KALBOS KULTŪRA
Summaries of articles, volume 82
LANGUAGE
Vitalija Maciejauskienė
ON ANOTHER HYPOTHETICAL ORIGIN
OF LITHUANIAN SURNAMES
The paper attempts to provide arguments for one more hypothetical claim concerning
the foreign origin and Slavic structure of some Lithuanian surnames. They include surnames
with the suffixes of the -sk- type and the suffixes -avičius, -evičius. Such surnames are
numerous; some of them are among the most frequent. They are not limited to particular
territories and are found throughout the country. They look universal and are also frequent in
Slavic languages (Byelorussian, Polish and Russian) outside Lithuania.
In Lithuanian anthroponymic research such surnames have been treated as resulting
from Slavic influence on Lithuanian names or as borrowings from Slavic languages.
However, it is also admitted that the surnames with the suffixes -avičius, -evičius might have
evolved rather naturally. In the 16th century and later due to a specific linguistic situation in
the Lithuanian State patronymics with such suffixes were quite frequent. Still such
circumstances of the evolution of the names do not seem sufficient; they fail to account for
the large number of such names in the Lithuanian onomastics and their highly frequent use.
The anthroponymic research into the 19th century names and surnames identified a
peculiarity of referring to people by their names and two surnames joined by the words arba,
kitaip (‘or’, ‘otherwise’), e.g. Jacobi Wadil alias Rutkowʃki, Maciey Wersocki alias Szykszna,
Thomas Pietkiewicz alias Smeledis. The analysis of the structure and origin of such pairs,
their identification with the present surnames, especially considering the historic and presentday data referring to the spread of personal names, helped establish which of the two
surnames were later preserved as an official surname.
The investigation has also contributed to formulating one more hypothetical claim
concerning the surnames of foreign origin with Slavic suffixes (-sk- type and -avičius,
-evičius). Such surnames might have artificially replaced Lithuanian surnames which had
already had a well-established Lithuanian structure (often they were also of Lithuanian
origin). This would be another, previously not identified, indication of the development of
Lithuanian surnames under the influence of Slavic languages.
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Pranas Kniūkšta
WHERE HAS THE SURNAME KNIŪKŠTA COME FROM?
The Dictionary of Lithuanian Surnames (Lietuvių pavardžių žodynas) suggests that the
surname Kniūkštà should be related to the adjective kniūkštas and is comparable to the
surname Kniūpštà made from the adjective kniūbsčias. Older sources suggest that Kniūkšta
might have originated from Kniūpšta. The Salantai church book of the 17th century does not
have a single entry for Kniūkšta; however, it has a patronymic Kniūpštaitis from the village of
Barzdžiai, which might indirectly refer to Kniūpšta residing in the same village. The surname
Kniūpšta was preserved until the beginning of the 19th century; its last entry was found in the
last decade of the 18th century in the birth register of the church book of Kalnalis.
The surname Kniūkšta was recorded in the census of Salantai parish in 1853. However,
it had not a single Kniūpšta; the latter surname also disappeared from the villages previously
mentioned in the church book of Kalnalis. This might suggest that Kniūkšta was not a new
surname but rather made from Kniūpšta. In Salantai parish in the 19th century the surname
Kniūpšta was most frequent in three villages: Barzdžiai, Erlėnai and Juodupėnai. In the
middle of the 20th century it was mostly found in a small area of Lowlanders (žemaičių)
between Salantai, Kretinga, Kuliai and Plungė; in the 20th century the surname spread to the
west of Lithuania and major cities of the country.
Marija Razmukaitė
ON SOME SUFFIXED OIKONYMS OF WESTERN LITHUANIA
The paper offers an overview of pluralia tantum oikonyms spread in Western Lithuania
and derived from personal names with the help of the diminutive suffixes -alis, -ytis, -ikas, ikis, -ulis, -uitis, -uižis, -utis, -užis. These are derivatives with the structural elements -aliai, yčiai, -ikai, -ikiai, -uliai, -uičiai, -uižiai, -učiai, -užiai. The oikonyms have been collected
, Skuõdas, Kretingà
Plùngė, Telšia
Lowlanders (žemaičių) and Jùrbarkas, Jõniškis and Šiauli
, or the area of Western
Highlanders (aukštaičių). The results of the investigation are rather tentative.
