Lithuanian Language Research Articles

Lietuvių kalba kaip kalbos politikos objektas Prūsijos Karalystėje: XVIII a. pradžios diskursas

THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE AS AN OBJECT OF THE POLICY ON LANGUAGE IN THE KINGDOM OF PRUSSIA: THE DISCOURSE OF THE EARLY 18th CENTURY The article deals with the philological polemics that took place in the Kingdom of Prussia in the 1710s as the first discourse recorded in writing that addressed matters of using the Lithuanian language in social life, covering, among other things, aspects of the policy on language and language planning. Since the process concerning the public language had the involvement of governmental officials who acted in the name of the Prussian Church and the King, and had the authority to adopt different decisions, the Lithuanian language became an object of policy on language in a specific sense. The first language policy makers who in the 18th century recognised and advocated the problems of the quality of the public Lithuanian language and took to making decisions to have the public involved in the resolution of the language matters were as follows: (1) Friedrich Deutsch (1657–1709), comptroller of Prussian churches and schools, chief preacher of the palace, and theology professor at Königsberg University; (2) Johann Berent (1658–1712), councillor of the court of the palace of Königsberg and former law professor at Königsberg University; (3) George Friedrich von Kreitzen (1639–1710), chancellor of the Kingdom of Prussia as a member of the government.

Kazimiero Jauniaus marginalijos Jono Jablonskio Lietuviškos kalbos gramatikoje (1901)

K AZIMIERAS JAUNIUS’ MARGINAL NOTES IN THE GRAMMAR OF THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE BY JONAS JABLONSKIS (1901) The Grammar of the Lithuanian Language by Jonas Jablonskis (Tilžė, 1901; MLLM : MB 206; hereinafter – JaG) with marginalia is preserved in the Maironis Memorial Library (Maironis Museum of Lithuanian Literature, Kaunas). Until now, it has been assumed that the marginalia in this copy of the JaG belongs to Maironis himself. Indeed, the marginalia are of two kinds: the handwriting, writing tools (black pen and pencil), content and writing intentions differ, and it is obvious they were written by two people.

Kalbinis mandagumas nekilnojamojo turto skelbimuose: prašymai

The article deals with written Lithuanian language requests found on Aruodas.lt, the main portal for real estate (RE) classifieds (other specialised or general classifieds portals, such as domoplius.lt, kampas.lt, skelbiu.lt, were omitted because they contain a relatively small number of ads; and besides, many of their RE ads overlap with the classifieds published on Aruodas.lt) and the politeness of such requests. The empirical material, consisting of 1,000 speech acts, was gathered between 6 April 2020 and 30 May 2021. The study aims to determine the types of applicable strategies according to the degree of the directness of the requests, examine internal and external modifications of request cores, and ultimately identify the main forms of addresses.

Hibridinių vedinių ir skolinių konkurencija

Competition between hybrid derivatives and borrowings This article introduces the patterns of competing hybrid and correlative derivatives and borrowings, discusses their formation and frequency of use based on the data extracted from the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language. The research has revealed that competition occurs between 1) hybrid suffixed derivatives ( debatuo-toj-as , -a / debat-inink-as , -ė ‘debater’), 2) hybrid and correlative suffixed derivatives ( legion-inink-as , -ė / legion-ier-ius , -ė ‘legionnaire’), 3) hybrid suffixed derivatives and borrowings ( akrobat-inink-as , -ė / akrobat-as , -ė ‘acrobat’). Competing nouns can belong either to the same or distinct derivational category. They can also be derived either from the same or different base words. A large difference in the frequency of use can be seen in the hybrid derivatives ( debatuotojas , -a ×119 / debatininkas , -ė ×5 ‘debater’), in the hybrid and correlative derivatives ( propagandininkas , -ė ×58 / propagandistas , -ė ×152 ‘propagandist’), in the hybrid derivatives and borrowings ( akrobatininkas , -ė ×2 / akrobatas , -ė ×289 ‘acrobat’). The same frequency of use can be seen in the hybrid derivatives with different suffixes ( sabotuotojas , -a ×16 / sabotažininkas , -ė ×16 ‘saboteur’).

