. For this reason
“…based on the characteristic ethnocultural, communicative,
pragmatic, regiolectal and similar factors, it is possible to talk
about the Slovak language as a pluricentric language” (Dudok,
2008, p. 45), especially in terms of pragmatic and cultural
dimensions, which allows the mentioned internal differentiation.
The boundaries of Slovak language determine different aspects
(genetic, typological, territorial, etc.), which represent rather a
plastic boundary.
This is changing with the development of the
communication environment – synchronically and diachronically
in the regions of Hungary inhabited also by Slovak population.
Despite the fact that the Slovak language spoken abroad has a
diaspora character, in Hungary it used to have an enclave
character. The enclave language resulted as a development of the
European geopolitical situation from the 18
th
to the 20
th
century.
Following the era of Theresian and Jozefian reforms and the fall
of the Ottoman Empire, strong Slovak islands emerged in
Southern Pannonia (the Lowland: what is today part of Hungary,
Romania, Serbia). Enclave refers to a group of people who are
separated from their nation and are capable of biological and
cultural reproduction in ethnically different environment. It is a
compact ethnic settlement in the environment of a different
ethnical group that completely encompasses them. They
originated historically as a result of human migration. A good
example for enclave of the Slovak ethnicity in non-native
environment are the Slovak people living in Lowland, thus also
in Hungary. Traditional elements of culture are more likely to be
preserved in enclave than in diaspora. In Hungary “…a
dominant diasporic community has replaced the enclave of the
Slovak language, which was almost replaced by the Hungarian;
recently an interest in revitalization of the Slovak language has
increased, especially favoured by the educated layer of the
society; supported by the increasing number of Slovak nursery
schools, bilingual education in primary schools, secondary
grammar schools and university education, as well as the mass
media enhancing the importance of the Slovak language”
(Dudok, 2011, p. 40). Generally, education is considered today
as a tool of the competitive ability. In our field it symbolically
continuous in contacts of nations, nationalities (and its texts) in
the process of translation – but possibilities, trends and
approaches to the acquisition of the educational level are very
important, too (Szokol, Horvathova, Dobay, 2016). It reflects in
real life and in school education, too, especially in student´s
books (Toth, 2015). In this relation the translation between two
languages is an important view-point from/to the poetic
concretizations (
Andričík, 2013; Mura, Torok, 2012). However,
we also record language specifics of poetic expressions in the
work of some of the Slovak authors in Hungary (Alexander
Kormoš, Imrich Fuhl, Gabriel Hattinger, etc.). The linguistic
contacts and several cultural processes in Hungary enabled the
preservation of the Slovak language, against which new forms of
the language replaced it in Slovakia. On the other hand, also
those elements of the exosphere had been incorporated into the
literary devices (e.g. poems), which appeared in communication
practice of the homeland after disappearance of physical borders
of the countries. Because of this aspect, the current borders
(external, internal) of the language have a heterogeneous
character.
In connection with the existence of the Slovak
language beyond the borders of the homeland, the model of
receptive multilingualism is applied, which contributes to mutual
convergence and intercultural understanding of those with
similar and different language variants (
Pekarovičová, 2013).
2 Bilingualism and pluricentrism from the perspective of the
minority
Some Slovak authors in Hungary are constantly looking for a
broad-spectrum creative spirit at the background of bilingualism.
They are trying to emphasize the existence of their nationality
from both aspects. Symbolically it can be said that they are
based on the theory of pluricentric character of the modern
Slovak language of Miroslav Dudok. Besides the territory of
present-day Slovakia it has been developing for almost three
centuries in Slovak enclaves outside the homeland, also in
Hungary, where it has the status of a minority language. This
pluricentricity was reflected at all levels of the language,
especially in lexical aspects. This is also valid for the literary
work of Slovak national authors living in Hungary (Dudok,
2008).
Alexander Kormoš, a well-known Slovak poet in Hungary
explains his literary work as the following: “…Why do I write in
Hungarian as well? The Hungarians should also have an access
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