Většina z nás používá prosté Dobrý den“: Výzkum postojů ke kontaktovým formulím v současné české korespondenci

The paper introduces the results of research on contact formulas in contemporary correspondence in Czech. The motivation for the research was the authors’ language consulting practice and it resulted in the major research question of whether the greeting ‘Dobrý den’ (‘Hello’) is suitable at the beginning of formal correspondence and what is the relationship between this contact formula and the addressing composed of the attribute ‘Vážený’ (‘Dear’) and the nominal expression. There were two phases of the research: the first consisted of semi-structured interviews with eight participants. The findings of this phase were used for the preparation of the questionnaire, which was the second phase of the research. The information obtained shows contemporary usage and perception of contact formulas in the frame of the representative sample of 367 respondents. The findings show that although there is a noticeable shift in the perception of contact formulas starting with the greeting ‘Dobrý den’, the more formal the communication situation, the more frequently the formula starts with the attribute ‘Vážený’. The greeting is often used in cases when the partners in communication are on an equal level, or when the writer is in the superior position, and it is ordinarily used in communication with an unknown addressee.