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HUNGARIAN-ENGLISH LINGUISTIC CONTRASTS. A PRACTICAL APPROACH
Culture-specific objects or concepts carry more connotative (associative)
meanings than other words. These meanings may be context-independent: the
associations for szaloncukor in a free association test”? were narancs, fények,
meleg, ajándék, tél, betlehem, finom, feny6illat (mostly related to Christmas),
signalling the positive emotive associations related to Christmas. Consider
also the associative meanings of words like gémeskút, Mohács, gulyásleves,
jegenyefa, keszeg, ávós, betyár, zsandár, barackpálinka, kuruc, szűr, etc.
7.4.3 Register
Words may have different connotations and stylistic values depending on the
register they belong to. Being aware of the stylistic differences of words re¬
lated to register is important in foreign language learning, especially at advanced
and proficiency level. Beginner to intermediate learners tend to disregard
register specificity and degree of formality. As a result, mixing of registers
often occurs in L2 writing and L1-L2 translation. E.g., the Hungarian word
abbahagyni corresponds to English abandon, desist and give up, but the latter
is typical of the conversational register and is avoided in written styles. In a
similar way, use of the verb get is typical of the conversational register, but is
hardly ever used in scientific registers. In Agatha Christie’s novels Poirot
regularly uses the phrase J comprehend (cf. French je comprends). This is a
covert error: it is grammatically correct and can be understood easily, yet
situationally it is usually inappropriate: the usual phrase in informal conversa¬
tion is I see.
7.5 SENSE RELATIONS
A large part of the meaning of a word comes from its sense relations, i.e., its
relation to other words in the vocabulary of a language. Sense relations include
synonymy, hyponymy, antonymy, meronymy, homonymy and polysemy.
7.5.1 Synonymy
Synonymy is defined as similarity of meaning (usually denotative meaning).
True synonymy would mean complete identity of all the various kinds of mean¬
ings of two words, but this is rare. As a result, synonyms are interchangeable
in some, but not all, contexts. Synonyms may belong to different geographical
varieties: British English petrol is gas in American English. Within the same
52 This was an informal classroom test conducted by the author with third-year undergraduate
students at the University of Pannonia in 2008.
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