Anna Racova - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Anna Racova
Asian and African Studies, May 28, 2021
On 14 February 2021 our precious colleague and friend Dr Viktor Krupa, an outstanding Orientalist... more On 14 February 2021 our precious colleague and friend Dr Viktor Krupa, an outstanding Orientalist, linguist, translator, and author of travel books, the founder of Oceanic and Polynesian studies in Slovakia, and one of the founders of Japanese studies at the Department of Oriental Studies of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University passed away at the age 84. Viktor Krupa worked for the Department of Oriental Studies, which was renamed to the Institute of Oriental Studies in 2014, for forty-nine years. He spent this period working more than hard-doing research, popularizing science, translating, teaching, and organizing. In each of these areas he has achieved exceptional results, not only thanks to his talent but also thanks to his extraordinary diligence. Viktor Krupa was born on 23 December in Nové Mesto nad Váhom. He graduated in Slovak and Russian from the Faculty of Arts at Comenius University in Bratislava in 1959, enriching the fields with his studies Stavové perfektum v slovenčine [The "State" Perfect in Slovak] (1962) and K nekotorym problemam stradateľnogo zaloga soveršennogo vida v russkom jazyke [On Some Problems of the Passive Voice of the Perfective Aspect in the Russian Language] (1962). However, it was Oriental Studies which enchanted him. In 1961 he joined the Department of Oriental Studies of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and soon became a highly regarded expert on Polynesian languages, especially Maori, Marquesan, and Hawaiian, as well as Austronesian languages, in particular Indonesian and Malay, which he had studied at the University of Auckland in New Zealand in 1965-1966. In 1966 he published a monograph entitled Morpheme and Word in Maori with a prestigious Dutch publisher Mouton and Co. In 1965 he defended it as his doctoral thesis. The monograph was followed by two more books on Maori, both published in Moscow: Jazyk maori in 1967 and The Maori Language in 1968. In the coming years he published his book Polynesian Languages. A Survey of Research with the prestigious publisher Mouton in Hague (1973) and Polinezijskije jazyki [Polynesian Languages] (1975) and Gavajskij jazyk [The Hawaiian Language] (1979) in Moscow again. As is evident, in the first two decades of his research activities Viktor Krupa made full use of his expertise in the linguistic issues of
Asian and African studies, 2018
Asian and African studies, 2016
Asian and African studies, 2009
ABSTRACT The aim o f this paper is to show which tenses are used to describe past actions and sta... more ABSTRACT The aim o f this paper is to show which tenses are used to describe past actions and states in Bengali. Our conclusions are based on the analysis of text by four Bengali authors and on descriptions introduced in some Bengali grammars. Each event (action or state) is performed in space and time. It is the moment of utterance, which serves as a basis for locating an event in time. When an event precedes the moment of utterance, it is classified as past; when it takes place in the moment of utterance, it is considered present; when it follows the moment of utterance, it is classified as future. In language, a grammatical time/tense is used to locate an event in relation to the moment of utterance, that is, to some other time. Therefore, an event which took place before the moment of utterance is usually described by the past tense, an event which takes place in the moment of utterance is described by the present tense and the event which will take place after the moment of utterance is, as a rule, described by the future tense. However, the usage of tenses need not always correspond to time: T he relation of time to tense is far from being one-one.'1 For instance, in Bengali, as in many other languages, the past can be expressed by the present tense-the historical present: * This study is published within the grant project VEGA 2/0153/09 ^ M IT H , N. V. Grammaticality, Time and Tense, p. 39. 190 (1) syar oyáltár ryäle 1595 khristábde 1596-e tini äbär larens kemis pāthān. tārpar šesbár 1617 sále sei sandhäne g i y e c h i l e n. (PM47) 'In 1595 A.C. Sir Walter Raleigh " conducts " an expedition. After this expedition he again " sends " a man named Lawrence Kemis to search for El Dorado in 1598. Then in 1617, one year before his death, he himself " had gone " again to search for the last time.' A future event, especially one which is just on the point of taking place, but also one which is not to be performed in the immediate future, can be described by the present imperfect:
Asian and African studies, 2006
The modality, that is the indispensability, possibility and intentionality of carrying out the co... more The modality, that is the indispensability, possibility and intentionality of carrying out the content of the predicate, is expressed within the predicational component o f the illocutionary act. The Slovak Carpathian Romani does not have any modal verbs of its own to express indispensability (must, to have to) and possibility (can, be able to). These modal relations are most often expressed either by borrowed modal verbs (mušinel must, to have to), by particles (musaj must, šaj/našťi can/cannot), or with the help of other lexical means (kampel it is necessary, je l to be). The possibility to carry out some action is expressed in various ways depending on the further specification of the possibility. When expressing indispensability and possibility the subject is usually the one carrying out the process expressed by the autosemantic verb and at the same time the bearer of modal disposition for carrying it out expressed by the modal verb. When expressing intentionality (to want), we also frequently find cases where the subject carrying out the action expressed by a particular verb form is not identical with the bearer of modal disposition. Then the action to be carried out is expressed in the following illocutionary act.
