Journal articles on the topic 'Mistakes in Czech'

The article focuses on the comparative approach in teaching German as the second foreign language simultaneously with Czech as the first foreign language at the Russian State University for the Humanities. The bachelor program “Slavistics and Central European studies: languages, culture and literature of the Czech Republic and Austria” at the RSUH has some unique features: from the first year of this program students learn simultaneously two foreign languages: Czech as the first foreign language and German as the second one, therefore, they often make mistakes in German due to the influence of their mother tongue, Russian, as well as English, learned at school, and Czech. If the teacher of German has a good command of the Czech language, he or she can use some similarities between German and Czech that have appeared due to their long-term language contact and convergent evolution. The prepositional government of some Czech and German verbs is one of these similarities that distinguish them from the Russian language. And many mistakes are made by students in their target languages due to the verbal government of Russian. But with that said this language transfer could be avoided or reduced if we show that plenty of German and Czech verbs have analogous verb government. In order to check this statement, we have made a set of exercises (substitution drill and translation “Czech – German”, “German – Czech”, “Russian – Czech, German”), which contained four couples of German and Czech verbs with prepositional government. The testing of these exercises on seven second-year-students of the RSUH has shown that such exercises could help students to focus on Czech-German grammatical similarities and reduce the influence of the Russian language.

The paper describes the legislative framework for mass layoffs. Among the important obligations of the employer in case of mass layoffs there belongs a previous announcement of the intention to employees, unions and the Labour Office. The paper analyzes particular cases within selected companies. Companies tried to avoid mass layoffs by reducing costs such as an elimination of selected employee benefits, shortening working hours, abolition of recruitment, etc. Businesses have also reduced employee training. When analyzing the process of mass layoffs, authors have built certain assumptions. Assumptions were divided into five groups dealing with the reasons for layoffs, employee selection criteria, layoff process itself, help for laid-off employees, and building a good reputation. The analysis proved correct approach of the employer and an effort to handle the challenging situation to everyone’s satisfaction. The paper identifies the most common mistakes done in the lay-off process, which include specifically formal errors, like not defining the reasons of layoffs, absence of employer’s representative signature, etc. Very important mistake can be considered insufficient communication of employers with employees. Problems in communication can cause useless nervousness of employees and subsequently also a lower performance of the whole business.

The paper deals with cartographical and geoinformatical evaluation of Czech urban plans. The disparity between plan and map terms and how this disparity is perceived by cartographers and city planners is discussed. The processing of urban plans with GIS and CAD software is depicted and two groups of the most common mistakes made by processors of urban plans are demonstrated. The first group includes cartographical mistakes, the second one technical mistakes generated during digital processing. Explanation of the potential impact of these imperfections on urban plan users is emphasized and the ways how to eliminate these mistakes are delineated. The recent standards for urban planning in Czechia and their future changes are described together with web visualisation of urban plans.

Abstract Lessons learned process enables an organization to learn from its mistakes and successes. Thanks to this process an organization can reduce the risk of repeating mistakes and increase the chance that successes are repeated. This article aims to present the results of the research, especially, results of the process analysis of sharing lessons in the Czech Armed Forces. Based on the procedural deficiencies identification, benchmarking comparisons with lessons learned process of other organizations were carried out. The purpose of the benchmarking was to do away with the above mentioned deficiencies. To use benchmarking was beneficial from the point of view of a simplified model processing. The final part of the article introduces set of recommendation including the optimized model of the lessons learned process.

AbstractThe original version of the article was published in Cent. Eur. J. Chem., Vol. 5(2), (2007), pp. 385–395. It can be also found online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/s11532-007-0017-9.Unfortunately, the original version of this article contains mistakes in the Acknowledgements section. There should be: This work was supported by Grants 240/08/0016 of Institute of Chemical Technology, 257 Prague, 104/06/1079 of Czech Science Foundation and MSM6046137308 of Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.

Abstract This paper consists of confrontational analysis of two Czech translations of Alexander Blok’s famous poem “The Twelve”: one by Bohumil Mathesius published in 1925 (4th ed. 1977) which was considered canonical for many generations of Czech readers; and the most recent one published by Lubor Kasal in 2016. The present study tries to ascertain which translation is more accurate and closer to the Russian original and to identify the flaws and mistakes from the stylistic and semantic point of view which can be found in both translations. The paper discusses whether the two Czech translations under study render the same aesthetic experience for Czech readers as the original for its Russian readers. Both translations are closely examined with emphases on several important aspects: the semantic density of both the original and the Czech translations; the rhythm of the Russian poem and of its Czech versions; the choice of suitable equivalents in both translations. In the end, the assessment of Lubor Kasal’s Czech translation is overall positive, as it meets the requirements for the translator and his translation without serious reservations.

In the Czech Republic numerous constructed wetlands were designed and built for point and non-point pollution abatement in recent years. The contribution brings a concise survey of the progress made in the research and practical application of these systems. Appx. 39 constructed wetlands were in operation or under construction in 1995. Their treatment effect and function have been monitored and evaluated. The greatest constraint is a lack of practical experience. To prevent unnecessary mistakes it is desirable to use the experience from countries with a longer tradition in construction and operation of such systems. Nevertheless, the research results, which have been obtained in the Czech Republic could be also useful for designers in other countries.

In their studies 2003, 2004 and 2008 Ionin et al. examined English article use by L2-English speakers. They found that speakers of an article-less L1 Korean and Russian make mistakes mainly in two of the total four conditions of English article use. By contrast, speakers whose L1 has articles Spanish do not show any particular pattern of article misuse. In this study Ionin et al.’s method-ology was used to investigate article use in Dutch by Czech students of Dutch. It was found that Czech learners of Dutch fluctuate between definiteness and specificity in their article use because they overuse the indefinite article in [+def, -spec] condition and they overuse the definite article in [-def, +spec] condition. By analysing data of particular proficiency groups, it was found that article use by Czech learners of Dutch tends to improve as their proficiency increases.

The article analyses the style of two picture series dealing with Czech history. The analysis focuses primarily on the way of mediating historical knowledge as well as forming and establishing cultural memory in the two series which are compared. In connection with this, the use of language, the construction of meanings and the interplay between verbal and visual components are described. The picture series investigated represent opposing approaches to the issue of cultural (historical) memory. The objective of Obrázky z českých dějin a pověstí (Pictures from Czech History and Legends; 1980, revised edition 1996) is to depict a traditional version of Czech history and support its adoption by recipients (children being the main target group). Obrázky include various informal, derogatory and anachronistic elements, but these components are used purposefully to attract the interest of recipients in a didactic presentation of historical events. On the other hand, Opráski sčeskí historje (perhaps: Pictures from Czech History; 2014–2015) submit an alternative, subversive, comical and absurd version of Czech history. Their objective is to destruct the traditional view of such history. In order to achieve this effect, Opráskitake advantage of intentional orthographical mistakes (with great invention), play with the language, polysemy of words, anachronisms and intertextual relations to contemporary popular culture.

The paper deals with the historical development of local self-government in the context of the development of the public administration as a whole during the First Czechoslovak Republic. It presents historical roots of the public administration in the former imperial Austria-Hungary, which was different from other European countries with its complex bureaucratic structures. Certain elements of the complex political and administrative developments during the early 20th century can be seen even one hundred years later. It is becoming apparent that history repeats itself in a number of issues and that it is unforgivable not to learn lessons both from the mistakes and the successful solutions of the past.

Abstract The Lessons Learned Process was introduced in the Czech Armed Forces in 2004. Since then the LL process has become a standard part of the command and control process as well as one of the tools generating input to abilities development of units, formations, and staffs at all levels. The LL process allows to learn from both own and others’ mistakes; it also allows to use the best general procedures in all functional areas of development and deployment of armed forces. Not only does the article describe achievements, it also focuses on barriers which impede the efficient development of the system and the LL process. The focus of the article lies in the LL process current state analysis; here the authors come to the conclusion that one of the main problems is that commanders misunderstand the LL process. Another obstacle is the way the identified LL are analysed at the strategic level of command. In the conclusion, recommendations describing the way the identified barriers can be overcome and thus ensure further process optimization are presented.

