Volumen 64 (2013): Edición 2 (December 2013)

This paper is intended to be an introduction to the elucidation of the mutual understanding on the basis of the concept interpretation. The author raises the question about how is it possible to understand each other in spite of the fact that the mental world is immediately inaccessible. He argues that the possibility of the mutual understanding is an anthropological constant: the human being is set for understanding as a result of the evolutional mature of his interpretational ability. The major part of the text is an attempt at explanation of the role of interpretation in the process of shaping of the subject. It is argued that the germ of the subjectivity is the instinct for self-preservation which determines the fundamental relation of the human to the world: the world is seen through the lens of egocentrism. Showing that the possibility of the mutual understanding of egocentric subjects is a deceptive paradox helps us comprehend the anthropological foundation of this phenomenon. The final part of the text outlines the problem of the mutual understanding in the real interactional conditions and focuses the attention on three fundamental factors: ego, language, egoism

The main aim of the study is to introduce a new method which has not been applied in the Slovak study of child language so far, and to answer 4 main research questions: (1) What is the development of understanding and production of verbs in early lexical development of Slovak-speaking children? (2) Are there any differences in verbs understanding and production between Slovak-speaking girls and boys? (3) What is the linguistic picture of the world given by incipient verbal lexicon of Slovak-speaking children? (4) Is there any difference between the linguistic picture of the world of Slovak-speaking girls and boys? The method is based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the lexical part of the Slovak version of CDI 1 Test of communicative abilities TEKOS 1: Words and gestures with 44 verbs in the part “actions and states”. Parents were asked to fill in the checklist and choose from three options: i) child understands and speaks, ii) understands, iii) does not understand The research sample consists of 323 girls and 330 boys in their age from 8 to 16 months. The results show the unanimous developmental trajectory in verbs acquisition in both, girls and boys. The differences shown in production in favor of girls in last two months are not statistically significant. The linguistic picture of the world is cognitively and semantically gender-universal, concentrated on corporeal concepts connected with social concept. The prototypical verbs in first 16 months of the age of the children are jesť (to eat) and dať (to give)

On the basis of sample analysis of a Czech adjective, a definition based on the data drawn from the Czech National Corpus (cf. Čermák and Schmiedtová 2003) is gradually compiled and finally offered, pointing at the drawbacks of definitions found in traditional dictionaries. Steps undertaken here are then generalized and used, in an ordered sequence (similar to a work-flow ordering), as topics, briefly discussed in the second part to which lexicographers of monolingual dictionaries should pay attention. These are supplemented by additional remarks and caveats useful in the compilation of a dictionary. Thus, a brief survey of some of the major steps of dictionary compilation is presented here, supplemented by the original Czech data, analyzed in their raw, though semiotically classified form

The paper reminds some facts of the Ferdinand de Saussure‘s life, which could have influenced his posthumously published work Course in General Linguistics (1916). The attention is also paid to his other work Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européennes (1879) which has played a role in the development of structural linguistics as well. The author shows that it is useful to go back (also critically) to all thoughts and premises of Ferdinand de Saussure even after 100 years. We still can, as it is also proved by F. Čermák, find there new stimuli and inspirations and, moreover, reveal a loopholes or unclear points that need another and more adequate interpretation