Rasuolė Vladarskienė
ON THE STRUCTURE OF TITLES OF REPORTS
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The paper discusses prepositional phrases used in the titles of reports in the context of
present-day tendencies of usage and provides recommendations. Publications offering
recommendations give reference to the genitive case as a major means of expressing the
object of report. Thus, report titles should first of all include genitival constructions.
Prepositional phrases could be used if the genitival construction is unsuitable for
semantic reasons. The phrase ataskaita dėl (‘report on’) can be used when the statistical data
is given together with its analysis, reasons for the problematic situation, difficulties, predicted
outcomes and other issues related to the existing situation. The phrase ataskaita apie (‘report
about/on’) can be used when other means of expression (like the genitival construction or the
phrase ataskaita dėl) are unsuitable for semantic reasons, are ambiguous or when the position
of the genitive is already taken.
Vincentas Drotvinas
YOU CANNOT DELETE A WORD IN AN IDIOM
The paper deals with Lithuanian idioms containing lexical borrowings. Idioms in which
Lithuanian words replace borrowings give rise to doublets. To maintain the stability of
idioms, borrowings should not be replaced with Lithuanian words.
Aušra Rimkutė
STANDARDISING RELIGIOUS TERMS
IN PASTOR JUOZAS LAUKAITIS’S
CATECHISM MINOR FOR CHILDREN
At the beginning of the 20th century Juozas Laukaitis (1873 – 1952) was among those
outstanding figures who cherished the Lithuanian church language and who was very much
concerned about standardising Lithuanian religious terms. He was chair of the so-called
Prayer Commission and one of the first to take care of the language of prayers and to promote
their Lithuanian version.
The paper aims at discussing the terms and their evolution in the three editions (1904,
1907 and 1914) of J. Laukaitis’s Catechism Minor for Children (Mažasis katekizmas
vaikeliams). The paper also aims at identifying principles and criteria of standardising
religious terms, evaluating amendments made in catechisms published almost one hundred
years ago in reference to standard Lithuanian.
From the three editions of the Catechism there were about 600 different one-stem
(almost one third of all terms) and compound religious terms, their synonyms and variants
collected. All editions contained some Lithuanian religious terms, e.g. Dievas (‘God’), duona
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(‘bread’), dvasia (‘spirit’), Kraujas (‘blood’), Kūnas (‘body’), našlė (‘widow’), Sūnus (‘son’),
vanduo (‘water’), velnias (‘devil’), žaltys (‘grass-snake’) etc., some borrowed terms which
had no equivalents at the time or their foreign origin might have been overlooked, e.g.
almužna (‘alms’), aniolas (‘angel’), arkaniolas (‘archangel’), čysčius (‘purgatory’), čystata
(‘chastity’), dūšia (‘soul’), grabas (‘coffin’), griešnas (‘sinful’), karunka (‘canticle’), pakūta
(‘repentance’), šliūbas (‘wedding’), veselija (‘marriage’) etc. Most terms were used
synonymously, e.g. auka – apiera (‘offering’), išpažintis – spaviednis (‘confession’),
nusidėjimas or nuodėmė – griekas (‘sin’), bausmė – kora (‘punishment’), malonė – mylista
(‘mercy’), mirtis – smertis (death’), paslaptis – tajemnyčia (‘secret’), pragaras – pekla
(‘hell’), pasaulis – svietas (‘world’), teismas – sūdas (‘trial’), viltis – nodieja (‘hope’) etc.
(preference was usually given to the Lithuanian term).
The standardisation of religious terms by J. Laukaitis could be treated as the most
general approach to standardising the terms of the field. Spelling and syntactic varieties of the
terms as well as their synonyms found in the three editions of the Catechism Minor for
Children suggest that religious terms were still rather inconsistent.
Artūras Judžentis
ON REASON CLAUSES WITH THE CONJUNCTION JOG
The conjunction jog connects reason clauses frequently used in old Lithuanian writings
as well as in present-day publicist, belles-lettres and free style Lithuanian; however, new
descriptive, standardising and pedagogical grammars fail to mention them. The paper deals
with older and modern usage of the above clauses, offers an overview of their research and
development of codification. The paper suggests that the above clauses should be treated as
appropriate for standard Lithuanian; arguments for the claim are provided.