A set of 233 Holstein calves, their 233 dams and 44 sires from 4 large-sized herds was genotyped for 10 microsatellites recommended by ISAG for paternity/parentage testing. Heterozygosity of microsatellites ranged from 0.607 (SPS115) to 0.835 (TGLA227), and PIC from 0.575 (SPS115) to 0.816 (TGLA227) confirming a high polymorphism of each analysed locus. Their combined exclusion probability reached 0.999, which made them suitable and sufficiently accurate for parentage testing. A conflict between putative parents and calf in at least 2 markers with combined exclusion probability > 0.9 was required to reject parentage. The pedigree was considered incorrect in 25 (10.73%) out of the evaluated progeny/parent trios, of which in 10 samples the genotype of both parents did not match their offspring, and in 2 samples the putative dam was in conflict with the calf genotype. This result shows that the interchange of calves on farms with large-sized herds plays the role as important as the errors in sire identification, or recording mistakes.  

Abstract The aim of the Round Table was to compare British and Czech experiences with railway regulation and competition introduction and to determine which lessons can be learnt. Special attention was paid to the question of whether the very complex British reform can be an inspiration for further liberalisation of the railway sector in the Czech Republic or whether there are any reform mistakes that are best avoided. Based on two introductory presentations and subsequent plenary discussion, some consensus emerged. The participants agreed that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to railway regulation and that the introduction of competition should take into account the different circumstances of a particular country. Franchising in passenger operations in Britain successfully stimulated demand but also increased costs to the industry, so its implementation should be completed with care. It seems very unlikely that open-access competition would be a viable solution for the whole passenger rail market because it is limited to a few commercially attractive routes, and as Czech experience suggests, it creates many new problems. Finally, it was confirmed that a strong and dedicated regulator is needed in a newly liberalised environment in order to solve many emerging conflicts and disputes.

The prescription and administration of drugs are the most common process that takes place in hospitals. Although a relatively simple process, it is considered the riskiest process in hospitals because mistakes during drug administration are among the most common ones. The aim is to introduce technological and process changes that will contribute to maximally increase the safety of the medication process and the efficiency of drug management. To support the automation of the medication process, it is desirable to use the international standard Health Level 7 (HL7). However, the Czech healthcare system currently supports the local healthcare standard—DASTA. For that reason, the paper introduces some of the options how to transfer data from DASTA to HL7 and deals with the development of a software (SW) interface that converts data necessary for robotic preparation of patient medication from the Czech DASTA data standard to the HL7 international standard used by selected robotics. Based on the performed analyses, a combination of robotics for the preparation of single-dose packages of drugs with one of the automated warehouses is recommended.

Stress in medical practice has always been a topical issue. This is partly because medical service involves taking care of other peoples’ lives and mistakes or errors could be costly and sometimes irreversible. It is thus expected that the medical doctor himself must be in a perfect state of mind devoid of morbid worries and anxieties. This is however not usually the case, because the doctor apart from being affected by the same variables that impose stress on the general population, is also prone to stress because of the peculiarities of his work situation and the expectation of the society at large.We have conducted an extensive research to determine the level of stress load and occurrence of burnout syndrome between Czech medical doctors comparing to general professions. Group of medical doctor (n = 500) was compared to group of on medical professions (n = 500) using questionnaires for evaluation of stress load and burnout syndrome.The results of the study confirmed that occurrence of high stress load and burnout syndrome is substantially higher than in non-medical professions (p < 0.01) and further several specific factors influencing occurrence of stress and burnout syndrome was identified (i.e. age, length of medical practice etc). The study supports the hypothesis that medical professions represent serious factor in stress load and thus persons in medical professions should be subject to special care.

Public participation in decision‑making process is an important function of the process called Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The respect for the public right in the participation of environmental impact assessment and the right to information are generally controlled by non‑governmental organizations (NGOs) in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment. The support of public is provided in the cases in which queried entity tries not to give the requested information in the appropriate range. NGOs do not follow how the public is involved in the EIA process, and how the comments are relevant or incorporated and whether the final standpoint is influenced. This standpoint is not monitored by Czech Statistical Office. The article deals with the involvement of the general public in the EIA process of wind power plants in the Czech Republic. In selected regions (Moravskoslezský, Olomoucký, Ústecký and Jihomoravský), not only the quantity but also the relevance of the comments in relation to the outcome of the process are evaluated. The own typology groups of the public (individuals, petitions, self‑government etc.) and also applying comments (noise, nature protection, administrative mistakes etc.) were used for the evaluation. All intentions obtained concurring standpoints in the case of zero or low interest of the public.

Purpose. Defining tools of tourist attraction communication with a client with the use of using modern technologies and comparative analysis of their use on the example of fifty postindustrial attractions from the Polish-Czech Borderland. Method. Based on literature, a model of marketing communication between attraction and tourist has been elaborated. Research on tools of modern communication based on analysis of websites, social media presence and mobile application offers of fifty cases. Findings. Research results proved the differentiated approach to communication with the use of modern technologies in case of postindustrial attractions. They allow to define the popularity of certain tools and made mistakes, indicating the needs in the future. The found gaps mostly consider lack of www sites or very low visual and substantive quality or lack of C2B communication channels. Research and conclusions limitations. Research regards only postindustrial sites in selected provinces of Poland and Czech Republic. Analysis is limited to the form of communication with the use of modern technologies. Practical implications. Research allows to define the degree of advancement in adapting technological innovations in communication with a client. They indicate novel solutions and the course of action to be followed in the future compared to modern trends of growing demand and engagement of a consumer in the process of product creation. Originality. The use of modern technologies in marketing communication is a relatively new research field, especially when it regards tourism. Type of paper. The article presents the results of empirical research.

Landscape research involves a large number of scientific disciplines. Different disciplinary and scale approaches have led to the creation of numerous land use/land cover databases with different classification nomenclature. It is very important for end-users of databases to know the capabilities and limits of land use/land cover data to avoid potential mistakes resulting from inappropriate combinations and interpretations. In this context, the aim of this study was to evaluate the thematic content of the Urban Atlas database and data from the Czech cadastre of real estate in the Prague metropolitan region between the years 2006 and 2012 with a focus on the meaning of the nomenclature used by both datasets. The data were processed using approaches with different levels of thematic harmonisation and statistical tools to quantify the similarities and differences among the researched data. The methods of comparison used for land use/land cover data with different nomenclature were based on an aggregation approach or modified difference indices (the overall difference index and the sub-index of the difference). The areas with high degrees of dissimilarity and similarity were found and further examined and interpreted. These intentions were documented precisely on the Czech cadastre of real estate and the Urban Atlas databases at two scale levels: 1) an analysis of the whole area of the Prague metropolitan region and 2) a detailed analysis of the selected cadastral units. It was proven that the differences between both datasets are significant and they share certain characteristics. Most of the differences are distributed in the classes of the built-up areas, gardens, and other areas. Smaller differences are characteristic for waterways, agricultural lands, and forests. This study provides relevant information on the evaluated databases with the intention of raising awareness of their limits, strengths, and weaknesses. The results enhance the scientific knowledge about the Urban Atlas and Czech cadastre of real estate databases, thereby facilitating decision-making about the options of their use.

Sweet cherries are self-incompatible, which is determined by a gametophytic self-incompatibility system (GSI). The self-incompatibility is controlled by a multi-allelic S-locus. Knowledge about the S-allele constitution of the cultivars is essential for fruit growers and breeders. Recently, molecular PCR-based methods have been developed to distinguish all S-alleles in sweet cherries. In our work, we analysed S-locus genotypes by 13 universal and allele-specific PCR primer combinations within 117 registered, old and local sweet cherry cultivars from the Czech genetic resources of the Research and Breeding Institute of Pomology in Holovousy, the Czech Republic. We confirmed the previous S-genotyping for 66 accessions except for Drogans Gelbe, Hedelfinger, Erika, Meckenheimer Frühe, Badeborner, Bing, Alfa, Gamma, Huldra, Rivan, Valerij Tschkalov, Viola and Winkler’s Frühe. It could be due to either mislabelling or mistakes in the previous analyses. Newly, S-genotyping was determined for 51 accessions in which we found 4 new S-loci combinations. We detected the S-locus combinations in 19 incompatibility groups. The most frequent incompatibility groups were III (S₃S₄), II (S₁S₃), IV (S₂S₃), and VI (S₃S₆) with 22, 20, 12 and 12 genotypes, respectively.

