Syntax in Bohumil Hrabal's prosaic works

This study is an analysis ofthe syntax in Bohumil Hrabal's prosaic works. It looks into the way Hrabal's syntax deviates from the "Czech norm", and the way his style evolved over time. For the purposes ofthe analysis, Hrabal's creative life has been divided into three chronological parts - early, middle and late. This periodization is essential for conceptualizing Bohumil Hrabal' s syntax usage and its evolution. Methodologically the study is based on a statistical analysis of observed traits in Hrabal' s syntax compared with the findings ofM. Těšitelová in Kvantitativní charakteristika současné češtiny - a quantitative research on the present-day Czech language. Against the backdrop ofwhat is considered the "Czech norm" the differences between Hrabal's creative periods become more obvious. To a certain degree these differences can be attributed to the use of different text models in each period-while most of the works from the early period were written as classic narratives, the later ones were more likely to be modem narratives. The most notable shift in Hrabal's syntax occurred between the early period and the later ones-more frequent use of longer compound and complex sentences consisting of greater number ofunits; more elaborate sentence structure, especially in terms of expanding. That is why in the..