Jolanta Zabarskaitė
INTERJECTIONS IN LANGUAGE AND SPEECH
Interjections make up a part of speech which is much more complex and varied than it
looks at first sight. Without limiting to their formal structure and considering similar or
equivalent functions and usage, the part of speech might include more linguistic phenomena
than are usually attributed to interjections in traditional grammars.
In dialects interjections are not so numerous. They are mostly used in re/telling a story,
i.e. in telling about the past, in fairy-tales etc.
Research into the usage of interjections, their motivation and expression of national
identity could promote their more frequent usage. This is particularly relevant today, when we
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can witness the evolvement of the language of information technologies. To identify the
position of interjections in the system of language, to clearly define their role in the lexicon,
to include them in dictionaries and define in the databases and annotated corpora, further
detailed and consistent research into their usage would be indispensable. Such research could
also contribute to ethno-linguistic investigation.
Loreta Vaicekauskienė
POST-MODERN BILINGUALISM:
NATIONAL LANGUAGES AND ENGLISH IN ADVERTISING
The paper offers an overview of research into advertising and shows that code-switching
and code-mixing with English on the world market is gradually becoming a norm. The
pressure is so firm that possible violations of the requirements of official, pure and wellformed language or even changing the understanding of language acceptable for public use do
not seem to pose any threat.
Nowadays it is becoming more and more difficult to account for the ongoing changes
using such concepts of modern discourse as “protection against the domain loss”; rather,
reference should be made to the framework of the criticism of post-modern perception of
reality that linguistic reality tends to change together with the changing cultural identity.
Presently, the identity of a language user should not be related merely with ethnic, territorial
or national boundaries: English has become accessible to all and some social groups use it as
a resource and as a means of expression. It is such identity of a plurilingual user and the
freedom of his/her choice to use as many codes as necessary that can help explain why most
domains, including advertising, are becoming mixed. In the texts focusing on language policy
and standardising the Lithuanian language such opportunities have never been discussed.
Regina Koženiauskienė
THE ROLE OF COLLOQUIAL AND JARGON WORDS
IN PUBLIC JOURNALISTIC DISCOURSE
The paper discusses colloquial and jargon words used by a famous journalist in political
commentaries. It also attempts to identify functions of dispreferred words in public discourse
and whether and to what extent they are compatible with standard Lithuanian usage and the
ethics of journalists.
The author is usually able to distance himself from colloquial and jargon words; he
speaks like a stranger, from aside, and gives references to well-known political figures by
using elements of their speech (e. g. blin, dzin, išdūrė, tūpas, vsio zakonno). He also adds
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some such words and expressions of his own accord, e. g.: otkatininkai, krūtas, mafiozų
šestiorka, keturių banda, apmauti, susimauti, perspjauti, užkalti, vagilka and some other
pejorative words and phrases referring to limited intellectual ability of politicians, e.g.:
svaičioti, vapėti, nuo bėgių nušokęs plumprotis, nebrendyla, debiliškai, kietakaktiškai. The
journalist’s lexicon also contains some vivid idioms, like dėti skersą, kabinti makaronus,
duoti stogą or colloquial expressions: į cypę įkišti, aplink pirštą apvynioti, špyga taukuota.
The journalist admits that in many cases a vivid word or expression is more relevant
than a serious political argument. However, the paper focuses on the evaluation of the
behaviour and individual actions of politicians expressed by colloquial and jargon words and
phrases rather than their vividness or stylistic function. The paper expresses doubts as to the
ethical aspects of such vocabulary and its morally negative impact on the society.
Giedrius Tamaševičius
LANGUAGE SIMPLIFICATION TENDENCIES
IN PUBLIC SPACE
During the last years on numerous occasions it has been claimed that language used in
public space in Lithuania undergoes simplification. Journalists and politicians make numerous
language and style errors, since they lack language competence and understanding of
language norms. However, so far language specialists have failed to discuss reasons, why
politicians and political analysts, who generally have a good command of the Lithuanian
language, suddenly turn to spoken and colloquial style whenever exposed to public view. In
linguistic literature this is explained by the theory of sociolinguistic accommodation
investigating ways of adjusting to the audience and the term of jargonisation defining the
impact of social transformation on the language. The privatisation of public space exerts
influence on the language of mass-media and politicians; a tendency towards colloquialisation
has been noticed.