Abstract This study aims to identify student attitudes to and perceptions of the topical phenomenon of plagiarism at the Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies at Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic. The paper includes a theoretical framework describing plagiarism, academic ethics and provides a different perspective on plagiarism by many authors. Furthermore, the article presents a semi-structured questionnaire conducted in July 2018 with a sample of 235 respondents. The questionnaire was used in this research to explore students’ personal experiences, recommendations and other information relating to their attitudes to and perceptions of plagiarism. The results indicate that FRDIS students were familiar with the concept of plagiarism but not always able to clearly identify the correct answers. The recommendation for the Faculty, based on the data analysis, is to hold a tutorial on all the important aspects of plagiarism, such as citations, referencing, and common mistakes. This paper concludes that plagiarism can only be eliminated if it is tackled at the prevention phase, not merely through the use of warnings and threats.

The article defines the reasons influencing the translation decisions as to recreation of cultural realia in the Slovak and Czech multiple translations of I. Goncharov’s key novels. It has been found that ethnocultural elements of the text, first of all the realia, can be a source of mistakes when translated since the modern generations of readers do not possess the background knowledge on the level needed for the perception of important information contained in the classics’ works, in particular in those by I. Goncharov. That is why a contemporary translator must introduce the reader to the elements of the text connected with the life of people, their culture and world outlook when works of art are being translated. The knowledge of material and moral realia, customs and traditions is an integral part of the background knowledge of a writer, a translator and a reader as well. Much depends on a translator’s aspiration to realize the modern readers’ expectations and update the archaic realia when translated in order to bring the past times closer to the present days. This requires a translator’s freedom from an original. This way there is the only possible to preserve artistic peculiarities of an original since translators in the past strived to recreate the precise structure of a text (sentences) by means of literal translation. However, it was an illusion as to the correctness of translation. That is why translators should be aware of the fact that they should preserve the invariant part of the contents of an original, which should be the result of their work. Herewith, translators should maintain all artistic properties of a classic work.

Official statistics on trade in goods between EU member states are collect-ed on country-level and then aggregated by Eurostat. Methodology of data collecting differs slightly between member states(e.g. various statistical thresholds and coverage), including differences in exchange rates as well as undeclared or late-declared transac-tions, errors in classification of goods and other mistakes. It often involves incomparability of mirror data (nominally concerning the same transactions recorded in statistics of both dispatcher and receiver countries). A huge part of these differences can be explained with the variable quality of data resources in the Eurostat database. In the study data quality on intra-EU trade in goods for 2017 was compared between Poland and neigh-bouring EU countries, i.e.:Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania,and other Baltic states–Latvia and Estonia. The additional aim was to indicate the directions hav-ing the greatestinfluence on the observed differences in mirror data. The results of the study indicate that the declarations made in Estonia affect the poor quality of data on trade in goods between the countries mentioned above to the greatest extent.

Šiame straipsnyje supažindinama su dviem autoritetingais čekų ir slovakų komparatyvistikos tyrinėtojas, pristatomos jų idėjos, tikslai, vartojamas tyrimų instrumentarijus. Dvi skirtingos istorijos ir literatūros istorijos tyrimų metodikos eksponuoja ne tik dvi skirtingas literatūrologines tradicijas, bet ir ideologijas. Vienas iš solidžiausių šiuolaikinių čekų komparatyvistų Vladimír’as Svaton’as yra klasikinės komparatyvistikos atstovas, kurio požiūris į istoriją remiasi linearios istorijos samprata ir progresyvaus sąmoningumo idėja. Toks požiūris ir tokia idėja yra nulemti tikėjimo pažanga: bėgant laikui visi komparatyvistikos neatitikimai bus užfiksuosi, o klaidos ištaisytos. Slovakų komparatyvisto Peter’io Zajac’o apžvalginio žemėlapio modelį būtų galima laikyti ciklinės laiko terorijos modeliu, kuris iš esmės ignoruoja linearaus laiko ideologiją, pristatydams kitokias skirtingų literatūrų lyginimo galimybes. Apžvalginio žemėlapio idėja yra įvairių istorinių procesų sinchronizacija, nes lygindamas literatūrų istorijas Zajac’as remiasi jau labiau apibendrinta literatūrologijos, kultūrologijos informacija, bet ne kruoščiu kurių nors kūrinių lyginimu. Šiuo požiūriu, apžvalginį žemėlapį galėtume suvokti kaip tų aukštesnių komparatyvistikos tikslų įgyvendinimo projektą.The comparatyvistic’s lessons of Central EuropeAudinga Peluritytė-Tikuišienė SummaryTwo Czech and Slovak comparative literature authorities, their ideas, goals, research instrumentation used are introduced in this article. Two different history and literaty history investigation methodologies exhibit not only two differen literatology traditions but idealogies too. Vladimir Svaton, one of the greatest contemporary Czech comparatists, is an exponent of classical comparativism whose approach to history is based on a linear conception of history and idea of progressive consciousness. Such approach and such idea are determined by belief in progress: all comparative inadequacies will be noted and mistakes corrected, with time. The review map of Slovak comparatist Peter Zajac can be regarded as a model of cyclic time theory, which in essence ignores the linear time ideology, presenting other possibilities of comparing different literaturies. In this approach one could interpret the review map as the project of realizing those higher comparative goals.

This paper builds on the notion of crypto-languages, or hidden languages, to narrate the author’s coming to writing and translation. His novels are discussed as all including one aspect or another of crypto-language. For example, Russian becomes the key to salvation for Sonya, who doesn’t know how to speak it, in Sonya & Jack, and a clinical psychologist in the former Yugoslavia admits in The Speaking Cure to knowing that his patients lie to him, but that behind every lie lies the truth. The author himself learned the difference between “real” foreign languages—French, German or Spanish—and cryto-languages—Polish, Czech or Yiddish—during his childhood in Chicago. The experience of learning French forged in him the desire to write, which in turn created the desire to translate that is described here as a kind of voyeurism. The title of the paper refers to the feeling one has while reading some translated fiction: “I can do better than that!” Translation, as a form of writing, can improve the original by correcting various mistakes, in the logic of the plot, for instance. But there is a difference between writing and translating: the writer writes to find out how the story will end but the translator already knows. As a result, the best way for a writer to translate is to resist reading the book before starting the translation.

Both acute and advanced heart failure are an increasing threat in term of survival, quality of life and socio-economical burdens. Paradoxically, the use of successful treatments for chronic heart failure can prolong life but—per definition—causes the rise in age of patients experiencing acute decompensations, since nothing at the moment helps avoiding an acute or final stage in the elderly population. To complicate the picture, acute heart failure syndromes are a collection of symptoms, signs and markers, with different aetiologies and different courses, also due to overlapping morbidities and to the plethora of chronic medications. The palette of cardio- and vasoactive drugs used in the hospitalization phase to stabilize the patient’s hemodynamic is scarce and even scarcer is the evidence for the agents commonly used in the practice (e.g. catecholamines). The pipeline in this field is poor and the clinical development chronically unsuccessful. Recent set backs in expected clinical trials for new agents in acute heart failure (AHF) (omecamtiv, serelaxine, ularitide) left a field desolately empty, where only few drugs have been approved for clinical use, for example, levosimendan and nesiritide. In this consensus opinion paper, experts from 26 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, U.K. and Ukraine) analyse the situation in details also by help of artificial intelligence applied to bibliographic searches, try to distil some lesson-learned to avoid that future projects would make the same mistakes as in the past and recommend how to lead a successful development project in this field in dire need of new agents.

Abstract The aim of this investigation is a comparative description of translation and interpretation in terms of modern communication technology, translation, and discourse studies. Each type of translation work, either oral or written, has its own specific requirements for the translator and the final result of his work - translation. A description of both types of translation cannot suffice without taking into account pragmatics, psycholinguistics, and the pragmatic scope of each text. A more important final result is the right linguistic expression in compliance with the grammatical, semantic, and stylistic rules of the target language. Special attention should be paid to extralinguistic factors - certain communicative situations that create special conditions for interpreting, including the place, time, recipients, and environment (interfering noise). The article describes different types of interpreting and draws the reader’s attention to the controversial question of the interpreter’s natural ability and the possibility of achieving excellence in interpreting through the intensive practising of skills simultaneously with a profound knowledge of certain languages and the translator or interpreter’s general educational development.Translation usually gives the translator more time for focusing and considering the choice of the necessary lexico-grammatical and stylistic elements for a certain text. Interpretation requires an immediate reaction from the interpreter, who is in a constant state of stress and works under pressure. The translator of a written text is not only the person who renders the original text, but he is also the creator of a new written version of the text that can be read and, discussed, with its own mistakes in it. Interpreting is much more neutral and invisible to the addressee; the main thing here is the pragmatic transfer of the original information.For the research the first-hand experience of teaching students in a class of translating and interpreting, with the presentation of examples in Czech and Ukrainian, is used.The author comes to the conclusion that common features of interpretation and translation include the need for high language competence and the translator’s general erudition (excellent language skills, knowledge of features of the cultural background, a functional approach to linguistic means, and a developed aesthetic and cultural perception). But, considering that the requirements for performers of translation and interpretation are different, even in the scientific literature the assertion whether the professional specialist exists at all and can be a true professional in both translating and interpreting remains debatable.

