Tom 68 (2017): Zeszyt 1 (June 2017)

The article deals with folk superstitions (predictions, beliefs) common in Russian society, and the corresponding stereotypical expressions, such as: Кончик носа чешется - в рюмку смотреть; Не ешь с ножа - сердитым будешь; Через порог не здороваются; (when starting a journey) Присядем на дорожку, etc. The authors show that these expressions are used with a special phatic function: their purpose is to neutralize, to smooth the effects of an uncomfortable situation (something was broken, someone took somebody for someone else, someone hiccupped, any other unpleasant happening, etc.). Therefore, these folk expressions serve as sociolinguistic factors, optimizing the course of a dialogue. The author also gives examples of the “new” superstitions that imitate already known models and that were created with a special game purpose (like Ходить на работу - к деньгам). Examples from Russian fiction and Internet sources are provided. The facts of Russian discourse are compared with the examples from the Czech language and the national specificity of the superstitions is discussed in the article.

The research of ambivalence is an actual problem of modern linguistics because of active promotion of Strategic Ambiguity as one of the major pragmatic categories in order to understand the complexity of the speaker’s communicative intentions. The investigation of implicitness as the core of the Strategic Ambiguity is the current research issue because of the growth of interest in the modern linguistics to the effectiveness of interpersonal interaction. The purpose of investigation is to determine the qualifying and classifying features of strategic ambivalence in order to demonstrate much significance of it in the interpersonal interactions in comparison with the true ambivalence. The main task of the article is to analyse different types of strategic ambivalence in the ironic utterances as well as the mechanisms of optimization of interpersonal interaction on the factual material of English language and propose a model for determining the strategically ambiguous communication. New prospects of the proposed investigation deal with a number of national and cultural peculiarities of implicit discourse on the descriptive material of related and non-related languages in order to increase efficiency of cross-cultural interpersonal communication.

The speech rate is comparatively ignored in linguistic and phonetic research and monographs. Most often it is discussed from the viewpoint of feeling, linguistic sense (a slow, fast, or suitable speech rate) and mainly in connection with rhythm, which includes volume and stress. The speech rate depends on the topic and purpose of communication, as well as the personal (and colloquial) attributes of the speaker. With the development of electronic media and the technical revolution, the speech rate is becoming more and more important, especially due to the significance of speed and the rapid life tempo. On television, seconds are worth thousands or even millions of dollars/Euros, which makes the speech rate and the passing of information all the more important. Nevertheless, the speech rate must be appropriate to the language and the topic so that listeners and viewers can understand the message. Values that will be presented in this article are an important point of reference for Slovenian and other languages. The rate of Slovenian speech in regards to measurements is mostly 4.5 - 6.5 syllables per second, deviations are, of course, also possible.

Usage of personal names of Hungarians - both women and men - as members of a national minority varies not only according to the circumstances of the country which represents homeland to them, but also it varies from specific Hungarian speaking community to community and even from individual to individual. The study focuses on different forms of first (given) names and family names (surnames) characteristic of female Hungarians living in Slovakia, including the usage of the feminine suffix -ová in Hungarian surnames of women. The paper also discusses the topic of particular legislation, regulations and directives concerning the usage of personal names of members of national minorities which, to a large extent especially with women, can influence the choice of the form of their given name and surname.

This paper is a reaction to the study of A. Lejsková that appeared in the number 2/2015 of this journal. Its aim is to put the mentioned issue into a wider picture from a historical point of view as well as to complete it. The problem of international linguistic communication in the EU is in practice often neglected and remains at the level of unfulfilled declarations. As a result, international negotiations are dominated by English, which is changing itself in its function of interlinguistic communication tool, with a minority use of other “strong” languages such as German, Spanish and sometimes Italian. It is shown that the principle of equality of the languages of the member states is not fulfilled from the points of view of both technical and financial possibilities of the EU. We reach the conclusion that the best solution to the language problem of the EU would be the introduction of a neutral international language (especially Esperanto is considered), which also presents serious problems from the point of view of the preparation of its application.

This paper deals with several entries of the recent Slovak etymological dictionary Stručný etymologický slovník slovenčiny (2015) from the point of view of Winter’s Law. From this point of view, boh [God] (and, as the case may be, chod [motion, movement]) should have been originally borrowed from Iranian, koza [goat] should be regarded as a borrowing from Altaic languages, and sedlo¹ [ settlement] as well as sedlo² [seat] as borrowings from Germanic. Moreover, from the point of view of Winter’s Law, the etymological interpretation of modrý [blue] and nevesta [bride] should be considered as too broad and the one of pôjd [loft] as inaccurate.