The language of public life has been very little researched so far; thus the above claims
could only be proved or disproved after a thorough investigation into the public spoken
language of journalists and politicians.
LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY
Rita Miliūnaitė
ATTITUDES OF INTERNET COMMENTATORS
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TOWARDS THE SUPERVISION OF THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE
The paper deals with the attitudes of internet commentators towards the supervision of
the Lithuanian language. Reference is made to a discussion launched on the internet in April
2009 on the initiative of the Commission of the State Lithuanian Language that the new draft
law on the state Lithuanian language should include a provision that the language of the
information placed on the internet and public space in general should be in accordance with
the requirements of standard Lithuanian.
The researched commentaries have shown that people differ in their attitudes towards
the importance of language supervision and control of different areas of language usage.
Some claim that any intrusion into language is unacceptable; others admit that some areas of
language usage should be controlled on a national level. The majority of commentary writers
are not indifferent towards the processes going on in contemporary Lithuanian and current
language policy; they also raise various issues on language supervision and expect that
language supervision institutions should be more actively involved in the process.
The commentaries usually refer to the following areas of language usage (official and
free) which require supervision and control (given in the order of importance):
1) mass media (television and radio programmes, TV films, news portals on the web
and the press);
2) public discourse of politicians (language of politicians and other representatives of
public institutions);
3) public information and services (public notices, names of companies, company
websites);
4) education (kindergartens and schools);
5) literature (especially translations);
6) private websites (e.g. blogs) and internet commentaries.
The society most often relates its expectations of a well-formed and grammatically
correct language with spoken, printed and internet mass media. The public information
(public notices, names of companies) and the language of politicians are treated as requiring
most control.
The supervision of public speeches on the internet, not included in the Law on State
Lithuanian Language of 1995, is treated in different ways. Many people approve of the idea
that the language of news portals should be more strictly supervised. However, opinions differ
as to the supervision of commentaries and particularly their regulation by fines. Some agree
that stricter control should be imposed on the language of commentaries, especially spelling
and swear words; some authors treat such measures as an attack on human rights.
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Before taking measures of language policy and discussing them in public, it would be
important to consider the variety of approaches and their arguments. This would help avoid
misunderstandings and the tension arising between linguists and the society at large.
Laima Nevinskaitė
THREATS TO LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE SUPERVISION:
A JOURNALISTIC APPROACH
The paper analyses the attitude of journalists as a group of language users towards
threats to language and a need to supervise it. The object of investigation has been chosen due
to the fact that threats to language are often given as grounds for language policy. The
analysis of the guidelines of the state language policy in Lithuania has shown that insecurity
about the preservation of language and identity is given as an important aspect of the situation
in language policy.
Within the project Baltic Sociolinguistics (BalSoc): linguistic awareness and orientation
in Lithuania and Latvia (Institute of the Lithuanian Language, supported by the Lithuanian
State Science and Studies Foundation) there were 23 interviews with journalists collected.
Most journalists are of the opinion that language is not exposed to any threats since the
present situation has resulted from the natural language development, any evils are a matter of
fashion and tend to pass, the preservation of language is more related to the preservation of
the nation rather than language change; some consider the tough language regulation as a
major threat.
Some journalists tend to partially support language supervision; however, the majority
of them are in favour of a different approach to it. Current language policy is mostly criticised
for inappropriate measures: the respondents would prefer an educational approach, more
attractive forms to the existing control. The language policy, according to them, should be
more flexible and more usage-oriented.
Summarising the approaches of the respondents to the above issues, there has been a
remarkable consistency noticed: those who see threats to language also, at least partially,
approve of its supervision; those who disprove of its supervision do not see any threats. A
large group of the respondents in favour of the language supervision have pointed out that
they do not see threats. Therefore, the awareness of language threats works as a factor for
language supervision; on the other hand, the approval of language supervision is not
necessarily based solely on the threats. Such conclusions might be relevant for discussing
language policy in target groups. The conclusions are indicative that to encourage language
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users to support the currently implemented language policy, the (sole) factor of threats and
language security is insufficient.
