AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
7 Results
The test of local understanding showed various levels of
intelligibility of discrete contextualized lexical items and
uncontextualized lexical items (ordered decreasingly in Tables 2
and 3, respectively). The most transparent contextualized items
were volcan (3.88), éruption (3.55) and local (3.12); on the
contrary, the less intelligible ones were île (0.73), dernières
(0.86) and ans (0.87). Among uncontextualized items, national
(3.59), âge (2.71) and mémoire (2.34) were the most
understandable; the most opaque ones were tarte (0.18), bourse
(0.47) and lac (0.53).
Table 1. Intelligibility of contextualized lexical
units
.
Pos.
Lexical unit
Aver.
Equivalents
1
volcan (n.)
3.88
sopka
6
(5;47), vulkán (5;20),
*vulkan (5;1), Ø (0;19)
2
éruption (n.)
3.55
výbuch (5;13), erupcia (5;44),
*erúpcia (5;1), *erupsia (5;1),
*érupcia (5;1), európa (1;1),
európsky (1;1), Ø (0;23)
3
local (adj.)
3.12
miestny (5;22), miestne (4;5),
domáci (5;1), lokálny (5;14),
*locálny (5;2), lokálne (4;9),
*lokalne (4;1), regionálny (3;3),
tunajší (5;1), miesto (4;1), Ø
(0;28)
4
habitants (n.)
2.47
obyvatelia (5;32),
obyvateľov
(5;1), obyvateľstvo (5;1),
obyvateľ (4;1), obyvateli (5;1),
človek (3;1), ľudia (3;1),
zvyky (2;6), priestory (3;1),
biotop (2;1), územie (3;1),
vzhľad (1;1), *habitas (1;1),
habitat (3;1), Ø (0;35)
5
flammes (n.)
1.72
plamene
(5;17), *plameňe (5;2),
plameň (4;3), *plamen (4;1),
oheň (3;8), ohne (3;4), láva (2;1),
zábava (1;1), Ø (0;51)
6
est (v.)
1.40
je (5;20), patrí (3;1), a (2;6), z
(1;1), do (1;1), ktorá (1;1), aj
(1;1), Ø (0;53)
7
dans (prep.)
0.88
do (5;8), v (5;6), dátum (1;1),
výšky (1;1), kanec (1;1),
ranec (1;1), dane (1;1), Ø (0;66)
8
ans (n.)
0.87
roky (5;7), rok (4;2), dní (3;1),
vek (3;3), metrov (2;1),
metre (2;1), od (2;1), nad (1;2), z
(1;1), o (1;1), pokoj, Ø (0;62)
9
dernières (adj.)
0.86
posledné (5;7), posledný (4;2),
posledná (4;1), najnovšie (5;2),
*derniera (2;1), *deliéra (2;1),
záver (3;1), naposledy (3;1),
posledný (4;2), druhý výstup
(2;1), opakovanie (2;1),
začiatok (2;1), zverejnené (1;1),
zajtra (1;1), Ø (0;64)
10
île (n.)
0.73
ostrov (5;11), povodie (3;1), v
(1;1), ako (1;1), nachádzajúca sa
(1;1), je (1;1), Ø (0;69)
1.95
Tables 1 and 2 (see below) show contextualized and
uncontextualized units indicating the average degree of their
transparency with a complete list of suggested French
equivalents for each of them.
Table 2. Intelligibility of uncontextualized lexical units.
Pos.
Lexical unit
Aver.
Equivalents
1
national (adj.)
3.59
národný (5;44), *narodny (5;1),
*národny (5;1), *narodný (5;1), národné
(5;2), národne (4;2), národnosť (4;7),
národ (3;3), nacionálny (5;1),
*nationálny (2;1), príroda (2;1), Ø
(0;18)
2
âge (n.)
2.71
vek (5;40), rok (3;7), roky (3;4), Ø
(0;34)
3
mémoire (n.)
2.34
pamäť (5;11), pamäte (4;1), pamiatka
(5;2), spomienka (5;11), spomienky
(4;16), pamätať (3;1), zapamätať si
(3;1), rozum (3;1), memorandum (2;1),
Ø (0;39)
6
Equivalent(s) assessed by the full score (5 points) are considered, in accordance with
available lexicographic works, as the most adequate. They are marked in bold in the
series of equivalents presented. The sign * marks items which are written incorrectly
from the point of view of the orthographic norm of standard Slovak.
