Czech Language Research Articles

Cross-cultural adaptation of the Czech version of the core outcome measures index for low back and neck pain.

The Core Outcome Measures Index (COMI) is a short, multidimensional instrument translated into several languages that covers five domains recommended in the assessment of outcome in patients with low-back and neck pain. The purpose of this study was to cross-culturally adapt the COMI from English to Czech language and to test the face and construct validity and reproducibility of its results in patients with low-back and neck pain. Participants (n = 125) were included from primary and secondary care. The participants reported moderate pain and disability levels. All participants filled in the COMI forms before and after surgery. Descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon paired test, Crombach's alpha, principal component analysis and information entropy calculation were used. The instrument was successfully forward and back-translated. It can be seen that the questionnaire applied as part of our intervention study produces answers with a sufficient degree of variability and with a satisfactory degree of representation of extreme values. It can be also seen that the questionnaire can diagnose an objectively occurring change associated with the surgeon within the intervention procedure. Our other findings support the idea of ​​a possible reduction in the number of questions that measure the same latent variable. Our investigations also showed that it is possible to reduce the range of the point scale of the perception of pain to 5 degrees of intensity and thus unify the range with the other questions. The Czech COMI shows acceptable properties and is thus suitable to use as a short instrument for measuring important domains in patients with low-back and neck pain.

Příspěvek Alexandra Sticha a Vladimíra Šmilauera k výzkumu české vojenské terminologie

Alexandr Stich as well as Vladimír Šmilauer dealt with Czech military terminology, although this was not their main area of research. Both of them linguistically analyzed the work of others, namely Stich of Friedberg-Mírohorský and Šmilauer of Emil Smetánka. Stich was fascinated by Friedberg-Mírohorský’s effort because he also saw it as a political manifesto that would raise the Czech language to a higher level, and thus to the same level as the German language. For Šmilauer, who was a student of Smetánka, his work was of great importance because of its originality and systematic nature. Both Stich and Šmilauer made a thorough analysis of original sources, be it the illustrative atlas by Friedberg-Mírohorský or the set of small arms terminology, which was based on Smetánka’s work in the terminology commission after World War I.

Vladimír Šmilauer, Karel Hausenblas a Alexandr Stich v roce 2023. Osobnosti a jazykovědné dílo

In present article we tried to capture the scientific and personality traits of three Czech and Czechoslovakian linguists who co-created our linguobohemistics in an unforgettable way. We remember Vladimír Šmilauer as a great syntactician with other broad-based linguistic interests, we see Karel Hausenblas as the creator of a new stylistic theory. On the other hand, Alexandr Stich is for us not only a modern philologist and one of the most important historians of the development of the Czech language. We also examine how our current linguobohemistics has changed since their time and how they would appreciate our progress and criticize our debts.

Outstanding Scientist I. Ya. Horbachevsky (dedicated to the 170th birth anniversary)

Ivan Yakovych Horbachevsky is one of the outstanding scientists of world science, whose activities span the middle of the 20th century. He, our compatriot, comes from the village Zarubyntsi, Ternopil region. The numerous scientific and governmental titles, ranks and awards that he was awarded confirm Ivan Horbachevsky’s global authority and popularity. He was elected honorary president of international scientific forums and congresses. He was also entrusted with the most difficult tasks in medicine and education. The scientist brought recognition to University of Vienna. He was elected a member (and later chairman) of the Royal Sanitary Council, given several high titles and appointed the first minister of health in Austria-Hungary. Ivan Horbachevsky’s scientific heritage includes more than 50 works published in German, Czech and Ukrainian languages (only 6 of them were in Ukrainian). He proposed the nomenclature of organic (1924–1926) and inorganic compounds (1939–1941), which formed the basis of the chemical substance classification and nomenclature. His nomenclature was implemented in Ukraine before World War II. Ivan Yakovych Horbachevsky was a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1911. He lived for 67 years outside of his motherland, but he was closely connected with Ukraine, and did a lot for our state independence.

SAAZ—Fine Aroma Hop Pedigree: A Review of Current Knowledge

The hop variety Saaz is well known over the world and is usually used for brewing of lager beers. Recently, the new related varieties Saaz Late, Brilliant, Comfort, and Shine were registered. Information about these varieties is splintered and often available only in the Czech language in regional journals. This review (i) summarizes previously published data (breeding history, genetic data, basic parameters such as yield, sensory profile, concentrations of key technologically important hop compounds), (ii) presents long-term data (2004–2021), and (iii) shows similarities/differences among these varieties. All Saaz varieties are typically fine aroma hops with a relatively low content of alpha bitter acids ranging from 5 to 7 wt%, cohumulone amounts lower than 30% rel., and hop oil content of about 1.0 wt%. Even though the new varieties have no identical chemical parameters to the original Saaz, they can substitute this established standard as well. Furthermore, the varieties Saaz Comfort and Saaz Shine show high resistance to Pseudoperonospora humuli as well as very good tolerance to drought.

