Abstract
The paper deals with the problem of simplification of Czech texts for the purpose of making them more accessible to speakers of foreign languages whose language proficiency in Czech is lower than B2 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Special attention is given to the simplification of factual texts about Czech culture.
It analyses a set of ten simplified texts adapted by experts in the area of teaching Czech as a foreign language. The theoretical portion of the paper describes the methods of text simplification.
Its practical portion focuses on the analysis of procedures identified on the lexical, syntactic, morphological, word-formation, and discursive levels. Individual procedures are accompanied by examples from the analysed materials.
Results show that all the simplified texts contain the same basic adaptation strategies. Simplification is not primarily conducted on the level of words, expressions, and sentences, but on the level of the meaning of the entire text and its individual parts.
The decisive criterion in text simplification is the purpose of the resulting texts.