Linda Lauze
FUNCTIONS AND SPHERES OF USE
OF LATVIAN LANGUAGE VARIETIES:
RADIO AND TELEVISION JOURNALISTS’ OPINION
The aim of the present paper is to characterize those functions and spheres of Latvian
language variety uses that can be inferred from interviews with radio and television
journalists. The recorded interviews on which the study is based were done with 24 Latvian
radio and television journalists as well as programme leaders. It is part of the results of the
project Baltic Sociolinguistics (BalSoc): Linguistic Awareness and Orientation in Lithuania
and Latvia (project leader Dr. Loreta Vaicekauskiene) submitted to the Lithuanian State
Science and Studies Foundation by the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. The face-to-face
standardized interviews (length – 883 min) consisted of 20 questions about the following
issues: language features, language prestige, journalists’ linguistic and communicative
competence, language policy and language situation in Latvia as well as data about the
respondents and programmes hosted by them. The sample was 24 male, 32–48 year old
representatives of both national and commercial audio-visual media. After long discussions
and preliminary research during the project we consider representatives of this social group
being typical radio and television journalists and programme leaders.
The present paper deals with radio and television journalists’ opinion about functions
and spheres of use of the literary language, colloquial speech, slang and sub-dialects not only
in audio-visual media but also in other areas of life. In the interviews, speaking about Latvian
language varieties journalists and programme leaders also expressed their opinions referring
to several important language functions, namely, the communicative, referential, phatic,
emotive, appellative and esthetic function. We should note that there was no direct question
about language functions in the interviews.
Though colloquial speech has considerable impact on language use in public space, the
interview results show that the position of the Latvian literary language is sound. The
interviewed representatives of audio-visual media do not speak about all language functions
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reflected in journalese however they are aware of the main functions and the spheres of use of
all Latvian language varieties. In further research it would be necessary to analyze the speech
behavior of the respondents while developing broadcasts on radio or television.
Anda Blūmane
COMPETITION BETWEEN PLURAL AND SINGULAR FORMS
OF ADDRESS IN PUBLIC SPOKEN USAGE
The address plays a significant role in the communication of every person. Likewise,
the communication between students, teachers and the school administration is unimaginable
without using different address forms. Their successful choice influences further
communication and mutual understanding. The school as the environment for research is
interesting because this is a place where ancient language traditions merge with innovations.
The research is based on a questionnaire responded to by 718 students, 125 teachers
and 48 school principals. The majority of the surveyed students (562) live in cities and towns,
only 153 live in the country. The students’ questionnaires were divided into two groups
according to their age: 10–14 and 15–19.
When analyzing ways and models of addressing, it is necessary to define what the
address in sociolinguistics means. The term address forms is used in a wider sense in
sociolinguistics than in traditional grammar. By it sociolinguists understand not only a noun
in vocative, but also the pronominal address and word combinations with a person’s title, first
name or surname.
In Latvian course-books on linguistics the address model is mainly connected with a
noun or a word used in the sense of a noun. This differs from the address model used by the
greatest part of society in everyday oral communication. Traditional grammar does not deal
with the modifications of nicknames, first names or surnames or the pronominal address
forms tu, jūs (thou, you). In grammar analysis the address system is a limited body of
familiar variants. The body of address variants dealt with in sociolinguistics differs from the
one dealt with in school grammar books. The alternative approach includes the role of social
factors in the choice of modes of addressing, which vary depending on age, gender, status and
other factors.
Both interdependence and the lack of it, symmetry or asymmetry are important criteria
for analyzing the address in communication. Address forms in school between students and
teachers are mainly formal which is determined by the etiquette norms accepted in society (tu,
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jūs relations, skolotāj (teacher)+ surname and similar forms). In the communication among
students, and in their communication with teachers there may be informal deviations.
