Projects / Programmes
The Slovenian Language in Synchronic and Diachronic Development
January 1, 2015
- December 31, 2021
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.05.00 |
Humanities |
Linguistics |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H350 |
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, language technologies
Researchers (54)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
The programme group is the only lexicographic programme group in Slovenia and the only one that has systematically taken care of providing language users with fundamental dictionaries and other descriptions of Slovenian for almost seven decades.
The main goals of the programme group in the next programme period in the field of lexicology and normative linguistics of contemporary standard Slovenian, terminology, dialectology, etymology, onomastics and the history of Slovenian will be the preparation of the following fundamental lexicographic and normative publications: Dictionary of Contemporary (Standard) Slovenian 1, Normative Guide with a corresponding Dictionary 1, Dictionary of Slovenian Synonyms, Dictionary of Legal Terminology, Terminological Dictionary of Agronomy, Terminological Dictionary of Animal Science, Terminological Dictionary of Reinforced Concrete Structures, Terminological Dictionary of Visually Impaired Education, General Dictionary of Engineering, the second and the third volumes of Slovenian Linguistic Atlas, the eight volume of phonetic and grammatical series of Slavic Linguistic Atlas, New Etymological Dictionary of the Slovenian Language 1: Animals, Toponyms of the East Tolminsko Region and the first and the second volumes of the Dictionary of Slovenian 16th-Century Protestant Writers. In the next period, the group will prepare a freely available integrated web portal containing lexical and other databases and manuals produced by the Institute, which will allow scientific, professional and general users to view data from different sources simultaneously. The group will establish a platform for connecting different works within the research programme in the most effective way possible. It will benefit from opportunities offered by publishing dictionaries and manuals online (instant publication, joining results from different sources). At the same time, it will preserve continuous production of fundamental works of Slovenian linguistics as well as their accuracy in terms of normativity and content. It will conduct research on linguistic problems, which is required by ongoing production of fundamental works, and forge optimal cooperation with the interested public in identifying current linguistic problems. It will also keep up with most recent language technology solutions offered by technological development and cooperate with various language technology centres. Infrastructural activities within the Natural and Cultural Heritage project of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts are an indispensable prerequisite for the majority of the foreseen lexicographic and geolinguistic works. The priorities of the programme group follow the Resolution on the National Programme for Language Policy 2014-2018 adopted on 15 July 2013 by the National Assembly. The presented programme consists of the most needed fundamental studies of Slovenian and envisages compilation of dictionaries that are currently considered to be most needed on all levels of research of Slovenian.
Significance for science
The works produced by the programme group are of fundamental and key importance for the development of all disciplines that (also) take the Slovenian language as their object of study, i.e. especially for Slovenian language studies, for Slavic linguistics, comparative and general linguistics. We are the only centre in the world that systematically takes care of providing fundamental manuals and studies in all fields of research of Slovenian. Its research is not based on narrow research interests of individual researchers, rather, it is based on actual needs of sciences which are somehow connected to the Slovenian language. Our programme is therefore of great importance for the development of science. Given the citation score and that the results of our programme group have been widely used, we have reasonable grounds to believe that the results of the programme group will represent the basis for all other research into Slovenian in the next programme period. A particularly great advantage of our research will be the free availability of results within a common online portal which will allow the international public to access a wide range of information as easily as possible.
The envisaged lexical databases of the modern Slovenian standard language and language manuals based on them will be compiled so as to ensure reliability and to provide as much information as possible. Since they will contain normative guidelines approved by interinstitutional national standardisation body, they will be a fundamental reference resource for studies related to modern Slovenian and will exert a direct influence on language in education and science at the same time. We will conduct one of the most comprehensive language studies of modern Slovenian (the only major remaining problem is analysis of spoken language), which will have a decisive impact on the development of different currents of Slovenian linguistics and on other lexicographic works which will be based on our research. The established multipurpose databases will serve as the basis for both further linguistic studies and for the development of language technologies for Slovenian.