Influences of the Literary Canon: Statistical Analysis of High School Reading Lists in the Czech Republic

This study focuses on the analysis of the school lists of literary works for the graduation exam, which were published for the exam in the school year 2019/2020. The aim of this pilot study is to determine if there is a relation between school lists and the state-certified list, which is also a determining factor for the graduation exam in the Czech language and literaure. Questions regarding the influence of the school list on the success rate of the graduation exam or the relation between the type of school and the size of the list and the graduation exam are also discussed. We analyze the lists from 72 schools from the South Moravian Region in the Czech Republic. In total, we are dealing with 7 551 items, on which the correlation analysis, regression analysis and cluster analysis are applied.

IMPLEMENTATION OF PEDAGOGICAL MEANS OF DIFFERENTIATION AND INDIVIDUALIZATION AS A BASIC CONDITION FOR AN INCLUSIVE APPROACH IN TEACHING HETEROGENEOUS COLLECTIVES IN PRIMARY EDUCATION

The research focuses on the current trend of increasing the quality of education, which brings with it increased demands on teacher competences in the implementation of differentiated instruction for primary students from the very beginning of schooling. The key subject of the research investigation is the inclusive concept of differentiated instruction, which represents a complex modification of the educational content, process, product and evaluation of the educational process. According to the Strategies of Educational Policy of the Czech Republic until 2030+, ensuring comparable and high-quality teaching in primary schools by introducing internal differentiation and individualization is a key strategy for improving the quality of teaching of heterogeneous collectives. However, teachers are not sufficiently prepared for this reality and there is very little relevant literature. Using a qualitative research design that includes participant observation and semi-structured interviews with seven teachers from three regions of the Czech Republic, this paper seeks to systematically map the implementation of these pedagogical strategies in the years 2021-2023 with first and second year primary students in the subjects of Czech language and mathematics. A multi-case study of seven teachers presents a longitudinal study of the implementation of differentiated teaching strategies with a focus on its inclusive concept, which is reflected in all components of the educational process. This dissertation highlights the urgent need for further research in this critically important area, especially in light of the lack of exploration of pedagogical means of differentiation and individualization in the Czech research field.

On Fran Kurelac and Slovaks

Enclosed are two letters that Fran Kurelac sent from Pest to Bratislava in 1836 and 1837 to his peer, Slovak revivalist Alexander Boleslavín Vrchovský. Numerous studies have been written about the life and work of philologist and writer Fran Kurelac (1811 – 1874), one of the pioneers of the Croatian national revival. In view of the fact that he only published his first noteworthy text in a Croatian periodical in April 1848, when he was already 37 years old, few of Kurelac’s biographers had the ambition to paint as complete and well-rounded a picture of him as possible. The main subject of the interpretation of these letters is Fran Kurelac’s relationship to the Slovak cultural and political situation at the time. He strongly advocated for the unity of linguistically and religiously divided Slovak intellectuals. The linguistic situation among the Slovaks at the time when these two letters were written was characterised by the coexistence of Slovak, Czech, and other languages, which was reflected above all in the lexical fund. Considering the fact that the Czech language was not yet fully standardised and there were different tendencies in its standardisation, we also find at least three variants in its use among the Slovaks. Kurelac’s letters are written in a special, interesting, and clearly bohemianised variant of the Slovak language, influenced by the language of Ján Kollár’s literary works.

Validation and psychometric evaluation of the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS) among Czech adolescents using Item Response Theory

