|
|
Ethnolinguistic vitality of the Bashkort language
Zaripova, Lilia ; Elšík, Viktor (advisor) ; Sloboda, Marián (referee)
Title of the Bachelor thesis: Ethnolinguistic Vitality of the Bashkort Language Abstract: This bachelor thesis examines the problems that the Bashkort language faces in present-day Bashkortostan and estimates ethnolinguistic vitality of the Bashkort language. The Bashkort language vitality is estimated as vulnerable and it is topical to find the problematic moments and give solutions to revive and maintain the language. The research is based on Language Vitality Theory formulated by Giles, Bourhis and Taylor in 1977. To measure the subjective ethnolinguistic vitality I used Subjective Vitality Questionnaire created by Bourhis, Giles and Rosenthal, 1981. The research was held among 63 Bashkort respondents in Bashkortostan in February 2012. The results show that although the Bashkort people estimate Bashkort vitality lower than Russian vitality, the Bashkort are very proud of their history and culture and estimate these aspects much higher than the Russian's. Thus potential for revitalization is exists and a lot will depend on correct policy and willingness of people to maintain Bashkort. Key words: Language Vitality Theory, objective vitality, subjective vitality, titular nationality
|
|
|
"Světští" (the World People): the identity and the basic cultural features
Skočovská, Markéta ; Elšík, Viktor (advisor) ; Červenka, Jan (referee)
The theme of the thesis is a description of socalled World People, who are considered to be a specific population characterized by an itinerant way of life, connected to certain professions, linguistic and cultural practices, traditions, and values. The first part of the study concerns the origins and use of the term World Person (světský). The second, historically oriented part describes the position of World People in society, as well as the semantic content of the term světský from post-medieval times to today. The third part deals with the history of professions that are somehow related to World People in the Czech lands. The fifth part notes the representation of World People in the media and literature. The primary aspect of the study consists of the results of fieldwork in which the author, using the method of recorded semi-structured interviews, treats the themes of identity and culture among respondents from the ranks of the World People. The final part poses the question of whether it is possible to categorize the World People in some way.
|
|
|
Aspect in Spanish and Czech
Romeu Labayen, Judit ; Starý, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Zavadil, Bohumil (referee) ; Elšík, Viktor (referee)
This work compares some points of verbal aspect in Czech and Spanish. The starting point is the assumption, according to the theory of grounding, that in a narrative text the information is trapped on two planes, which are formally distinguished. This comparison works on the hypothesis that both languages use verbal aspect to formally distinguish both planes. The first part ofthe analysis shows that one ofthe main differences between both languages consists of the different role of the lexical properties of the predicate. In Czech lexical properties of the predicate can influence the selection of aspect, whereas in Spanish they cannot. This finding i s confirmed in the next part of the comparison which deals with the expression of partial and total simultaneity, anteriority and posteriority. The last part of the work is dedicated to the simultaneous expression ofthese temporal relationships and habitual meaning. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
|
|
|
Affix extraction: a case study on Hungarian Romani
Elšík, Viktor ; Starý, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Zima, Petr (referee) ; Halwachs, Dieter W (referee)
The PhD thesis Affix Extraction: A Case Study on Hungarian Romani explores the principles and complexities of the contact-induced mechanism of affix extraction, i.e. of affix borrowing through the mediation of lexical borrowing. The thesis is a case study on affix extraction in Selice Romani, a variety of Romani (Indo-Aryan) that is strongly influenced by Hungarian (Finno-Ugric). After a brief delimitation of the phenomenon of affix extraction and an outline of the contact situation, the thesis describes in some detail several individual instances of extracted Hungarian-origin affixes in Selice Romani. It is claimed that several levels of bilingual morphology and two tiers of potentially constraining factors must be distinguished in order to describe the phenomenon of affix extraction in an adequate manner. The concept of 'gap filling' is tested as a potential predictor of affix extraction. It turns out that the contact situation of Selice Romani vis--vis Hungarian instantiates a stage of borrowing that is characterized by categorially redundant lexical borrowing of morphologically complex forms and affix extraction.
