Protetické v- mezi statistikou a rétorikou: K článku Vliv jazykových faktorů na užívání protetického v- v pražské mluvě

This text is a critical response to Jan Chromý’s article “The influence of intralinguistic factors on the usage of prothetic v- in the Prague vernacular” (Slovo a slovesnost 76, 2015:21–38). Using methods from variationist sociolinguistics, Chromý made a significant contribution to the existing understanding of the intralinguistic factors influencing the usage of prothetic v-. In addition, he drew some conclusions about the impact of gender on the variable (v) and about linguistic change, asserting that the variant /v/ in the Prague vernacular is in decline. However, neither claim is justified by the findings presented in the article. The analyzed sample of speakers is too small to allow for generalizations regarding the correlation between gender and the use of the variable (v); moreover, Chromý does not take into consideration the high variability of prothetic v- use among individual female speakers. With regard to the supposed decline of prothetic v-, this conclusion is based on Chromý’s comparison between his own sample and Jančák’s research from the 1970s, but these samples are incomparable because the sociodemographic profiles of their informants differ. Chromý justifies this comparison according to the apparent time hypothesis, but, as we argue, the apparent time hypothesis cannot be successfully applied here.