The first, summer issue of the seventh volume of the ALA journal comprises six academic articles, of which the first three share pragmatic concepts in discourse analysis in Japanese and Bangla, while the latter three deploy different language varieties of Japanese and Chinese to provide overviews of their linguistic characteristics.Shinichi SHOJI is the author of the first article “Understanding Reference: Morphological Marking in Japanese”, which investigated the anaphor-antecedent relationship in Japanese, particularly in cases with repeated-name anaphors. He has come to the conclusion that the topic postposition wa after an anaphora determines the anaphors’ topic-hood and as such plays an important role in facilitates the realization of antecedents.Another conversational discourse was used by Soumya Sankar GHOSH, Samir KARMAKAR and Arka BANERJEE to explore the occurance and role of indeclinable ar in Bangla. Authors point out that multiple interpretations of ar, which in addition have a large semantic and pragmatic scope, can be systematized by the use of phonological context.Hironori NISHI in his article was interested in the use of the Japanese past form n deshita/n datta in a discourse. His results, based on the analyses of a large corpus, show that approximately two-thirds of the n deshita/n datta cases are not grammatically constrained, and that those cases exhibit either the speaker’s recollection of previously held knowledge, or confirmation-seeking utterances for their previously held knowledge.Andrei A. AVRAM explored phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical aspects of Yokohama Pidgin Japanese and Japanese Pidgin English to find out that the bi-directional approach detected several common features typical of pre-pidgins though the two languages differ considerably in the circumstances of their emergence and the context of use.Yet another language variety, namely the legal Chinese sociolect, was analyzed quantitatively by Ľuboš GAJDOŠ. Referring to the Chinese monolingual corpus Hanku, the author touched several statistical parameters, including the length of sentences and the proportion of parts of speech, and additionally discussed the issues on statistical data processing. Last but not least, Tereza SLAMĚNÍKOVÁ turned to Czech speakers of Chinese to search on and discuss the L1 influences on the L2 perception at the early stages of the learning process. The author focused on segmental and suprasegmental features, and found out that while some perceptional mistakes are language-independent, others are language-specific, and stressed the importance of the latter. Editors and Editorial Board thank all the contributors to this volume, and wish the regular and new readers of the ALA journal a pleasant read full of inspiration.

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Historical maps, like other thematic maps, have their specifics that need to be taken into account when preparing them. A historical map is compiled by a cartographer and a historian. These are professionals with different education (humanistic and technical) and different approaches to work. This results in different authors’ trains of thoughts, which may be a source of mistakes in upcoming historical maps. Hidden errors that none of the experts thinks about because they do not know about them or because they seem to be irrelevant in their point of view, are especially serious. The objective of the article is to present the most common unknown unknowns in the preparation of historical maps which the authors acquired during the design of the Academic Atlas of Czech History, the Czech Historical Atlas and other historical maps.</p><p>Incorrectly portrayed historical boundaries is the first type of error. If the main topic of a map are historical boundaries in particular, i.e. a political or administrative map is designed, the historian specializing in political affairs usually prepares the documents for the cartographer with great care. But if the historian asks for displaying historical boundaries only as support information for the map readers (e.g. for a migration map), they only specify a general requirement (e.g. borders up to 1938). Sometimes, they also provide a background map with these boundaries, which, however, is often in a too small scale. The cartographer, who is inexperienced in the creation of historical maps, then adopts the underlying map uncritically without asking or searching for more detailed sources (larger scale maps, text description of the boundaries) on their own. Also, the cartographer usually does not have deep knowledge of historical development. Then, the cartographer might miss some territorial change, which leads to omissions in the map. Alternatively, a certain part of the border is depicted to a wrong date. The historian does not alert the cartographer to the error because they consider (from their point of view) this small border deviation to be within the limit of the map language. Or, they have no idea what can be considered generalization for the given map scale and what goes beyond that. For historians, in general, the map is rather an illustration complementing their relevant text. The historian also often does not distinguish maps according to their positional accuracy (i.e. it is generally true that a map with a topographic background, harmonized with thematic elements, is more reliable than a map in the form of “colour spots”) and it is sufficient for them if a phenomenon or a territory is described in the legend or in the text accompanying the map (written view). Therefore, the cartographer must notify the historian of inappropriate background sources and ask for better quality ones.</p><p>The historian often demands in good faith that the upcoming map will capture several historical boundaries of different years. However, the cartographer must verify each partial state, harmonize it with other boundaries and water features and solve different levels of generalization of the data sources. As the number of boundaries increases, the map key is becoming more complicated (issues of colour and map sign structure resolution, border line overlaps). This leads to a substantial increase in the time needed for the preparation of the map. In addition, more information (boundaries) degrades the readability of the map and the map user may not be able to understand it correctly despite the hard work on the cartographer’s part. In these cases, it is advisable to explain patiently the principle that less is more or, if there is no other way, divide a complex subject into multiple maps.</p><p>The way how to write names of sites and locations (settlements) can also be an unknown unknown for both parties. There are usually no problems with current names of settlements based on the Latin script. More difficult, but manageable, is to agree on a system of romanization of non-Latin-script names (e.g. Arabic to Czech). A problem arises in historical maps. The historian and the cartographer should, after mutual discussion, find out whether they will use current names, historical names or common exonyms. Should historical names be used, it is necessary to determine what system of romanization will be used – whether from the official language for a given place and epoch or otherwise. In the case of the preparation of an atlas, it is necessary to enforce that the proposed system will be used by all authors to ensure the uniformity of the work. The cartographer must also consider the technical limitations of computer fonts, which rarely contain all required glyphs for proper romanization.</p><p>The examples of unknown unknowns in historical maps preparation show that the ideal state would be if the mapmaker graduated from both cartography and the appropriate discipline of history or historical geography. However, in Czechia, there is insufficient demand for historical maps so that such an expert could hardly make a living off making historical maps only. Thus, cooperation of historians and cartographers is crucial. Communication, mutual learning, high-quality sources for maps and the willingness to discuss the upcoming map with other experts are the key prerequisites to success in eliminating errors. Enough time to prepare maps is another essential precondition.</p>

Abstract We show an example of a small open economy – the Czech Republic – where the fiscal restriction was put in place between 2010 and 2013 in a negative output gap and zero lower bound on nominal interest rates. According to our results, such fiscal policy seems to have been mistaken, as the restriction may apparently have caused a second recession in the Czech Republic in 2012/2013 (after the global recession in 2008/2009). Instead of the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium approach (DSGE), we applied a tractable static deterministic partial equilibrium approach using the IS-LM framework. We derived mathematically from the IS-LM model that expansionary fiscal policy acting via higher government investment can be an appropriate tool for reacting to a crisis in the very short run when interest rates hit the zero lower bound. Expansionary fiscal policy after the 2008/2009 crisis would probably have led to faster stabilisation of the Czech economy. We simulate a potential increase in government investment of 8% yearly between 2011 and 2013. This would have added 0.4 pp to GDP growth and increased the inflation rate by about 0.5 pp. Hence, the inflation outlook in 2013 would not have been negative and would consequently have led to less pressure for monetary policy expansion using unconventional interventions against the Czech koruna.

