Kálmán Szily’s diagnosis and development plan for language for professional purposes from 1879

Abstract

In 1879 Kálmán Szily (1838-1924), professor, dean and rector of the Technical University, general secretary of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, physicist, naturalist, historian of science and linguist by profession, wrote a 17-page study about Hungarian LPP, the title of which is About the Technical Language of Natural Sciences in Hungarian Literature. Because of the special approach and usage of terminology in the 19th century we have to add three comments for orientation: a. ’natural science’ is a collective term including all natural sciences, b. technical language equals terminology c. the concept and general idea of literature involves both fiction and scientific writing. In the introduction of the study the author gives an overview of the history of language, focusing on the development of vocabulary. Then he goes on to point out that there is a technical language/LPP crisis in Hungarian. He also finds the reasons for this, namely the abuse, linguistic mistakes and diversity related inaccuracy in the LPP of the 19th century. Relating to the debates between the new orthologists and neologists of the 19th century he declares that the consistency of technical language, the stability of the terminology and falling into line with a European level LPP world in vocabulary and style is in our best professional and scientific interest. In the last part of the study he discusses the linguistic solution that is feasible and justifiable from the viewpoint of the history of language, and he offers techniques for developing LPP and stabilizing vocabulary within the frame of applied linguistics.