Publication at Faculty of Mathematics and Physics |
2009
Abstract
The author claims that the Czech polite forms (so-called „vykání“) for addressing the 2nd person should be undestood as a legitimate part of the Czech conjugation paradigm. If we address a single person in a polite way, some Czech analytical verb forms exhibit „hybrid“ agreement (auxiliaries are in plural, while participle form is in singular).
However, the paradigm for singular and plural polite forms is not symmetrical. The question, whether 2nd person plural polite forms are ambiguous (between the polite meaning and 2nd plural non-polite), or whether the semantic distinction „polite – non-polite“ is neutralized in plural, is open for further discussion.