Asian and African studies, 2008
ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to show what means are used to express voluntative modality in ... more ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to show what means are used to express voluntative modality in the Bengali language. The article presents a detailed analysis of lexico-syntactic means (modal verbs and modal auxiliaries in construction with infinitives or verbal nouns), of morphological means (the moods), and of lexical means (verbs, nouns, and adjectives). It shows that the means of expressing voluntative modality in Bengali are numerous and varied. Most frequently they express various shades of specific modal relations. On the other hand, one and the same modal expression can be used to express various kinds of modal meaning (for instance, the notional verb in the infinitive form combined with the verb pārā can express possibility, permissibility as well as ability to perform an action). Modality, usually defined as the category expressing the speaker's attitude to the reality of the utterance, a category which is present in each utterance, presents a complex problem which can be studied from the viewpoint of linguistics, logic and philosophy. These scientific fields apply their own approaches to the study of modality and pay special attention to some of its aspects (for instance, to modality of judgements in logic, to the problem of objective reality in philosophy, to the linguistic means of expressing modality in linguistics and so on). The category of logical modality and this also in relation * This study is published within the grant project VEGA 2/6095/26: " The Cultures and Nations of Asia, Oceania and Africa " .
Asian and African studies, 2010
Although in some languages the research of the category of aspect goes as far back as the end of ... more Although in some languages the research of the category of aspect goes as far back as the end of 19th century, 2 for the new Indian languages this is a relatively new problem. Attention started to be paid to aspect only as late as in the middle of 20th century, and in this area up to now relatively little research has been done. This also applies for Bengali, where within investigating this verbal category several approaches have appeared. The aim of our article is to present a brief survey of the history of the research of aspect in Bengali as well as on the basis of existing findings and the analysis of Bengali texts to provide our own view of the means by which this semantic category is expressed in the Bengali language.
Asian and African studies, 2014
An analysis of a Bengali-English dictionary and Bengali texts revealed that, like many other Asia... more An analysis of a Bengali-English dictionary and Bengali texts revealed that, like many other Asian languages, Bengali is rich in ideophones. It is attested to especially by the number of ideophones in the dictionary, which can be assumed to include only such ideophones that are well-established in the language. The texts, on the other hand, also include ideophones that cannot be found in the dictionary. This fact proves that ideophones constitute an open word-class in Bengali and can be created ad hoc. Of course, certain rules must be followed so that it is obvious to the recipient what idea the ideophones are supposed to
Asian and African studies, 2012
ABSTRACT This study aims to describe the onomasiological structure of abstract nouns in Slovak Ro... more ABSTRACT This study aims to describe the onomasiological structure of abstract nouns in Slovak Romani. The onomasiological base of this structure is represented by the formants-(i)ben,-(i)pen or-(i)šagos, and the onomasiological mark by bases of different parts of speech such as verbs, adjectives, past participles, adverbs, nouns, pronouns, prepositions, numerals or particles. The study focuses especially on an analysis of names of actions and names of qualities, which constitute the richest subgroup of abstract nouns. The object of analysis is onomasiological marks – motivating words, which are the main indicator of the meaning of action or the meaning of quality of an abstract noun. In some cases they are transpositions from motivating words into abstract nouns; in others new naming units are generated to refer to new content and express new meanings. What then plays a significant role in determining the meaning of an abstract noun is context. Key words: Slovak Romani, onomasiological structure of abstract nouns, onomasiological base-(i)ben,-(i)pen,-(i)šagos, onomasiological mark of abstract nouns, names of actions, names of qualities I. Introduction Abstract nouns designate non-independent phenomena of reality such as qualities, events, actions, states, feelings, ideas, metalanguage notions, hypernyms, etc., which are abstracted from their carriers in thinking and regarded as independent. A real object as a denotation exponent is missing with them. 1 These naming units are a natural part of lexicon. Their number is growing with the intellectualization of language, i.e. the need to denote phenomena related to society's scientific, technical or cultural development and the development of journalistic, administrative and technical styles, which require a