BackgroundThe topic of adolescent mental health is currently a subject of much debate due to the increasing prevalence of mental health problems among this age group. Therefore, it is crucial to have high-quality and validated mental well-being measurement tools. While such tools do exist, they are often not tailored specifically to adolescents and are not available in Czech language. The aim of this study is to validate and test the Czech version of the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS) on a large sample of Czech adolescents aged 15 to 18 years.MethodsThe analysis is based on data from the first wave of the Czech Education Panel Survey (CZEPS) and was mainly conducted using Item Response Theory (IRT), which is the most appropriate method for this type of analysis. Specifically, the Graded Response Model (GRM) was applied to the data. This comprehensive validation study also included reliability and three types of validity (construct, convergent and criterion) testing.ResultsThe study found that the Czech version of the SWEMWBS for adolescents aged 15 to 18 years (N = 22,498) has good quality and psychometric properties. The data was analysed using the GRM model as it met the assumptions for the use of IRT. The estimated parameter values by GRM demonstrated good discriminant and informative power for all items, except for item 7, which showed poorer results compared to the others. However, excluding it from the scale would not enhance the overall quality of the scale. The five-category response scale functions effectively. Additionally, the results demonstrated high reliability, and all types of validity tested were also confirmed.ConclusionsThe Czech version of the SWEMWBS for adolescents has been validated as a psychometrically sound, reliable and valid instrument for measuring mental well-being. It can therefore be used with confidence in future studies.

Practice makes ‘perfect’? The effect of committee specialization on the complexity of parliamentary speeches

Abstract The complexity of parliamentary speeches is usually interpreted as an MP’s electoral strategy. We take the prism of parliamentary specialization and connect it to the use of issue-specific jargon learned during parliamentary work. We expect that membership in a parliamentary committee and increased experience within it increases the complexity of an MP’s speech about committee-related issues, and that the effect of the work in the committee is stronger for MPs without a previous committee-related professional background. We test our expectations on almost 54,000 speeches in the Czech Chamber of Deputies (2006–2021), using the Flesch Reading Ease formula adapted for the Czech language. The novel dataset connects parliamentary speeches to personal information about the MPs and to responsible committees. The results show the expected effect of committee membership and committee experience, and the interaction effect of a professional background.

Developing critical thinking test for adolescents: A validity and reliability study from the Czech Republic

This article presents a comprehensive validation study of a Critical Thinking Test (CTT) conducted among Czech adolescents in 2023. It offers valuable insights into the psychometric properties, correlations, and predictors associated with analytical, evaluative and inferential abilities of critical thinking. While there are tools available for measuring critical thinking, they tend to be lengthy and inaccessible in the Czech language. Our study seeks to address this gap by developing a concise and effective tool that students can complete within a single class period. Our study is based on a large sample of Czech adolescents in their first year of secondary school (N = 9,495), which allows us to apply Item Response Theory (IRT), which is the best method for validation. The results showed that the abbreviated 33-item version of the CTT is a reliable and valid instrument that measures three distinct abilities (analysis, evaluation, and inference) that are highly correlated. Limitations and implications for the use of the instrument are discussed.

No Evidence for Social Selection and Peer Influence on Grades and Literacy Among Early Adolescents Through Friendship Ties

Friends in early adolescence play a significant role in students’ lives, potentially influencing their academic performance. A multi-group stochastic actor-oriented model was employed to examine the effects of social selection and peer influence through friendship ties on Czech language grades and reading literacy among lower-secondary students, controlling for students' SES, gender, and network structure. The sample comprised 276 sixth-grade students across twelve classrooms, measured at two time points with an interval of seven months. No evidence of selection or influence in terms of grades and literacy was found. However, effects of gender and SES assortativity were observed. The findings are discussed in relation to potential publication bias in the existing literature, and implications for future research are outlined.

Quantifying Syntactic Complexity in Czech Texts: An Analysis of Mean Dependency Distance and Average Sentence Length Across Genres

ABSTRACT This study investigates the syntactic complexity of various text-types in the Czech language by analysing the mean dependency distance (MDD), a measure that quantifies the average distance between syntactic heads and their dependents within a sentence, and average sentence length (ASL). Using data from the SYN2020 corpus, a large and balanced collection of contemporary written Czech, we calculate the MDD and ASL for different text-types. Our findings reveal distinct patterns in the MDD and ASL values across genres, suggesting that syntactic complexity varies among different types of texts. We observe a clear distinction between fiction and non-fiction genres, with fiction exhibiting lower MDD and ASL values, indicating a more compact syntactic structure. Non-fiction genres, particularly scientific literature, display higher MDD and ASL values, reflecting more complex syntactic constructions. Journalistic texts, such as newspapers and magazines, fall between fiction and non-fiction in terms of MDD and ASL values. These results demonstrate the potential of MDD and ASL as quantitative measures for characterizing and differentiating text-types based on their syntactic complexity. Furthermore, our analysis contributes to a deeper understanding of the syntactic variations across diverse genres in the Czech language.

