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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 preference 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 somewhat more dynamic view of the world than English. Bolinger (1980:79) claims that nouns are more ‘biased’ than verbs. Transitory events are made to appear as permanent features, parts of the world around us. Kress and Hodge (1979) note that s 60"