4
femme (n.)
2.18
žena (5;36), známy (1;1), femme fatale
(3;1), žensky (3;1), ženský (3;1), Ø
(0;44)
5
difficile (adj.)
1.80
ťažký (5;10), *ťažky (5;2), ťažké (5;6),
ťažko (4;2), náročný (5;3), zložité (5;1),
zložitý (5;1), obtiažne (5;1), obtiažno
(4;1), rozdiel (2;3), rozdielne (2;3),
rozdielny (2;3), úbytok (2;1), Ø (0;46)
6
école (n.)
0.89
škola (5;14), ekologicky (2;1), prírode
blízk
y (2;1), počúvať (2;1), Ø (0;68)
7
forêt (n.)
0.76
les (5;13), Ø (0;72)
8
lac (n.)
0.53
jazero (5;6), nedostatok (3;1), mlieko
(2;2), batoh (2;1), bocian (1;1), lacko
(1;1), Ø (0;73)
9
bourse (n.)
0.47
burza (5;8), Ø (0;77)
10
tarte (n.)
0.18
torta (5;2),
koláč (5;1), Ø (0;82)
1.54
The overall average success in local understanding is 34.9 % (in
Czech 74.6 %). Average success rate in understanding the
contextualized items is 38.96 % (75.4 % in Czech), for the
uncontextualized ones 30.9 % (in Czech 73.8 %).
8 Discussion
Variability of series of equivalents is expressed as N+1, where N
designs the number of suggested equivalents apart from the zero
equivalent and the number 1 referring to the presence of the zero
equivalent in the series. According to the variability, lexical
units range as follows : habitants, dernières (14+1 each),
difficile (13+1), ans, national (11+1), local (10+1), mémoire
(9+1), flammes (8+1), éruption, est, dans (7+1), île, lac (6+1),
femme (5+), école (4+1), volcan, âge (3+1), tarte (2+1), forêt,
bourse (1+1).
The presence of the zero equivalent in each series proves that
none of the 20 analysed items was understood by all speakers.
The zero equivalent was the most frequent one in 16 series of
equivalents out of 20. Volcan, éruption, national and âge were
the only items for which the zero equivalent was not the
dominant one. Two of these items were contextualized, the other
two were presented without context. The highest number of
speakers suggested correct equivalents for these words: for
volcan, 47 speakers suggested sopka; for éruption, 44 speakers
suggested erupcia; for national, 44 speakers suggested národný
and for âge, 40 speakers suggested vek. These items can be
considered as most intelligible ones. They came in an equal
measure from the series of contextualized and uncontextualized
words.
Unlike the previous studies (Chovancová, 2018), there was no
item for which the most frequently suggested equivalent would
have been an incorrect one
7
. The highest number of equivalents
was suggested for habitants and dernières (both of these
contextualized items received 14+1 equivalents), then for
difficile (uncontextualized, 13+1). Habitants showed almost
perfect split between two most frequently proposed equivalents,
i.e. Ø (occurred 35 times) and the perfectly correct equivalent
obyvatelia (occurred 32 times). However, for dernières, the
difference in frequency between the most frequent (zero)
equivalent (64 times) and the second most frequent equivalent
which is the perfectly correct one posledné (7 times) is
overwhelming. Difficile is similar to dernières inasmuch as 46
speakers proposed the zero equivalent for this item, 10 of them
suggested the perfectly correct equivalent
ťažký, other
equivalents were then proposed by smaller numbers of speakers.
The zero equivalent was most frequently suggested for tarte (82
times) and bourse (77 times). For contextualized items, the zero
equivalent was suggested with a slightly lower frequency. It
occurred most often with île (69 times) and dans (66 times).
Thus, considering tarte and bourse, then île and dans as the most
difficult items to be understood, we note a certain tendency to
lean on the context. In other words, the linguistic context seems
to facilitate, although very slightly, understanding of French
7
The analysis of reading intercomprehension of Czech by Slovaks confirmed the
existence of such cases. This result is interesting, when compared with results
presented for intercomprehension of French by Slovaks, given a greater degree of
proximity of Slovak and Czech when compared to Slovak and French.
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