Asian and African studies, 2010
The aim of our paper is to analyse the linguistic features of the Romani census materials from 20... more The aim of our paper is to analyse the linguistic features of the Romani census materials from 2001, which represent the first official use of the Romani language in government documents in the Slovak Republic. Although just a particular set of texts will be analysed here we believe that the census forms can be looked at in more general terms as reflecting the present possibilities of the Romani language to be used for official administrative purposes. It can be assumed that the situation has not changed much during the last nine years which have elapsed since the origin of the census forms. Although the standardization of the Romani language was declared in 2008 and a set of particular books has been published (The Rules of Romani Orthography, 1 The Textbook of Romani, 2 The Conversational Lexicon of Romani Grammar 3 ) on this occasion, there is no special institution that would systematically care for the development of the Romani language, especially for its terminology.
Jazykovedný Časopis, Dec 1, 2018
The aim of this study is to identify possible methods of formation of Romani technical terms by m... more The aim of this study is to identify possible methods of formation of Romani technical terms by means of an analysis of a SlovakRomani dictionary of administrative and legal terms. If the existing word stock of Romani is felt to be insufficient, missing words are added by borrowing from Slovak. The borrowings serve as oneword or multiword terms (štatutaris-'štatutár'/'statutory person'; bežno učtos-'bežný účet'/'current account'); however, more often they serve as components of multiword, most frequently twoword terms which take the form of semicalques. Romani components of the semicalques are either words used in their common dictionary meaning or neologisms. The analysed terminology is characterized by a high rate of homonymy of adjectival forms in the function of the determining component in multiword naming units. The characteristic feature of the analysed Romani terminology is instability, which manifests itself especially in the use of various terms to denote the same content, either Romani terms or variant forms of terms (iribnaskeri forma-'písomná formaʼ/'written formʼ, irinďi informácia-'písomná informáciaʼ/'written informationʼ).
Jazykovedný Časopis, Dec 1, 2016
This study aims to demonstrate the roles that domestic and foreign languages have played and play... more This study aims to demonstrate the roles that domestic and foreign languages have played and play as signs of national or religious identity and social prestige and as tools of political and economic power in multilingual Pakistan and Bangladesh. Before the countries gained independence from the British Empire in 1947 and before the formation of the Indian Union and Pakistan (which was divided into Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1971), the role of an official language, remote to the majority of population in Indian subcontinent, had been gradually played by Sanskrit, Persian, and English. After gaining independence, the new countries decided to replace English as the official language with domestic languages. Their efforts encountered many problems and resulted in various solutions. Urdu became the state language in Pakistan, which caused resistance in local ethnolinguistic groups because the language had been imported by refugees from India. This resistance was the strongest in East Pakistan, where a strong national and language awareness eventually contributed to the formation of an independent Bangladesh with Bengali as the state language. Despite struggle for the dominance of domestic languages, English has preserved its prestigious position both in Pakistan and Bangladesh, as a symbol of higher social position, a language of education and science, and a tool of economic and political power.
Asian and African studies, 2013
ABSTRACT The study examines the reduplication of non-finite verbal forms (the imperfective partic... more ABSTRACT The study examines the reduplication of non-finite verbal forms (the imperfective participle, perfective participle), verbal roots and finite verbal forms in Bengali. It points out various constraints which apply to the reduplication and classifies types of reduplication of verbal forms. Alongside total reduplication (pure and superadded) and partial reduplication, a definition is also provided for medial reduplication, which is applied in the reduplication of verbs formed by a verb which is joined to other word classes, most often substantives. The functions of particular types of verbal reduplications are also analysed.
