Jazykovedný ústav Ľudovíta Štúra

Slovenskej akadémie vied, v. v. i.

ĽUDOVÍT ŠTÚR INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS OF THE SLOVAK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Ľ. ŠTÚR INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS OF THE SLOVAK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

  • The Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences is the primary institution in the Slovak Republic that focuses on basic research on the standard and non-standard variants of the Slovak language.

Basic fields of research:

  • contemporary system of Slovak
  • functioning of language in contemporary communication
  • theory and practice of language culture
  • technical terminology
  • etymology and linguistic geography
  • history of language
  • corpus linguistics and natural language processing

International cooperation:

  • The institute cooperates with foreign research institutes in Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine and USA.

International projects:

  • – Slavic Linguistic Atlas – Comparative Research of Slovak and Czech Vocabulary and Language Culture

    – EuroMatrixPlus – Slovak Online – CESAR: CEntral and South-east EuropeAn Resources – Contrastive Description of Current Slovak and Czech Lexica (Systemic Relationships and Communicative Coexistence)

The institute is currently participating in 9 domestic research projects:

  • – Slovak as a cultural phenomenon and medium of culture – Dictionary of Contemporary Slovak (3rd volume) – Etymological research on the Slovak lexicon – Acquisition of commercial-science terminology for the Slovak Terminology Database with emphasis on analysis of terminol. neologisms – Slovak Dialect Dictionary – Slavic Linguistic Atlas – Comparative research of collocations in Slovak and German – Older Slovak lexis in interlingual relations – Building of the Slovak National Corpus and digitization of linguistic research in Slovakia.

HISTORY AND ETYMOLOGY OF THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE

  • Historický slovník slovenského jazyka, I. – VII.; 1991 – 2008 (Dictionary of Historical Slovak) In this dictionary, vocabulary is drawn from the Slovak national heritage in manuscript as well as printed texts of the pre-standard period of Slovak (15th–18th centuries). The dictionary of 4 322 pages, 47 330 definitions and approximately 70 000 key words, is a reliable foundation for further research on the national language, general and national history, intercultural and interlingual contacts. Pramene k dejinám slovenčiny, I. – III.; 1992, 2002, 2008 (Sources for the History of Slovak) This book series is a basic resource of as-yet unpublished printed and manuscript texts representing Slovak linguistic heritage of both secular and religious provenance. Its texts, organized according to genre and topic, are a source for research in the fields of archives, history, linguistics, and cultural studies. The forthcoming Stručný etymologický slovník slovenčiny (Concise Etymological Dictionary of Slovak) will contain about 9 000 definitions which represent the original phonetic and semantic form of Slovak. These influenced the current form of standard Slovak. The method of treatment is aimed at professionals in the field of historical linguistics and is designed for the information needs of the public. In a separate project, Slovak terms for uninhabited places (anoikonyms) are collected in Slovník slovenských anojkoným (Dictionary of Slovak Anoikonyms) contributing to Slovenský onomastický atlas (Slovak Onomastic Atlas) – the atlas of proper names on the Slovak territory.

DIALECTOLOGY

  • Slovník slovenských nárečí, A – K, 1994; L – P, 2006 (Slovak Dialect Dictionary) The core project of Slovak dialectology is the Slovak Dialect Dictionary (Volume III forthcoming) which deals with specific characteristics of Slovak dialect vocabulary, its territorial differentiation, and semantic classification. Slovanský jazykový atlas (Slavic Linguistic Atlas) Slovak dialectologists contribute material to the preparation of the voluminous Slavic Linguistic Atlas which is produced under the auspices of The International Committee of Slavists. The atlas contains the territorial differentiation of 3 400 phenomena in phonetics, grammar, lexicon, semantics, and word-formation from the Slavic language area, in 850 locations from the Mediterranean Sea to the Ural Mountains. The Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences has been preparing the 4th volume of the lexical and word-formation series dealing with agricultural themes, and intend to map the declension of nouns in the dialects of various Slavic languages.