|
|
|
External possession in Czech: in typological and areal perspective
Křivan, Jan ; Elšík, Viktor (referee) ; Starý, Zdeněk (advisor)
The diploma thesis External Possession in Czech: in Typological and Areal Perspective analyzes the phenomenon of "external possession" using authentic Czech material. In addition, it tries to describe the outcome of the analysis with respect to the areal-typological language context. A construction is considered an externa1 possession construction if the semantic possessor-possessum relation is expres sed by coding the possessor as a core grammatical relation of the verb and in a constituent separate from that which contains the possessum. It has been found that the variability of semantic and syntactic properties af externa1 possession constructions is higher in the Czech than in other languages of the European linguistic area. The comparison between Czech and German suggests that the German constructions also need not be restricted to animate externa1 possessors, as it has been presented so far. StilI, Czech external possession constructions have been noted with a broader group of inanimate possessors.
|
|
| |
|
|
Language contact: influence of Czech on Romani
Kubaník, Pavel ; Červenka, Jan (referee) ; Elšík, Viktor (advisor)
This paper surveys the issue of the current contact between Czech and Romani, particularly the influence of Czech on Romani. The contact between the two languages has not lasted much longer than six decades, and so the Czech influence on Romani is not as heavy as it is in case of Hungarian and Slovak, the former contact languages of the variety we focus on, the North Central dialect of Romani. The paper is based on two recorded dialogues between the author and a native speaker of the dialect. The latter is a member of the second generation of Czech-born Roma, who has no or only limited contact with the previous contact language. The paper briefly summarizes the main sociolinguistic factors involved in the contact situation, both in a global and in a case-focused perspective. The core of the paper is an analysis of the boundary between fully adapted lexical borrowings on the one hand and (un-adapted) insertions of one- or multi-word Czech expressions into Romani on the other hand. Individual sections of the paper deal with topics such as gramatical words, discourse markers, institutional or cultural borrowings, tag switching, and multiple reasons for language alternation within a particular discourse.
|
|
|
A phonological description of the south central Romani variety of Veľký Krtíš
Ludlová, Nikola ; Červenka, Jan (referee) ; Elšík, Viktor (advisor)
The thesis is a basic description of the phonological system of the South Central Romani variety of Veľký Krtíš, which has not been analyzed so far. This variety was spoken in the south-eastern part of Slovakia. The thesis provides a description of the phoneme inventory, further of the major historical changes and synchronic development, influenced by romani dialects and majority languages contact. It is also devoted to the survey of phonetic realization of the phonemes.
|
|
|
A grammatical sketch of the Romani dialect of Versend, Hungary
Bodnárová, Zuzana ; Beníšek, Michael (referee) ; Elšík, Viktor (advisor)
The primary goal of the thesis is to provide a grammatical description of the Romani dialect of Versend (southern Hungary), an isolated and endangered South Central variety, which is transitional between Vendic and non-Vendic (Rumungro) subgroups of South Central Romani. The body of the thesis is divided into four main chapters. The first chapter deals with phonology and morphophonology, including a description of the phoneme inventory, vowel adaptation and quantity, and various sound changes. The second chapter is devoted to morphology and includes a description of the inflection and derivation of nouns, adjectives, and verbs. The third chapter deals with basic and complex syntactic structures and basic word order. The fourth, last, chapter is a brief analysis of the vocabulary of Versend Romani; it focuses on diachronic layers of lexical loans - especially from South Slavic languages - and provides a lexical analysis of selected semantic areas. The thesis also contains a brief description of the current sociolinguistic situation of Versend Romani and a vocabulary of Versend Romani translated into Hungarian and Czech. The linguistic data is based on both recordings of spontaneous narratives and linguistic elicitation by means of standardized dialectological questionnaires.
|
|
|
Future and perfective present in the Slavonic languages
Zíková, Magdalena ; Starý, Zdeněk (referee) ; Elšík, Viktor (advisor)
The diploma thesis Future Tense and Perfective Present in the Slavonic Languages deals with the main grammatical device of a future tense category in the Slavonic languages. The choice of analyzed grammatical means was determined by their grammaticalization as a future marker in Czech. Thus, the diploma thesis concentrates on three grammatical means of a future time reference: periphrastic (analytical, inchoative) future (budu varit), perfektive present (uvarím) and synthetic future (pujdu). Each of the grammatical devices is subjected to a conceptual and typological analysis and serves as a means of a subtle areal classification of the Slavonic languages. Special attention is paid to temporal reference of perfective present. The categorization of diverse temporal meanings conveyed by perfective present is preceeded by a brief introduction to an aspect theory and main interpretations of the Slavonic aspect are presented. A crosslinguistic comparison of various temporal meanings exhibited by perfective present shows that the most variable set of meanings of this aspectual form is manifested in Czech.
|
guest ::