Asian and African studies, 2005
The directive illocutionary act is a characteristic type of the operational illocutory act. It de... more The directive illocutionary act is a characteristic type of the operational illocutory act. It demands an addressee to whom its content, that is, the order, command or request is directed. This content may be formulated by various means: grammatical (imperative) and lexical (specific performants, particles, conjunctions). Secondarily, depending on an actual communicative situation, the content of the directive illocutionary act may be formulated also by modal verb, modal particles and interrogative, indicative and conditional sentences.
Asian and African studies, 2004
Asian and African studies, 2008
The aim of this paper is to show what means are used to express voluntative modality in the Benga... more The aim of this paper is to show what means are used to express voluntative modality in the Bengali language. The article presents a detailed analysis of lexico-syntactic means (modal verbs and modal auxiliaries in construction with infinitives or verbal nouns), of morphological means (the moods), and of lexical means (verbs, nouns, and adjectives). It shows that the means of expressing voluntative modality in Bengali are numerous and varied. Most frequently they express various shades of specific modal relations. On the other hand, one and the same modal expression can be used to express various kinds of modal meaning (for instance, the notional verb in the infinitive form combined with the verb para can express possibility, permissibility as well as ability to perform an action).
Asian and African studies, 2014
An analysis of a Bengali-English dictionary and Bengali texts revealed that, like many other Asia... more An analysis of a Bengali-English dictionary and Bengali texts revealed that, like many other Asian languages, Bengali is rich in ideophones. It is attested to especially by the number of ideophones in the dictionary, which can be assumed to include only such ideophones that are well-established in the language. The texts, on the other hand, also include ideophones that cannot be found in the dictionary. This fact proves that ideophones constitute an open word-class in Bengali and can be created ad hoc. Of course, certain rules must be followed so that it is obvious to the recipient what idea the ideophones are supposed to
Asian and African studies, 2018
Asian and African Studies, May 28, 2021
On 14 February 2021 our precious colleague and friend Dr Viktor Krupa, an outstanding Orientalist... more On 14 February 2021 our precious colleague and friend Dr Viktor Krupa, an outstanding Orientalist, linguist, translator, and author of travel books, the founder of Oceanic and Polynesian studies in Slovakia, and one of the founders of Japanese studies at the Department of Oriental Studies of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University passed away at the age 84. Viktor Krupa worked for the Department of Oriental Studies, which was renamed to the Institute of Oriental Studies in 2014, for forty-nine years. He spent this period working more than hard-doing research, popularizing science, translating, teaching, and organizing. In each of these areas he has achieved exceptional results, not only thanks to his talent but also thanks to his extraordinary diligence. Viktor Krupa was born on 23 December in Nové Mesto nad Váhom. He graduated in Slovak and Russian from the Faculty of Arts at Comenius University in Bratislava in 1959, enriching the fields with his studies Stavové perfektum v slovenčine [The "State" Perfect in Slovak] (1962) and K nekotorym problemam stradateľnogo zaloga soveršennogo vida v russkom jazyke [On Some Problems of the Passive Voice of the Perfective Aspect in the Russian Language] (1962). However, it was Oriental Studies which enchanted him. In 1961 he joined the Department of Oriental Studies of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and soon became a highly regarded expert on Polynesian languages, especially Maori, Marquesan, and Hawaiian, as well as Austronesian languages, in particular Indonesian and Malay, which he had studied at the University of Auckland in New Zealand in 1965-1966. In 1966 he published a monograph entitled Morpheme and Word in Maori with a prestigious Dutch publisher Mouton and Co. In 1965 he defended it as his doctoral thesis. The monograph was followed by two more books on Maori, both published in Moscow: Jazyk maori in 1967 and The Maori Language in 1968. In the coming years he published his book Polynesian Languages. A Survey of Research with the prestigious publisher Mouton in Hague (1973) and Polinezijskije jazyki [Polynesian Languages] (1975) and Gavajskij jazyk [The Hawaiian Language] (1979) in Moscow again. As is evident, in the first two decades of his research activities Viktor Krupa made full use of his expertise in the linguistic issues of
Asian and African studies, 2018
Asian and African studies, 2016
Asian and African studies, 2009
