Motivace k popularizaci jazyka a lingvistiky
Motivations for popularizing language and linguistics

Summary/Abstract: Popularization is often seen as an integral part of scientific work, but from our experience, in Czech linguistics, it is not an obligatory part, required for a scientist’s activities to be viewed as of high-quality or complete. Therefore, one can assume that the content, the manner and the level/quality of popularization activities depend strongly on the motivation of particular scientists, their teams or their superiors. The paper aims to map what motivates people who popularize language and/or linguistics to do so. We asses that qualitatively, using the method of semi-structured interview with both linguists and non-linguists involved in popularization. Our respondents described as their motivations the feelings of personal gratification, satisfaction, contentment, joy or pleasure of the popularization, the feeling of meaningfulness, added value, self-realization, and ego. Based on these results, we conclude that both groups of popularizers like to popularize language and/or linguistics, but for linguists, meaningfulness and little or no feedback are characteristic, while non-linguists are more focused on building social media communities that are able to digest only very simplifiedcontent.

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