Případ Kmetiněves: Leave the language alone, nebo axiologicky ukotvený průzkum jazyka?
The Kmetiněves case: Leave the language alone, or an axiologically anchored investigation of language?

Summary/Abstract: From a case study, a kind of manifesto grows in this article – or a challenge to discuss the principles of axiology in a corpus-based grammar. Part 1 (introduction) presents some facts about a group of Czech village names. One of them has been used frequently in the media last year, not always in accordance with language handbooks; Part 2 records this phenomena. Part 3 sketches how this phenomena would be treated in the spirit of laissez-faire linguistics. Part 4 starts with a reminder that there are not only language phenomena in corpora, but errors as well. Then, the axiology is presented as observation of values (a) in the national language, (b) in texts, (c) in language description. A description within a badly needed axiologic frame is claimed and demonstrated, where language phenomena would be evaluated not only after mere frequencies, but also depending on qualities of source texts. Part 5 adumbrates a broader frame and some parallels of other disciplines where the description of human practice differs from theoretical postulates. Part 6 specifies the role this journal hopes to play in further discussions: about the use of corpora in a grammar research, about criteria of marking language phenomena, about distinguishing innovations from errors, about values of single language phenomena.

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