ABSTRACT The aim o f this paper is to show which tenses are used to describe past actions and sta... more ABSTRACT The aim o f this paper is to show which tenses are used to describe past actions and states in Bengali. Our conclusions are based on the analysis of text by four Bengali authors and on descriptions introduced in some Bengali grammars. Each event (action or state) is performed in space and time. It is the moment of utterance, which serves as a basis for locating an event in time. When an event precedes the moment of utterance, it is classified as past; when it takes place in the moment of utterance, it is considered present; when it follows the moment of utterance, it is classified as future. In language, a grammatical time/tense is used to locate an event in relation to the moment of utterance, that is, to some other time. Therefore, an event which took place before the moment of utterance is usually described by the past tense, an event which takes place in the moment of utterance is described by the present tense and the event which will take place after the moment of utterance is, as a rule, described by the future tense. However, the usage of tenses need not always correspond to time: T he relation of time to tense is far from being one-one.'1 For instance, in Bengali, as in many other languages, the past can be expressed by the present tense-the historical present: * This study is published within the grant project VEGA 2/0153/09 ^ M IT H , N. V. Grammaticality, Time and Tense, p. 39. 190 (1) syar oyáltár ryäle 1595 khristábde 1596-e tini äbär larens kemis pāthān. tārpar šesbár 1617 sále sei sandhäne g i y e c h i l e n. (PM47) 'In 1595 A.C. Sir Walter Raleigh " conducts " an expedition. After this expedition he again " sends " a man named Lawrence Kemis to search for El Dorado in 1598. Then in 1617, one year before his death, he himself " had gone " again to search for the last time.' A future event, especially one which is just on the point of taking place, but also one which is not to be performed in the immediate future, can be described by the present imperfect:
Asian and African studies, 2006
The modality, that is the indispensability, possibility and intentionality of carrying out the co... more The modality, that is the indispensability, possibility and intentionality of carrying out the content of the predicate, is expressed within the predicational component o f the illocutionary act. The Slovak Carpathian Romani does not have any modal verbs of its own to express indispensability (must, to have to) and possibility (can, be able to). These modal relations are most often expressed either by borrowed modal verbs (mušinel must, to have to), by particles (musaj must, šaj/našťi can/cannot), or with the help of other lexical means (kampel it is necessary, je l to be). The possibility to carry out some action is expressed in various ways depending on the further specification of the possibility. When expressing indispensability and possibility the subject is usually the one carrying out the process expressed by the autosemantic verb and at the same time the bearer of modal disposition for carrying it out expressed by the modal verb. When expressing intentionality (to want), we also frequently find cases where the subject carrying out the action expressed by a particular verb form is not identical with the bearer of modal disposition. Then the action to be carried out is expressed in the following illocutionary act.
Asian and African studies, 2008
ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to show what means are used to express voluntative modality in ... more ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to show what means are used to express voluntative modality in the Bengali language. The article presents a detailed analysis of lexico-syntactic means (modal verbs and modal auxiliaries in construction with infinitives or verbal nouns), of morphological means (the moods), and of lexical means (verbs, nouns, and adjectives). It shows that the means of expressing voluntative modality in Bengali are numerous and varied. Most frequently they express various shades of specific modal relations. On the other hand, one and the same modal expression can be used to express various kinds of modal meaning (for instance, the notional verb in the infinitive form combined with the verb pārā can express possibility, permissibility as well as ability to perform an action). Modality, usually defined as the category expressing the speaker's attitude to the reality of the utterance, a category which is present in each utterance, presents a complex problem which can be studied from the viewpoint of linguistics, logic and philosophy. These scientific fields apply their own approaches to the study of modality and pay special attention to some of its aspects (for instance, to modality of judgements in logic, to the problem of objective reality in philosophy, to the linguistic means of expressing modality in linguistics and so on). The category of logical modality and this also in relation * This study is published within the grant project VEGA 2/6095/26: " The Cultures and Nations of Asia, Oceania and Africa " .
