Abstract The article sets out to examine the relationship that exists between the communicative sphere of everyday (primarily spoken) communication and the sphere of literary communication. The problematic concept of “colloquial style” is arguably not appropriate for association with either ordinary informal dialogues or dialogues of characters in artistic texts. The stylistic features of unprepared spoken communications are always selectively transferred to an artistic text, thereby representing a “stylised spontaneity” which is incorporated into the structure and singular style of a literary work. The potential for such a transfer is explored in this article through an analysis of two recently published Czech novels. In Alice Horáčková’s novel Rozpůlený dům The Split House, the dialogues are primarily characterised by Czech-German multilingualism, combined with the typical devices of Common Czech (marginally also dialect) and lexical expressivity. In Simona Bohatá’s novel Klikař Beny Beny the Lucky, multilingualism is only superficially represented, with the text predominantly featuring Common Czech and a colloquial vocabulary comprising slang, expressive words, vulgarisms and Germanisms. The transfer of the characteristics of ordinary communication into the sphere of art is characterised in the conclusion from the functional point of view. Furthermore, the issue of how to evaluate the stylised use of time-conditioned slang is raised.
Jana Hoffmannová (Mon,) studied this question.