University of Pannonia Doctoral School of Linguistics Theses of Doctoral (PhD) Dissertation Nyakas Judit RESEARCH OF HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES: THE LANGUAGE OF LOGISTICS Supervisor: Ablonczyné Dr. habil. Mihályka Lívia Veszprém 2011
Introduction The language of economics is an important area of research within the field of languages for special purposes. In the age of globalization, the need to understand languages for special purposes has been steadily increasing. The internationalisation of economic and scientific relations implies the mutual interaction of languages as a consequence. Language as an important means of communication has always been exposed to influences (e.g. Latin, French) due to the developement of social forms, political integration and technological processes. In the globalized world, the dominance of English plays an important role in both general and technical languages. The evolution of vocabulary means new tasks and challenges for both language users as well as linguists. 1. The subject and aim of the dissertation The topic of the dissertation is very current, as the importance of logistics in both the domestic as well as the international economy has been growing in the last decades, which has a determining role in the information flow among several domains of the economy. Although the special language of economy has been analysed by several linguists, this is the first research that focuses on the Hungarian language use of the science of logistics, which is an important part of the economy, but it contains its own system of terminology. The author of the dissertation is the first to analyse the special language of logistics. The goals of the dissertation are to explore the structure of the Hungarian technical language of logistics, the layers of usage, the communication scenes, and to describe the syntactic and semantic features of the language of logistics, as well as
to analyse the terminological and lexical features of the vocabulary of logistics (word-formation, foreign prefixes, compounds, syntagmas, funcional verb structures, loan words, foreign words, anglicisms). An important aim is the analysis of the etimological evolution as well as the extension of the technical term logistics. It is essential to provide a historical overview of the science of logistics in order to examine the language usage of logistics as the linguistic conventions for special purposes can always only be examined just within the development of the related discipline. The author is going to attempt to explore the structure of the language for special purposes, with the presentation of the horizontal and vertical articulation possibilities. The communication scenes of the language for special purposes are examined by using the models of Hymes (1975), Kiss (1995) and Mészáros (2008). The focus of this study is the terminology of logistics as this subject and the use of the language for special purposes has become a considerably important matter in the language of economy in the recent decades. It is important to clarify that the field of logistics should be considered as an interdisciplinary science that exhibits points of contact with economics and engineering. The subject of this research is connected to several disciplines of applied linguistics (e.g. terminology, sociolinguistics). 2. Hypotheses The hypotheses of the dissertation are the following: the role of compounding has been steadily increasing, especially hybrid compounding (Hungarian English hybrid words), the use of foreign prefixes in the vocabulary of logistics,
the inflow of anglicisms int he vocabulary of the Hungarian language of logistics is growing significantly, the most frequent anglicisms in the Hungarian vocabulary are acronyms, the Hungarian special language of logistics adopts several technical words from English, which have equivalents in Hungarian, and these are used like Hungarian words (English word-form with Hungarian suffix and inflectional affix), the inflow of foreign words causes many usage problems (contradictions in the Hungarian English compounds and acronyms). 3. Research methods 3.1. Corpus In this linguistic research articles of Supply Chain Monitor, Loginfo, Tranzit, Hungarian Yearbook of Logistics, which are all specialized in logistics, have been examined by the author in order to reveal characteristics of the language in this special field. The autor has also analysed the written technical language of earlier times in the vocabulary of the following technical books: Kereskedelem a szocialista gazdaságban (Forgács, 1983), A logisztika elmélete és gyakorlata (Körmendi Pucsek, 2008), Logisztika menedzsment (Prezenszki Szegedi, 2003), Logisztika (Némon Sebestyén Vörösmarty, 2006). 3.2. Research methods The focus of the research is the special vocabulary of the Hungarian language of logistics and the influence of anglicisms on Hungarian terminology. The special vocabulary of logistics was analysed mainly with quantitative manual research methods, which focused on several aspects. The analysis of the most frequently used compounds, foreign prefixes and anglicisms was conducted with the help of WordSmith Tools 0.5 (Analysis Software Ltd., Oxford University Press) concordance program.
