Let’s not codify language, let’s describe and explain it’s norms and usage instead Let’s practice lingustics instead of refining language Cover Image

Nekodifikujme, raději popisujme a vysvětlujme normu a úzus Pěstujme jazykovědu, nepěstěme jazyk
Let’s not codify language, let’s describe and explain it’s norms and usage instead Let’s practice lingustics instead of refining language

Author(s): Vojtěch Veselý, Luboš Veselý
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Ústav pro jazyk český
Keywords: codification; language usage; competition of language units

Summary/Abstract: The paper raises the question whether Czech linguistic community should make an effort to codify language norms (in a prescriptive way). In our opinion, linguists should first and foremost endeavour to describe and interpret the usage of language; creating an empirically adequate codification would be hardly feasable. Our standpoint is substantiated by an analysis of six cases of discrepancy between standard use of a language unit and the up-to-date codification. They are related to the following topics: 1) aspect of the verb soustředit se ‘focus, concentrate’, 2) agreement of a predicate / verbal attribute with a compound subject containing a noun with neutral declension, 3) competition between the units zpěčovat se and vzpěčovat se ‘defy’, 4) ortographic codification of verbs like zkomponovat ‘compose’, zkombinovat ‘combine’, zkonstruovat ‘construct’, 5) competition between the verbs zešeřit se and sešeřit se ‘get dark’, 6) competition between so-called purpose adjectives ending with -icí and so-called verbal adjectives ending with -ící.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 20
  • Page Range: 47-62
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Czech