LANGUAGE CULTURE AND TERMINOLOGY

  • Pravidlá slovenského pravopisu, 2000 (The Rules of Slovak Orthography) This extensive spelling and grammar dictionary containing over 70 000 keywords is a part of the basic reference book for the codification of Slovak. Krátky slovník slovenského jazyka, 2003 (Short Dictionary of Slovak) This dictionary is a single-volume monolingual dictionary of standard Slovak reflecting also the changes in Slovak vocabulary in the social, political, and economic sphere after year 1989. In the dictionary the user can find the most relevant semantic data of approx. 60 000 collected words together with collocations and contextual phrases illustrating particular word meanings, basic grammatical information and information about the codified spelling of word forms, as well as information about the functional classification of words. Synonymický slovník slovenčiny, 2004 (Slovak Synonym Dictionary) In this dictionary, approximately 13 000 synonyms are analysed, and 45 000 references guide the user through the richness of the Slovak lexicon. The employees of the Slovak Language Advisory Service respond to more than 7 000 phone calls and manually process about 2 200 e-mails and letters a year. The department is in charge of adjusting laws, decrees, national regulations, and standards from a linguistic and terminological point of view, as well as the popularization of the results of linguistic research into the means of communication.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ON CONTEMPORARY LANGUAGE

  • Sociolinguistica Slovaca, I. – VI.; 1995 – 2007 This multidisciplinary series of publications presents the results of sociolinguistic research on social change in language and the changing language situation.

    Nauka reči Slovenskej, I., II.; 2006 by Ludevít Štúr Nauka reči Slovenskej by Ľ. Štúr is a two-volume academic edition of the initial version dated 1846. The commentaries portion discuss the social needs and conditions of Štúr’s codification, as well as the phonetic system, the phonematic system, morphology, pragmalinguistics, syntax, and the word-formation system. This publication also contains a bibliography of Štúr’s linguistic works, as well as works about the author and his codification. Slavomír Ondrejovič: Jazyk, veda o jazyku, societa, 2008 (Language, science of language, society) This is a synthetic monograph focused on the basic aspects of the relationship between language and society. Based on current linguistics, it considers European and worldwide linguistic traditions, as well as systemic linguistics. Juraj Dolník: Všeobecná jazykoveda, 2009 (General linguistics) This volume presents a systematic interpretation of language and communication phenomena in terms of systemic linguistics, generative grammar, linguistic pragmatics, sociolinguistics, conversation, and discourse analysis. Juraj Dolník: Teória spisovného jazyka so zreteľom na spisovnú slovenčinu, 2010 (A theory of standard language with regard to standard Slovak) The first comprehensive systematic interpretation of standard language in terms of contemporary standard Slovak. This work emphasizes the need for a change in approach to the standard language variant, considering its development as well as users’ contemporary communication needs. It also reflects a change in the theoretical and methodological approach for assessing these phenomena. Morfologické aspekty súčasnej slovenčiny (2010) (Morphological aspects of contemporary Slovak) This collaborative work arose as a reaction to concepts based on the descriptive and explanatory approach. The authors of individual chapters react to the current need for an updated description of Slovak morphology linked to the previous Morphology of the Slovak Language (1966) and simultaneously, they outline a vision for further research leading to the descriptive synthesis of contemporary standard Slovak morphology.

LEXICOLOGY, LEXICOGRAPHY

  • Slovník súčasného slovenského jazyka, A – G, 2006; H – L, 2011 (Dictionary of Contemporary Slovak) This dictionary is a core explanatory scientific description of contemporary Slovak vocabulary in all communication situations. The work is based on extensive traditional resources and material from the Slovak National Corpus. The dictionary covers the vocabulary of contemporary Slovak, drawn on a wide and representative selection, illustrated by given explanations of lexical units and by grammatical information accompanied by functional and stylistic stratification of vocabulary, as well as by phraseological examples. The latest lexicographic methods in language processing were implemented in the preparation of this work.

SLOVAK NATIONAL CORPUS

  • The Slovak National Corpus is an electronic database of the Slovak language in its written and spoken form comprising a primary general corpus of written texts in different styles and genres from 1955 up to the present, a web corpus, a manually morphologically annotated corpus, the Corpus of Spoken Slovak, parallel corpora (Slovak-Russian, Slovak-French, Slovak-Czech, Slovak-English), the Slovak Terminology Database, a morphological analyser, and older as well as more recent dictionaries, periodicals, and other linguistic material in electronic form. The department members are involved in several international research projects. They also participate in the preservation of national heritage.

