Projects / Programmes
The Slovenian Language in Synchronic and Diachronic Development
January 1, 2022
- December 31, 2027
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.05.00 |
Humanities |
Linguistics |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.02 |
Humanities |
Languages and Literature |
modern, terminological, historical, dialect, etymological dictionaries; lexicology, lexicography, normative guide, lexical database, linguistic atlas, etymology, toponymy, dialectology, terminology, terminography, historical linguistics, comparative linguistics
Data for the last 5 years (citations for the last 10 years) on
June 28, 2024;
A3 for period
2018-2022
| Database |
Linked records |
Citations |
Pure citations |
Average pure citations |
| WoS |
108 |
83 |
61 |
0.56 |
| Scopus |
348 |
651 |
499 |
1.43 |
Researchers (48)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
The programme group of the ZRC SAZU Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovenian Language is the only lexicographic programme group in Slovenia and the only one that has systematically provided fundamental dictionaries and other descriptive works on Slovenian for over seven decades. In the next funding period, the main objectives of the programme group in the fields of lexicology, lexicography and normative linguistics of contemporary standard Slovenian, terminology, dialectology, etymology, onomastics and the history of Slovenian will be: the creation, maintenance and integration of linguistic databases, the dictionary presentation of contemporary Slovenian lexis, studies on language varieties and normative issues, studies related to linguistic and terminological counselling, continuous terminological work in various subject fields, the presentation of dialectological research in linguistic atlases and dictionaries, dialectological field research, etymological-onomastic explanations of the Slovenian lexis and the preparation of a digital etymological and onomastic collection, the dictionary presentation of the lexis of the 16th-century Slovenian literary language and the preparation of a digital collection of historical texts. In the next period, the group will further develop the Fran portal in terms of content and ensure the dissemination of scientific results to researchers and the general public, while also providing content for the Franček portal. It will establish a system for increasing synergy among different activities within the research programme, without interruption to its continuous production of fundamental works of Slovenian linguistics and ensuring their reliability in terms of normativity and content. It will conduct research on linguistic problems, which is required for the ongoing production of fundamental works, and foster optimal cooperation with the interested public in identifying current linguistic problems. Infrastructural activities within the Natural and Cultural Heritage programme at ZRC SAZU are an indispensable prerequisite for the majority of the foreseen lexicographic and other descriptive works. The priorities of the programme group follow the Resolution on the National Programme for Language Policy 2021–2025. The presented programme is designed to provide the most needed fundamental studies of Slovenian, both diachronic and synchronic and envisages the compilation of dictionaries that are currently most lacking in all fields of research on Slovenian.
Significance for science
The works produced by the programme group are of fundamental and key importance for the development of all disciplines that include the Slovenian language as an object of study, i.e. especially for Slovenian language studies, Slavistics, comparative and general linguistics. The institute is the only centre in the world that systematically provides fundamental reference works and studies in all fields of research on Slovenian. Its research is not based on narrow research interests of individual researchers, but rather on the actual needs of sciences that are connected to the Slovenian language. The importance of this programme for the development of science is therefore significant. Given the citation score and the fact that the results of the group’s research have been widely used, it is reasonable to believe that the results of the programme group in the next programming period will represent the basis for all other research into Slovenian. A particularly great advantage of the group’s research is the free availability of results on a single online portal, which allows the international public to easily access a wide range of information. In this programming period, this will be enhanced with a portal of scientific works (a prototype is available at knjige.amebis.si). The envisaged lexical databases of the modern Slovenian standard language and lexical manuals based on them will be compiled so as to ensure reliability and to provide as much information as possible and will aid in the development of various language technologies, as evidenced by the programme group’s hitherto involvement in relevant research projects. Since they will contain normative guidelines, they will be a fundamental reference resource for studies related to modern Slovenian and will also exert a direct influence on language in education and science. The established multi-purpose databases will serve as the basis for both further linguistic studies and for the development of language technologies for Slovenian. Through the systematization of terminology, the foreseen terminological works will be of great importance for the relevant fields of study. Previous experience suggests they will be useful in related disciplines as well. They will enhance the understanding of complex concepts and facilitate communication among experts in a given field of study. Since they will also include information on the use of particular terms in foreign languages, they will enable a better integration of Slovenian science into the international scientific community and easier communication of foreign researchers with Slovenian experts, while also fostering the development and preservation of Slovenian in science and higher education. Due to the peripheral position of Slovenian dialects in the Slavic linguistic continuum and their consequent archaic nature, to the language contact with Romance languages, German and Hungarian, and to the extraordinary dialectal diversity of the Slovenian language, documentation of Slovenian dialects significantly contributes to the further development