Research
Research Profile
In the area of research the Department focuses mainly on synchronic, diachronic and contrastive linguistics, on literary science, translatology and cultural studies, on research in the field of the didactics and methodology of teaching English, and it is the first in Slovakia to deal with Canadian Studies.
Within the different disciplines particular attention is given to the following fields of research and specialisation:
- Linguistics: contrastive Anglophone and Slovak phonetics and phonology, morphology and syntax; contrastive word formation from the synchronic and diachronic points of view; historical semantics from the intralingual and interlingual standpoints; linguo-cultural aspects of the language system and of communication pragmatics; the neologisation of English and Slovak lexis in their cross-linguistic contexts; loan words taken from English and their socio-cultural contexts; specific features of legal language; and over a long period also English-Slovak lexicography.
- Literature: Shakespearean drama; the 18th century realistic novel; 19th century English prose and drama (the works of J. Austen, O. Wilde); the regional novel (G. Eliot, T. Hardy); the detective genre; contemporary American drama; contemporary ethnic literature; Canadian literature and culture; the reception of Anglophone literature; the intersection of theatre and politics;
- Translation Studies and Interpreting: equivalence in the translation of literature in prose and poetry (hypnosis by the original); the particularities of the translation of audiovisual texts; the equivalentation of specialized legal texts and legal terminology; the question of the practical application of language skills in the milieu of EU institutions;
- Cultural Studies: imagology and the study of identity;
- Didactics: contemporary trends in the preparation of teachers of English focused on the development of their digital and communication competence; improving the effectiveness of methods in the teaching of spoken and written English; the use of role play tasks in the teaching of languages; the relationship between language and culture.
The teachers at the Department have published numerous scholarly monographs, textbooks and hundreds of papers in Slovakia and abroad, and they present their research at conferences and in conference proceedings. In 1987 the Department organized the first Slovak English Studies conference and for two decades has been organizing a triennial conference of English Studies. The Department cooperates with partner institutions at home and abroad, with the Slovak Academy of Sciences, EU institutions, the British Council, publishing houses and various other cultural and social organisations. Mainly under the Erasmus+ programme and CEEPUS, but also other bilateral agreements, its teachers have the opportunity to work and its students to study at a number of foreign partner universities, and the range of contacts is being continuously extended. In the course of its existence the Department has been visited by many distinguished people in the field of Anglophone philology and culture.
Research Projects
2013 - 2016
Project: Linguocultural Determination of the Lexis in the Anglophone and the Slovak Contexts
Research agency/scheme: VEGA 1/0675/13 (The Research and Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy of Sciences)
Researchers: doc. PhDr. Ada Böhmerová, M. A., CSc. (project director), doc. PhDr. Miroslav Bázlik, CSc. (deputy project director), Mgr. Jozef Lonek, PhD. (co-researcher), Mgr. Milica Nováková (co-researcher)
Description: The Project aims at basic research and at extending the knowledge about the lexis in the Anglophone and the Slovak contexts, investigating it from the linguocultural and socio-cultural aspects. The linguistic and cross-linguistic lexical phenomena and relationships are studied as to their word-formative and motivational determination, differences in their linguistic picture of the world, and in the multifariousness of lexical means within the specific cultural-historical and social conditions. The research deals with the selected lexical areas in both languages, their lexical and semantic development, the place, share and roles of borrowings, the current dynamic and neological tendencies, and the communicative functions of Anglicisms in Slovak. It also analyzes the English and the Slovak rhetoric in the media, the social-political discourses and their time-related and cultural conditions. So far no contrastive research oriented upon this theme has been carried out, in spite of its evident importance.
2012-2013
Project: Equivalentation of EU English Law Terminology with Slovak
Research agency/scheme: D3-IATE-SK-8, General Directorate for Translation, European Commission, Luxemburg
Researchers: doc. PhDr. Ada Böhmerová, M. A., CSc. (project director), Mgr. Jozef Lonek, PhD. (co-researcher)
2011
Project: Canadian Literature: From the National to the Postnational
Scheme: ICCS file number: 632-1-010 (Faculty Enrichment Programme, Government of Canada, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade)
Researcher: Mgr. Lucia Otrísalová, PhD.
2010 - 2012
Project: The Translation Research Project
Scheme: # PRE-A7923/# GLEA-A8388 (Government of Canada, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade)
Organization: Central European Association for Canadian Studies
Co-researchers: Mgr. Marián Gazdík, PhD., Mgr. Lucia Otrísalová, PhD.
Description: cecanstud.cz/en/other-activities.html
2007 - 2010
Project: The Diaspora Project
Scheme: # PRE-A7251/# PRE-A7478 (Government of Canada, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade)
Organization: Central European Association for Canadian Studies
Co-researcher: Mgr. Lucia Otrísalová, PhD.
Description: cecanstud.cz/en/other-activities.html