JOURNALS

  • Slovenská reč (Slovak Speech) This is the oldest Slovak linguistic journal (originating in 1932) that represents the basis for research on the Slovak language. The journal provides research papers from all areas of language development, dialectology, and the current standard language. Published six times annually. Jazykovedný časopis (Linguistic Journal) This is a scientific journal dedicated to issues in general linguistics, and to linguistic theory and methodology. Issues of contemporary and historical linguistics are the focus of the journal. Published twice annually. Kultúra slova (The Culture of the Word) This is a popular scientific journal for language culture and terminology. It describes research in professional terminology, the language of fiction, language culture, and language advice. Published six times annually.

LINGUISTIC STUDIES

  • Monothematic miscellanies, dedicated to the jubilees of personalities of Slovak linguistics, or monographs written by employees of the Institute.

    História, súčasný stav a perspektívy dialektologického bádania. Jazykovedné štúdie. 26. (History, contemporary state and perspectives of dialectological research) Iveta Valentová: Živé osobné mená v hornonitrianskej oblasti. Jazykovedné štúdie. 27. (Personal names in the district of Horná Nitra) Súradnice súčasnej slovanskej dialektológie. Jazykovedné štúdie. 28. (The coordinates of contemporary Slovak dialectology)

DOCUMENTS OF THE SLOVAK LINGUISTICS SOCIETY OF THE SLOVAK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

  • In the series of Documents of the Slovak Linguistics Society of SAS, basic methodological works by important Slovak linguists are published.

    Eugen Pauliny: Norma spisovnej slovenčiny a zásady jej kodifikovania. Spisy Slovenskej jazykovednej spoločnosti. 2. (The norm of standard Slovak and the principles of its codification) Ivan Masár: Ako pomenúvame v slovenčine. Spisy Slovenskej jazykovednej spoločnosti. 3. (How we name in Slovak) Ján Horecký: Kultivovanie slovenčiny. Princípy a kritéria. Spisy Slovenskej jazykovednej spoločnosti. 4. (The cultivation of Slovak. Principles and criteria) Ján Horecký: Onomaziologická štruktúra slovenčiny. Spisy Slovenskej jazykovednej spoločnosti. 5. (The onomasiological structure of Slovak) Vladimír Blanár: Vlastné meno vo svetle teoretickej onomastiky. Spisy Slovenskej jazykovednej spoločnosti. 6. (Proper names in the light of theoretical onomastics)

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SLOVAK LINGUISTS, SLOVAKISTS, AND SLAVISTS

  • The pre-war Bibliography of Czech and Slovak linguistic and philological literary products (Bibliografie československých prací linguistických a filologických, published by Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Czech Republic) also includes the Slovak contributions from the year 1935. Material from the years 1936 – 1938 is partially covered in the work Prehľad prác o slovenských nárečiach za uplynulých 20 rokov (Carpatica I A, vol. 2., Prague 1939) (Overview of work on Slovak dialects in the past 20 years) by Eugen Pauliny. Other Slovak language production is also described in the bibliographies of Slovak linguistics written by Vladimír Blanár (1939 – 1947) and Ladislav Dvonč (1948 – 1952, 1953 – 1956, 1957 – 1960, 1961 – 1965). The scientific, professional and popularized activities of all Slovak linguists of the 20th and 21st century (up to 2005) are included in several collective personal bibliographies by Ladislav Dvonč(1925 –1975, 1976 –1985,1986 –1995, 1996 – 2000), Júlia Behýlová and Yulia Smetanová (2001 – 2005). The forthcoming book Slovenskí jazykovedci (Slovak Linguists) will include years 2006 – 2010.

VARIA

  • Conference materials gathered from the annual Colloquium of Young Linguists, called Varia, are available in a printed or CD-ROM form. The complete texts of the materials can be found on the Internet. Several dictionaries and linguistic publications are available on the Institute website http://www.juls.savba.sk

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