of various linguistic disciplines, from etymology, comparative linguistics, areal linguistics, the study of languages in contact, synchronic and diachronic variationist sociolinguistics to different linguistic typology studies. Therefore, it is worth mentioning that the geolinguistic analysis that has been conducted at the Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovenian Language in the last decade alongside the drafting of individual volumes of the SLA is currently the only ongoing dialectological study to synthetically examine (lexical) material from all Slovenian dialects. The growing corpus of new data and findings also entails the opening of various possibilities for its use both in linguistics and in disciplines studying the denoted concepts – history, ethnology, anthropology, cultural studies, geography, biology and others. In addition, a good description of the structure of local dialects contributes to research on language varieties, as it enables a proper understanding of the synchronic and diachronic variation of spoken Slovenian in all its realizations. Basic etymological and onomastic studies will be useful for further etymological and onomastic research on both Slovenian and other Slavic and Indo-European languages. Their achievements will be a source of information for national comparative linguistics in European countries and for Indo-European linguistics in general. Works on the history of the Slovenian language will provide a reliable historical description of word meanings of the Slovenian 16th-century literary language. The historical dictionary will serve as a methodological model for other similar dictionary projects in the making due to its informativity, which is made possible by a corpus of all Slovenian 16th-century books, and to its state-of-the-art modes of data display.
Significance for the country
To a large extent, the Slovenian cultural and national identity is based on the Slovenian language. The programme group mostly conducts long-term lexicographic works that should have already been available for Slovenian (which is the case for other languages, such as English, German, French, Russian, Polish), but still have not been realized due to lack of funds and the consequent shortage of suitable staff. As the programme group is aware of its responsibility for the socio-economic and cultural development of Slovenia and thus for the development of its economy, it places a special focus on activities for the transmission of its scientific discoveries to the society at large. This is one of the reasons why the group believes it will be one of the most influential programme groups in this field during the next programming period as well. With the Fran.si portal, the work of the programme group can be directly communicated to the widest possible general public, while the Franček.si portal will enable the group to further ensure the transmission of its work to school education and to the learning and teaching of Slovenian in the next programming period. The results of the group’s research are important for the making of a suitable national language policy and also have a direct technological use for the economy (spell checkers, grammar checkers, inflection tools, speech generation and recognition). The programme group’s language counselling services play another instrumental role for society and science, enabling the group to directly respond to the needs of society, economy and culture. The envisaged lexicographic manuals for modern (standard) Slovenian will provide a comprehensive description of the language, which is one of the most precious components of the national cultural heritage. Functioning as fundamental codification manuals and reference works, they will guide the use of language at all levels of communication. As the starting point and the result of language planning objectives, they will enable language policy activities and thereby contribute to maintaining the societal status of Slovenian, consequently exerting influence on the linguistic knowledge and communication practices of the users of the Slovenian language. The works planned in the field of terminology will enable more effective communication among experts in a given field, and due to their multilingual design, they will be of great direct use to translators, proofreaders and others. They will exert a positive influence on the Slovenian national identity, since the ability of professional communication in Slovenian which is in line with communication in other languages shows that Slovenian is a developed language capable of fulfilling a whole range of functions. Systematized terminology is a basis of technological development. By developing and setting up archival and contemporary collections of dialectal material, the group helps to preserve this unique part of intangible cultural heritage and secure its proper place in the European and global cultural context. The Slovenian Linguistic Atlas presents the diversity of Slovenian dialects to the general professional and non-professional public while also enabling the inclusion of research findings in school curricula, while projects such as the Slavic Linguistic Atlas and European Linguistic Atlas present Slovenian dialectal material in the context of Slavic and European languages, respectively. Working in the (language) community to serve the community is one of the guiding principles of our research group. In the local environment, the group establishes connections with the local media, cultural, educational and tourism societies and museums, helps with amateur dialectological research when necessary, especially with the drafting of dialect dictionaries and the research activities of primary and secondary school students, and presents its research results. The knowledge of the origin and development of one’s own language and vocabulary is a solid foundation for a less complex, popularized presentation of the origin and etymology of the Slovenian word-stock, the purpose of which is to enhance the awareness that every language, including Slovenian, is shaped by the laws of development. The lexicographic presentation of the history of the Slovenian standard language will enable users to trace the development of a given word through its entire history as well as compare its historical and contemporary uses. This work seeks to fill the gap in Slovenian historical lexicography, which poses a problem also in terms of general societal needs (staging and interpreting historical texts).
