SVIBOR - Project code: 6-03-052

MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Strossmayerov trg 4, HR - 10000 ZAGREB
tel.: +385 1 459 44 44, fax: +385 1 459 44 69
E-mail: ured@znanost.hr

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Project code: 6-03-052

A Handbook of Standard Cratian Prosody

Main researcher: ŠKARIĆ, IVO (47243)

Assistants

BABIĆ, ZRINKA (43845)
ŠKAVIĆ, ĐURĐA (65210)

Type of research: applied
Duration from: 01/01/91. to 12/31/93.

Papers on project (total): 8
Papers on project quoted in Current Contents: 1

Institution name: Filozofski fakultet - Humanističke znanosti, Zagreb (130)
Department/Institute: Department of phonetics
Address: Ivana Lučića 3
City: 10000 - Zagreb, Croatia

Communication: Phone: 385 (0)1 6120-092, 6120-096; Fax: 385 (0)1 513 834; Phone: 385 (0)1 532-607

Summary: A reference book of standard Croatian prosody would be the first of its kind in Croatia. It has been accepted by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts as the fourth volume of the Outline of Standard Croatian Grammar. It is intended to provide unambiguous information about the prosody of all words of standard Croatian, be they in their basic form or in any of the oblique forms occurring in texts. This information may be accessed easily by the users of the book and/or a personal computer. In order to achieve the set goal it is necessary to undertake a comprehensive study of present solutions, record the current situation in the language, and evaluate possible solutions and systematize the material. The design of the handbook is not a trivial problem, since it must ensure the ease of accessing information, unambiguousness of entries and a high percentage of accounting for the theoretically infinite corpus of texts in Croatian. At a time of predominantly speech culture standardization of a language at the level of word prosody and the design of related reference materials is imperative in the course of development of verbal culture in general.

Keywords: standardization, handbook, prosodic, stress, stress type, falling/rising stress, quantity.

Research goals: The ultimate aim of this research is the completion of a prosodic reference book of standard Croatian, suitable for 2 media: a book and computer diskettes for wide use on PCs. The book has been accepted by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts as the fourth volume of the Outline of Standard Croatian Grammar. That aim classifies this project as applied. Approximately 90,000 words, which are considered to be in use, have been chosen. Each word is assigned a numerical code corresponding to its accent type (depending on prosodic change during declension or conjugation). The second set of scientific aims is to standardize and systematize the words. About 12% of words have accentual variants even in their basic form. In addition, the evolutionary shift in 'the genius of the language' must be registered. An even further shift must be anticipated because standard Croatian has recently departed from the compromise between Croatian and Serbian and is, with respect to accents (and otherwise), structurally relying more on its dialects. This requires careful examination of present standard orthoepic solutions and well motivated new choices. With respect to systematization, the aim is reconsideration of present typology: it is expected that the number of existing accent types can be reduced by half.

Other information about the project.


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Last update: 10/20/95
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