Dr Kis, Tamás
Associate Professor
Old (!) professional CV
(University studies) After completing secondary school studies in Zs. Móricz Grammar School in Kisújszállás, I applied for admission to the Faculty of Arts, L. Kossuth University, Debrecen (majoring in: Hungarian and Russian). I was admitted without an entrance examination, thanks to a paper on young people’s slang submitted to the Students’ Scientific Association.
After four terms of study as a Hungarian–Russian major, I continued my studies in the major subjects Hungarian–Finno-Ugric. During my university years I also participated in courses in general and Indo-European comparative linguistics, Altaic linguistics, study of names, functional grammar, everything that was offered by the university in the various fields of linguistics.
(Scientific work in the undergraduate years) I was a member and regular contributor to the Students’ Scientific Association at the Institute of Hungarian Linguistics, in 1985 and 1987 I participated in the Association’s competition with two works (Hungarian military jargon, 121 pp: Study on names of our pubs and inns, 155 pp) With the latter paper I won special grand prize at the 1987 conference.
In addition to work in the Students’ Association I gradually joined in the work of the chairs of Finno-Ugric and Hungarian Linguistics. In my fourth and fifth years I worked as an undergraduate assistant at the Chair of Finno-Ugric Linguistics, in my fifth year I did educational work as a part-time lecturer at the Chair of Hungarian Linguistics. Prior to this assignment I participated in the preparatory work of the Csokonai Thesaurus, then in the checking and correction of the vocabulary list to Karjalainen Ostyak texts and made extracts from Vogul, Ostyak and Samoyedic mythological material of Soviet periodicals for the chapters of Mythologisches Wörterbuch written by Edit Vértes.
(University educational work) I graduated from L. Kossuth University in 1988. From August that year –as continuation of my previous work in my fifth year of study– I was appointed assistant lecturer for the Chair of Hungarian Linguistics of L. Kossuth University. I have been senior lecturer since 1993. For two years (from the1992–93 academic year) I held a part-time educational job at Miskolc University.
My task is teaching the structure and history of present-day Hungarian language, however, I regularly hold lectures in name studies too.
(Other university activities) Since 1989 I have been chairman of the Students’ Scientific Association at the Institute of Hungarian Linguistics, I was, in turn, secretary to the Chair and the Institute, since 1995 I have been deputy head of the Chair.
(Scientific research work) Within the field of Hungarian linguistics my particular field of research is primarily slang research and also study of names, Finno-Ugric linguistics and sociolinguistics.
Outstanding among my shorter publications (etymology of names, works with reference to name-study) is the editorial work for the publication of Frigyes Pesty’s material of place names in Bihar county, performed in cooperation with István Hoffmann.
My main field of research is the theoretical and practical investigation of Hungarian slang. Besides the books and papers enlisted in the bibliography I prepared for publication a volume by Vilmos Zolnay and Mihály Gedényi: A régi Budapest a fattyúnyelvben [The Old Budapest in the Argot], and further, I created and also host the first and so-far only Hungarian collection of slang on the Internet, where, among other things, one can find the documents processed as preliminary work for the Great Dictionary of Hungarian Slang.
Since 1993 I have been technical editor of the Annals of the Chair of Hungarian Linguistics, Magyar Nyelvjárások [Hungarian Dialects], as well as most of the publications of the Chair.
(Scientific degrees, membership to societies) The degree Doctor of Arts (MA) was conferred to me in 1991 (first-class honours) for my dissertation on Hungarian military slang, then in 1996 I was granted (with maximum score) the PhD degree. I have been member of the Hungarian Society for Linguistic Science.