The purpose of the research was to analyse and systematize the vocabulary of the Hungarian technical language of logistics, as well as to describe the features and regularities of the special communication of logistics. 4. The structure of the dissertation Chapter 1 (INTRODUCTION) outlines the topic of the thesis and introduces the goals, hypotheses, corpus and the research methods that are used by the author. The first chapter of the thesis outlines the list of figures and tables of the dissertation. Chapter 2 (LANGUAGE FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES) introduces the role and interpretations of special languages. The second chapter contains the question of classification of special languages as well as the relationship between special and standard languages, which also determines the characteristic feature of specialized texts. The second part of the chapter summarizes the concepts and results of terminological research, as well as technical translations. It also examines the usage of scientific language. Chapter 3 (CHANGE OF TECHNICAL LANGUAGE) outlines the concept of globalisation and examines its relation to languages. The third chapter introduces the role of lingua francas with special regard to the dominance of English in languages for special purposes. Afterwards, the reasons and tendencies of the change of technical languages are analysed. Chapter 4 (SPECIAL LANGUAGE OF LOGISTICS) examines the origin and evolution of the technical term logistics in Hungarian. The fourth chapter determines the concept of logistics, as well as introduces the subject, discipline classifying and evolution of the science of logistics. The second part of this chapter deals with the place of the language of logistics among Hungarian special languages, and describes the communication functions as well as scenes of the language usage based on different communications models. Finally the structure (horizontal and vertical) of the special language of logistics is examined.
Chapter 5 (CHARACTERISTIC FEATURE OF THE WRITTEN TECHNICAL LANGUAGE OF LOGISTICS) summarizes the characteristic features of the written language of logistics based on Hungarian language for special purposes. The fifth chapter introduces the user groups as well as genres of written technical language. The second part of this chapter describes the syntactic, stylistic and lexical characteristic features of the written special language of logistics. Chapter 6 (WORD-FORMATION IN VOCABLULARY OF THE TECHNICAL LANGUAGE OF LOGISTICS) presents the results of terminological examination based on the vocabulary of the examined corpus. The sixth chapter analyses the characteristic features of word-formation (word-formation, compound, syntagmas) in the Hungarian special language of logistics based on the corpus. Chapter 7 (FOREIGN WORDS IN THE HUNGARIAN TECHNICAL LANGUAGE OF LOGISTICS) examines the foreign words and words of foreign origin in the vocabulary of language of logistics, with special regard to anglicisms. The seventh chapter summarizes the results of analysed loan words, international words, as well as foreign acronyms in the vocabulary of logistics based on the corpus. Chapter 8 (THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES: THE HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE OF LOGISTICS) defines the role and importance of the logistical language for special purposes in Hungarian higher education. In the second part of the eighth chapter, four technical dictionaries based on logistics were compared and summarized by the author. Chapter 9 (CONCLUSION) presents the conclusions of the research and describes the results of the analysis. Furthermore, it also proves the hypotheses and points out further areas of research.
5. Scientific results of the thesis The research is the first examination of the Hungarian written language of logistics, which focuses on the characteristic features of particular language usage, such as special vocabulary. The dissertation describes for the first time the user groups, communication scenes and genres, such as the syntactic, semantic and lexical features of the written language of logistics. The author examines the most frequently used word-formations, compounds, syntagmas and functional verb structures, and proves their frequency the help of a concordancy program based on the corpus. The role and importance of anglicisms (English words, English Hungarian compounds, syntagmas and acronyms) are revealed by the author, which are used nowadays as an integral part of the vocabulary of this Hungarian special language. The benefit of this research is to demonstrate all the collected databases of logistical vocabulary, besides the description of the characteristic features of the language of logistics. The results of the logistics vocabulary analyses can be used as a basis for a logistics dictionary, which would be capable of fullfilling a long-felt needs of both education and linguistic research. 6. The future opportunities of the research In the research part of the dissertation the author focuses on the general language of logistics. The analysis of this paper and the comparison of each component of the language of logistics could be the subject of further research. Although the author explores the historical features of logistics language in earlier times with the help of short examples, the developement and evolution of the language of logistics is worthy of further detailed diachronic research.
