Zájmenný subjekt jako součást chunku v mluvené češtině
Pronoun subject as part of a chunk in spoken Czech

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the use of pronoun subject in Czech. Czech expresses the person with verb ending (mluv-ím), it is thus not necessary to use a personal pronoun, unlike in English (I speak). We focus on col-locations of the pronoun subject já with present tense verb forms. The most frequent constructions of this type include já nevím, já vím, já říkám, já si myslím, and já myslím [I don’t know, I know, I say, I think]. It has been shown that these constructions in Czech exhibit properties of a chunk, primarily due to the following: 1. their use cannot always be derived from the meaning of the collocations constituents – loss of compositionality, 2. native speakers use them properly because they are stored in memory as wholes, 3. they act as discourse markers. The core of these collocations is in a broad sense a mental activity verb (ne)vědět, říkat, a myslet (si). Due to their broad semantic field and the associated vagueness of meaning, the meaning of the observed chunks oscillates between extremes: speakers say já nevím when they really don’t know, as well as when they know and are convinced that their partner is wrong, expressing thus indirectly disagreement to avoid conflict. The vagueness faciltates intepretation modality of truth and certainty. However, despite their high frequency, the collocations do not exhibit all features of chunk in all occurences. For instance, they might be analyzable and sometimes they are compositional. All of the collocations function as discourse markers. The collocations já nevím, já (si) myslím [I don’t know and I think] serve as a “diplomatic introduction” to express one’s own opinion or disagreement. They are also part of the speaker’s strategy for turn taking. In this use, there is no phonetic reduction, but rather clear pronunciation, sometimes at a slow pace, or with repetition of all components of the chunk.

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