Ach, ty zatracené neutra: realizace shody v plurálu

• Authors: Václav Cvrček , Ondřej Drobil , Anna Dittrichová , Adrianna Arłukowicz

Title variants

EN

Oh, those damn neuters: the realization of plural agreement with neuter nouns

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

The current codification of neuter plural agreement in Czech does not fully reflect contemporary usage and has no convincing support in arguments from a functional or communicative perspective. This article presents the results of a corpus analysis focusing on agreement in the noun phrase (nová/é/ý města ‘new towns’) and in the active participle (města byla/y ‘towns were’) with respect to the variability of Czech registers. The analysis of the frequencies of variants in eight different corpora representing various types of written texts, internet communication and spoken registers shows that the occurrence of non-codified forms is influenced by the mode of communication (written vs. spoken), and the degree of formality and spontaneity of the given communication; e.g., in more formal and prepared monologues, non-codified variants are as frequent as the codified ones. Exclusive occurrence of the codified forms can be detected only in those written texts whose authors take considerable account of the codification. The results of the study highlight the need to reconceptualise the language policy of Czech.

Keywords

CS

adjektiva; kodifikace; morfologie; neutrum; participia; shoda; spisovná čeština

EN

adjectives; agreement; codification; morphology; neuter gender; participles; literary/standard Czech

• Publisher: Institute of the Czech Language, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Naše řeč (Our Speech)
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 107
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 3-20
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Václav Cvrček

• Ústav pro jazyk český AV ČR, v. v. i., Letenská 123/4, 118 51 Praha 1, Czech Republic

author

Ondřej Drobil

• Ústav pro jazyk český AV ČR, v. v. i., Letenská 123/4, 118 51 Praha 1, Czech Republic

author

Anna Dittrichová

• Ústav pro jazyk český AV ČR, v. v. i., Letenská 123/4, 118 51 Praha 1, Czech Republic

author

Adrianna Arłukowicz

• Ústav pro jazyk český AV ČR, v. v. i., Letenská 123/4, 118 51 Praha 1, Czech Republic