Bankruptcy risk is always a constant threat to the SMEs, which determines how long the firms will survive. Since its identification, management, and control vested in the hands of the entrepreneurs and managers. A lot depends on their interpretations and beliefs. Therefore, to investigate this phenomenon, the present study aimed to investigate the attitude of the managers and entrepreneurs towards bankruptcy risk and to draw the conclusion on how the entrepreneurs’ attitude differs among the Czech Republic and Slovak republic entrepreneurs as well. The study was conducted among 822 small and medium-sized companies from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Chi-square and z-score test methods were used to test for the existence of a statistically significant difference between bankruptcy attitudes among Czech and Slovak entrepreneurs. Slovak entrepreneurs are more likely to regard bankruptcy as a natural part of the business, and they are less likely to identify an entrepreneur’s mistake as the cause of bankruptcy. An important conclusion is that the experience of bankruptcy for entrepreneurs of both countries is assessed as a vital experience gained, which, however, negatively affects the self-esteem of an entrepreneur. This study contributes to the literature by offering insights over the attitude of SMEs’ owners and entrepreneurs about bankruptcy risk in the context of the Czech Republic and the Slovak republic. From the policymakers’ viewpoint, it is imperative to understand the attitude of SMEs’ owners and entrepreneurs to design effective policies aiming to improve entrepreneurs with adequate skills, ability, and state support. The Originality of the paper deals with the entrepreneur’s perception, behaviour, and attitude towards bankruptcy risk in SMEs.

The article discusses the application of the principles of diacritical orthography in writing Czech words in the Latin treatise Orthographia Bohemica which contains instructions on how digraphs in Czech written texts should be replaced by diacritical signs. While many scholars consider Master Jan Hus to be the author, the treatise was copied by Kříž z Telče (Crux of Telč), a teacher and a priest, by hand into his manuscript convolute at the end of the 1450s. However, Kříž failed to write down the exemplary Czech words exactly according to the instructions in the treatise. At first sight, the signs above the letters seem chaotic and inaccurate. In medieval writings, signs carried out two main functions: first, a sign only accentuated a particular character (sign of non-semantic accentuation) and distinguished it from other, formally similar graphemes (e.g. <ẏ> versus <v>). Secondly, a sign provided a character with a different meaning (a diacritical sign) and a glyph with a sign represented a phoneme different than a glyph without a sign (e.g. <z> versus <ž>). An orthographic analysis of some Czech biblical manuscripts from both the first and the second half of the 15th century has revealed that scribes used these two systems of accentuation at the same time and combined them. That is why the c /t͡ s/ and č /t͡ ʃ/ consonants recorded in the Orthogpraphia Bohemica treatise as either <c> or <ċ> or <č> graphemes cannot be considered a simple scribe’s mistake but rather, a reflection of a different scribal usage.

AbstractThis paper addresses the issue of Czech small critically indebted municipalities, which has been neglected in the European discourse after successful European consolidation reforms. The Czech Republic is one of the Central European countries where there is no relevant debate on the mandatory amalgamation of small municipalities that are often faced with a combination of multiple risk factors.This paper aims to analyze a sample of the Czech municipalities that are threatened by a combination of their small size and critical indebtedness. A research of the sample focuses on a) the identification of the reasons for critical indebtedness, b) the impact of critical indebtedness on the delivery of services and local democracy and c) the options and strategies to overcome the issues related to critical indebtedness.Methodologically, the paper is a multiple-case study of three small critically indebted municipalities of the Karlovy Vary region, which was considered the worst region in 2012 in terms of the share of critically indebted municipalities, with several long-term critically indebted municipalities on its territory. Based on the media monitoring and economic criteria, the municipalities of Prameny, Bublava and Nebanice have been chosen.The main finding of our research is the identification of so-called endangered chains: 1) small municipalities with low revenues resulting in 2) limited administrative and expert capacity that contributes to 3) a mistake in a large investment project resulting in 4) the economic collapse of the municipality that endangers the provision of services, and in the case of 5) insufficient social capital this can lead to agony of local self-government and the collapse of the municipality. According to the findings, the examined municipalities of Nebanice and Bublava correspond to the chain link 4, and in the case of Prameny it is possible to speak about the chain link 5.

Regarding small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their conditions in the present business environment, it is determinative for them to be prosperous and ambitious. In order to achieve their defined goals, such enterprises are advised to conduct periodical marketing environmental analyses and various audits. However, an audit process that examines overall enterprise management and measures its performance, i.e. management auditing, tends to be overlooked at times or mistaken for other activities. Related research involving Czech SMEs located in rural areas and operating in diverse industries discovered that management audit process capabilities, specifically in terms of organization and resources, are not fully utilized resulting in the enterprises’ lower competitiveness. In connection with broader assessment of enterprise management systems, the objective of this paper consists in introducing a particular sub-model titled “Comprehensive and Individual Resource Analysis”, which finalizes the previously developed and published “Two-Stage 7S Evaluation Model” [1]. Implementing the eventually completed model of management auditing on a regular basis would allow the SMEs to remove faults (and raise efficiencies) in their management processes, and enhance their enterprise value in the domestic and international markets.

On January 26, 1972, Vesna Vulović fell from an exploding airplane onto a frozen mountainside in northern Czechoslovakia—and survived. The 33,330 feet physical downfall of the Serbian flight attendant is registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the highest free fall a human has lived through. The reason her JAT Flight 367 exploded that day remains unknown. The local investigation committee claimed there had been a bomb planted by a Croatian nationalist group. Soon afterwards, the Yugoslav government singled out the criminals as the fascist terrorist organization Ustaše, though the group had been dormant since the end of World War II. In recent years, some journalists concluded that the plane was shot down by mistake by the Czechoslovak Air Force—a claim that the Czech Civilian Aviation Authority immediately dismissed as a conspiracy theory. The reason Vesna survived is as controversial as the cause of explosion. Nevertheless, there is a simple explanation for why she fell from the sky, thanks to Sir Isaac Newton: gravity was at work.

Petar Konjovic (Curug, May 5, 1883 - Belgrade, October 1, 1970) stands out among Serbian composers as an author of instrumental and vocal compositions. Studies at the Prague Conservatory (1904-1906) acquainted Konjovic with Czech music, Wagner's opus, and the Russian national-romantic school, which contributed to the evolution of his talent for both music and stage, enabling him to express his ideas more explicitly in operatic works. It was in the Prague that the second opera - Prince of Zeta - was conceived, with new musical vividness and dramatic appeal (first version composed 1906-1926, the second and final 1929-1939), followed by Kostana (1928), Peasants (1951) and Fatherland (1960). Konjovic's mature operas are characterized by his masterful handling of form, both in close-ups and in detail, as well as his deeply individual assimilation of musical folklore into his work. The Prince of Zeta is not to be understood as a folk opera, but some main themes are directly derived from folk music, precisely from the Montenegrin folk songs quoted in the Mokranjac's Ninth Garland and treated in Konjovic's post-romantic, almost expressionistic way, interwoven with some Italianate leitmotifs, so as to present the opera's two worlds, Montenegrin and Venetian. In the process of forming Konjovic's operatic style, with vocal parts based mainly on the principle of declamation, the opera Prince of Zeta (first performed in Belgrade, 1929, conducted by Lovro von Matacic) proved to be a work of great impact. Hardly anyone grasped then the wide sweep of inspiration which allowed the composer to set and to solve several important problems connected with music drama, essential also in his subsequent stage works. First of all, Konjovic had to handle in his own way the verbal drama the prototype of his opera, Maxim Crnojevic by the Serbian poet Laza Kostic (1841-1910). Permission came from the playwright in the first decade of the 1900, Prince of Zeta being partly set musically, but from then on with new interventions in the poet's text. Being a highly skilled writer, poet musicologist and essayist (he wrote four books and a great number of articles on music and the theatre, and translated opera librettos of Wagner and Moussorgsky), Konjovic felt free to introduce some daring alterations to the literary works he used for his music dramas. So it was with the play Maxim Crnojevic, premiered in Novi Sad in 1870 (printed in the same place in 1846 and 1866). On the other hand, the young poet Kostic (he was in his early twenties when he wrote Maxim Crnojevic) had the prototype for his play in the folkpoem The Marriage of Maxim Crnojevic, turning a naturalistic folk-story into a Hellenic-Shakespearian drama of friendship and love, full of chivalrous deeds and emotions. The once handsome Maxim, his face ruined by heavy disease, can no longer make his marriage with the doge's daughter Angelica (with whom he was already acquainted). The nobles of Montenegro particularly Ivo Crnojevic, who in the meanwhile, proud of his son, boasted in Venice, conspire a doublecrossing plot (with another man, Milos resembling Maxim as bridegroom) which works in the folk-poem, in some ways in drama, but not in the opera, with the story changed by Konjovic. The difference between drama and folk poetry is essential: in Montenegro Maxim murders Milos for the doge's daughter's dowry, on their way back. In the play, too, the tragic event takes place in Montenegro: on the way home Maxim kills Milos, thinking Milos is going to keep the beautiful Angelica for himself (the agreement was that he will hand over the bride to Maxim immediately after the wedding in Venice), then commits suicide realizing his fatal mistake. The girl, deeply disappointed leaves Montenegro. In the opera Maxim reveals the truth to Angelica in Venice, before she is to be wedded with Milos, and stabs himself. She chooses death also, drinking poison - a dramatically and musically very capturing finale in the style of Romeo and Juliet! In some recently performed versions of the opera (1989) the director (Dejan Miladinovic) and conductor (Oskar Danon) returned to the playwright's original denouement, avoiding the Shakespearian end of Konjovic (although in the spirit of Kostic who was also appreciated as a skillful translator of Shakespeare into Serbian language). In the opera Prince of Zeta Konjovic focuses on Ivo Crnojevic, making his role dominant to that of Maxim. The unhappy father, the tragic Hellenic figure, is with his son Maxim the main historical personality in both opera and drama. Zeta forms part of present-day Montenegro but was independent for a short period, then came under Byzantium, and eventually Rashka-Serbia. After the fall of last remnants of the Serbian vassal state in 1439, Zeta was partly independent protected by Venetians under the ruler Ivo Crnojevic, before the Turks grasped Montenegro. Serbian drama, which is usually trochaic, took an iambic course in Kostic's play. The composer preserved the poet's iambs, following the musically accented flexions of spoken language, which remains the main feature of his style. The impressive vocal parts, especially those of Ivo Crnojevic, starting from the Prologue and the first act, are supported by the dynamic and highly symphonized orchestra. For effective choral music the monks' ensemble in the second act (in the final version) and the dramatic Venetian carnival scene with the stylized Montenegrin folk-dances should be noted in both versions. With Prince of Zeta the author definitely made a distinguished name as a composer in Serbian culture, with a strong influence on younger generations of Serbian musicians.