The analysis concentrats exclusively on the written language of logistics, but the description of verbal logistics communication should be subject to further research. The dissertation mostly focuses on the vocabulary of written languages for special purposes such as technical texts, and the detailed description of genres. However, it is suggested to work on a further examination. The analysis of this paper includes the features of Hungarian language for special purposes, however, comparison of Hungarian language of logistics with other languages (e.g. German, English) could be the subject of further research. Bibliography used for the thesis Forgács T. (szerk.) 1983. Kereskedelem a szocialista gazdaságban. Budapest. Közgazdasági és Jogi Könyvkiadó. Hymes, D. 1974. Foundations in Sociolinguistics. An Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia. University of Philadelphia Press Kiss J. 1995. Társadalom és nyelvhasználat. Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó. Budapest. Mészáros Á. 2008. A kommunikációs színterek szerepe a szaknyelvi tartalom megahatározásában. In: Silye M. (szerk.): Porta Lingua 2008. Cikkek, tanulmányok a hazai szaknyelvoktatásról és kutatásról. Debrecen. DEAC. 87 96. Szegedi Z. Prezenszki J. 2003. Logisztika-menedzsment. Budapest. Kossuth Kiadó. Subject-related publications Nyakas J. 2010. A tudományos nyelv és stílus jellemzői a logisztikai szaknyelvben. In: Silye M. (szerk.) Porta lingua. Tudományterületek és nyelvhasználat. Debrecen. DEAC. 83 89. Nyakas J. 2010. Idegen nyelvi hatások a logisztikai szaknyelvben. In: Zimányi Á. (szerk.): A tudomány nyelve a nyelv tudománya. Alkalmazott nyelvészeti kutatások a magyar nyelv évében. Eger Székesfehérvár. 917 922. Nyakas J. 2010. Anglicizmusok a logisztikai szaknyelvben. In: Svéhlik Cs. (szerk.): Útkeresés a gazdasági válság nyomán. Mór. ISBN 978-963- 875553-6-0. Nyakas J. 2011. A logisztikai szaknyelv kommunikációs funkciói.
In: Segédkönyvek az alkalmazott nyelvészet tanulmányozásához. Budapest. Tinta Könyvkiadó. Nyakas J. 2011. A magyar logisztikai szaknyelv vizsgálata. In: lingua. Budapest. Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem IOK, Alkalmazott Nyelvészeti Kutató- és Továbbképző Központ. Nyakas, J. 2011. Untersuchungen zur ungarischen Fachsprache Logistik. In: Wiener Linguistische Gazette. Wien, Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Wien. 2011/75, 100-111. elérhető: www.univie.ac.at/linguistics/publications/wgl/ Conference presentations Idegen nyelvi hatások a német és a magyar gazdasági szaknyelvben. XII. Apáczai-napok, Nyugat-Magyarországi Egyetem Apáczai Csere János Kar. Győr, 2008. október 20-22. Idegen nyelvi hatások a logisztikai szaknyelvben. XIX. Magyar Alkalmazott Nyelvészeti Kongresszus. A tudomány nyelve a nyelv tudománya. Eger, 2009. április 16-18. A logisztikai szaknyelv változása a globalizálódó világban. XI. Dunaújvárosi Nemzetközi Alkalmazott Nyelvészeti és Kommunikációs Konferencia, Dunaújvárosi Főiskola. Dunaújváros, 2009. május 7-8. A tudományos nyelv és stílus jellemzői a logisztikai szaknyelvben. SZOKOE, IX. Szaknyelvi konferencia. Tudományterületek és nyelvhasználat. Veszprém, 2009. október 16-17. Fachsprache Logistik. 2. Österreichische Studierendenkonferenz Linguistik (ÖKSL). Wien, 2009. 11.21. Anglizismen in der ungarischen Fachsprache der Logistik. XII. Dunaújvárosi Nemzetközi Alkalmazott Nyelvészeti és Kommunikációs Konferencia. Dunaújváros, 2010. március 11-12. Anglicizmusok a logisztikai szaknyelvben. V. KHEOPS Tudományos konferencia. Mór, 2010. május 19. A szaknyelvek változása a globalizálódó világban. 16. Élőnyelvi Konferencia. Beregszász, 2010. szeptember 15-18. A logisztikai szaknyelv kommunikációs funkciói. Nyelvi funkciók stílus és kapcsolat. c. tudományos konferencia. KJF ELTE. Budapest, 2010. október 18-19. Idegen nyelvi hatások a logisztikai szaknyelvben. SZOKOE, X. Jubileumi Szaknyelvi Konferencia. Budapesti Gazdasági Főiskola KVIK. Budapest, 2010. november 19-20. A magyar logisztikai szaknyelv vizsgálata. Corvinus Nyelvi Napok. Szaknyelvoktatás és multikulturalitás. BCE. Budapest, 2011. április 28-29.