Своєрідна багатомовність на банкнотах Австро-угорської Монархії

The topic of research devoted to the linguistic landscape is gradually expanding, so the concept itself is constantly acquiring new interpretations. The article considers banknotes as elements of the linguistic landscape, and the linguistic landscape as a reflection of language policy, its peculiar public expression. The issuance of banknotes is strictly regulated by the state, while controlling not only the shape, color, decorative elements, denominations and security elements of the banknotes, but also the symbols and languages that appear on them. Along with portraits of historical figures, images related to the culture and historical past of a certain nation, the presence (or absence) of languages on banknotes is also an element of symbolic politics and a part of revealing the language policy of a certain state. The publication examines the languages that were represented in the inscriptions of various series of banknotes issued in the dualistic Austro-Hungarian Monarchy between 1900 and 1919. The article analyzes the reasons for the appearance of different languages on banknotes of the specified period. Based on the languages depicted on the banknotes, it is shown that the two main parts of the federal state of Austria-Hungary pursued different language policies. The article highlights that, according to the concept of dualism, the German language dominated on one side of the Austro-Hungarian banknotes, and the Hungarian language on the other. On the front side, along with the most important information, which was provided only in German, the denomination of the banknote was indicated in the languages of several nations of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The reverse side was purely monolingual – Hungarian. Therefore, the denomination was indicated on the banknote in a total of ten languages: German, Czech, Croatian, Polish, Italian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, and also Ruthenian or Ukrainian. The article tries to find an answer to why the Czech, Croatian, Serbian, Polish, Italian, Romanian, Slovenian and Ukrainian (Ruthenian) languages were used on banknotes next to German, and why the reverse side of the banknotes remained monolingual (Hungarian). The authors concluded that even states that issue multilingual banknotes guarantee that the state language should be in a dominant position.

Czech medical coding assistant based on transformer networks

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) hierarchical taxonomy is used for so-called clinical coding of medical reports, typically presented in unstructured text. In the Czech Republic, it is currently carried out manually by a so-called clinical coder. However, due to the human factor, this process is error-prone and expensive. The coder needs to be properly trained and spends significant effort on each report, leading to occasional mistakes.The main goal of this paper is to propose and implement a system that serves as an assistant to the coder and automatically predicts diagnosis codes. These predictions are then presented to the coder for approval or correction, aiming to enhance efficiency and accuracy. We consider two classification tasks: main (principal) diagnosis; and all diagnoses. Crucial requirements for the implementation include minimal memory consumption, generality, ease of portability, and sustainability.The main contribution lies in the proposal and evaluation of ICD classification models for the Czech language with relatively few training parameters, allowing swift utilisation on the prevalent computer systems within Czech hospitals and enabling easy retraining or fine-tuning with newly available data. First, we introduce a small transformer-based model for each task followed by the design of a transformer-based “Four-headed” model incorporating four distinct classification heads.This model achieves comparable, sometimes even better results, against four individual models. Moreover this novel model significantly economises memory usage and learning time. We also show that our models achieve comparable results against state-of-the-art English models on the Mimic IV dataset even though our models are significantly smaller.

Ukrainian Pupils in Czech Schools and History Lessons – Teaching Materials, Knowledge, Testing and Assessment

The study presents the results of a questionnaire survey on the involvement of Ukrainian students (who arrived as a result of the war conflict) in the teaching of history at Czech elementary schools. It is part of a broader research, and this study focuses on the results related to the availability of teaching materials, the knowledge of Ukrainian students, their testing, and evaluation. The results indicate that in the spring of 2023, teachers did not agree on the state of availability of history teaching materials for Ukrainian students. If anything was lacking, it was most commonly worksheets and textbooks. They also often lack assistants for Ukrainian students. An interesting aspect is the effort of Czech teachers to incorporate Ukrainian history into Czech history education. Most respondents cannot assess the historical knowledge of Czech and Ukrainian students. Those who compare them mostly state that the knowledge of Ukrainian students is inferior, citing the different thematic placement of history classes in Ukraine as the main cause. It is positive that Czech teachers generally observe improvements in the history skills of Ukrainian students. They attribute this improvement primarily to the enhancement of their language skills. In the case of testing Ukrainian students in history, teachers most often choose a combination of written and oral exams, usually in the Czech language. Ukrainian students can frequently use an online translator, especially during written tests. Only a minority of Ukrainian students have an assistant available. During the research period (spring 2023), they were mostly tested on a reduced curriculum. Evaluation is usually done using grades, but a common approach is a combined form where the evaluation is supplemented with verbal feedback. Ukrainian students are generally assessed less strictly than Czech students. The results are compared and contextualized with the findings of other research.

