Nyelvtudományi közlemények 91. kötet (1990)

CONTEXT MAKES A DIFFERENCE 135
and karakter 'character.' The test sentences required the three différent case
endings val/vel 'with,' ban/ben 'in' and nak/nek 'dative,' each in four différent
contexts: (i) sentence initial, (ii) following a word with a front vowel
alternant of the same suffix as was appropriate for the test word,
(iii) following a word not containing the same suffix as was appropriate for
the test word, and (iv) following a word with the back vowel alternant of
the same suffix as was appropriate for the test word (cf. Kontra e.a.
1990). Part of the results, the percentages for suffix choice in front and back
contexts (ii and iv above) are given in (3).
(3) Subjects Reporting Suffixes with Front Vowels
test word test suffix after a word
with front
alternant of
test suffix
after a word
with back
alternant of
test suffix
différence
férfi val/vel 83.05 27.11 55.94
ban/ben 88.13 44.06 44.07
nak/nek 67.79 37.93 29.86
sláger ral/rel 96.61 89.83 6.78
ban/ben 96.61 70.17 26.44
nak/nek 98.30 74.57 23.73
karakter ral/rel 98.30 81.35 16.95
ban/ben 98.30 70.17 28.13
nak/nek 96.61 82.45 14.16
Linking this variation in harmonie suffix choice to regional, social or
stylistic différences seems to be very problematic. Linguistic context, however,
appears to influence speakers' choices to a considérable degree.
In the syntax of Hungárián one finds further examples of context influencing
speakers' language use. In a contrastive analysis of English and
Hungárián relative pronouns Nádasdy (1982) makes the dubious claim that
sentences with and without cataphoric demonstratives such as (4) and (5)
are "perfectly normal" and hâve the same meaning.
(4) Megjött az a kollégám, aki külföldön volt.
arrived that the colleague-my who abroad was
(5) Megjött a kollégám, aki külföldön volt.
In my review of Nádasdy (Kontra 1983) it is shown by means of elicitation
data that the constructions in question do not hâve the same perceived
frequency. 102 subjects rated the relative frequency of 6 pairs of sentences
Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 91. 1990.