Cholera „limpamų ligų“ kontekste: prevencijos ir gydymo rekomendacijos Lietuvoje XX amžiaus pirmojoje pusėje | Communicable Diseases in Early 20th-Century Lithuania: Recommendations for the Prevention of Cholera in its Treatment

The press (books, newspapers, magazines, calendars, etc) in the Lithuanian language educated its readers extensively on the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases in the early 20th century. However, the frequent outbreaks of various epidemics from the 1900s to the 1930s raises the question whether this information really reached its target audience, especially when, as folklore sources show, folk medicine was still heavily relied on in the provinces. The article addresses this question by taking cholera as an example. It compares the methods of protection against cholera and its treatment, as presented in Lithuanian periodicals and professional publications, with narratives of folk medicine collected in archives. In the collected material, the author looks for definitions of the folk concept of communicable diseases (limpamos ligos, the name given to infectious diseases at the time), which may have influenced the limits to which people followed the recommendations of medics in the first half of the 20th century.

Verb-based Action and Process Nominalisation Patterns in English and Lithuanian EU Legal Documents

Translators might face difficulties when working on legal texts due to their intricate features, such as nominalisation. The abstract nature of such structures could have a negative effect on text comprehension, as nominalisations are usually harder to process than verbs. In pursuit of making European Union (EU) documents more translator-friendly, the European Commission invites authors to communicate clearly, advising against the use of nominalisations. For this reason, a closer look at the current nominalisation patterns in English and Lithuanian EU legal documents is taken. The aim of the paper is to determine and compare the verb-based action and process nominalisations and their equivalent structures in English and Lithuanian EU legal documents, considering the impact of equivalent choices on the text. The focus is placed on verb-based action and process nominalisations derived by suffixation. Considering English and Lithuanian nominalisations, their equivalent structures are commonly expressed as nominalisations. The expression of nominalisations as nouns, as well as adjective-based nominalisations, is characteristic only to the Lithuanian language. The expression as an adverb, a prepositional structure or a pronoun is characteristic only to the English language. The analysis reveals that the verb-based action and process nominalisations might help follow the flow of information and emphasise key concepts. However, if the morphological properties were changed, repetition could be avoided, the dynamic properties of the text could be strengthened, or comprehension could be facilitated, which is essential for an effective translation process.

Accent Strength in Lithuanian: Evidence from the Saussurean Accent Shift

This paper investigates the distribution of surface accents in Lithuanian nominals based on data from Standard Lithuanian. Inflected nouns and adjectives in this language are subject to the following major accent rules: (a) the Basic Accentuation Principle (Halle & Vergnaud 1987a; b); (b) the Saussurean Accent Shift (Blevins 1993, Ambrazas 2006). I argue that one can account for both in a system where underlying lexical accents can vary in strength. This approach provides advantages compared to the analysis presented in Blevins (1993). For instance, in order to determine the placement of the accent within a weak stem, one does not have to resort to extraprosodicity or floating tones, thanks to a weak accent being present in the UR. The Saussurean Accent Shift, for which Blevins’s paper accounts only partially (see Section 5), is analyzed as an edge effect whereby a clash of two underlying accents at the right edge of a prosodic word results in the surface accent being right-aligned.

Use of posture verbs in old Lithuanian writings: A case study of the verb gulėti ‘lieʼ

This paper reports on constructions with the posture verb gulėti ʻlieʼ in religious Lithuanian writings of the 16th–19th centuries. The aim of the current study is to offer an overview of the use of these constructions and their grammaticalization potential in the old Lithuanian language. 662 samples were selected from “Evangelijos bei Epistolos” by Bartholomäus Willent, “Ewangelie Polskie y Litewskie” by Jonas Jaknavičius, “Naujos maldų knygelės” and “Naujos giesmių knygos” by Daniel Klein, Johann Jakob Quandt’s Bible and “Naujas įstatymas” by Juozapas Arnulfas Giedraitis. The website “Senieji raštai” (“The old Lithuanian writings”) of the Research Centre of Written Heritage, the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, was utilised to explore the old writings; the constructions were extracted using the search engine of the website. To analyse the semantics of these constructions, the FrameNet system was used. First, the theoretical approach of this study is discussed, and the sources and methods applied are indicated, then, the semantic analysis of the posture verb gulėti ʻlieʼ is presented and finally, its grammaticalization potential is examined, followed by conclusions.

Lithuanian priegaidė: a syllable or a word feature?

