Jazyková různost v současné teorii a praxi

The subject was chosen to honour the memory of Professor Vladimír Skalička, who is best known for his contributions to language typology, but who also considered due attention to language diversity in general to be one of the corner stones of linguistics. The author maintains that despite the huge increase in interest in various problems of language diversity over the last fifty years, the most influential linguistic theories either underestimate its theoretical value (Chomskian approaches), or do not sufficiently test their tenets against its reality (cognitive linguistics). The author goes on to outline present-day multilingualism as the language ideology and language policy of the European Union and to show some specific examples of the EU language planning activities, including organized research into language diversity and various aspects of multilingualism within its member countries.