FROM AN OUTSIDER TO THE SUPERSTAR: COLLOCATION ANALYSIS OF THE ČESKO NAME IN THE 1990−2018 CORPUS OPINION JOURNALISM
Abstract
The paper focuses on the frequency and collocation analyses of Česko ("Czechia"), the short, geographical name of our country, in the opinion journalism section of the eight-version SYN corpus, which comprises texts from the period of 1990-2018. Within the scope of the research, the period was divided into several sections, which are delineated by the breakthrough political and cultural events (the Czech Republic entering NATO, the Czech Republic entering the EU, climax of the first season of the Pop Idol-based contest Czechia Is Looking for a SuperStar, etc.).
The frequency analysis is based on the relativization via i.p.m.; the collocability force is counted on the grounds of the logDice index, which is easy to be interpreted linguistically, and independent of the corpus size. The goal of the study is to capture basic motivations which led to the popularisation of the name and its expansion in the given discourse (e.g. the influences of other one-word names of states, sport commentaries, popular contests, and generation change).
It is possible to sum up that the Česko name is employed in a variety of contexts, and its usage can be seen as unmarked.