The place of priegaidė ‘syllable intonation’ in the phonological system of Lithuanian remains uncertain; so does its typological peculiarity. The article aims to discover the specific nature of this phonological feature taking into consideration the opposition between phonemic (inflectional) and syllabemic (isolating) language types. Phonetically similar prosodic means in these languages show noticeable functional differences determined by the structure of the meaningful units they belong to. Inflectional languages develop a system of suprasegmental phonological features, which integrate parts of their normally composite units, whereas isolating languages usually do with monosyllabic words (naturally, without stress) and monolithic morphemes with tones as distinctive features. Standard Lithuanian has priegaidė only on the stressed syllables, therefore its system can be called polyaccentual (not polytonic), i. e. possessing several types of accent. The dialects, however, show examples of relevant priegaidė besides syllables with primary stress. In this, more general, system priegaidė functions as a suprasegmental feature of a morpheme (exposed to fading in weak positions). The traditional differentiation of syllables according to priegaidė is secondary: a syllable provides conditions for the realization of priegaidė, but being part of the plane of expression, not connected with meaning, the syllable itself does not need differentiation.

The phonetic interaction of stress and intonation: a study of Standard Lithuanian

It is commonly accepted, that word stress in Standard Lithuanian has a complex phonetic nature. However, empirical data do not support such a view. The functional importance of acoustic parameters can only be proven relying on their “relations of relations” between stressed and unstressed syllables. To put it simply, we cannot state for sure that in all cases stressed syllables are superior in acoustical means. We can rely on intersyllabic relation of some sort only. If this is true, word stress is no more recognizable from a sintagmatic point of view. In addition, such interpretation presupposes a very complex mechanism of stress perception that is difficult to verify by experimental means. This article highlights the phonetic interaction of prosodic elements in the hope that more invariant features of acoustic stress structure can be captured from this perspective. The analyzed data show that prosodic elements selectively regulate the amount of acoustic energy, its degree of variation and dynamics. The first two are the prerogative of the phrasal intonation and the third is determined by the stress. The latter prosodic element, to put it more simply, is a factor that determines the control of acoustic energy distribution at the intersyllabic level.

Derivation of nomina qualitatis on borrowed stems

This paper investigates the derivation of hybrid derivatives, such as banal-um-as ‘banality’ ← banal-us, -i ‘banal’, that belong to the derivational category of nomina qualitatis. The aim is to find out how different nomina qualitatis with the borrowed stems are from the perspective of derivation, how many derivation steps they consist of. Special attention is paid to the functions of indigenous and borrowed suffixes in the borrowed bases of hybrid derivatives. The study was carried out using the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language and the Corpus of Academic Lithuanian. The analysis shows that nomina qualitatis with borrowed stems are not very diverse in terms of derivation, as they are formed with only three indigenous suffixes, i.e. -umas, -ybė and -ystė. The hybrid suffixed -umas and -ybė derivatives are usually derived from adjectives, whereas the suffixed -ystė derivatives are usually derived from nouns. Derivatives with borrowed stems commonly consist of two derivation steps. In morphologically decomposable correlative derivatives borrowed suffixes are suggested to be synchronically regarded as derivational (form-al-us, -i ‘formal’ ⇠ form-a ‘form’).

Prosody of F. W. Haack’s dictionary

The article deals with the notation of prosodic features of Lithuanian words in F. W. Haack’s Lithuanian-German and German-Lithuanian dictionary (1730). First, the place of stress (in some cases also tone) is shown by Haack’s diacritical marks. Second, in some cases the place of stress is indirectly reflected by orthographic devices used to mark vowel quantity, e.g., the use of two different letters <i> and <y> for the long vowel y or the use of double consonants to mark the brevity of the preceding vowel. Finally, a separate valuable source of data for Lithuanian historical accentology is constituted by hand-written diacritical marks placed above some words in the copy of the dictionary held at Vilnius University Library.

Syllabification of Standard Lithuanian in terms of the sonority theory

The article discusses the research which aims to ascertain whether the sonority of sounds could be used to determine boundaries of syllables in consonant clusters and if this principle is commonly employed by a sample of language users. The research consists of a) the overview of more significant foreign authors’ works, which is then used to identify the theoretic hierarchy of consonant clusters in Lithuanian, b) the exploratory analysis of consonant sonority, c) the investigation of sonority in consonant clusters, d) the research of tendencies in language users’ syllabification. The results have revealed that after establishing the hierarchy of consonant clusters in Lithuanian and applying the principle of syllabification by sonority, one fifth of the consonant clusters in the empirical data base is impossible to syllabify. Neither predicted phonetic syllable, nor the phonological syllable is commonly employed by the language users. The users are likely to assign at least one consonant of a cluster to a preceding syllable, while only the last consonant of polynomial clusters is assigned to the onset of a later syllable. Fricative consonants in consonant clusters are assigned to the coda of a previous syllable.

