e- Foreign Language Publications

E-book

Zuzana Buráková - Petra Filipová

The canon of American literature has undergone constant revision with many authors who were long excluded from wider recognition now being accepted as significant figures. With the emergence of postcolonial and ethnic studies after the 1960s, the diversity of the literary canon has become greater than ever, and we can now see American literature as remarkably distinctive in this respect.

The question of how to define ethnicity and how far an immigrant should go to preserve their ethnic heritage have always been addressed by writers, together with larger issues such as the definition of national identity and national literature, and where we should draw the lines between local and global identities. We understand that a single course in American ethnic literature cannot hope to answer all these complex questions, but we firmly believe that discussing these questions in classes can help us to be more understanding and tolerant of ethnic diversity.

For this reason, the main aim of this textbook is to provide an interdisciplinary introduction to American ethnic literatures with an emphasis on their historical and cultural background, to expand students’ knowledge of American literatures and cultures at the master’s level and familiarize them with specific features of ethnic literatures in the contemporary USA. The textbook contains information on Native American, African American, Asian American, Jewish American, and Hispanic American literature, history and culture.

Download e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Renáta Gregová

The book is primary designed for the first-year students of the study programme “English Language for European Institutions and Economy” and its subject “Comparative Phonetics and Phonology”. Following the structure of this subject, the textbook is divided into eleven chapters whose content provides the reader with the essential theoretical information about the given issue from the sound subsystems of the English and the Slovak languages. The structure of each chapter is as follows: (1) theoretical explanation of the topic, (2) Suggestions for further reading recommending additional sources that develop the topic, (3) exercises whose aim is to evaluate students’ theoretical knowledge of the theme presented in the particular chapter, as well as its practical application in the process of communication. Considering the content of the book, it can be also used a study material for the students of all philological study programmes whose content encompasses the sound system of the English and/or the Slovak language.

Download the e-book for free  (pdf)

E-book

Ivica Hajdučeková - Iveta Bónová

The monograph Maša Haľamová in the triad Dar – červený mak – Smrť tvoju žijem was created as part of the project APVV-19-0244 (Methodological Approaches in Literary Research with an Impact on the Media Environment) in collaboration between Ivica Hajdučeková and Iveta Bónová.

In two parts – Personal History and (Re)interpretation of Maša Haľamová's Poetry, and Phonetic-Rhythmic Embodiment of Maša Haľamová's Poetry – it presents the results of archival research (reconstruction of life events, notes on poetic inspiration, consensus in the opinions of literary critics of the 20th and 21st centuries), (re)interpretations of three poetic collections focusing on the spiritual dimension and the process of spiritualization, and an in-depth analysis of the phonetic-rhythmic qualities of verse structure.

In conclusion, the authors suggest that the Slovak poet Maša Haľamová can be considered a representative of spiritual poetry, which in the Slovak interwar literature follows a specific type of confessional (Protestant) tradition, and at the level of phonetic embodiment, her sound-rhythmic potential acts in the name of subtlety of expression.

Download the e-book for free  (pdf)

E-book

Myroslava Fabian

The academic textbook entitled “Stylistics: Theory and Practice, Part I” responds to the need identified by the author in her own teaching practice to supply the students with both theoretical and practical materials to the lecture and seminar course of contemporary English Stylistics.

Taking into account the richness and variety of English stylistic means of communication, the author dwells on basic notions of the academic course in question, describes stylistic semasiology as well as phonetic, syntactic expressive means and stylistic devices, offers practical help to stylistically identify, classify and describe the elements of language used in speech.

The textbook is designed for university students of English philology, students of English translation and interpretation study programmes, and also for students majoring in other disciplines combined with English language studies, as well as for those who study in English are expected to engage in scientific inquiry, document their research in Bachelor and Master theses or in doctoral dissertations written in English, and to present their work to their academic community.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Renáta Panocová

The textbook Basic Concepts of Morphology is an introduction to morphology intended for undergraduate students of British and American Studies and students of English (and French/German) for European Institutions and Economy and other philology studies in Slovakia. The textbook gradually guides students from key terms to concepts and from there to theoretically more challenging phenomena. The textbook is primarily for Slovak students of English, which explains that the majority of the examples presented are English. As the textbook progresses, data from Slovak, German, French, Hungarian and sometimes from slightly more exotic languages are given. It is expected that such an approach will prepare students for carrying out morphological analysis independently.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Július Rozenfeld - Slávka Tomaščíková

The academic textbook entitled “Developing Academic English in Speaking and Writing” responds to the need identified by the authors in their own teaching practice to integrate the enhancement of the academic skills of speaking and writing into a single coherent approach. Using complex methodologies of academic speaking and academic writing, the authors offer practical guidelines on how to broaden students’ knowledge of the discourse of Academic English and how to improve their academic competencies and productive language skills in speaking and writing in English.

The textbook is designed for university students of English philology, students of literary and cultural studies focusing on Anglophone areas, students of English translation and interpretation study programmes, but also for students who study in English and who are expected to engage in scientific inquiry, document their research in Bachelor and Master theses or in doctoral dissertations written in English, and to present their work to their academic community.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Karin Sabolíková

The monograph provides a brief insight into the theory of news structures in the press and, consequently, the theoretical framework of critical discourse analysis is applied in an examination of the structures of news. Critical discourse analysis following the theory and methodology of Teun van Dijk is used to analyse the representation of an industrial dispute, the Miners’ Strike of 1984-1985 in the UK, in the Czechoslovak newspaper Pravda.

The aim of the monograph is to examine the ways in which a single news item dealing with an international event was presented in a national newspaper based on its ideological perspective. The presented analysis does not cover all possible aspects of van Dijk’s approach of critical discourse analysis. A variety of issues remains to be explored in order to develop a richer, more complex analysis of the text structures. The monograph also intends to demonstrate that critical discourse analysis can complement more qualitatively the traditional method of quantitative content analysis.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Adriana Saboviková

The monograph deals with the post-millennial media discourse in the UK and aims to popularize the currently used methodological framework in the form of a case study.

The theoretical basis is provided by the introductory chapters, which deal with the topic of migration and newspaper discourse in the UK. The methodological framework represents an increasingly popular combination of corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis, which is introduced not only theoretically but also practically used in the presented case study. The case study compares the language used in the British newspapers before and after the lifting of labor market restrictions in the UK for Bulgarians and Romanians, specifically in 2013 and 2014.

The research is based on the identification of special language patterns used in the compiled corpus to characterize Bulgarians and Romanians, specifically paying attention to nouns, verbs and numerals. By doing such research, scholars can identify the role of media discourse in depicting social reality.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Renáta Panocová

The university textbook "Theories of Intercultural Communication" is primarily intended for master's degree students of translation and interpreting, as well as doctoral students of British and American Studies.

The goal of the textbook is to familiarize students with key theories in the field of intercultural communication. Eight chapters cover a selection of current theories focused on defining cultural dimensions, identity management and negotiation, accommodation and adaptation, anxiety and uncertainty management, and current research on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

The final chapter provides a historical overview of intercultural communication theories and outlines key research questions for the future.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)