Conceived by Lithuanian language students at Vilnius University’s Faculty of Philology and organised since 2023 in collaboration with Kaunas University, the student conference General Rehearsal has already become a tradition, bringing together young researchers from two university faculties for the fifth year in a row and providing an opportunity to share scientific insights and discoveries and rehearse the defence of their work. The aim of the scientific conference is to provide students with an opportunity to present their scientific or research work, develop the competencies of future specialists in the humanities, and discuss the importance of philology in the 21st century.

This article analyses the variety of identifying parts in the names of food establishments (cafés, restaurants, etc.) in Vilnius and the relationship between identifying parts and the words that define their type, based on language usage. The research material was collected from the public city environment, where all the names of the establishments were photographed, and a database was created. An identifying part of the names was found to be written in English, e.g., The Old Green, Spanish, e.g., Mulo Desnudo, French, e.g., Café de Paris, and other languages. Based on the language relationship between an identifying part and the words defining their type, the names are either monolingual, e.g., baras Begemoto sapnas, or bilingual, e.g., restoranas Café Montmartre (Restaurant Café Montmartre). The use of a single language for an identifying part indicates the necessity to maintain linguistic coherence – it creates an impression of consistency and professionalism, making it clear to the target audience. A wider audience is reached by combining English and Lithuanian, and an image of internationalism is conveyed. The relationship between an identifying part and the words defining its type reflects the dual identity of Vilnius and its society – the city is part of the global world, but ethnicity remains significant. An English-language name adds prestige to the place, while the use of Lithuanian appeals to the identity of residents.

This article offers a comparative analysis of Polish, Russian and English-language business emails. The results of the research displayed both similarities and differences in linguistic realisation of this genre of business communication. The greatest similarities were observed in those elements of an electronic letter, which are typical only for this particular form of correspondence. The differences are mainly in using para-linguistic devices, such as punctuation, discoursive-stylistic devices in writing upper- and lower-case letters, and in the linguo-cultural dependence in the implementation of such elements as the greeting and the closing formula. Polish and Russian emails are distinguished by a high degree of formality and a tendency to maintain an official tone compared to English-language texts of this genre, in which one can notice a greater directness and avoidance of literature, which is particularly characteristic of Polish courtesy formulas. Similarities detected in the comparative study may be due to adherence to netiquette, while differences are triggered by different norms in the etiquette of each language. This means that despite the universality of netiquette norms and the dominance of English in international correspondence, email still retains linguo-cultural specificity due to differences in ethnic worldviews and the officialdom of Slavic culture in relation to the openness of Euro-American civilisation.

The international conference for young scholars on translation TELL ME MORE was held for the third consecutive year at Vilnius University, Kaunas Faculty on May 7th, 2025. This annual event brought together students and emerging scholars from various Lithuanian and European universities for an intensive day of scholarly exchange and insightful discussions. Providing a platform for exploring various facets of translation and fostering interdisciplinary research, the conference received diverse submissions. The topics included: audiovisual translation and accessibility; literary translation; localisation and technical translation; multimodal and AI-related translation research; intersemiotic translation and adaptation. A particular emphasis was placed on accessibility, highlighted by a guest speaker from Lithuanian Audiosensory Library. The paper critically reviews four parallel conference sessions, providing key insights into the presented studies.

The paper focuses on the patterns of Chinese male and female poetry with the cicada image from the Pre-Qin period (先秦, before 221 BC) to the Song dynasty (宋朝, 960–1279). The relevance of the study is determined by the dearth of works on the cicada image in classical Chinese poetry as well as by the gender bias. This paper fills in the underexplored aspect of the existing literature by tracing the evolution of the cicada image in poetry from the Pre-Qing period to the Song dynasty. The female perspective allows us to reveal the gendered patterns of cicada symbolism in classical Chinese poetry, deconstruct the processes of male dominance and restore the overlooked female contributions. The paper shows that in male poetry, the cicada is considered as a symbol of: 1) resurrection, longevity, and hope of rebirth; 2) hot summer; 3) people dissatisfied with their ruler; 4) an honest official; 5) purity. In female poetry, the cicada image is used as a harbinger of death; a symbol of an official who pursues his own goals and cares only about his benefit; cicadas’ chirping is associated with sorrow, longing, and anxiety. Two groups of female poems were identified depending on the way the emotions are depicted. The “implicit” group includes poems where the cicadas’ chirping becomes an eloquent detail and is associated with sorrow, longing, and anxiety. Still, the emotions of the lyrical persona are not directly mentioned. The “explicit” group includes poems where the cicadas’ chirping acts as a trigger for the uncontrolled emotional reaction of the lyrical persona.

