Slovo a slovesnost: časopis pro otázky teorie a kultury jazyka (Slovo a slovesnost: A journal for the theory of language and language cultivation)
This article discusses some aspects of searching for grammatical information in corpora. It argues that any search procedure must consist of at least three principally different steps. First, a hypothesis regarding some grammatical property of the language system must be formulated in terms of an available 'tagging' menu. Second, general instructions concerning the sample size, relevant context size,...
This article investigates the statistic function mutual information (MI-score) as applied to various types of lexical combinations, such as multi-word proper names, multi-word terms, idioms and systemic and textual collocations. As a basis for comparison, combinations of the following parts of speech were considered: group A - noun+noun, group B - adjective+adjective, group C - adverb+adverb, group...
This article deals with different approaches towards linguistic pragmatics, in particular with the difference between the general concept of pragmatics and the pragmatics of a particular language. In recent decades, the scope and content of linguistic pragmatics has been accounted for in various ways, from very broad to rather restricted. In this article, the notion of pragmatic perspective in language...
Statistics from about 17,000 occurrences of the structures 'N1 is N1' and 'N1 is N7' have proved that (a) there is a functional difference between the two predicative cases and (b) there are strong norms for selecting one of the two cases in communication. The nominative case is a strong norm if the communicative function of the sentence predicate is to (a) identify a sort of denotation in a demonstrative...
In order to develop balanced corpora, the term 'expectations' of the future potential user of corpora has been introduced (Kralik, 2001). Based on several statistical studies of such expectations, the textual structure of SYN2000, which is the synchronic part of the Czech National Corpus (CNC) has been proposed and realized. The present article discusses two new studies of expectations (Akter 2001...
Analysis of Czech data within the theoretical framework of Modified Valency Theory (Karlik, 2000) shows that the syntactic derivation of passive voice proceeds in two phases. The first phase, which he calls (A), can be referred to as deagentization. Given the passive morphology of a verb, A-1 (i.e. the subject or external argument of the verb) is blocked. When the verb is transitive, A-2 (i.e. the...
The article deals with the meaning and mutual relations of the terms speech act, speech action (Sprachhandlung) and communicative function of an utterance. The authoress' goal is to determine whether they can be considered synonymous. While the term speech act is synonymous with 'illocutionary act', the conceptual meaning of the other two terms differs. Though it is difficult to draw a sharp line...
The article opens with a brief overview of past and present research activities in the field of Argentine Spanish, and of the most important publications in recent years. Then it summarizes the most important characteristics of Argentine Spanish in its phonetic, morphosyntactic and lexical levels. Based on a comparison of several important peculiarities, like the pronunciation of the /y-/ at the beginning...
In the course of its evolution, phonetics has utilized both internal and external sources of inspiration. In examining different historical epochs, we discover a multitude of influences which have shaped this discipline, situated at the intersection of linguistics, physics and biology. Scholars of ancient India worked out a surprisingly accurate articulatory classification of Sanskrit sounds, centuries...
This article summarizes a publication (Bayer, 2003) based on two studies of language use and attitudes conducted in West Bohemia and Prague in 1998 and 1999 in which language material from a total of 105 participants was analysed. The bases for analysis were the phonetic and morphological characteristics of Standard Czech (SC) and Common Czech (CC). Participant selection was based on gender, education...
The DIALOG corpus is one of two collections of spoken language gathered in the audio-visual studio at the Czech Language Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The article begins by recalling the establishment of the corpus in 1997 as part of the project 'Dialogue in a World of People and Machines', defines the aim motivating the collection of data for this corpus, formulates distinctive criteria...
Two groups of Czech and Slovak linguists collected extensive linguistic material comprising video recordings of parliamentary sessions broadcasted on television, audio recordings of radio debates, video recordings of television interviews and discussion programs, and political advertising material from television and radio. This material was stored in archives (corpora), with the relevant parts of...
The official attempt to introduce the 'Czechoslovak language' as a common state language with two literary varieties, Czech and Slovak, influenced the overall concept of teaching the mother tongue, and its application in schools caused strained relations between Czech and Slovak secondary schools shortly after the birth of the Czechoslovak state. The first curricula for the teaching of the 'Czechoslovak...
This essay discusses several topics concerning the relations between language (linguistics) and music (musicology). The first section deals with the problems of the semiotic interpretation of music (instrumental and absolute) and finds that the difficulties in arriving at clear-cut solutions to them follow from the problematic and unclear status of the signatum of musical works. In the following section,...
This paper deals with structuralism, its roots, general principles and limitations. It follows the evolution of the main structuralist notions (structure, system) in Schleiermacher's and Humboldt's theories of language and tries to explain the causes of the Saussurean langue-parole dichotomy. It argues that the ambiguous Saussurean concept of the sign offers interpretations and theories of natural...
This paper recalls difficulties in the functional and social stratification of Czech and the codification of its literary norm. These difficulties make it necessary to discuss the possibility of a transition from the current post-purist viewpoint to a more realistic and liberal one. The point is to abandon the unavailing efforts at a sharp specification of 'literary' morphemic forms and to aim for...
This essay is a reaction to Roman Goettlicher's article Communication, Silence and Speech in Christianity (2003). It aims to show that Goettlicher does not provide just cause to deduce the insufficiency of natural language and the superiority of silence, as the article's concluding passages state. In addition, the article's indirect criticism of the Linguistic Turn and related appeal for a turn away...
The then-non-standard conviction of V. Mathesius - that science is an ongoing process of constructing truth and that human cognition represents a simplified reduction or epistemological stylization of experience - now appears to be in accordance with major present-day philosophical approaches. Mathesius' viewpoint followed primarily from his pronounced activist nature and self-reliant way of thinking,...
The word 'meaning' appears often in the work of Jan Mukarovsky. He does not, however, define this concept explicitly; thus we must deduce its content retrospectively, based on individual instances of its use. We then encounter a surprising ambiguity manifested even within a single text in literature studies. That is, when Mukarovsky describes the structure of a literary work, he refers to its three...
This article is a reaction to M. Komarek's essay Communication versus system? (1999) and is primarily concerned with the critical analysis of the dichotomic concept of natural language. In particular, the absence of empirical evidence for a language system (langue) is pointed out, which creates serious issues for the entire structuralist approach. That is, if it is impossible to have empirical experience...