The foreseen works in the field of terminology will have significant influence on the fields whose terminology they will systematize. They will be useful, as can be said on the basis of experience gained so far, in neighbouring disciplines as well. They will enable better comprehension of complex concepts and facilitate communication between experts in a given field of study. Since they will also include information on the use of particular terms in foreign languages, they will allow better integration of Slovenian science into international scientific community and easier communication of foreign researchers with Slovenian experts and, at the same time, they will take care of development and preservation of Slovenian in science and higher education. Since the works will be freely available and will provide information that will be relevant to the discipline in question (they will be a result of multidisciplinary collaboration with different researchers of a given discipline), they will be very useful for the general scientific community.
Due to a specific location of Slovenian ethnic area, Slovenian dialects are very revealing within Slavic linguistics and often serve to uncover the history of many linguistic phenomena. They are also an extremely rich source for etymological and comparative studies of Slavic languages and of all Indo-European languages. Within accentology, the preservation of pitch accent in some Slovenian dialects requires special attention and this represents an important source for reconstruction of Slavic, Balto-Slavic and Proto-Indo-European paradigmatic accentology. The presentation of linguistic phenomena in space together with other disciplines enables an insight into the development of language according to cultural, historical, natural and other circumstances that have shaped and
Significance for the country
To a large extent, Slovenian cultural and national identity is based on the Slovenian language. The programme group mostly conducts long-term lexicographic projects 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 provided due to lack of funds and consequently to a smaller number of suitable staff. Since our programme group is aware of the great responsibility it has for the socioeconomic and cultural development of Slovenia, it tries to overcome the shortage of funds by organising its work as efficiently as possible and consequently by working as productively as possible, which can be very well seen in our bibliographies.
Since the use of language affects all aspects of social life in Slovenia, we can claim that we will be one of the most influential programme groups in this field during the next programme period as well. Due to freely availability of our results, which will be published on our web portal, our work will be directly useful for all economic and social activities that require precise verbal expression in performing their work.
The envisaged lexicographic manuals of modern (Slovenian) standard language will provide a comprehensive description of Slovenian, which is one of the most precious components of our cultural heritage. They will function as fundamental codification manuals (they will be approved by an interinstitutional national standardisation body) and as reference works which will guide the use of language on all levels of communication. As the starting point and the result of language planning goals they will enable language policy activities and will thereby contribute to maintaining the status of Slovenian in our society and will consequently exert influence on linguistic knowledge and communication practices of users of the Slovenian language.
The works planned in the field of terminology will enable more effective communication among experts in a given field as well as easier transfer of knowledge outside limited professional environment. Because of their multilingual design, these freely available works will be of great direct use for translators, proofreaders and others. They will exert positive influence on Slovenian national identity, since the ability of Slovenian to allow professional communication which is in line with communication in other languages shows that Slovenian is a developed language capable of fulfilling a whole range of functions. Systematised terminology allows international communication between experts and is one of the bases of technological development.
The development of awareness of register diversity of Slovenian, studies of its dialectal diversity and comparison of the national language with Slavic and European linguistic and cultural areas exert influence on the cultural development of an individual and society. Our programme group has established and kept unique collections of dialect language data from the entire Slovenian linguistic and ethnic area for decades, which represent a real treasury of cultural heritage. These collections have been scientifically analysed and presented to Slovenian and foreign public and foster national identity. Slovenian linguistic atlas has been and remains to be a long-awaited scientific work expected by Slovenian and international scientific and general publics of major national and transnational importance for science, since it is one of those linguistic publications which are useful for more general scientific and pedagogical purposes in Slovenia and abroad. The atlas with its indexes and lists of words is and will have the potential to be indirectly used as a collection of dialectal lexemes of a given semantic field. Further cartographic presentation of dialectal words accompanied by expert comments will make dialect lexis more readily accessible to different users. In schools, it will be possible to present Slov
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2015,
interim report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2015,
interim report