The article analyses the subversion of the meanings attributed to food tropes in Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children. The research is carried out within the theoretical framework of Postethnic Narrative Criticism, which postulates that literature should not be perceived as an accurate representation of reality outside the world of fiction or interpreted as such; as a result, historical and political contexts should not become key to understanding the narrative. The article analyses the key connotations of the tropes emerging in the description of Saleem Sinai, the protagonist of the novel Midnight’s Children. The portrayal of Saleem highlights the fusion of private and public realities of life, subverting established gender – specific connotations related to the tropes of food. A traditional model of the family undergoes major challenges in the novel, which is symbolised by an increase in the importance of liquid-related food imagery associated with the problem of alienation from the family and an emerging possibility to establish long-term relationships outside it. Diverse religious, political and economic contexts attributed to food tropes in the novel broaden the scope of traditional meanings of food tropes.

This paper proposes the application of ecolinguistics as a conceptual framework for understanding the role of learners’ identity and agency in foreign language acquisition. Rooted in the ecological view that language, identity, and learning environments are interconnected, the study uses theoretical synthesis and critical analysis to examine how learners negotiate meaning, reposition themselves socially, and construct dynamic identities within multilingual and globalised contexts. Integrating perspectives from language ecology as well as theories on identity and agency, the research highlights how learners’ investments, aspirations, and self-regulatory practices are shaped by sociocultural and institutional ecosystems. Adapting an ecolinguistic lens reveals foreign language acquisition as a socially mediated, transformative process in which learners exercise symbolic power, resist imposed roles, and co-construct linguistic and professional identities. The paper proposes an ecolinguistic model of foreign language acquisition, illustrated in a diagram, demonstrating how identity, agency, languaging, and ecological environments interact to shape foreign language acquisition.

Sport has long been a subject of interest for writers from all over the world. As early as ancient Greek society, athletes who excelled in different sports disciplines were celebrated, a practice that also manifested in written form. This also concerns poets, inspired by the glories and shadows of sporting rivalry, noting its beauty and deep symbolism. The objective of this article was to examine (through historical examples and literary analysis) the phenomenon of sports poetry, a subject that has received scant attention from the research community thus far. The exploration focused on the literature of two countries – Poland and the United States, with a particular emphasis on the works of poets who perceive significant potential in sporting competition, such as – among others – Kazimierz Wierzyński, Krzysztof Zuchora, William Carlos Williams or William Heyen. The research methodology encompassed an examination of numerous volumes of poetry, perusal of publications (books and articles) dedicated to the presence of sport in literature, and an extensive review of the history of sport and literature. The findings show that sports poetry is still alive and remains an important – though academically neglected – segment of literature, embedding sport in the cultural sphere.

Stylistic neologisms (SN), new words crafted to achieve pragmatic effects, pose significant challenges for translators, particularly between typologically distant languages like English and Ukrainian. With advances in machine translation (MT), evaluating its handling of SNs – especially vs. human translation (HT) – is crucial. Despite growing research on HT vs MT of neologisms, studies focusing on English > Ukrainian translation remain absent, leaving a critical research gap. This study addresses this gap by analysing how HT and MT rendered SNs formed through various morphological patterns in English language chick (ELCL) into Ukrainian. The findings reveal that while HT demonstrated exceptional abilities to creatively render English language SNs into Ukrainian, MT lacked creative and cultural sensitivity. MT exhibited an error rate of over 80%, significantly higher than HT’s 14%, with the most frequent errors occurring with loss of connotative meaning and incorrect word formation. The lack of innovation and contextual awareness in MT outputs underscores the necessity for algorithmic advancements and post-editing strategies to improve the rendering of SNs in literary translation.

On 17 June 2025, an international scientific conference entitled “Small” Literatures in the Big World: Worldwide Reception of Latvian and Lithuanian Literature in Translation was held at the University of Greifswald, at which literary scholars and translators from five countries presented their papers. This was the second conference on translation theory and practice to be organised by the Department of Baltic Studies. The impetus for the conference was the growing attention to translations of Baltic literature into foreign languages, ranging from translation support programmes to awards for translators and translations from Lithuanian and Latvian abroad, which are comparable to the recognition of translated literature. The primary objective of the conference was to explore the role of translators, publishers, and readers in the process of dissemination and perception of translated Baltic fiction. The presentations were not limited to specific literary genre, time period or artistic value, and did not delve into the concept of “Small” literature, for which there is currently no universally accepted definition. The selection of the reception topic was also motivated by the perception that translations of Baltic literature, along with their nominations and awards, are associated with a broad dissemination and reception of Baltic literature.