Speech Biomarkers for Dysarthria in Parkinson's Disease — Clinical Validation Across Spanish and Czech Languages

Speech Biomarkers for Dysarthria in Parkinson's Disease — Clinical Validation Across Spanish and Czech Languages

The Knowledge of Malnutrition-Geriatric (KoM-G) 2.0 Questionnaire for Health Care Institutions: Cross-Cultural Adaptation into German, Czech, Dutch and Turkish.

It is necessary for nursing staff to have adequate knowledge of malnutrition in older people in order to provide high quality care. This study was conducted to update the Knowledge of Malnutrition-Geriatric (KoM-G) questionnaire to fit different settings and to cross-culturally adapt it to the German, Czech, Dutch and Turkish languages. In Part 1 of the study, the KoM-G questionnaire was updated and adapted for use in different settings. Content validation of the KoM-G 2.0 was carried out in a Delphi study with 16 experts. The final KoM-G 2.0 questionnaire consists of 16 items with a Scale Content Validity Index/Average of 94.5%. In Part 2, the English KoM-G 2.0 was cross-culturally adapted into the German, Czech, Dutch and Turkish languages. In the pilot test, between 96.9% (The Netherlands) and 97.8% (Austria) of the nursing staff rated the items as understandable. The KoM-G 2.0 is an up-to-date questionnaire with a highly satisfactory Content Validity Index. It was cross-culturally adapted into the German, Czech, Dutch, and Turkish languages, and the understandability was high. At the moment, the necessary comprehensive psychometric testing of the KoM-G 2.0 is in process. Afterwards it can be used to compare nurses' knowledge between various countries and settings.

The Factors of the Distribution of Grammatical Categories and Phenomena in Contemporary Czech

As to the application of the grammar within communication, we distinguish between two contingencies: a) grammatical categories which attach to the objective reality (verbal tenses, number, gender etc.), b) those which do not (in Czech for example the category of case). The relation between grammar and objective reality is not naturally rectilinear and troublefree. It could be complicated by various factors - not only the different type of language but also actualization which we comprehend as the unusual application of a grammatical form (often in order to gain more expressive term) - for example the sentence in the future tense Budeš psát (You will write) functions as that in the stressed imperative mood. To speakers with the advanced knowledge of Czech it is possible to present also special unmarked grammatical categories where a respective grammatical form can have more than one meaning. In the sentence Studuje český a německý jazyk (He studies Czech and German languages) the word jazyk (language) has the form of singular but the meaning of plural. There are many factors which influence the adequate choice of a grammatical category. In this respect the semantics are applied to a large extend and in various ways. The important role can be also played by number and so-called signal words which need the usage of a concrete morphological category (for example after the adverb včera (yesterday) must the preterite tense follow). From the linguo-didactic point of view this theme is very important and it is necessary to go on working it out.

Czech and Slovak in the mirror of Czech-Slovak relations in the 19th and 21st centuries

Czech and Slovak are two close West Slavic languages spoken by two close peoples - Czechs and Slovaks. The socio-historical circumstances led to the emergence of a special coexistence and the creation of a specific passive bilingualism, which was applied in the so-called semi-communication. That semi-communicativeness and passive Czech-Slovak bilingualism was strengthened by the joint broadcasting of Czechoslovak Radio and Czechoslovak Television. After 1989, a new period of democratic development of Czech and Slovak society and language begins. The return to democracy, a new social and economic situation, and new international contacts caused a whole series of changes in both languages as well. Expressions connected with the communist past gradually disappeared from both languages, and expressions that had ceased to be used in the 1950s returned to active use in both languages. On January 1, 1993, based on a law of the Federal Assembly, the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic ceased to exist and two new independent states appeared on the map of Europe - the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic. The paths of the two nations parted peacefully, but they did not stop communicating with each other. Even today, Czechs and Slovaks get along well without major problems, although the younger generations, who were socialized linguistically only after the division of the former Czechoslovakia, may have certain difficulties in communication. To a large extent, Czech-Slovak passive bilingualism and semi-communicative competence persist. However, some research shows that especially the young and the youngest generation of Czech and Slovak speakers understand the second language less and less. During the 20th century, both Czechs and Slovaks went through dramatic twists of fate, they came together and parted ways, but they were always actually together. And Czech and Slovak naturally reflected these twists. They entered the 20th century as languages not quite fully legal and despised by many (Czech was only a regional language, Slovak within Hungary a language intended for gradual Magyarization), they entered the 21st century as official languages of two separate equal states and as official languages of the European Union.