<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

Lexical quanta in writing and speech are important indicators of an individual’s social class. This paper analyses the lexical features of the utterances produced by writers/speakers from different social classes in terms of word length based on a representative sample of letters from the Kremnica archive. The study found that writers/ speakers from different social classes showed different average word length in the 2nd half of the 16th century. According to the analysis of the letters, writers/speakers from the upper classes produced utterances with longer words than those from the lower classes. These differences are explained by factors related to the individual’s social class backgrounds and his “right to speech” or “right to be read”. The linguistic economy principle, objective of which is to save more time and energy by conveying more information with less effort is thus far from exhaustive and by no means reflects the whole sociolinguistic reality.
</abstract>

Lexical quanta in writing and speech are important indicators of an individual’s social class. This paper analyses the lexical features of the utterances produced by writers/speakers from different social classes in terms of word length based on a representative sample of letters from the Kremnica archive. The study found that writers/ speakers from different social classes showed different average word length in the 2nd half of the 16th century. According to the analysis of the letters, writers/speakers from the upper classes produced utterances with longer words than those from the lower classes. These differences are explained by factors related to the individual’s social class backgrounds and his “right to speech” or “right to be read”. The linguistic economy principle, objective of which is to save more time and energy by conveying more information with less effort is thus far from exhaustive and by no means reflects the whole sociolinguistic reality.

The Economy of Czech Exchange in the Slovak Marketplace of Austria After the Fall of Hungary

Department of Slavic Philology, Faculty of Arts

Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra

Journal of Linguistics/Jazykovedný casopis

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Lexical quanta in writing and speech are important indicators of an individual’s social class. This paper analyses the lexical features of the utterances...

The Economy of Czech Exchange in the Slovak Marketplace of Austria After the Fall of Hungary

Published Online: Dec 25, 2023

Page range: 43 - 51

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jazcas-2023-0022

Keywords
applied linguistics, economy principle, language management, linguistic marketplace, social class, sociolinguistics, word length

© 2023 Martin Diweg-Pukanec, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Economy of Czech Exchange in the Slovak Marketplace of Austria After the Fall of Hungary

Published Online: Dec 25, 2023

Page range: 43 - 51

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jazcas-2023-0022

Keywordsapplied linguistics, economy principle, language management, linguistic marketplace, social class, sociolinguistics, word length

© 2023 Martin Diweg-Pukanec, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
applied linguistics, economy principle, language management, linguistic marketplace, social class, sociolinguistics, word length