APPLIED LINGUISTIC RESEARCHES – THEIR PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN

Abstract

As researchers in general, linguists can also be divided into two large groups: one of them is interested only in their own science – they are the descriptive linguists, while the other group also deals with various social and personal questions, which can be answered only interdisciplinarly. They are the applied linguists. Languages can be native, foreign, heritage and enviromental ones in the majority or minority position. Applied linguists try to find real answers to the questions of how a language exsists (or can/may exsist) in its own language community, how it affects the speakers’ life, and what happens in the case of social, political or psychical problems. The applied linguists try to give answers to these questions. The Carpathian basin is a multi-ethnical and multilingual region, therefore the applied linguistic researches have a very important role here. The aim of the paper is to show the main tendencies and the functions of the Hungarian applied linguistic researches in the past, present and in the future.