Spalvų reikšmės lietuvių administracinėje kalboje

The aim of the article is to analyse the translated figurative meanings of the names of colours used in the Lithuanian administrative language by discussing the aspects of their acceptability in the Lithuanian language. The sources of the study are administrative texts, i.e. various documents published in the Lithuanian Registry of Legal Acts and the database of European Union law and other public documents EUR-lex; metaphorical terms designating colours were also collected from the EU’s multilingual term base IATE. Usually, the metaphorical meanings of colours in the Lithuanian administrative language are similar to other languages; such similarity first entails that the meanings are translated, though they may also be linked with mental universalities in some cases. One of the major systems of the meanings of colours, which are used to designate the different hierarchical levels of something that is regulated, is based on the traffic-light principle. The spectrum of the three colours is supplemented with other colours based on the universal black-and-white opposition as well as grey implying a milder negative shade and orange signalling threat in nature. The polysemous green colour is a problematic one, as it has different meanings. Lithuanian and translated meanings are often difficult to reconcile, e.g. žalias produktas may be both an unprocessed product and an organic one. The translated meanings of colours coming into the Lithuanian language through the translations of the EU documents are understandable and acceptable when there is a clear comparative ground under which the meaning is assigned, e.g. mėlynoji ekonomika, sidabrinė ekonomika. Certain translated meanings of colours are difficult to comprehend as their comparative ground is obscure, e.g. baltoji knyga, žalioji knyga, mėlynoji kortelė. Such translated figurative meanings of colours may be interpreted in different ways, and that is not compatible with the principle of exclusive accuracy typical of an administrative language.

Latviešu valodas tautas celtniecības leksika Baltijas jūras piekrastē Latvijā un Lietuvā: reālijas jumts un tā daļu nosaukumi

Until now, little attention has been paid to studies of the Latvian language vocabulary on a thematic aspect at the Baltic Sea coast once inhabited by Curonians (Reķēna 1975; Kurzemniece 2008; Bušmane, Kagaine 2003; Bušmane 2004). The present article, using the descriptive method, provides an insight into the names denominating the roof of a traditionally crafted building and its parts (roof, chimney, gable, ridge, windboard, animal-shaped roof-end decorations, and cross-stacked wooden planks on the roof ridge) in the vocabulary of the three Latvian language communities (the Latvians of Kurzeme, Latvians of Palanga or on the border with Lithuania, and Latvians of Curonian split or Kursenieki) in Latvia and Lithuania. The vocabulary analysed in the sources of this article shows, firstly, the impact of Germanic languages (mostly German) in the territory under research, and secondly, the impact of the Lithuanian language in the mainly Latvian-speaking communities at the Curonian Spit and border areas in Lithuania (West-East direction of contacts). Thirdly, it is not possible to demonstrate fully the diversity and prevalence of denominations of the roof and its parts in the territory under research due to the lack of purposefully collected linguistic material related to artisanal building traditions.

Polish zielony and Lithuanian žalias: Prototypes and Connotations

The paper presents the results of the contrastive semantic analysis of the Polish lexeme zielony ‘green’ and its Lithuanian equivalent žalias. The research based on the methodology of R. Tokarski and K. Waszakowa is aimed at comparing the collocability of Pol. zielony / Lith. žalias with names of various objects and phenomena (both in the literal and figurative senses) including the identification of the prototype references and connotative meanings. The analysis has illustrated that in both languages, ‘green’ is interpreted primarily as the color of grass or other plants, but for some shades of green, the color of certain minerals (such as emerald or malachite) can be considered a prototype pattern. Common prototypical references clearly motivate similar symbolic and cultural values of Polish and Lithuanian terms. Pol. zielony / Lith. žalias have similar ranges of use and develop quite convergent connotative meanings, of which there are slightly more in Lithuanian. In both languages, the prototype association with the green of young plants creates the following connotational meanings: ‘young’, ‘fresh’, ‘unripe’, ‘immature’, ‘inexperienced’, ‘healthy’, ‘ecological’. Both in Polish and in Lithuanian, some shades of green can connote not only positive but also negative characterizations, based on associations with the chthonic world or with disease and death. However, such connotations as ‘raw, uncooked’ and ‘nice, pleasant’ are more typical for the Lithuanian language, since in Polish they are rather sporadic. Only in Lithuanian there is the connotation ‘strong, powerful’. Therefore, it must be recognized that the semantic spectrum of the Lith. žalias is wider than the semantics of its Polish equivalent.

