Vachkův pohled na jazykový systém a jazykové normy
Vachek’s View of Language and Language Norms

Summary/Abstract: In her paper the author recalls her collaboration with the great Czech and world-known Anglicist Josef Vachek, and characterizes his view of the development of the language system. She compares his philosophy of language with that of Wilhelm von Humboldt, who likewise understood language changes as the result of cooperation between internal factors, originating in the language system, and external factors, operating in consonance with ever-changing extralinguistic reality. The paper deals with Vachek’s view of language, which he regards as having two autonomous and complementary language norms: written and spoken. The author presents her position on the shifting borderline between the spoken and the written language in contemporary communication. She compares Vachek’s assessment of the two norms with the British and American approaches as represented especially by M. A. K. Halliday and W. Chafe.

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