Publication Details

Abstract

Structuralism made itself felt as the leading direction of research in Slovak linguistics in the 1930s and the 1940s. The idealistic natute of structuralism was realized, but the Slovak linguists did not collaborate with the idealistically orientated philosophers. There was no philosophical-theoretical trend in Slovak linguistic structuralism. There is no programme article in the magazine Slovo a tvar (The Word and the Shape) either. The dependence upon the Prague School was evident from the beginning, but not a passive one. It was phonology that was the main sphere of activity of Slovak linguistic structuralism. Besides the phonology of contemporary literary Slovak it was namely the historical phonology of some languages. There originated significant works on the development of the phonological level as a system. Remarkable results were achieved also in the analysis of grammatical categories and word categories. The co-operation of some branches of research resulted in vigorous stylistic studies. By the year 1950 structuralism lost its leading part, but some theses and namely several methodological proceedings of linguistic structuralism survived in Slovakist studies for a longer time.