Developing General and Subject Competences of Primary School Pupils in the Context of Integrated Education: the Case of one Lithuanian School

Aim. The aim of the research is to provide a scientific justification for the integrated development of general and subject-specific competences of primary school pupils. Methods. The exploratory qualitative case study was conducted in a private school in Lithuania. The integrated activities covered the content of Lithuanian language and science education, as well as general competences such as communication and digital competences. The activity was implemented in grade 4 with 12 pupils (8 boys and 4 girls). A semi-structured interview with the class teacher was also conducted. Results and conclusion. The data from the empirical study were analysed according to the following thematic clusters: interest in the activity, group work, searching for information in the encyclopaedia and in electronic sources, working with a robot when integrating the digital skills and the content of science education, descriptions of animals as a summarising and consolidating activity. The study found that if the educational process is well thought out, if the pupils are interested, they can work independently and support each other in explaining the content, while the teacher becomes an observer, a facilitator, and can concentrate on the pupils’ individual activities during this process. Well-designed tasks with the robot develop not only digital literacy skills, but also the reinforcement of subject content related to the use of concepts. Originality. The case study provides valuable insights into the implementation of an educational process that integrates general and subject-specific competences, and the detailed description of the activities shows which tasks support students’ independent learning.

On Sergey Khoruzhy’s topics

Writing about Sergey Khoruzhy, Mark Kharitonov describes him as a historian of literature, a thinker, a religious philosopher, and Joyce’s translator and interpreter. Kharitonov reminisces about encounters and conversations with Khoruzhy and ponders his writings and public talks. Also mentioned is Khoruzhy’s television documentary about the Russian religious philosopher L. Karsavin: a renowned specialist in medieval history and a poet, Karsavin embarked on a teaching career at the University of Lithuania, achieved perfect fluency in the Lithuanian language and went on to create philosophical terminology in Lithuanian. According to Khoruzhy, local scholars referred to Karsavin as a ‘Lithuanian Plato.’ On the same television program, Khoruzhy mentioned Kharitonov’s novel that had recently become popular, expressing his appreciation of the book’s fragmentary structure (Kharitonov’s ‘candy wrappers’). The article also examines synergetic anthropology, an important concept for Khoruzhy. His model, abandoning the idea of the essence of man, describes him instead as a system of energies. Particularly analysed are Khoruzhy’s thoughts on escaping to virtual reality, which, he argued, entailed an easy kind of demise not unlike euthanasia.

Projekcja znaczeń w wielojęzycznych korpusach wraz z przykładami jej zastosowania w badaniach korpusowych nad językiem polskim

The Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, as part of the CLARIN-PL consortium, is engaged in the creation of multilingual corpora of Slavic and Baltic languages. Some of the planned corpora have already been made available in the dSpace CLARIN-PL repository and in the KonText online browser. One of these corpora is the Polish–Lithuanian corpus, which in this article serves to illustrate the possibilities of applying CLARIN-PL corpora in research into the Polish language. The Lithuanian language has an archaic structure in comparison with Polish. Lexemes are characterised by a clearer structure. There are regular connections between grammatical form and meaning, with a small number of exceptions. These features of Lithuanian ensure that the projection of strongly formalised meanings onto Polish-language resources is a straightforward operation, leading to a significant narrowing of Polish-language resources, which can be analysed in the context of unequivocal interpretations based on Lithuanian meanings.

The Organisation of the Education of Returned Emigré Pupils in a Progymnasium

The article focuses on the issue of the education of returned emigré pupils. A progymnasium is part of the Lithuanian system, a general education institution (grades 1 to 8), an intermediate link between primary school and a gymnasium, which differs from basic schools in the higher quality of the activities and the created added value. A quantitative study was conducted: 106 progymnasium teachers working with returned emigré pupils took part. The research revealed that individual plans were made for returned emigré pupils in progymnasiums, and school education specialists (psychologists, social pedagogues, etc) assisted them during the adaptation period. For the teachers working with returned emigré pupils, the competences of recognising their diverse abilities and the management of (information) technology were especially important. Additional formal (Lithuanian language and literature, mathematics) and informal activities, the development of the digitalised content of education, cooperation, and the dissemination of best practices created the preconditions for the streamlining of the education of returned emigré pupils in progymnasiums.