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Mudra’s Upper Sorbian-Czech dictionary – what can be done about this lexicographic “posthumous child”?
Brankatschk, Katja ; Škrabal, M.
Jiří Mudra, among his numerous selfless activities, was a Czech doyen of Sorbian studies. He had been working for decades on an Upper Sorbian-Czech dictionary but, unfortunately, had not finished his work on it at the time of his death. Presently, we are considering completing\nMudra’s project. The material collected by Mudra is undoubtedly valuable for us, providing us with a launchpad for further work, still, it is necessary to challenge it with the current data and a modern lexicographic approach. The paper presents the proposed individual methods\naimed at finishing the main body of the dictionary. Every lexicographer works with the data and tools available in his or her time – and Mudra\nwas certainly no exception. There is, therefore, no reason to maintain exaggerated reverence towards his dataset where it is in apparent conflict with the current language reality. The aim is not to foster Mudra’s cult, but to acknowledge his admirable initiative and enthusiasm. The best way to do so is to complete his dictionary with all the possibilities currently offered to us and make it available – as the first academic dictionary in this language combination – to Czech users.
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The Verb Particle preč and the Prefix wot- in Older Upper Sorbian and their Role in the Grammaticalization of Aspect
Brankatschk, Katja
This paper deals with the Upper Sorbian verb particle preč in comparison to its synonymous prefix wot-. The question is raised, whether those two elements can form aspect pairs of the type preč hić (ipf.) – woteńć (pf.). On the basis of a corpus of an Older Sorbian Bible translation, about 100 examples of the particle preč and about 50 examples of the prefix wot- are examined. According to the examples from the examined text, it seems that the particle preč is as much integrated into the system of Sorbian word formation, as would be necessary to form such ipf. aspect partners systematically. In the corpus, there is only one potential aspect pair preč hić / (preč) woteńć. However, those verbs show only a low level of aspectuality. Where the particle preč is used in Older as well as in modern Upper Sorbian, the influence of the German equivalent of the verb and other lexical factors are of greater importance. In addition, verbal aspect in Older Upper Sorbian seems to be gramaticalized only to a low degree. Therefore the necessity to form an ipf. partner for a prefix verb does not occur very often. A question of debate remain those examples in narrative passages, where pf. (aorist) forms are combined with ipf. (imperfekt) ones. A larger corpus of narrative texts should show, whether the choice of aspect in those passages is given lexically or by co-accidence, or whether there is a functional distribution similarely as in Czech.
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