Pražská škola a empirický funkcionalismus: vachkovské inspirace
The Prague School and Empirical Functionalism: Vachekian Inspiration

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the relationship between the Prague School and the “empirical functionalists”, or “Greenbergians”, i.e. linguists such as Talmy Givón, William Croft, Bernard Comrie, Martin Haspelmath or Joan Bybee. Common concepts are pointed out, primarily those elaborated by Josef Vachek (synchronic dynamism, interaction of language levels, interplay of external and internal factors in the shaping of language). Further, aspects are mentioned in which these current trends can enrich each other: e.g., a broad empirical basis, the methodology of explicative comparison of languages, grammaticalization and iconicity offered by empirical functionalism; on the other hand, the methodology of detailed holistic description of individual languages, questions of language cultivation, topics leading beyond linguistics, etc, provided by the Prague School. Finally, work to make classical Praguean texts accessible is urgently needed.

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