Pragmatic
Aspects of the Acquisition of Hungarian
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Ilona Koutny and Maria David |
Language
acquisition is a complex process encompassing different linguistic skills,
including pragmatic ones. The better a speaker's grammatical, lexical and
communicative competence, the more embarrassing lacks in pragmatic
appropriateness are. Nowadays language teaching involves the development of
both grammatical and communicative skills, and pragmatic knowledge is
transmitted through the language material.
Learning Hungarian
as a foreign language requires extensive grammar teaching due to its rich
morphology and syntax. In spite of the emphasis that must be paid to
grammatical elements in the beginning, for the Polish students studying
Hungarian, emphasis is also laid on the development of communicative
competence. Their attention is drawn to the peculiarities of language usage and
customs in role-plays and working with selected texts.
The goal is to
create routines (internalized norms) of language usage in the target language
just as one has in the mother tongue. Exercises simulating different real life
situations (such as initiating, maintaining and concluding interactions, asking
and giving information, expressing an opinion and accepting and declining
requests and invitations) are carried out in different settings (e.g. in the
family, in the workplace, in the street, in a shop) with different social
contexts depending upon the age, sex, social status, and relation between the
interlocutors (between friends, strangers, young worker and the boss, etc.).
There is not
enough time during lessons to explore every relevant situation (communicative
teaching has to face this problem for linguistic skills as well!) Therefore
there is a danger that the students will automatically apply the norms of their
native culture in an unforeseen situation type, especially true if the two
cultures are generally close as is the case with Hungarian and Polish.
At a higher level
of language teaching, the routines of the native culture have to be consciously
repressed and replaced by those ones of the target language. The students of
Hungarian can observe daily Hungarian language use during a semester spent in
Budapest. But even after a semester-stay in the target country, it is necessary
to systemize their knowledge and make them aware of the differences – this is
the role of the subject pragmalinguistics.
The traditionally
used T/V distinction for informal/formal interactions represented by ty + VSg2 / Pan(i) + VSg3 in Polish, and te
+ VSg2 / (ön/maga) + VSg3 in
Hungarian is completed by a third asymmetrically used form: V + tetszik ‘you please to V’. This form is
used by the subordinate in an unequal relationship. Examples would include a
child speaking to an unrelated adult, an employee with his or her boss when the
social distance is large or it may also be a polite way for a man to address a
woman. In the first case the T-form is returned and in the others a V-form. All
these distinctions have equivalents in the forms of address and in greetings.
These are more distinct than in Polish, so they have to be made conscious.
This paper will
outline the main differences in the language use in Hungarian-Polish context
(levels of politeness, greetings, forms of address, giving thanks, etc.), and
propose some exercises, which could be useful in the teaching of other
languages as well.