Slovak temporal diminutive chvíľka against the background of German and Hungarian equivalents (according to corpus data)

Abstract

The article examines the meaning of the Slovak temporal diminutive noun chvíľka ‘minute’ on the corpus matter. The lexeme is analyzed in the intralanguage aspect, when its semantics are analyzed against the background of the Slovak substantives chvíľa ‘minute’ and okamih ‘moment, instant’ – and in the interlanguage, its structural and semantic correlates are established in German and Hungarian, which are adjacent to Slovak and have been in contact with it for a long time within the common state. In the first part, based on the analysis of the indicators of the logDice association measure, the combinable properties of the nouns chvíľka, chvíľa, okamih are revealed. It is shown that chvíľka semantically occupies an intermediate position between chvíľa and okamih, it tends to designate situations with minimal internal tension and at the same time carries in its meaning this super-brevity, and also has a fairly strong connection with mental verbs. In addition, chvíľka is characterized by the designation of everyday time. Next are considered the structural and semantic correlates of chvíľka in German and Hungarian. The German language has a system of substantives similar to the Slovak with a common meaning of short duration, when the indicators of exact vs inexact time are consistently different, in parallel with which there is an opposition of an ultra-short vs non-ultra-short segment. In the Hungarian language, exact and inexact tenses differ within the framework of hyper-brevity, and accumulate in lexemes with the meaning of non-hyper-brevity. It is shown that in the German language the main semantic equivalent for the Slovak chvíľka is primarily Augenblick ‘moment, instant’, in case the over–brevity of the situation or the contrast of its change is emphasized, and Weile ‘a short period of time, a minute’ – in situations that do not involve radical changes. If the locutor is asked to wait, the German equivalent is the lexeme Moment ‘moment'. At the same time, the full German correlate for chvíľka, diminutive Weilchen, in the bulk of uses is translated into Slovak by the non-diminutive chvíľa. In Hungarian, chvíľka in interval use correlates with the lexemes pillanat ‘moment, instant’ and perc ‘minute’, when fixing a certain state – with perc, and in the framework of constructions with the meaning of preceding or following – with same temporal adverbs.