This was the Opening Address at ''Fateful Eights in Czech History: Historical Anniversaries of 2008 and Their Signifi cance for the Czech Republic Today'', an international conference organized by the Czech Embassy in Washington, held at the George Washington University, Washington, D.C., on 23-24 October 2008. In this essay the author provides a basic overview of twentieth-century Czech history, weighing the gains and losses, the victories and defeats, the ups and downs of the Czechs, the Czech nation, Czech society, on the way from gaining independence in a democratic state to loosing it, and the German occupation, to the renewal of Czechoslovak independence and the destruction of democracy under the Communist regime, to the failed attempt at the reform of that regime, and the victory of the democratic revolution - all marked by the historical milestones of the years 1918, 1938/39, 1945-48, 1968, and 1989 - as well as the author’s refl ections on the long-term changes in the mentality of the country.
The Valency Lexicon of Czech Verbs, Version 2.5 (VALLEX 2.5), is a collection of linguistically annotated data and documentation, resulting from an attempt at formal description of valency frames of Czech verbs. VALLEX 2.5 has been developed at the Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague.
VALLEX 2.5 provides information on the valency structure (combinatorial potential) of verbs in their particular senses - there are roughly 2,730 lexeme entries containing together around 6,460 lexical units ("senses"). and LC 536 - Center for Computational Linguistics, 1ET100300517 and 1ET101120503.
VALLEX 3.0 provides information on the valency structure (combinatorial potential) of verbs in their particular senses, which are characterized by glosses and examples. VALLEX 3.0 describes almost 4 600 Czech verbs in more than 10 800 lexical units, i.e., given verbs in the given senses.
VALLEX 3.0 is a is a collection of linguistically annotated data and documentation, resulting from an attempt at formal description of valency frames of Czech verbs. In order to satisfy different needs of different potential users, the lexicon is distributed (i) in a HTML version (the data allows for an easy and fast navigation through the lexicon) and (ii) in a machine-tractable form as a single XML file, so that the VALLEX data can be used in NLP applications.
VALLEX 4.0 provides information on the valency structure (combinatorial potential) of verbs in their particular senses; each sense is by a gloss and examples. VALLEX 4.0 describes almost 4 700 Czech verbs in more than 11 000 lexical units, i.e., given verbs in the given senses. VALLEX 4.0 is a is a collection of linguistically annotated data and documentation, resulting from an attempt at formal description of valency frames of Czech verbs. In order to satisfy different needs of different potential users, the lexicon is distributed (i) in a HTML version (the data allows for an easy and fast navigation through the lexicon) and (ii) in a machine-tractable form, so that the VALLEX data can be used in NLP applications. VALLEX 4.0 provides (in addition to information from previous versions) also characteristics of verbs expressing reciprocity and reflexivity.
The data is provided in two formats: XML and JSON.
VALLEX 4.5 provides information on the valency structure (combinatorial potential) of Czech verbs in their particular senses (almost 4 700 verbs in more than 11 080 lexical units, supplemented with more than 290 nouns in more than 350 lexical units forming complex predicates with light verbs). VALLEX 4.5 is an enhanced successor of VALLEX 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0. In addition to the information stored there, VALLEX 4.5 provides a detailed description of reflexive verbs, i.e., verbs with the reflexive "se" or "si" as an obligatory part of their verb lexemes. VALLEX 4.5 covers 1 525 reflexive verbs in 1 545 lexical units (2 501 when aspectual counterparts counted separately). In order to satisfy different needs of different potential users, the lexicon is distributed (i) online in a HTML version (the data allows for an easy and fast navigation through the lexicon) and (ii) in this distribution in a machine-tractable form, so that the VALLEX data can be used in NLP applications.