For the greatest part in the school nominal and pronominal address forms are used,
like the first name, a nickname, an associative nickname which is a phonetic modification of
the first name or surname, a contracted form of the first name or surname, the use of the
surname alone (which is a very popular address form among 15– 19 year olds), the use of the
first name and patronymic, a diminutive form of the first name and surname, an address
inversion (meit, dēls (daughter, son)), combined address forms – an interjection+ the address,
kolēģīt+ Tu (colleague + thou), kolēģīt+ Jūs (you), draugs (friend)+ tu, Jūs+ first name,
skolotāj(teacher)+ first name, skolotāj+ surname, direktor (principal)+ surname, direktor+
first name and others.
The choice of the address forms used by young people is freer and open to the
influence of other cultures. In the communication between teachers and students the address
forms used are for the greater part asymmetric expressing distance and respect towards the
teacher. The usage of symmetric forms in the communication between a student, a teacher and
the school principal point to the teachers’ openness to new tendencies in the language and
education.
Correlation rules are realized both on the vertical and the horizontal level. The vertical
level becomes apparent in the operation of the principles of power, the horizontal one – in
cooperative ties. The vertical dimension realizes itself between a student and a teacher, a
student and the school principal, a teacher and the principal, the horizontal dimension –
between a student and a student, a teacher and a teacher. The address model existing between
a student and a teacher is mainly asymmetric. With students growing up, the use of
reciprocally symmetric forms grows, too. 19% of the surveyed students address their teachers
using their first name or the address form consisting of the word skolotāj (teacher) + the first
name. Asymmetric address forms exist between younger and older colleagues.
Mainly asymmetric address forms exist between a teacher and the school principal.
Teachers address their principal by address forms like Jūs, first name, Tu, whereas principals
address teachers by their first name, jūs, tu.
Jurgita Girčienė
COMPETITION BETWEEN PLURAL AND SINGULAR FORMS
OF ADDRESS IN PUBLIC SPOKEN USAGE
A quantitative analysis of television talk shows representing public usage and
broadcasted between 26 January 2009 and 11 March 2009 has identified a marked preference
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for the polite form of address, which is usual in this area of usage: different addressors
referred to 248 different addressees by the polite plural form jūs and only to 43 different
addressees by the less polite singular tu. A qualitative analysis has identified differences
between programmes dealing with public issues (PPI) and programmes focusing on
entertainment and/or personal issues (PEI).
PPIs are related to public official usage and therefore consistently use plural forms of
address which help maintain social distance. PEI, in their turn, are mostly related to freer
public usage, hence singular forms of address which help maintain friendly relationships
compete with plural forms of address. Both of them are equally popular (jūs found in 57
instances; tu—in 42 instances). A different character of PPIs and PEIs determines differences
in the choice of their participants and in addition to the previously discussed aspects of
official and free usage might also influence the choice of the forms of address.
The main socio-linguistic factors determining the choice of the forms of address in PPIs
include the age of the addressor and the addressee, closeness between them, social roles
which might be influenced by education and social status. The plural form in PPIs is mostly
used when addressing older, more respectable participants, often performing the roles of
decision takers or experts. The singular form is preferred by moderators, used in reference to
peers, younger interlocutors or acquaintances. It should be noted that PPI moderators
attempting to combine public and private sometimes have to cope with rather tough
situations, for example, by linguistic means, including polite forms of address, they have to
create a friendly environment and show respect to their guests and the audience.
Loreta Vaicekauskienė, Vaida Švežaitė
LANGUAGE ERRORS AND LINGUISTIC SELF-CONFIDENCE:
A SOCIOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH INTO LINGUISTIC ATTITUDES
The paper introduces the results of a research conducted in 2009 and based on
questionnaires collected from 200 respondents of lower than higher education (secondary and
specialised) in the age group of 18-60 years. The respondents were from three major cities of
Lithuania and their neighbourhood: Vilnius, Kaunas and Šiauliai. The investigation was
aimed at identifying how the concept of well-formed language and how correcting language
errors influenced the respondents’ linguistic self-confidence. Differently from traditional
studies focusing on the norm, the present investigation presupposes that for ordinary language
users, well-formed language is not confined to grammatically correct language and that
linguistic self-confidence should be determined by other factors not limited to the knowledge
of language rules.