Measurement in geometry belongs among key areas of school mathematics, however, pupils make serious mistakes when solving problems on measurement and hold misconception. The article focuses on possible links between lower secondary pupils’ (n = 870) success in solving non-measurement and in calculations tasks on area and volume and on their problems when solving measurement tasks. The study uses a mixed research design. Statistical methods are used to find correlations between the two types of tasks and a qualitative analysis is carried out to identify mistakes and misconceptions. The results show that there are indeed relatively strong links between success in non-measurement tasks and in calculation tasks and consequently when teaching this topic, attention must be paid to development of both types of skills. The study identified pupils’ mistakes in tasks which are within the Czech curriculum but which proved to be difficult for them, such as a missing link between an algebraic and geometric representations, a tendency to linearize and/or to employ pseudo-analytical thinking. The study identified differences between individual classes which point to the significant role of the teacher and/or influence of the textbook used.

Sedimentary formations of Karpathian represent the oldest widespread unit of the autochtonous Tertiary in the Czech part of the Upper Silesian Basin. Occurrence and distribution of thickness of the Karpatian point to complicated geological development. It was probably formed in tectonically predisposed sedimentary depressions with large infl uence of the Old Styrian nappes, which were thrusted over the area of original sedimentary cover in the north-eastern part of the Carpathian Foredeep. Main topic of our work is evaluation of possible mistakes in interpretation of the autochtonous Karpatian thickness. Original contour line maps of the autochtonous Karpatian distribution and thickness in the area of interest are based on exploratory borehole profiles.

This paper considers the impact of the most recent global economic crisis on immigration in theCzechRepublic. Developments during this economically troubled period suggest that the “immigration-inexperienced”CzechRepublic, which has attracted significant numbers of people seeking economic opportunities in the past decade for the first time, has repeated historical mistakes made by Western European countries during the 1970s oil crisis. Initially, promising economic growth at the beginning of the decade allowed the Czech government to ignore issues of immigration, including controlling inflow and immigrants’ integration into the majority of society. The sudden reality of jobs disappearing in late 2008, irrespective of the fact that many employers in the economic sectors are dependent on foreign guest workers, caught the country unprepared. In an effort to level the unemployment rate and dampen societal unrest, theCzechRepublicoffered financial assistance to immigrants who opted to depart voluntarily, but officials overestimated the willingness of foreign labourers to return home, even if gainful work vanished.This paper is based on research conducted among participants of the government-assisted Voluntary Return Programme and a follow-up ethnographic study in the Vietnamese, Ukrainian and Mongolian communities in Prague. It can be shown that most immigrants decided to stay despite extreme declines in their living conditions. While the motivations of immigrants to leave or stay are multifaceted, this paper offers an alternative to the “pull-push” model that takes into consideration economic as well as cultural factors, which both impede and inhibit migrants from returning “home”.

The genus Tephroseris (Rchb. in Mössler 1829: 1498) Reichenbach (1841: 87) comprises 15 (Cufodontis 1933) to about 50 (Nordenstam 2007) species distributed in Europe, Asia, and North America. Tephroseris integrifolia (Linnaeus 1753: 925) Holub (1973: 173) subsp. aurantiaca “(Hoppe ex Willdenow 1803: 2081) Nordenstam (1978: 44)” is a name currently accepted for a subspecies native to Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Ukraine, and Balkan Peninsula (Greuter 2006+, CWG 2021, POWO 2021, WFO 2021). In Italy it was recorded by mistake (Bartolucci et al. 2018, 2020).

Background: In computer science, one often meets the requirement to deal with partial functions. They naturally raise, for example, when a mistake such as the square root of a negative number or division by zero occurs, or when we want to express the semantics of the expression “Czech president in 18th century” because there was no such president before 1918. Method: In this paper, we will extend the theory of intermediate quantifiers (i.e., expressions such as “most, almost all, many, a few”, etc.) to deal with partially defined fuzzy sets. First, we extend algebraic operations that are used in fuzzy logic by additional value “undefined”. Then we will introduce intermediate quantifiers using the former. The theory of intermediate quantifiers has been usually developed as a special theory of higher-order fuzzy logic. Results: In this paper, we introduce the quantifiers semantically and show how they can be computed. The latter is also demonstrated in three illustrative examples. Conclusion: The paper contributes to the development of fuzzy quantifier theory by its extension by undefined values and suggests methods for computation of their truth values.

Chaoborus larvae inhabit frequently the water column of lakes, when they can be mistaken for small fish. Because larvae ascend up to the blind zone of downward-looking echo sounding at night, quantitative acoustic estimation of them is possible only with upward-looking approach. For this reason, the mobile hydroacoustic upward-looking system (120 and 38 kHz split-beam echosounder) in combination with a direct catch method (trawling) was tested to investigate the night community of invertebrates and juvenile fish in the surface layer of the Římov reservoir (Czech Republic). In the target strength range of invertebrates (smaller than -59 dB), the 38 kHz echosounder recorded only a small proportion of targets while the 120 kHz echosounder recorded distinct peaks corresponding to high densities of Chaoborus (target strength, TS range -70 to -60 dB, average TS -66 to -64 dB). At 120 kHz frequency, the TS distribution of smaller cohort of juvenile fish (<25 mm in length) overlapped the TS-distribution of Chaoborus. The number of these smaller juvenile fish was so small compared with the number of Chaoborus that they did not seriously bias acoustic Chaoborus estimate. The correlation between the density of Chaoborus with small contamination of juvenile fish larvae from trawling and acoustic recording made with the 120 kHz echosounder was high (R2= 0.88), but the acoustic densities from trace counting appeared to underestimate Chaoborus abundance when the density was > 1.5 ind.m-3.

