The master's thesis examines the meaning of the past tenses used by Albert Camus in his novels The Stranger and The Fall and the possibility of their transfer to Czech. The present thesis takes a theoretical and empirical approach. The theoretical part provides an overview of the French past tenses and their meanings and deals with their functions within the narrative text. It also attempts to express the specific use of French past tenses in Camus's works analysed. The thesis does not omit describe the possibilities that the Czech language has to express the past. The empirical part is devoted to the analysis of the existing Czech translations of the novels The Stranger and The Fall with an emphasis on capturing the meanings of the past tenses defined in the theoretical part. Using the Czech translations, it seeks ways of creating equivalent effects in Czech and compares the translators' approaches. Key words: the role of the past tenses in the narrative text, passé composé, passé simple, imparfait, plus-que-parfait, Albert Camus, The Stranger, The Fall

Bc. Veronika Landkammerová Résumé The thesis Contemporary piano methods and their usage in practice at Elementary schools of art deals with the most common and also the most suitable piano methods used in the Czech Republic. It's based on new trends at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, whose one of the pioneers was Ludwig Deppe. The issue is making music ideas and the need of using the weight of our arm while playing. It condemns the old methodology and gives examples. In the first part of the thesis there is described the evolution of piano - a musical instrument and the evolution of piano methods. These are interdependent of course. There was a quest to form a method only for piano which we can understand only if we know the historical changes. Since, in view of the fact that piano is a relatively young instrument we can't be surprised that its methodology of teaching is still a hot issue. The other parts are devoted to particular piano methods which are commonly used at Elementary school of art including examples of methodically obsolete methods. Unfortunately these are still very often used by many teachers. It's necessary to remind again that the pieces itself are not reprehensible but it's the method. On the other hand the thesis presents methods which are more or less suitable for teaching. It...

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This thesis examines the role of authority in the production of archaeological knowledge. It examines how fluid ideas and observations formed in the field become authoritative, factual, solid archaeological products, like scientific texts, reconstructions or museum displays. It asks, what makes a person, a thing or an account of history something that is authoritative? What makes someone an authority on the past? What is archaeological authority? This thesis deconstructs and exposes authority in archaeological practice. It targets how practitioners of archaeology actively enact, construct and implement authority in the process of producing knowledge. Formal representations of the past rely heavily on an underlying notion of the 'authoritative account'. The entire process of reconstructing the past in archaeology is dependent on individuals and institutions existing as authorities, who actively or passively imply that artefacts, sites and final interpretations are 'authentic' or have 'fidelity' to the past. This study examines how authority and acts of legitimation are employed and distributed through the medium of science, and how they need to be actively performed in order to acquire and maintain status. This thesis not only argues that authority is embedded in every stage of the archaeological process, but importantly, it identifies how this authority manifests through the medium of scientific acts. This thesis is structured around two comparative case studies: one case of professional archaeology and one case of alternative archaeology. Both are archaeological sites that produce their own 'authoritative' accounts of the past through practices, publications and presentations. The first case is the professional archaeological project of C̦atalhöyûk in the Republic of Turkey, under the direction of Ian Hodder at Stanford University. This case offers insights about how the processes of inscription, translation and blackboxing establish and maintain authority in archaeological practice. It also addresses how physical and intellectual space, as well as issues of access in localised knowledge-producing social arenas, affect archaeological authority. The second case is the controversial pseudoarchaeological project in Visoko, Bosnia, commonly referred to as the Bosnian Pyramids. This project, under the direction of amateur archaeologist Semir Osmanagić, has successfully created an account of prehistory that has been received by the general Bosnian public as authoritative, despite objections by the professional archaeological community. This case demonstrates how authority can be constructed, mimicked and performed by drawing on academic arenas of scientific practice and by eager public participation. Specifically, this case study highlights the importance of socio-politics, authoritative institutions and performative behaviour in the construction of archaeological authority.

