Betoldását

Betoldását is the act or instance of inserting additional material into a text or spoken discourse. The term derives from the verb betoldani, meaning to insert into, and the noun betoldás, meaning insertion or interpolation. Betoldás can occur for rhetorical, editorial, or linguistic reasons and may or may not be considered part of the original text.

In language use, betoldás often takes the form of a közbevetés—a phrase or clause inserted into a sentence that adds information, commentary, or clarification. Common presentations include parenthetical insertions in parentheses, or insertions set off by commas or em dashes. In linguistics, the related concept of interpoláció refers to the insertion of material within a text, sometimes by a later author or editor.

In editing and textual criticism, betoldás specifically denotes material added by a later editor to clarify meaning, resolve ambiguity, or fill lacunae in an existing manuscript. Such editorial insertions are typically marked to distinguish them from the original text, for example by square brackets, italics, or a note in the apparatus of a critical edition. The significance of betoldások varies: they can aid understanding or, if not clearly signaled, obscure the provenance of the text.

Examples illustrate how betoldás can function in practice. A sentence like “A futó, a felkészülésnek köszönhetően, megnyerte a versenyt” contains a betoldás that adds context about preparation. In scholarly editions, readers may encounter editorial betoldások enclosed in brackets to indicate that the words were supplied by the editor rather than the original author.