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The text deals with the semantics of the word svoboda (‘liberty’) as it is illustrated in the selected source material from the period 1948–1989, known as “the time of the absence of liberty”. The material comprises the Totalita corpus (of opinion journalism texts), the key documents of the Czechoslovak anti-Communist movement (Dva tisíce slov (‘The Two Thousand Words’; 1968), Prohlášení Charty 77 (‘Declaration of Charter 77’; 1977), Několik vět (‘A Few Sentences’; 1989), as well as the New Year speeches of Czechoslovak presidents. The analysis is aimed at the occurrence of the word svoboda in particular collocations, at the possibilities of tracking semantic changes in the expression, and mostly at whether, and in which way, the perception and presentation of liberty differ in the official texts of the Communist regime and those of the anti-Communist opposition.The analysis combines quantitative and corpus approaches with qualitative analysis.
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This paper presents the first qualitative analysis of the Czech causal construction protože X ‘because X’. First, against the backdrop of a number of earlier analyses of equivalent constructions in English, German, and Dutch, the article discusses the variability of the X slot of the Czech construction. Second, it is argued that although some instances of the construction are definitely elliptical,others are not, and generally categorising protože X as a case of ellipsis is therefore inadequate.The crucial distinction is made between reconstructing an ellipsis and expanding a non-ellipsis. Third,a brief sketch of the diachrony of the construction is presented. It is suggested that non-elliptical protože X constructions developed out of elliptical clauses with protože ‘because’. These elliptical instances of protože X can be found as early as in the 19th century. Finally, the Czech construction protože X is compared with its equivalents in English, German, and Dutch. Finally, further research questions are suggested.
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Review of the book Velčovský, Václav (ed.) (2019): Jazyk jako fetiš: Texty o Češích a českých Němcích 1880–1948.Praha: Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy.
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Review of the book Uličný, Oldřich (ed.) (2017): Struktura v jazyce, jazyk v komunikaci. Liberec: Technická univerzita v Liberci.
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Overview of the dissertations on the Czech language from 2019
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The article deals with the variety of meanings of the feminine forms tvořilka, tvůrkyně, tvořitelka and tvořička, which relate to the verb tvořit ‘to create’. Focusing on the lexeme tvořilka, its adherentexpressiveness and the results of a corpus-based analysis, the author tracks the movement of thislexeme between language center and periphery.
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The present study, couched within the framework of the Concept Types and Determination theory (CTD) and relying upon corpus data, attempts to provide further evidence for the claim that Czech, especially its informal spoken variety, is developing a definite article from the distance-neutral demonstrative ten in adnominal uses. The CTD theory has proved its utility for studying emerging definite articles in Western Slavic languages in the works of Adrian Czardybon and Albert Ortmann. At its core lies the distinction between the so-called “pragmatic” and “semantic” definiteness. It is generally assumed that emerging definite articles spread from the former to the latter, and the grammaticalization process is considered accomplished once the former demonstrative systematically appears in contexts of semantic definiteness. This study applies the distinction, made by Löbner, to a corpus sample of 1,000 occurrences of the adnominal ten, many of which appear to manifest characteristics typical of definite articles across languages.
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The paper deals with changes in the Czech aspectual system during the last twenty-five years. The author analyses data acquired from the Czech National Corpus or, more precisely, from subcorpora containing only journalistic texts (the national daily newspapers Hospodářské noviny, Lidové noviny, Mladá fronta DNES and Právo). The corpus-based analysis showed that the frequency of the verb (and its finite forms) has been increasing in journalistic texts and that the statistic relation between imperfective and perfective verbs, as well as the relation between grammatical tenses in Czech, has become more asymmetrical (especially, the frequency of imperfective verbs has been rising). The increase in aspectual asymmetry accentuates the “western” features of the Czech aspectual system in the sense of S. M. Dickey’s (2000) conception. Together with the increasing aspectual asymmetry in Czech, the frequency of bi-aspectual verbs has slightly decreased. The analysis also showed that the frequency of verbs with prefixes (both perfective and imperfective) has decreased in Czech. The author interprets these facts as results of the transmission of certain dynamic (and system-based) features from spoken language to the written language, and he also discusses the typological context of the changes (inferring aspectual meanings from grammatical context as a manifestation of strengthening analyticity in Czech).
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The present study addresses the unresolved issue of speech melody in Czech question-word questions (i.e., specific, information or content questions). Some renowned authors claim that these questions use the same melodic courses as statements, whereas others suggest salient modifications.We contribute to the debate with the results of an experiment, in which 24 speakers were recorded producing context-embedded utterances that formed latent question-statement pairs.The pairs under scrutiny were not obvious to the speakers but they structurally differed in just one or two phonemes and preserved identical stress-group and syllabic patterns. The analysis of the melodic contours shows that although both statements and interrogatives are generally (even if not always) produced with a falling contour, the placement of the melodic peak and its magnitude differ significantly. While statements are typically furnished with a late intonational nucleus, question-word questions more commonly display a higher early peak. Additionally, various pragmatic components of the messages are suggested that correlate with the individual tune shapes.
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The goal of the paper is to familiarize Czech readers with a widely used psycholinguistic experimental method aimed at word recognition and lexical access, i.e. the lexical decision task. The paper provides solid theoretical basis for preparing own experiments using this method. Based on a review of various previous studies, the general principles of the method, the issues in its design and the typical types of stimuli are discussed. We explain what type of word as well as nonword characteristics affect results of the task and how the reactions towards used stimuli interact with each other. Regarding the experimental design, we discuss the role of feedback, duration times for stimuli presentation, intra-trial intervals, etc. Additionally, attention is paid to the most usual pitfalls and drawbacks of the method. The results of studies on the Czech material are also briefly presented and various tips for future research on Czech are suggested.
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Review of the book Čmejrková, Světla (2019): Jazyk a dialog: Výbor z textů [Jana Hoffmannová and Petr Kaderka eds.]. Praha: Nakladatelství Lidové noviny.
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Review of the book Orgoňová, Oľga – Bohunická, Alena (2018): Interakčná štylistika. Bratislava: Univerzita Komenskéhov Bratislave.
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Review of the book Červenková, Barbora (2019): Rozvoj komunikačních a jazykových schopností: U dětí od narozenído tří let věku. Praha: Grada.
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How did Language Consulting Service work in the state of emergency due to a covid-19 pandemic?
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The article deals with the meaning of the Czech noun lauf. The relevant dictionaries state only slang meanings ‘(gun) barrel’ and ‘rapid series of tones’. Nevertheless, that does not meet the present word usage. The paper focuses on sports environment, where lauf is commonly used synonym for long-distance run. It also notices nouns laufař/laufařka and observes the usage and meaning of phrases like být v laufu (‘to be in lauf’) and dostat se do laufu (‘to get into lauf’).
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The paper presents several structured reflections on the relationship between norm and codification. It is based on two theoretical frameworks. The first framework is formed by the distinction between language rule as the object of description and the so-called rule-sentence as the description of this object (Section 1); the second framework consists of the distinction between two ways of language learning, as conceptualized in theories of second language learning, i.e. spontaneous language adoption on the one hand and guided language learning on the other (Section 2). The relationship between norm and codification or rules and rule-sentences is, at first, seen from the macro-perspective of the codifying (language planning) process. The paper deals especially with the question of what kind of rule-sentences are or should be listed in codification textbooks and manuals, and considers the standpoint of both codifiers and ordinary speakers (Section 3). This view of the relationship is complemented from the micro-perspective of individual speakers and their ability to spontaneously adopt the rules (of a standard variety) through the learning of rule-sentences (Section 4).
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