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The results of the investigation have shown that the representatives of the above social
group give a fairly high evaluation to their own language skills, especially speaking, and a
well-formed language for them is fluent, free language which might be grammatically
acceptable but could also be ungrammatical. At the same time, it can be seen that linguistic
self-confidence might be reduced by language errors which are corrected: the respondents
whose language was corrected in situations with an asymmetric distribution of power (e.g. the
corrections were made by teachers), expressed less positive attitudes towards their own skills.
The conclusion is supported by preliminary data obtained from television and radio journalists
of Lithuania.
Ala Lichačiova
THE CONCEPT OF NATIVE LANGUAGE
FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF RUSSIANS OF LITHUANIA
AND NATIVE SPEAKERS OF RUSSIAN
The paper discusses definitions of the concept native language and different national
concepts of the notion concerned with one’s mother tongue as well as its ambiguity arising in
different research areas. The paper also includes some responses and reflections on a native
language provided by Russian language speakers of Lithuania; the data has been extracted
from the survey recently conducted in Lithuania. These reflections could be treated as naïve
definitions of the above notion. Further in the paper, the key factors determining the
respondents’ definitions of the native language are given. The spreading binary character of
the category is also taken into consideration: more frequently, alongside one native language
(of an early, pre-school period of life), there emerges another language (other than the one
spoken at home, language of instruction), which is closely related to human cognition. The
latter language becomes an individual’s second native language. The results of the survey
have shown that the opposition between ‘own’ and ‘other’ language often characteristic of a
homogenous monolingual society in the understanding of Russian speakers of Lithuania is
replaced by two equally important ‘own’ halves.
Daiva Aliūkaitė, Erika Merkytė
A SOCIOLINGUISTIC INVESTIGATION
OF GRAMMATICAL WELL-FORMEDNESS OF DIALECTAL CODES
The concept of grammatical well-formedness is concerned with standard language.
Dialects are spontaneous systems, they show the development of a language and usage
peculiarities. Any dialect might adopt elements from foreign systems; however, they do not
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become ungrammatical. It can thus be claimed that the criterion of grammatical wellformedness is in principle unsuitable for dialects. However, the experience of researchers
from other countries has shown that evaluating dialectal codes in terms of grammatical wellformedness in the framework of perceptive dialectology is usual practice.
The present investigation focuses on the grammatical well-formedness of dialectal
codes. Considering the data of perceptive research, the paper aims at defining the wellformedness of dialectal codes from the user’s/receiver’s (evaluator’s) point of view rather
than the researcher’s. The concluding remarks on the well-formedness of dialectal codes are
based on a research conducted in October-December of 2008 in the districts of Kaunas and
Šakiai and focusing on the perception and evaluation of dialectal speech by school-students in
their 9-12 year at school (aged 14-18). The research materials covered a corpus of 6 textstimuli and a questionnaire; both were prepared in accordance with the requirements of
perceptive dialectology.
To conclude, young respondents adhere to a certain prototype of a well-formed
expression. For them, well-formedness is primarily concerned with standard language.
However, in this context a natural question could arise: is well-formedness related with the
school students’ actual experience or confined to the knowledge received at school that
language is a well-formed system and that it serves (or can serve) as a reference to evaluate
another expression? Since dialects are usually discussed in the framework of general
requirements applicable to standard language, they are usually treated as ungrammatical
rather than grammatical.
A major factor determining the well-formedness of the dialectal code is its affinity to
standard language: the more similar the dialectal code is to standard language, the more
grammatical it is. Young respondents consider the well-formedness as a major factor of
communicative success: if the text is difficult to understand, it is also more or less
ungrammatical.
Differing evaluation of the dialectal codes of Highlanders (aukštaičių) and Lowlanders
(žemaičių) provides basis for further research that dialectal codes of Highlanders are treated
as more grammatical than Lowlanders.
Gintarė Žalkauskaitė
LITHUANIAN CHARACTERS IN ELECTRONIC MAIL
The paper introduces the results of a survey on using Lithuanian characters in electronic
mail. They have helped define the existing situation, attitudes of educated people (who have
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completed higher education studies or their major part) towards (not) writing Lithuanian
characters in electronic mail.
