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Sensitivity towards registers in Czech

A forced-choice study

ORCiD logo with link | Charles University
ORCiD logo with link | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
 | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
ORCiD logo with link | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
ORCiD logo with link | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Published online: 25 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rs.24022.mar
Abstract
This study explored the correlation between findings from a multidimensional analysis (MDA) of Czech (Cvrček, V., Laubeová, Z., Lukeš, D., Poukarová, P., Řehořková, A., & Zasina, A. J. (2020). Registry v češtině. NLN.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and native speakers’ intuition about register variation. Four linguistic features (contact expressions, adjective clusters, non-dropped pronouns, and verbal nouns) were examined across dynamic, static, spontaneous, and prepared situations, representing two key dimensions of Czech register variation. MDA showed that adjective clusters and verbal nouns are typical of static registers, while contact expressions and non-dropped pronouns are linked to spontaneous registers. Participants (n = 230) chose between sentences with or without these features under different contextual conditions. Two main findings were uncovered: (1) participants preferred sentences with register-specific features in congruent contexts, and (2) the amount of contextual information did not significantly affect choices. The study highlights native speakers’ intuition about register variation and the role of context in perceiving linguistic features.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1State of the art
    • 1.2Combination of methodologies
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1Multidimensional analysis of Czech
    • 2.2Register specific features
    • 2.3Participants
    • 2.4Materials
    • 2.5Procedure
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Choice of features according to contexts
      • 3.1.1Clusters of adjectives (CLUAC)
      • 3.1.2Non-dropped pronouns (DROP)
      • 3.1.3Contact expressions (KONT)
      • 3.1.4Verbal nouns (NNV)
    • 3.2Effect of the Amount of Context
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
References (47)
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