The year of 1989 was for many an important year. Its affairs swept through Europe with a mighty force and resulted in the fall of the governments of Central and Eastern European countries and the disintegration of the Communist bloc. In Czechoslovakia, the process of change in 1989 was dramatic but tended to be non-violent; the events were even called euphemistically the "Velvet Revolution". The period from 1989 up to the present has been an era of major changes in Czech society. This will inevitably be reflected in the language. The Czech language before 1989 had its own typical phrases, cliches and words, certain meanings of which are now historical in nature. The socio-political changes in and after 1989 did not slow down developmental tendencies in the language or brought them to an end. On the contrary -- these tendencies continue under the new conditions. New phrases, cliches and meanings of words are being created and the process of infiltration of foreign elements into the language is affected too. My research explores changes in Czech vocabulary following the changes in the political regime in 1989. I investigate how extra-linguistic factors and language contact factors interact with language-internal processes of change in the language of a society that is undergoing dramatic transformations. There have been no long-term, in-depth studies of change in particular lexical units in Czech. Studies of lexical change in the languages of the former Soviet bloc have been mostly focused on a broad view of developmental tendencies. Therefore I believe that my work will help to fill a gap in explaining what processes can be detected in the course of lexical change.

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