The paper presents new research in the field of Slovak orthography. One of the aims of the research project is to create such orthographic norms that will respond to the current and objective language problems of language users. The aim of the paper is to initiate a discussion about the topic. The starting point for the research lies in the reflection of the previous Slovak orthographic norms and in the reflection of their ideological background. It is also necessary to focus on the pragmatic side of orthographic phenomena. Last but not least, it is important to realize a target group which the norms are addressed to and which the norms will be verified in. There is a need to get to know language users through their language attitudes. Traditionally, it is important focus on the relation of language system, norm and usage (praxis) as well as the issue of the orthographic criterions.
This article addresses the issue of empirical research on language attitudes. In the first part, some of the up-to-date investigations of attitudes towards Czech are discussed. The second part introduces the matched-guise technique to Czech linguistics and points out some examples of how this technique has been used and modified. Criticism of this technique is mentioned briefly. In the third part, the possibilities of implementing the matched-guise technique using Czech material are considered (e.g. the difference in the evaluation of different items of one variety; the difference in the evaluation in different situational contexts; language attitudes and code-mixing/code-switching in Czech; the issue of language discrimination).
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