Laická stylistika
Folk stylistics

Summary/Abstract: The author introduces the term laická stylistika (folk stylistics) for opinions and theories of lay speakers related to style. Folk stylistics is a sub-field of folk linguistics. It belongs among numerous other folk theories and shares numerous features with them. In the Czech context, it is difficult to define a “lay speaker”, as practically all speakers of Czech have encountered some scientific linguistic and stylistic theory at school. The relationship between the folk theory and the scientific one may therefore be relatively complex. In the second part of the article, the author analyses folk stylistics in speakers of Czech as it can be reconstructed from public internet discussions concerning Christmas and New-Year’s-Eve speeches by Czech politicians. The author uses the methodology of the linguistic image of the world, combined with selected other approaches. The data demonstrate various features of folk stylistics: The speakers may have various stylistic theories about Christmas and New-Year’s-Eve speeches even though they probably have encountered no or little theoretical instruction concerning these speeches at school and they may not have larger personal experience with similar texts. The evaluation produced by lay speakers is relatively complex and covers various external and internal factors of the given genre. It is also subjective, relatively vague, and influenced by the lay speaker’s attitude towards politics and politicians.

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