Teesid: Artiklis küsitakse 2009. a ilmunud leksikoni „300 Baltic Writers“ põhjal, kas „Balti kirjanik“ on põhjendatud mõiste. Varem mõisteti Baltikumi all laiemat ala, kuhu kuulusid ka Poola ja Soome. Uurides, kui palju „Balti“ kirjanikke on tõlgitud naaberkeeltesse, selgus, et läti keelde on neid tõlgitud rohkem kui leedu ja eesti keelde. Samuti on eesti autoreid rohkem tõlgitud soome keelde ja leedu autoreid poola keelde. Ilmneb, et Balti kontseptsioon on liiga kitsas, sest relevantne regioon on suurem: soome-eesti ja leedu-poola suhetega võrreldes ei paista eesti-läti-leedu suhe eriti millegagi silma. The article takes a closer look at the reference guide 300 Baltic Writers (Kalnačs jt 2009) which was published in 2009. The initial (and may-be even provocative) question is, whether the concept “Baltic writer” which is introduced here is indeed as clear and senseful as the introduction suggests. In this introduction, some basic problems occur, as can be exemplified through the following quotations: “This reference book presents a hundred of the best-known writers from each of the three Baltic States, starting with the time in the 16th century when the written word first appeared in their national languages, and going on to the twenty-first century (the bibliography goes up to the year 2008). In doing so, it shows the historical and cultural partnerships between the three Baltic countries.” (p. 5) While the first sentence is comprehensible and correct, the second sentence shows a simple logical mistake: one cannot show a unity simply by putting things together. In doing so, one may create a (wishful) unity, i.e. postulate it, but one cannot show it. Also one of the following sentences is not convincing, but highly problematic: “For a long time, the writers, poets, playwrights and literary critics of each of these countries have deserved to be introduced to a wider international literary audience as a regional phenomenon.” The notion of “regional phenomenon” is problematic here because the definition of a region is arbitrary and several definitions of the region in question are possible. That is why the following question arise: 1. Is the concept of the “Baltic States” (in the meaning of Estonia + Latvia + Lithuania) as it is presented here the only possibility or are other regional divisions thinkable? 2. If there really is one Baltic regional identity or unity, can this also be seen in the interaction between these countries and cultures, e.g. in the number of mutual translations? Is the interaction among the three larger than with others? In dealing with the first question it is stressed that the concept of a “Baltic area” is less stable than assumed, and in previous centuries other regions than only Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were regarded as “Baltic”. In the Middle Ages, when the concept “Baltic” first emerged in the writings of Adam of Bremen (11th century), even Denmark could be part of the “Baltic area”. Later, one can still find concepts where Finland and Poland are part of the “Baltic area” (cf. Kaslas 1976). And indeed, a closer look on the Finnish-Estonian relations on the one hand and the Polish-Lithuanian relations on the other hand reveals that these relationsships are certainly at least as strong as those between the so called Baltic states. As research on this topic has been carried out earlier (e.g. Kurman 1972), this question is, however, not investigated here in any great detail. The second question is divided into two subquestions: How many writers have been translated into the two other languages, and how many have been translated into the languages of the other neighbours? In order to find answers to these questions, all 300 writers have been examined from the viewpoint of translations into other languages. First of all, how are they translated into the two other “Baltic” languages, i.e.: How many Estonian writers are translated into Latvian and Lithuanian; how many Latvian writers are translated into Estonian and Lithuanian; how many Lithuanian writers are translated into Latvian and Estonian. Then, the neighbours of the larger region were taken into the picture: how many translations into Finnish and Polish we can find? And which authors (from which languages) have been translated? Finally the neighbours of the neighbours, in this case Swedish and Czech, have been considered as well as the four large languages, English, French, German and Russian. The result was that more “Baltic” writers have been translated into Latvian than into Estonian and Lithuanian (table 2), the conclusion being that neighbours are translated more often than cultures farther away. Therefore we find only three Estonian writers who are translated into Lithuanian only (and not into Latvian), and only two Lithuanian authors who are translated into Estonian only (and not into Latvian, table 1). The most interesting and important result was that Estonian authors are much more translated into Finnish, and respectively Lithuanian authors into Polish (tables 3+4). As a final result one can state that the “Baltic” concept is too small because the relevant region actually is larger. When compared to the Finnish-Estonian and the Polish-Lithuanian relationship, the Estonian-LatvianLithuanian relationship is not really eye-catching.

