Popularizační dialog českých bohemistů s jejich čtenáři v průběhu tří čtvrtin století
The popularizing dialogue of Czech linguists with their readers throughout the last 75 years

Summary/Abstract: The article builds on existing definitions of the popularizing style and investigates how the main features of this style are realized in short texts popularizing Czech linguistics and linguistic findings about Czech. The paper is based on texts by Czech linguists throughout the last 75 years: 23 books published since 1948 and 330 contemporary texts published by the scholars of the Czech Language Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences in various newspapers and magazines. It focuses on genre characteristics of these texts, most often referred to as “jazykové koutky” (literally “language corners”), but also as columns, glosses, feuilletons, reflections or essays – i.e., genres that are similar in their hybrid nature and informal expression. The stylistic analysis focuses on the dialogical nature of these texts, on the contact between the author and the reader, as projected into the texts. The results of a comparison between older popularization texts (roughly from the second half of the 20th century) and the most recent texts, from 2019–2024, are also presented: in the most recent texts, subjectivization, individualization, emphasized contact, and bringing authors closer to their intended readers come to the forefront significantly, while at same time the entertainment value, playfulness, and wittiness increase.

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