Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 87. kötet (1985)
Tanulmányok - Molnár Ilona: A nyelv értékeinek kérdéséhez [On Value in Language] 3
36 MOLNÁR ILONA Linguistic development, in generál, is the process whereby language "keeps up" with the development of human mental abilities. Particular instances of that process are to be investigated historically.) — The intuitive linguistic value judgeinents of social groups and individuals are indirect manifestations of objective values in language. Based on historical contradictions in Hungárián national consciousness, the domain of values attributed to the Hungárián language is largely determined by an opposition between two sets of values, labelled 'Rational' vs. 'Metaphorical'. It can be shown that the opposition, predeterministically overstated as it may appear in linguistic-ideological pronouncements, does hâve a real significance, the conflict between 'metaphorical' and 'rational' values being a specifically important initiator of certain tendencies of change in Hungárián. In that connection, the paper touches upon the psychological problem area of so-called metaphorical vs. logical thinking and the linguistic relations of corresponding éléments in language. The author views certain changes in Hungárián in favour of rational tendencies as part of integrational processes in human culture. — The author supports her claims by an analysis of changes in the use of mood and négation in Hungárián subordinate clauses ; she shows that attested changes can be adequately described as a switch from metaphorical constructions to (more) rational ones. In conclusion, the paper suggests certain conséquences of the foregoing for normative linguistics.