Lincolnshire, England. The crowd cheer when the ball breaks loose. From one end of the field to the other, the players chase, their snouts hovering just above the grass. It’s not a case of four legs being better, rather a novel way to attract customers to the Woodside Wildlife and Falconry Park. During the matches, volunteers are drawn from the crowd to hold goal posts at either end of the run the pigs usually race on. With five pigs playing, two teams of two and a referee, and a ball designed to leak feed as it rolls (Stevenson) the ten-minute competition is fraught with tension. While the pig’s contributions to “the beautiful game” (Fish and Pele 7) have not always been so obvious, it could be argued that specific parts of the animal have had a significant impact on a sport which, despite calls to fall into line with much of the rest of the world, people in Australia (and the US) are more likely to call soccer. The Football Precursors to the modern football were constructed around an inflated pig’s bladder (Price, Jones and Harland). Animal hide, usually from a cow, was stitched around the bladder to offer some degree of stability, but the bladder’s irregular and uneven form made for unpredictable movement in flight. This added some excitement and affected how ball games such as the often violent, calico matches in Florence, were played. In the early 1970s, the world’s oldest ball was discovered during a renovation in Stirling Castle, Scotland. The ball has a pig’s bladder inside its hand-stitched, deer-hide outer. It was found in the ceiling above the bed in, what was then Mary Queens of Scots’ bedroom. It has since been dated to the 1540s (McGinnes). Neglected and left in storage until the late 1990s, the ball found pride of place in an exhibition in the Smiths Art Gallery and Museum, Stirling, and only gained worldwide recognition (as we will see later) in 2006. Despite confirmed interest in a number of sports, there is no evidence to support Mary’s involvement with football (Springer). The deer-hide ball may have been placed to gather and trap untoward spirits attempting to enter the monarch’s sleep, or simply left by accident and forgotten (McGinnes in Springer). Mary, though, was not so fortunate. She was confined and forgotten, but only until she was put to death in 1587. The Executioner having gripped her hair to hold his prize aloft, realised too late it was a wig and Mary’s head bounced and rolled across the floor. Football Development The pig’s bladder was the central component in the construction of the football for the next three hundred years. However, the issue of the ball’s movement (the bounce and roll), the bladder’s propensity to burst when kicked, and an unfortunate wife’s end, conspired to push the pig from the ball before the close of the nineteenth-century. The game of football began to take its shape in 1848, when JC Thring and a few colleagues devised the Cambridge Rules. This compromised set of guidelines was developed from those used across the different ‘ball’ games played at England’s elite schools. The game involved far more kicking, and the pig’s bladders, prone to bursting under such conditions, soon became impractical. Charles Goodyear’s invention of vulcanisation in 1836 and the death of prestigious rugby and football maker Richard Lindon’s wife in 1870 facilitated the replacement of the animal bladder with a rubber-based alternative. Tragically, Mr Lindon’s chief inflator died as a result of blowing up too many infected pig’s bladders (Hawkesley). Before it closed earlier this year (Rhoads), the US Soccer Hall of Fame displayed a rubber football made in 1863 under the misleading claim that it was the oldest known football. By the late 1800s, professional, predominantly Scottish play-makers had transformed the game from its ‘kick-and-run’ origins into what is now called ‘the passing game’ (Sanders). Football, thanks in no small part to Scottish factory workers (Kay), quickly spread through Europe and consequently the rest of the world. National competitions emerged through the growing need for organisation, and the pig-free mass production of balls began in earnest. Mitre and Thomlinson’s of Glasgow were two of the first to make and sell their much rounder balls. With heavy leather panels sewn together and wrapped around a thick rubber inner, these balls were more likely to retain shape—a claim the pig’s bladder equivalent could not legitimately make. The rubber-bladdered balls bounced more too. Their weight and external stitching made them more painful to header, but also more than useful for kicking and particularly for passing from one player to another. The ball’s relatively quick advancement can thereafter be linked to the growth and success of the World Cup Finals tournament. Before the pig re-enters the fray, it is important to glance, however briefly, at the ball’s development through the international game. World Cup Footballs Pre-tournament favourites, Spain, won the 2010 FIFA World Cup, playing with “an undistorted, perfectly spherical ball” (Ghosh par. 7), the “roundest” ever designed (FIFA par.1). Their victory may speak to notions of predictability in the ball, the tournament and the most lucrative levels of professional endeavour, but this notion is not a new one to football. The ball’s construction has had an influence on the way the game has been played since the days of Mary Queen of Scots. The first World Cup Final, in 1930, featured two heavy, leather, twelve-panelled footballs—not dissimilar to those being produced in Glasgow decades earlier. The players and officials of Uruguay and Argentina could not agree, so they played the first half with an Argentine ball. At half-time, Argentina led by two goals to one. In the second half, Uruguay scored three unanswered goals with their own ball (FIFA). The next Final was won by Italy, the home nation in 1934. Orsi, Italy’s adopted star, poked a wildly swerving shot beyond the outstretched Czech keeper. The next day Orsi, obligated to prove his goal was not luck or miracle, attempted to repeat the feat before an audience of gathered photographers. He failed. More than twenty times. The spin on his shot may have been due to the, not uncommon occurrence, of the ball being knocked out of shape during the match (FIFA). By 1954, the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) had sought to regulate ball size and structure and, in 1958, rigorously tested balls equal to the demands of world-class competition. The 1950s also marked the innovation of the swerving free kick. The technique, developed in the warm, dry conditions of the South American game, would not become popular elsewhere until ball technology improved. The heavy hand-stitched orb, like its early counterparts, was prone to water absorption, which increased the weight and made it less responsive, particularly for those playing during European winters (Bray). The 1970 World Cup in Mexico saw football progress even further. Pele, arguably the game’s greatest player, found his feet, and his national side, Brazil, cemented their international football prominence when they won the Jules Rimet trophy for the third time. Their innovative and stylish use of the football in curling passes and bending free kicks quickly spread to other teams. The same World Cup saw Adidas, the German sports goods manufacturer, enter into a long-standing partnership with FIFA. Following the competition, they sold an estimated six hundred thousand match and replica tournament footballs (FIFA). The ball, the ‘Telstar’, with its black and white hexagonal panels, became an icon of the modern era as the game itself gained something close to global popularity for the first time in its history. Over the next forty years, the ball became incrementally technologically superior. It became synthetic, water-resistant, and consistent in terms of rebound and flight characteristics. It was constructed to be stronger and more resistant to shape distortion. Internal layers of polyutherane and Syntactic Foam made it lighter, capable of greater velocity and more responsive to touch (FIFA). Adidas spent three years researching and developing the 2006 World Cup ball, the ‘Teamgeist’. Fourteen panels made it rounder and more precise, offering a lower bounce, and making it more difficult to curl due to its accuracy in flight. At the same time, audiences began to see less of players like Roberto Carlos (Brazil and Real Madrid CF) and David Beckham (Manchester United, LA Galaxy and England), who regularly scored goals that challenged the laws of physics (Gill). While Adidas announced the 2006 release of the world’s best performing ball in Berlin, the world’s oldest was on its way to the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Hamburg for the duration of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The Mary Queen of Scot’s ball took centre spot in an exhibit which also featured a pie stand—though not pork pies—from Hibernian Football Club (Strang). In terms of publicity and raising awareness of the Scots’ role in the game’s historical development, the installation was an unrivalled success for the Scottish Football Museum (McBrearty). It did, however, very little for the pig. Heads, not Tails In 2002, the pig or rather the head of a pig, bounced and rolled back into football’s limelight. For five years Luis Figo, Portugal’s most capped international player, led FC Barcelona to domestic and European success. In 2000, he had been lured to bitter rivals Real Madrid CF for a then-world record fee of around £37 million (Nash). On his return to the Catalan Camp Nou, wearing the shimmering white of Real Madrid CF, he was showered with beer cans, lighters, bottles and golf balls. Among the objects thrown, a suckling pig’s head chimed a psychological nod to the spear with two sharp ends in William Golding’s story. Play was suspended for sixteen minutes while police tried to quell the commotion (Lowe). In 2009, another pig’s head made its way into football for different reasons. Tightly held in the greasy fingers of an Orlando Pirates fan, it was described as a symbol of the ‘roasting’ his team would give the Kaiser Chiefs. After the game, he and his friend planned to eat their mascot and celebrate victory over their team’s most reviled competitors (Edwards). The game ended in a nil-all draw. Prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, it was not uncommon for a range of objects that European fans might find bizarre, to be allowed into South African league matches. They signified luck and good feeling, and in some cases even witchcraft. Cabbages, known locally for their medicinal qualities, were very common—common enough for both sets of fans to take them (Edwards). FIFA, an organisation which has more members than the United Nations (McGregor), impressed their values on the South African Government. The VuVuZela was fine to take to games; indeed, it became a cultural artefact. Very little else would be accepted. Armed with their economy-altering engine, the world’s most watched tournament has a tendency to get what it wants. And the crowd respond accordingly. Incidentally, the ‘Jabulani’—the ball developed for the 2010 tournament—is the most consistent football ever designed. In an exhaustive series of tests, engineers at Loughborough University, England, learned, among other things, the added golf ball-like grooves on its surface made the ball’s flight more symmetrical and more controlled. The Jabulani is more reliable or, if you will, more predictable than any predecessor (Ghosh). Spanish Ham Through support from their Governing body, the Real Federación Española de Fútbol, Spain have built a national side with experience, and an unparalleled number of talented individuals, around the core of the current FC Barcelona club side. Their strength as a team is founded on the bond between those playing on a weekly basis at the Catalan club. Their style has allowed them to create and maintain momentum on the international stage. Victorious in the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship and undefeated in their run through the qualifying stages into the World Cup Finals in South Africa, they were tournament favourites before a Jabulani was rolled into touch. As Tim Parks noted in his New York Review of Books article, “The Shame of the World Cup”, “the Spanish were superior to an extent one rarely sees in the final stages of a major competition” (2010 par. 15). They have a “remarkable ability to control, hold and hide the ball under intense pressure,” and play “a passing game of great subtlety [ ... to] patiently wear down an opposing team” (Parks par. 16). Spain won the tournament having scored fewer goals per game than any previous winner. Perhaps, as Parks suggests, they scored as often as they needed to. They found the net eight times in their seven matches (Fletcher). This was the first time that Spain had won the prestigious trophy, and the first time a European country has won the tournament on a different continent. In this, they have broken the stranglehold of superpowers like Germany, Italy and Brazil. The Spanish brand of passing football is the new benchmark. Beautiful to watch, it has grace, flow and high entertainment value, but seems to lack something of an organic nature: that is, it lacks the chance for things to go wrong. An element of robotic aptitude has crept in. This occurred on a lesser scale across the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals, but it is possible to argue that teams and players, regardless of nation, have become interchangeable, that the world’s best players and the way they play have become identikits, formulas to be followed and manipulated by master tacticians. There was a great deal of concern in early rounds about boring matches. The world’s media focused on an octopus that successfully chose the winner of each of Germany’s matches and the winner of the final. Perhaps, in shaping the ‘most’ perfect ball and the ‘most’ perfect football, the World Cup has become the most predictable of tournaments. In Conclusion The origins of the ball, Orsi’s unrepeatable winner and the swerving free kick, popular for the best part of fifty years, are worth remembering. These issues ask the powers of football to turn back before the game is smothered by the hunt for faultlessness. The unpredictability of the ball goes hand in hand with the game. Its flaws underline its beauty. Football has so much more transformative power than lucrative evolutionary accretion. While the pig’s head was an ugly statement in European football, it is a symbol of hope in its South African counterpart. Either way its removal is a reminder of Golding’s message and the threat of homogeneity; a nod to the absence of the irregular in the modern era. Removing the curve from the free kick echoes the removal of the pig’s bladder from the ball. The fun is in the imperfection. Where will the game go when it becomes indefectible? Where does it go from here? Can there really be any validity in claiming yet another ‘roundest ball ever’? Chip technology will be introduced. The ball’s future replacements will be tracked by satellite and digitally-fed, reassured referees will determine the outcome of difficult decisions. Victory for the passing game underlines the notion that despite technological advancement, the game has changed very little since those pioneering Scotsmen took to the field. Shouldn’t we leave things the way they were? Like the pigs at Woodside Wildlife and Falconry Park, the level of improvement seems determined by the level of incentive. The pigs, at least, are playing to feed themselves. Acknowledgments The author thanks editors, Donna Lee Brien and Adele Wessell, and the two blind peer reviewers, for their constructive feedback and reflective insights. The remaining mistakes are his own. References “Adidas unveils Golden Ball for 2006 FIFA World Cup Final” Adidas. 18 Apr. 2006. 23 Aug. 2010 . 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