Asian and African studies, 2010
Although in some languages the research of the category of aspect goes as far back as the end of ... more Although in some languages the research of the category of aspect goes as far back as the end of 19th century, 2 for the new Indian languages this is a relatively new problem. Attention started to be paid to aspect only as late as in the middle of 20th century, and in this area up to now relatively little research has been done. This also applies for Bengali, where within investigating this verbal category several approaches have appeared. The aim of our article is to present a brief survey of the history of the research of aspect in Bengali as well as on the basis of existing findings and the analysis of Bengali texts to provide our own view of the means by which this semantic category is expressed in the Bengali language.
Asian and African studies, 2014
An analysis of a Bengali-English dictionary and Bengali texts revealed that, like many other Asia... more An analysis of a Bengali-English dictionary and Bengali texts revealed that, like many other Asian languages, Bengali is rich in ideophones. It is attested to especially by the number of ideophones in the dictionary, which can be assumed to include only such ideophones that are well-established in the language. The texts, on the other hand, also include ideophones that cannot be found in the dictionary. This fact proves that ideophones constitute an open word-class in Bengali and can be created ad hoc. Of course, certain rules must be followed so that it is obvious to the recipient what idea the ideophones are supposed to
Asian and African studies, 2012
ABSTRACT This study aims to describe the onomasiological structure of abstract nouns in Slovak Ro... more ABSTRACT This study aims to describe the onomasiological structure of abstract nouns in Slovak Romani. The onomasiological base of this structure is represented by the formants-(i)ben,-(i)pen or-(i)šagos, and the onomasiological mark by bases of different parts of speech such as verbs, adjectives, past participles, adverbs, nouns, pronouns, prepositions, numerals or particles. The study focuses especially on an analysis of names of actions and names of qualities, which constitute the richest subgroup of abstract nouns. The object of analysis is onomasiological marks – motivating words, which are the main indicator of the meaning of action or the meaning of quality of an abstract noun. In some cases they are transpositions from motivating words into abstract nouns; in others new naming units are generated to refer to new content and express new meanings. What then plays a significant role in determining the meaning of an abstract noun is context. Key words: Slovak Romani, onomasiological structure of abstract nouns, onomasiological base-(i)ben,-(i)pen,-(i)šagos, onomasiological mark of abstract nouns, names of actions, names of qualities I. Introduction Abstract nouns designate non-independent phenomena of reality such as qualities, events, actions, states, feelings, ideas, metalanguage notions, hypernyms, etc., which are abstracted from their carriers in thinking and regarded as independent. A real object as a denotation exponent is missing with them. 1 These naming units are a natural part of lexicon. Their number is growing with the intellectualization of language, i.e. the need to denote phenomena related to society's scientific, technical or cultural development and the development of journalistic, administrative and technical styles, which require a
Asian and African studies, 2010
The aim of our paper is to analyse the linguistic features of the Romani census materials from 20... more The aim of our paper is to analyse the linguistic features of the Romani census materials from 2001, which represent the first official use of the Romani language in government documents in the Slovak Republic. Although just a particular set of texts will be analysed here we believe that the census forms can be looked at in more general terms as reflecting the present possibilities of the Romani language to be used for official administrative purposes. It can be assumed that the situation has not changed much during the last nine years which have elapsed since the origin of the census forms. Although the standardization of the Romani language was declared in 2008 and a set of particular books has been published (The Rules of Romani Orthography, 1 The Textbook of Romani, 2 The Conversational Lexicon of Romani Grammar 3 ) on this occasion, there is no special institution that would systematically care for the development of the Romani language, especially for its terminology.
