Usage-based dialectology

Applying concepts of Cognitive Linguistics to dialectological data of a traditional kind, the present paper addresses the question whether differences of culture and conceptualization could be detected language-internally, not just across languages. At the same time, it shows that the traditional methodology of evaluating dialectological data at the level of language structure can be challenged by a usage-based cognitive linguistic analysis. The language variant in focus is the Moldavian Southern Csango, an archaic Hungarian dialect. We investigate the conceptualization of forty internal qualities (emotions and character traits) on the basis of two usage-based types of analysis: one in which we try to determine the entrenchment of the investigated concepts, and one in which we have a look at the semantic relationships between them. The two approaches provide converging evidence that negative concepts are more elaborated in the mind of the Csangos and that the most crucial factor organizing their conceptual system is “morality”.