Projects / Programmes
Slovene language basic, contrastive, and applied studies
January 1, 2009
- December 31, 2014
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.05.00 |
Humanities |
Linguistics |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H350 |
Humanities |
Linguistics |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.02 |
Humanities |
Languages and Literature |
Slovene language, history of language, functinal grammar, contrastive grammar, word formation, syntax, morphology, phraseology, social dialects; corpus linguistics, language technologies; onomastics; structuralism, generative grammar, cognitive linguistics, pragmatical linguistics, applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, theory of discourse; language teaching, language acqisition; translation.
Researchers (40)
Organisations (2)
Abstract
The research deals with fundamental areas of the Slovene language with a special emphasis on the contrastive element. In terms of its application, the research relates primarily to the use of core linguistic findings in textbooks and teaching materials at university level as well as other levels of education.
The basic research relates to the following fields:
(1) Contemporary Slovene, where the emphasis is placed on the following: topics in grammar, centring on syntactic issues at the level of structure as well as at the level of meaning. The focus is on determining basic sentence units by differentiating multi-word lexemes (idiomatic expressions) from phrases. This field comprises also topics in phraseology and will result in a monograph based on the concept established during the research. - The level of syntax is primarily concerned with introducing new aspects into the understanding of complex sentence structures at least to the level of the so-called 'spoken discourse paragraph'. The research will also deal with issues in Functional Sentence Perspective.
- The issues in morphology relate to word formation, where one of the goals is the preparation of a monograph based on the concept allready established.
The problems of the modern language are open to all other grammar topics as well.
-The basic research also includes topics in sociolinguistics. The research will aim at the empirical determining, the quantitative assessment and the interpretation of the differences between the language varieties of some characteristic socially defined groups (sociolects) in the Slovene language at various linguistic levels.
(2) The history of the Slovene language: The research is directed at establishing the developmental dynamics mostly in the field of morphology and lexicology and primarily according to dialect groups. - For Slovene place names, a subset of proper names, representing a relatively independent linguistic sub-system, a structural typology will be constructed, with a special reference to their chronological and regional distribution. - The Glagolitic tradition in Slovenia, part of Slovene linguistic and cultural history, will be examined, classified and described according to the written and printed materials available.
The contrastive research will focus on individual grammar topics that will provide a base for a contemporary Russian-Slovene contrastive grammar. In addition, the contrastive point of view will partly serve as a basis for an overview of the most important periods in the history of Russian until the forming of the modern standard variant.
- The period of the formation of the modern standard Slovene language foundations (the turn of the 18th century and the whole 19th century) will be presented in the light of broader Slovene-Czech cultural connections. Part of the research will centre on Slovene-Czech contrastive studies in general.
- The applied research will be of an empirical and comparative nature. It will be primarily concerned with studying communication skills (linguistic, pragmatic, metalinguistic and metacognitive) throughout the whole educational process.
Basic research methods: The research methods relate to European and American linguistics of the 20th century, i.e. structuralism (functional, linear) and generative linguistics. The two frameworks apply to both basic and contrastive studies. Certain basic and applied studies will also incorporate methods pertaining to the field of pragmatics. - When dealing with historical topics, methods of a diachronic approach will be used to a certain degree. - The methodology of cognitive linguistics, developed at the end of the 20th century, will be used in parts of the basic research of the contemporary Slovene language. - Methods pertaining to sociolinguistics will be used as well.
Significance for science
I. The research program continues the dialogue of the individual research disciplines with international linguistics; its materials, the theoretical approach, and the findings are original contributions to international linguistics. Research in the discipline of Slovene linguistic studies is a concentration of linguistic ideas on the Slovene language, while research results establish the authenticity of Slovene linguistic studies within the international linguistic community. II. Viewed from a broader perspective, in the last two or three decades linguistics has witnessed a noticeable paradigm shift from researching language as a system, which was typical of structuralism, to a more empirically-oriented language description which aims to describe the workings of language in real life, and is linked to fields such as psychology, neurobiology, ICT, artificial intelligence etc. This type of linguistics aims to integrate traditional themes such as phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, etc. and others: pragmatics, discourse analysis, text linguistics, etc., into a unified description. To enable research within the new paradigm, reliable empirical data about different language phenomena is needed, and this is provided by modern computational or corpus linguistics, using automatic methods to analyze extensive collections of written and spoken language data (corpora). III. Linguistic procedures and language technology developed within the research program will improve language resources for Slovene (including parallel and comparable multilingual corpora). Thus an important segment of the Slovene linguistic infrastructure will be created, making sure that the infrastructure is incorporated into the linguistic research sphere as an essential segment of contemporary linguistic analyses and linguistic descriptions based on these analyses. The program will thus contribute to the following: a. the development of the principles of a standardized presentation of language resources for Slovene b. the development of modern methods of analyzing structured data in text corpora c. the development of modern methods of linking corpus resources, their analysis and the presentation of the results of the analysis č. the development of modern methods for accessing Slovene language resources In applied linguistics domain, the program will strengthen the role of corpus linguistics in Slovenia. With the compilation of general corpora, corpus linguistics has established itself as an independent research starting point. When corpus-based approach is systematically included into research on Slovene language and contrastive studies of Slovene and other languages, an important step will be made towards a meaningful inclusion of corpus linguistics into language analysis in general.
Significance for the country
I. Basic research studies of Slovene ensure that the language fulfills all its functions and is comparable to other European and world languages. II. In contemporary society that is based on knowledge and advanced technologies, it is important that adequate infrastructure is developed for every language. This is something that we must do ourselves. In the global community, accessibility of information in a particular language, as well as its potential to interrelate with other languages, is of vital importance, therefore, the compilation of various language resources for Slovene is crucial, as is efficient intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary communication, within a single language and among various languages. Work in the field of terminology has worldwide support, as it enhances the transfer of technology. Undoubtedly, this is also the case for Slovenia. By efficient terminology management we not only encourage a faster transfer of technological solutions to the Slovene environment, but also present Slovene technological achievements in a foreign language. Figures show that the majority of all data related to specialized knowledge and skills (as much as 80%) is transferred through the modern media. Therefore, terminological research is extremely important for a successful exchange of relevant information. By ensuring a fast and efficient exchange of new information, it offers economic entities operating in this environment an opportunity for a better performance. Data shows that skilled transfer of specialized information from one language to another is an important factor in economic development. III. Communication problems often arise from insufficient knowledge of terminology rather than from the lack general language skills. The incorrect use of terminology and communicative patterns can have a number of negative effects, ranging from a poorer economic performance to harm or injury in situations involving safety regulations or instructions for use, due to inadequate translation. They may reduce the efficiency of education, increase the cost in the context of unsuccessful interlingual transfer of technical documentation, reduce the level of legal protection in contracts and other legal documents, etc. Thus, the effects of the proposed research work can be measured both in terms of quantity and quality. The proposed research presents the basis for ensuring efficient communication and consequently plays an important role in eliminating the negative effects listed above on interlingual and intercultural transfer.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2009,
2010,
2011,
2012,
2013,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2009,
2010,
2011,
2012,
2013,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