Household debt grows up from the second half of the nineties of the century thanks to growing a living standard. More people provide own living and consumer credit increases. Because of financial crisis many people feel deterioration of working conditions and just the loss of regular earnings leads to problem with paying of a debts. The diploma thesis will be concerned with the problem of people's debts in accordance with personal and family finance and deal with responsible approach to loans, impacts of unpaid debts and solutions how to avoid the debt trap.

This diploma thesis describes the Quantitative easing as an unconvetional tool of the monetary policy. In the first chapter of this thesis there is theoretical analysis of the zero lower bound and also of specific phenomenon that might occur in this situation (the liquidity trap). The second chapter deals with the quantitative easing as a monetary policy with focus on the United States. It summarizes its development during three so called rounds, during which the quantitative easing has been used. This chapter also contains analysis of the entrance and exit strategy of the quantitative easing. In the third chapter, there is an econometric model estimated by ordinary least squares method with robust errors. This model is being used to verify the hypothesis whether the quantitative easing lowered long-term interest rates. The hypothesis has been rejected as the quantitative easing does not have statistically significant effect on any selected long-term bonds.

The retail banking services sector, a key driver for global economic growth, faces drastic challenges, such as globalised competition and continuously changing customer expectations that call for an in-depth understanding of customer switching, particularly in Asia’s emerging markets. Research shows that minor reductions in switching can notably enhance profitability. Yet only insufficient or fragmented research to explain switching exists. For this study titled “A Cross-Cultural Study of Consumer Switching in the Retail Banking Services Sector” at The University of Manchester, completed in September 2014, Frank Siegfried identified the theory of planned behaviour as the most suitable framework, while Singapore served as a test bed in view of its diverse population. A qualitative pilot study was conducted (February to April 2010), consisting of 22 semi-structured interviews, in which a suitable definition of switching and a better understanding about the cross-cultural context of this study were developed. These insights were instrumental in the design of a new theoretical model, built on constructs that had not been combined in a single framework before, applying constructs of the theory of planned behaviour as the foundational framework, and subsequently integrating the concept of past behaviour, selected cultural dimensions from the GLOBE model and four distinct predisposing and precipitating factors. Next, a quantitative study was conducted (January to May 2013) and, after data cleaning, a quasi-representative sample of 1,431 cases was subjected to analysis. For comparability with other studies, both regression analysis (RA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) were performed. Notable results that were consistent in RA and SEM include: Attitude towards switching (attitude) successfully explained switching intention. Subjective norms had a positive effect on attitude, which implied a mediated effect of subjective norms on switching intention. Contradicting the initial hypothesis, a significant effect of perceived behavioural control on switching intention was negative. Past behaviour had a significant, but weak positive effect on attitude and switching intention, as well as an indirect positive effect on switching intention, mediated by attitude. Lack of trust positively affected switching intention. Service failure had a strong positive effect on switching intention, with perceived behavioural control moderating this effect. Performance orientation had a moderately strong effect on perceived behavioural control. High in-group collectivism negatively affected service failure. These results constitute the new Comprehensive Banking Service Switching Model (CBSSM). Interestingly, a large number of constructs and construct paths that played an important role in the literature could not be confirmed as significant contributors to the model. Overall, tests of model fit still showed a significant contribution of the proposed extensions to the foundational model. Weighting the importance of various constructs in a single framework enhances the understanding of switching of retail banking services in Singapore and offers new insights for strategic planning, particularly in the areas of branding, marketing, service operations and human capital management. Theoretical, methodological and managerial implications are discussed in detail.

The thesis analyses problems of eurozone after the beginning of financial crisis in 2008, which continuously changed into economic and debt crisis. The thesis considers eurozone in aggregate and closer focuses on so called GIIPS (Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain) countries. Recent eurozone economic situation is compared to Japanese "lost decade" during 1990s, I seek for parallels and differences. Theoretical part shows approaches by economic schools to causes of cycle and to role of policymakers. Main challenges of fiscal and monetary policy are considered, specifically fiscal policy in time of high public indebtedness, monetary policy in liquidity trap etc. Applicative part considers causes of the economic situation at the beginning, more specifically devoted to balance sheets recession. Key part of the practical part it is analysis of applied fiscal and monetary policy, including helping efforts to financial system. Concluding remarks summarizes key understanding from the thesis, proposals are included and it is considered whether eurozone is going to follow Japanese path since 90's or not. It seems highly probable that eurozone is going to follow Japanese in terms of sluggish economic growth, parallels can be seen in weak impact of monetary policy in liquidity trap, but recommendations to fiscal policy from Japanese experience should be taken into account in very cautious way because of both specifics of eurozone and Japanese economy.