Jazykovedný Časopis, Dec 1, 2018
The aim of this study is to identify possible methods of formation of Romani technical terms by m... more The aim of this study is to identify possible methods of formation of Romani technical terms by means of an analysis of a SlovakRomani dictionary of administrative and legal terms. If the existing word stock of Romani is felt to be insufficient, missing words are added by borrowing from Slovak. The borrowings serve as oneword or multiword terms (štatutaris-'štatutár'/'statutory person'; bežno učtos-'bežný účet'/'current account'); however, more often they serve as components of multiword, most frequently twoword terms which take the form of semicalques. Romani components of the semicalques are either words used in their common dictionary meaning or neologisms. The analysed terminology is characterized by a high rate of homonymy of adjectival forms in the function of the determining component in multiword naming units. The characteristic feature of the analysed Romani terminology is instability, which manifests itself especially in the use of various terms to denote the same content, either Romani terms or variant forms of terms (iribnaskeri forma-'písomná formaʼ/'written formʼ, irinďi informácia-'písomná informáciaʼ/'written informationʼ).
Jazykovedný Časopis, Dec 1, 2016
This study aims to demonstrate the roles that domestic and foreign languages have played and play... more This study aims to demonstrate the roles that domestic and foreign languages have played and play as signs of national or religious identity and social prestige and as tools of political and economic power in multilingual Pakistan and Bangladesh. Before the countries gained independence from the British Empire in 1947 and before the formation of the Indian Union and Pakistan (which was divided into Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1971), the role of an official language, remote to the majority of population in Indian subcontinent, had been gradually played by Sanskrit, Persian, and English. After gaining independence, the new countries decided to replace English as the official language with domestic languages. Their efforts encountered many problems and resulted in various solutions. Urdu became the state language in Pakistan, which caused resistance in local ethnolinguistic groups because the language had been imported by refugees from India. This resistance was the strongest in East Pakistan, where a strong national and language awareness eventually contributed to the formation of an independent Bangladesh with Bengali as the state language. Despite struggle for the dominance of domestic languages, English has preserved its prestigious position both in Pakistan and Bangladesh, as a symbol of higher social position, a language of education and science, and a tool of economic and political power.
Asian and African studies, 2013
ABSTRACT The study examines the reduplication of non-finite verbal forms (the imperfective partic... more ABSTRACT The study examines the reduplication of non-finite verbal forms (the imperfective participle, perfective participle), verbal roots and finite verbal forms in Bengali. It points out various constraints which apply to the reduplication and classifies types of reduplication of verbal forms. Alongside total reduplication (pure and superadded) and partial reduplication, a definition is also provided for medial reduplication, which is applied in the reduplication of verbs formed by a verb which is joined to other word classes, most often substantives. The functions of particular types of verbal reduplications are also analysed.
Asian and African studies, 2005
The directive illocutionary act is a characteristic type of the operational illocutory act. It de... more The directive illocutionary act is a characteristic type of the operational illocutory act. It demands an addressee to whom its content, that is, the order, command or request is directed. This content may be formulated by various means: grammatical (imperative) and lexical (specific performants, particles, conjunctions). Secondarily, depending on an actual communicative situation, the content of the directive illocutionary act may be formulated also by modal verb, modal particles and interrogative, indicative and conditional sentences.
Asian and African studies, 2004
Asian and African studies, 2008
The aim of this paper is to show what means are used to express voluntative modality in the Benga... more The aim of this paper is to show what means are used to express voluntative modality in the Bengali language. The article presents a detailed analysis of lexico-syntactic means (modal verbs and modal auxiliaries in construction with infinitives or verbal nouns), of morphological means (the moods), and of lexical means (verbs, nouns, and adjectives). It shows that the means of expressing voluntative modality in Bengali are numerous and varied. Most frequently they express various shades of specific modal relations. On the other hand, one and the same modal expression can be used to express various kinds of modal meaning (for instance, the notional verb in the infinitive form combined with the verb para can express possibility, permissibility as well as ability to perform an action).
Asian and African studies, 2014
An analysis of a Bengali-English dictionary and Bengali texts revealed that, like many other Asia... more An analysis of a Bengali-English dictionary and Bengali texts revealed that, like many other Asian languages, Bengali is rich in ideophones. It is attested to especially by the number of ideophones in the dictionary, which can be assumed to include only such ideophones that are well-established in the language. The texts, on the other hand, also include ideophones that cannot be found in the dictionary. This fact proves that ideophones constitute an open word-class in Bengali and can be created ad hoc. Of course, certain rules must be followed so that it is obvious to the recipient what idea the ideophones are supposed to
Asian and African studies, 2018