Habits of writing Lithuanian characters vary. As can be seen from the survey results, for
most people (not) writing Lithuanian characters in their electronic mail depends on the nature
of the letter, the addressee and computer programmes. The main reasons for not writing
Lithuanian characters so far have been still concerned with technical problems and
insufficient information provided to the society on computers and the internet. Thus
responsible institutions ought to give more attention to this issue.
The respondents have also expressed rather contradictory attitudes towards using
Lithuanian characters on the internet. Most adhere to the opinion that writing without
Lithuanian characters does not cause difficulties in text comprehension; however, many
respondents have expressed rather negative attitudes to such writing and pointed out its
negative impact on literacy and language.
DISCUSSION
Laima Kalėdienė
PUBLIC OPINION AND LANGUAGE POLICY
The paper sets out to examine if the present language policy responds to the society’s
needs. A conclusion is made that presently Lithuania has no general policy of all languages
used in the country; it only has a certain attitude formed towards the state Lithuanian language
and legal basis established for the state Lithuanian language. Any other language can adopt
some parts of the laws or decrees of the Government. As shown by the results of a
representative sociolinguistic research Language usage and national identity in the cities and
towns of Lithuania (Cities and languages), the situation does not respond to the needs of the
society and the changing life.
Presently, issues of using and teaching English are of special importance. A search for a
better job determines that the society manifests an increased need to learn English; however,
there is neither adequate plan of measures to be implemented nor resources; there are no
qualified specialists either. The society’s request that bilingual learning/teaching should be
started at secondary schools has been rather unexpected.
Ineta Dabašinskienė, Raminta Garuckaitė
EARLY FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: OPEN QUESTIONS
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Social and economic changes exert influence on the language of children and adults as
well as its development. A deteriorating language urges to seek reasons and raise new
questions: when and how children should start learning a foreign language, which factors
should be taken into consideration to achieve better results, and what impact a foreign
language has on one’s native tongue. Most apprehensions on early foreign language
teaching/learning are concerned with its negative influence on one’s mother tongue. In
Lithuania there has been hardly any research done; research conducted in other countries has
not confirmed any of the apprehensions. The negative impact on one’s native language can
only be discussed in reference to the language loss and deterioration noticed in the language
of immigrant groups who have lived in a foreign country for a longer time. On the other hand,
there are numerous advantages of the early language teaching/learning: acquisition of values,
development of tolerance and culture, acquisition of general skills concerned with cognition
and thinking, memory and attention. The research has shown that foreign language learners
tend to acquire more linguistic competences than those who only know their native language.
It is important that the advantage is also seen in the better results of the native language
learning, for example, in the usage of complex sentences or better reading skills. Moreover, a
positive effect in the opposite direction has also been noticed when one’s mother tongue helps
develop foreign language competences, since there appears a possibility to compare two
different language systems.
Studies of foreign researchers help find answers to all questions raised in the paper,
because in Lithuania there is an obvious gap in the research on early language acquisition.
Specialists of Vytautas Magnus University together with their colleagues from Croatia and
Italy are currently working on a project aimed at filling in the gap and possibly providing
answers to the key questions in the area.
Stefano M. Lanza
ON THREE BORROWINGS FROM ITALIAN CUISINE
The paper discusses three Italian borrowings which have recently become very popular
in Lithuania; they refer to the dishes calzone, carpaccio and tiramisù. On the basis of
onomasiologic research and the criteria adopted for standardising borrowings, each of the
above borrowings is analysed from several points of view: language history, semantics,
morphological structure, usage and relation with the Lithuanian language system.
When adapting the borrowing, it should be decided which is better: a morphologically
and phonetically adapted (to Lithuanian) unit or a Lithuanian lexical unit. It is generally held
that to refer to foreign realia, the adapted variant is more suitable than the native equivalent.
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Moreover, the words like calzone, carpaccio and tiramisu usually spread in language like
borrowings, and the users take efforts to grammatically adapt them (however, a large variety
of forms has been noticed).
When the actual usage does not violate the rules of the language system, it should be
supported. After the analysis of each of the three words, the following forms have been
suggested for use: kalcònė (2nd accentuation pattern, feminine gender), karpãčio (uninflected,
masculine gender) and tiramisù (uninflected, masculine gender).
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