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HUNGARIAN-ENGLISH LINGUISTIC CONTRASTS. A PRACTICAL APPROACH
4.5.1 Change of state
Both English and Hungarian have verbs expressing a change of state, e.g.,
Elszomorodott az arca — Her face saddened. Here again English has a prefer¬
ence for a more stative expression, consisting of a general change of a state
verb and an adjective or a participle. Consider the following examples.
Elfaradt. — He got tired.
Meggyögyult. — He got well.
Elpirult. — She blushed. / Her face turned red.
A nappalok hosszabbodnak. - The days are lengthening/getting longer.
Megkönnyebbült. — He was relieved.
4.5.2 Nominal vs. verbal expressions
English subject complements (nominal, adjectival and prepositional phrases)
often correspond to verbs in Hungarian:
Crime is on the rise. — A bünözes növekszik/növekvöben van.
She’s on the prowl. — Zsäkmänyra les.
The problem is under study. - A problemät vizsgaljak/juk.
This plant is a good doer. — Ez a növény nagyon jól terem. (It does well
on this soil.)
She is a looker. — Nagyon jól néz ki. (She looks great.)
She is crackers about him. — Bolondul érte.
The literal translation of some similar phrases has become established in
Hungarian, too:
This idea is not a winner. — Ez az ötlet nem nyerő.
He is a loser. — (Ő) lúzer.
From a theoretical perspective, the guestion arises: Does part-of-speech make
a difference? It appears to be so. States expressed by verbs tend to be perceived
as more dynamic than states expressed by adjectives. Part-of-speech is part of
the meaning of words (Bolinger 1980: 27), so a shift in form class represents a
shift in focus. In this way, we might say that Hungarian tends to adopt a some¬
what more dynamic view of the world than English.
Bolinger (1980:79) claims that nouns are more ‘biased’ than verbs. Transi¬
tory events are made to appear as permanent features, parts of the world around
us. Kress and Hodge (1979) note that
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