http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/96291 Issue 1 2026-04-06T23:49:37Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/97116 Vowel-Related Glottalization in Czech Read Speech: Russian vs. Native Speaker; ; ; Glottalization as a significant irregularity of glottal pulsing fulfils a number of linguistic functions and can occur in various contexts. It can also contribute to a foreign accent. This paper examines the rate of vowel-related glottalization in the speech of Russian speakers who are beginning learners of Czech, comparing their reading of Czech with that of native speakers. In Czech, there is a relatively high frequency of glottalization and, according to research from the last decade, glottalization in Russian is more common than is usually assumed, especially at the boundaries of intonational phrases. The purpose of this study is to determine the similarities and differences in the distribution of glottalization among native and non-native speakers of Czech, and to examine the factors that may influence it. The subjects read a short text containing 14 potential positions where glottalization can occur in the standard pronunciation of native speakers. The resulting 322 tokens were then analysed and rated for glottalization. The analysis was primarily based on perception and covered two main categories of glottalization: the glottal stop and creaky voice. The rate of glottalization in individual speakers ranged from 71.4 to 100.0% (native group) and from 25.0 to 72.7% (non-native group). The differences between native and non-native speakers are significant at the level p 0.05, while the differences between males and females (both within and across the groups) are not significant. Three different positions (the intonational phrase boundary, the position after a non-syllabic preposition, and the word-internal boundary) are discussed in detail. 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/97033 Báze nejsou písmena; The Bases Are Not the Letters ; ; In this paper we show some interpretation of the genetic code design. We proceed from the discovery of DNA structure to current stage of the molecular biology. Generally we introduce the basic semiotic assumptions of molecular biology in the description of the structure of DNA, proteins and genetic code. We focus on interpretations of Francis Crick, another molecular biologists, biosemioticians and linguists. For the aims of the paper we describe some fundaments of molecular biology. Core of our text is quantitative analysis (n-gram structure, Zipf ’s law) of mRNA strings and natural language text. We take into consideration representative quantitative analysis of DNA, RNA and proteins too. Our analysis of mRNA confirms the assumption that the design of the genetic code cannot analogize DNA bases and letters. 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/97034 Vliv temporálních manipulací na vnímání kompetence mluvčího; Effect of Temporal Manipulations on the Perception of Speaker Competence ; ; Speech communication research based on psychological methods currently stands at the forefront of scientific interest. Speech is an integral part of the social identity of a person and has a significant impact on the perception of the speaker by his surroundings. The present study aims to chart the effect of the temporal organization of utterances on the perception of a speaker’s competence. Recordings of four Spanish native speakers were manipulated in a way w hich destabilized the regular temporal structure of their utterances. A perception test was administered to forty Czech listeners differing in level of proficiency with the Spanish language. The aim of the test was to reveal the listeners’ positive or negative judgments of the original (regular) and manipulated (dysfluent) items. The basis for the perception test was the Big Five personality traits model, with the factor evaluated being the speakers’ competence that is the ability and readiness to effectively deal with tasks. The results confirmed our main hypothesis, which assumed that both groups of listeners will, in terms of competence, evaluate the manipulated items negatively. Students of Spanish studies were more perceptive of the temporal manipulations, most likely due to their familiarity with the prosodic structure of Spanish and their understanding of the meaning of the tested utterances. 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/96922 Toponymie městského prostoru v kontextu mezioborovosti české onomastiky — kritické poznámky a perspektiva dalšího výzkumu; Toponymy of the Urban Area in the Context of Interdisciplinary Approaches to Czech Onomastic Research — Critical Remarks and Perspectives of Further Research ; ; This study focuses on the current situation in Czech research of toponymy (place names), particularly urbanonymy (urban names, predominantly street names). The study of place names offers considerable potential for interdisciplinary approaches to research; however, scholars (both in onomastics and in non-onomastic disciplines) currently lack interest in such cooperation, and this represents a major barrier to the development of mutually inspirational research in the field. The article outlines three main reasons underlying this situation: the long-established tradition of Czech onomastic research drawing on etymological and historical approaches towards place names; the prevailing emphasis on onomastic material; and an overly simplistic view of what constitutes onomastic research and methodology as well as of their application in interdisciplinary cooperation. In response to this situation, the author discusses a modern research concept which has the potential to offer a new methodological impulse to Czech onomastics and restore it to its former status as a respected discipline — the concept of the linguistic landscape. This concept could be successfully applied to research exploring the urbanonymy of modern Czech cities built during the post-war era — such as the new Socialist cities dating from the 1950s, or concrete housing estates. However, several problems need to be discussed — including the proprial status of urbanonyms, the definition of the urban area, and the relations between standardized (predominantly official) and non-standardized (unofficial, popular) forms of urban place names. 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z