This research evaluates the relationship between various individual differences constructs and performance on a past behavior interview (PBI)-one of the most popular forms of personnel selection interviews used today-within a sample of business unit leader level incumbents and applicants from organizations across the United States. Correlation analysis is conducted on the relationship between overall performance on a PBI and four work-related constructs: Experience, Motivation, Personality, and Cognitive Ability. The existing literature on PBIs and the four independent variables is critically reviewed. As limited research has been conducted on the influence of Experience and Motivation on PBI performance, this study makes unique contributions to the literature regarding impact of these two constructs. The major hypotheses stated that Experience and Motivation would yield significant, positive correlations with PBI performance while Personality and Cognitive Ability would not be significantly correlated with PBIs. Results partially supported the hypotheses-Experience, Motivation, and Personality were significantly related to overall PBI score, while Cognitive Ability was not. Implications for the findings as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.

Cette thèse propose une analyse du conditionnel en français basée sur des concepts énonciatifs et aspecto-temporels, dont le plus important pour ce temps grammatical se révèle être celui de « référentiel temporel ». Après avoir exposé le cadre théorique de J.-P. Desclés et Z. Guentchéva utilisé pour ce travail, nous présentons tout d’abord une application de ce modèle à des temps verbaux de l’indicatif (présent, imparfait et futur), puis nous abordons les problématiques du discours rapporté et des énoncés en si, que concernent à la fois les temps de l’indicatif mentionnés et le conditionnel. Nous passons ensuite à l’analyse du conditionnel lui-même, qui est sous-tendu par un invariant sémantique : ce temps grammatical pose la relation prédicative aspectualisée (le procès) dans un référentiel autre que le Référentiel Énonciatif, l’actualisation de ce procès vers le Référentiel Énonciatif se faisant alors de différentes manières selon les trois classes d’emplois du conditionnel que nous avons dégagées (« futur dans le passé », hypothèse, et désengagement). Chaque classe est étudiée en détail et divisée en sous-classes. Nous proposons dans une troisième partie une étude des équivalents en allemand du conditionnel. Cette langue utilise diverses formes verbales, relevant des modes Indikativ, Konjunktiv I et II, ainsi que de la forme en würde + infinitif, pour exprimer les valeurs du conditionnel. Pour finir, une comparaison entre cette dernière forme et le conditionnel met en évidence la pertinence du concept de référentiel temporel puisqu’il permet d’expliciter le rapprochement sémantique entre deux formes verbales morphologiquement différentes. / This thesis proposes an analysis of the French conditional based on enunciative and aspecto-temporal concepts, where the most important concept for this grammatical tense is shown to be that of “temporal reference framework”. Having expounded the theoretical framework of J.-P. Desclés and Z. Guentchéva, we will first present an application of this model to verb tenses in the indicative (present, imperfect and future), after which we will take up the problematics of reported speech and si utterances which both the indicative tenses mentioned and the conditional are concerned with. We will then move on to the analysis of the conditional itself which is underlain by a semantic invariant: this grammatical tense places the aspectualized predicative relation (the process) in a reference framework other than the Enunciative Reference Framework. The actualization of this process in another reference framework different from the Enunciative Reference Framework is realized in different ways according to the three classes of usage of the conditional which we have singled out (“future in the past”, hypothetical value, disengagement). Each class is studied in detail and divided into sub-classes. In a third part we study the equivalents of the conditional in German. This language makes use of some verb forms of Indikativ and Konjunktiv I and II moods as well as the form würde + infinitive, to express the values of the conditional. Finally, a comparison of this last form with the conditional will reveal the pertinence of the concept of temporal reference framework since it explains the semantic connection between two morphologically different verb forms.