Biliteracy, Bilingualism and "Appended Text Dictionaries" as a Text Lexicographic Support in the Czech and Slovak Literary Environments
Abstract
The paper focuses on mutual reception of literary works and nurture of biliteracy in the Czech and Slovak cultural environments. Attention is paid to the issue of mutual intelligibility of Slovak and Czech in relation to the existence and development of bilingualism and biliteracy as historically changeable phenomena.
Alongside the traditional dichotomy between "reading books in original" and "reading books in translation", what may be observed in the Czecho-Slovak context is also existence of the third way - reading books in the original language equipped with appended text dictionaries serving as aids in solving potential problems with unknown expressions in literary works. The paper presents specific examples of language management aimed at simultaneous nurture of bilingualism and biliteracy - publishing the requirements and suggestions of text lexicography and editorial pre-production of literary works including appended text dictionaries designed for Czech readers of Slovak literature.
Attention is paid to the interwar period marked by intense social negotiations over the optimal interliterary relations.