PulseExploreJournal ClubDebatesTrendingResearchersJournals
Instagram
HomeExploreJournal ClubTrending
Synapse
⌘+K
Synapse
March 29, 2026Славяноведение / Slavianovedenie0 citations

Historical Sociopragmatics in Hungary: Main Vectors of Development

View Full Paper
SAS.A. Afanasyeva

Key Points

  • This research aims to explore the development of historical sociopragmatics in Hungary and its contextual influences over time.
  • Analyzed medical prescriptions and manuals to study historical syntax and grammaticalization.
  • Investigated private letters and witch trial protocols for sociopragmatic aspects.
  • Employed a functional-pragmatic approach focusing on context.
  • Identified how historical forms of address vary with personal and social contexts.
  • Noted the young yet promising tradition of historical sociopragmatics in Hungary.
  • Highlighted the publication of a large corpus of historical texts facilitating research.

Abstract

The article is devoted to current Hungarian research in historical sociopragmatics, developing in line with the tradition worked out on Western European, primarily English-language material. The article terminologically distinguishes between the concepts of «pragmatics», «sociopragmatics» and «historical (socio)pragmatics», and also traces how in recent decades Hungarian science has moved from a traditional approach to a functional-pragmatic one, paying more attention to context. The specificity of Hungarian studies is determined by the material: thus, on the basis of medical prescriptions, medical manuals, and manuals of letter writing, the historical syntax and grammaticalization of discursive markers are studied, and on the basis of private letters of nobles and protocols of witch trials illustrating the speech of different strata of the population, sociopragmatic aspects are studied, in particular, the category of politeness and forms of address. That is, it is shown how the choice of one or another form is influenced by personal, social and cultural context, as well as which forms of address are considered polite in a particular era. In general, the tradition of studying historical sociopragmatics in Hungary is relatively young, but promising given the publication of a large corpus of historical texts and the parallel growth in the number of studies in other European countries.

Ask AI
Helpful
Bookmark
Share
View Full Paper

Cite This Study

S.A. Afanasyeva (2025) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69c8c324de0f0f753b39db6ahttps://doi.org/10.7868/s2949392725040124
Ask AI
Helpful
Bookmark
Share
View Full Paper