This thesis deals with rhythmic differences between Vietnamese English and the British Standard. As all the recorded speakers were originally from Northern Vietnam or lived there for an extensive period of time, it should be noted that the subject of analysis was in fact North Vietnamese English. The theoretical part describes the concept of rhythm in general and modern approaches to its analysing and measuring. Furthermore, the theoretical chapter describes the basics of phonetic characteristics of the Vietnamese language and the British standard of English. The last chapter of the theoretical part constitutes a bridge between theory and analysis as it explains selected features of Vietnamese English concerning mainly the realization of vowels and consonants. The next part is dedicated to methodology and it informs the reader about the criteria for selection of speakers and the means of gathering and processing material. At the end, a number of hypotheses regarding Vietnamese English are presented. In the analysis, values for rhythm metrics for Vietnamese English (%V, ΔV, ΔC, varcoV, varcoC, rPVI-V, rPVI-C, nPVI-V, nPVI-C) are calculated, compared to the rhythm metrics for British English and further evaluated in relation to gender, speakers and prosodic compactness. The results of the analysis...

In the Czech Republic, there is currently no objective method to diagnose graphomotor difficulties in children. Ongoing research uses modern digitizers to capture the hand-writing process and quantify its parameters. The first goal of this thesis is to develop software tools to faciliate work with the collected data, such as database validation and writing exercise rating, done by specialists. Another goal of this thesis is to design new on-line handwriting parameters which are then to be analysed on a cohort of school children from 2nd to 4th class of primary school (n=239). The implementation of two desktop programs on the .NET platform is described, among three new quantifying parameters based on the principles of isochrony, two-dimensional cross-correlation, and geometrical centroid. All three parameters show significant correlation (r = [0,2; 0,3])with the HPSQ-C rating in 2nd- and 4th-graders and correlation (𝜌= [0,2; 0,5]) with specialist’s subjective scores in all children from the cohort. The analysis suggests children with graphomotor difficulties struggle with regulating handwriting speed and working memory.

The chief subject of this dissertation is a description of the reflections on the poetry of 19th and 20th century, in connection with questions of national identity, national self-confidence, tradition and openness to European space. I deal with the question, how these topics are (often unconsciously) reflected in the prosodic debates of certain periods (especially during the Czech National Revival or at the time of the formation of independent Czechoslovakia) and how influence the views on how the Czech verse looks or should look, for what purposes poetry is to serve or what threatens the national literature and language. I also follow the changes in the relation of the theory of verse to the poetry itself and compare the concept of the verse and its basic categories in Czech and international theory. This work is composed of four isolated parts, relatively independent of each other. These are partial probes on selected topics from the history of Czech and foreign literature and its reflection. The first chapter focuses on the syllabotonic reform of the Czech verse and on the motivation, which led to its acceptance or rejection. I investigated the reasons, which led some authors to the partial violation of rules and some authors to attempts to establish quantitative verse. The topic of Czech iamb...