Evaluation of the Correctness of Some Verb Forms

In my paper I study attitudes towards language correctness. Based on prescriptivist writings and laymen’s comments, I present opinions connected to Hungarian verbs felolt and odaad. Using collected texts I examine how people argue for or against the correctness of the chosen verbs. Despite of being characterized as illogical, the verb felolt is the product of an existing word formation process in Hungarian. By analysing the prescriptivist comments on felolt and other similar verbs, we can see that their rejection originates in different language ideologies. Laymen deny felolt mainly because they are not aware of the fact that Hungarian verbal prefixes can change the verbs’ meanings to their opposite. The use of odaad, referring to the first person, is highly criticized by both prescriptivist linguists and ordinary speakers. However, literature and empirical data prove that the arguments against its correctness are scientifically groundless and this use of prefix oda appears not only in combination with the verb ad but also with ítél and ajándékoz.