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ACTA LINGUISTICA LITHUANICA
XLVIII (2003)
SUMMARIES
VESLAVA ČIŽIK
Case attraction in comparative constructions in Lithuanian
The paper deals with the case marking of nouns in reduced comparative clauses in
Lithuanian. A nominative, expected in a reduced comparative clause on the grounds of its
performing the syntactic function of subject in the corresponding full comparative clause (as in
Reikai gyventi kaip drugelis ‘One should live as a butterfly’ instead of Reikia gyventi (taip), kaip
gyvena drugelis ‘One should live as a butterfly lives’) is often optionally replaced with an oblique
case, as the noun copies the case marking of the matrix clause noun for which it acts as a standard
of comparison. This occurs (i) in adverbial comparative clauses introduced by (taip), kaip ‘so .. as’,
e.g., Reikia gyventi kaip drugeliuiDAT instead of Reikia gyventi kaip drugelisNOM, and (ii) in adjectival
comparative clauses of the type (toks), kaip ‘such ...as’, e.g., Malonu gauti tokias dovanas kaip
žaislusACC instead of Malonu gauti tokias dovanas kaip žaislaiNOM ‘It’s nice to get such gifts as toys’.
This case attraction appears to be restrained by two factors: (i) an animacy hierarchy (proper
names never undergo attraction, pronouns rarely do), and (ii) a case hierarchy (the nominative is
often replaced with an accusative, less frequently with a genitive or dative, and virtually never with
an instrumental).
BERND GLIWA
Nešinas, vedinas, tekinas
In Lithuanian grammar, such formations as nešinas, vedinas, tekinas are classified as
adjectives. In this article, numerous examples are adduced to show that their syntactic behaviour
differs from that of adjectives. They can be conjoined to adverbial participles in sentences like
Pasakė, kad mamą arkliu užmušė, tai visu keliu tekina ir rėkdama dui namo, Bėgčiau per dvarą
tekina, skųsčiaus močiutei verkdama. A distinguishing feature of the forms in -inas is their
occurrence with an instrumental object: Atsiranda šeimininkė, kibiru gėralo nešina. The
corresponding forms derived from intransitive verbs, e.g., tekinas, skubinas, bėginas, are used
interchangeably with adverbs and can assume adverbial endings, e.g., skubinai, tekinomis.
LIDIJA KAUKĖNIENĖ
The quantity of unstressed vowels in Standard Lithuanian
This paper presents the result of an investigation into the quantity of unstressed vowels in
Standard Lithuanian, using instrumental and statistic methods.
The results show that the quantity of unstressed vowels in Lithuanian is not the same as
that of stressed ones: the former undergo reduction.
Long vowels are longest under stress, somewhat shorter in post-tonal position and shortest
in pre-tonal position. In second pre-tonal position al long vowel is 2,5 times shorter than under
stress, in first pre-tonal position 2,1 times, in first and second post-tonal position 1,6 times.
Short unstressed vowels are not reduced as much as long ones. In second pre-tonal
position a short vowel is 1,2 times shorter than under stress, in first pre-tonal and first
post-tonalposition 1,1 times shorter. The second post-tonal vowel is not reduced. The ration
between stressed vowels and vowels in second post-tonal position is 1 : 1, which means that in the
latter position longer endings possibly receive non-phonological secondary stress.
Pre-tonal long and short vowels are shorter than post-tonal vowels in the same positions.
The second long pre-tonal vowel is shorter than the first one, and the second short post-tonal vowel
is longer than the first one.
The quantity of long ans short vowels was also compared in both stressed and unstressed
position. Short stressed vowels are 2,3 times shorter than long stressed ones, whereas pre-tonal
long vowels are only 1,1 times longer than short ones in the same positions. This means that in the
positions under consideration the quantity of long unstressed vowels does not differ from that of
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short ones. Post-tonal long vowels are 1,5 times longer than short ones. In these positions,
quantitative reduction is less marked.
ASTA KAZLAUSKIENĖ, KRISTINA VELIČKAITĖ
Observations on the rate of Lithuanian speech
The article presents the results of an investigation into the general rate of Lithuanian
speech. Few work has been done in this domain; the only comprehensive study is Girdenis &
Lakienė (1975).
The investigation is based on the rate of speech of eight individuals (four men and four
women, belonging to two age groups) living in Kaunas. The average age of the younger group was
27, that of the older group 55,5. Each respondent was asked to talk on any freely chosen topic for a
certain time (about 20 minutes). The overall amount of text produced by each of the respondents
did not exceed 36000 syllables. The average number of syllables per second (syll./sec.) is chosen
as an index of speech rate.
The data show that the average rate of the respondents’ free narration is 3,8±0,6 syll./sec.,
the confidence interval is 3,2÷4,3 syll./sec. Additional tests were performed with texts read aloud.
Two texts were read aloud by five different speakers. Preliminary results show that, on average,
Lithuanians produce 4,6 syllables per second when reading aloud.
Other indexes of speech rate are the number of words per minute and the number of
phonemes per second. The average rate of speech of the respondents in our investigation is 107
words per minute. The average Lithuanian syllable contains 2,4 phonemes, so that our respondents
pronounce an average number of 9 phonemes per second.
An attempt was made to establish how speech rate varies during narration. For this
purpose, each narrative was divided into four sections of 5 minutes each. No significant change in
speech rate was observed. It is possible that changes in speech rate are individual and depend on
the content of narration, which may be quicker or slower according to the topic. For this reason,
considerable changes in speech rate may be observed in individual speakers during the same
narration.
The average speech rate of women is 4±0,4 syll,/sec. (3,4÷4,5 syll./sec.), that of men
3,6±0,9 syll./sec. (2,2÷4,9 syll./sec.). Comparing the averages for men and women we see that in
the case of women (3,6; 3,8; 4,2; 4,3 syll./sec.) fluctuations in speech rate are less pronounced
than in the case of men (2,6; 3,3; 3,6; 4,8 syll./sec.). Statistically, the difference between the speech
rates of women and men is not significant: the calculated value of Student’s criterion is below the
critical value: t(6)0,910<t(0,95)1,943; the confidence intervals overlap (2,2÷4,9 syll./sec. for men;
3,4÷4,5 syll./sec. for women).
The average speech rate of the younger age group was 4,2±0,4 syll./sec.
(3,5÷4,9 syll./sec.), that of the older age group 3,3±0,5 syll./sec. (2,5÷4,2 syll./sec.). Such a
difference in rate is statistically significant: (t(6)2,567>t(0,95)1,943.
Four respondents who enjoyed higher education spoke faster (4,1±0,6 syll./sec.,
3,2÷5,1syll./sec.) than those with secondary education or a vocational training (3,4±0,5 syll./sec.,
2,6÷4,3 syll./sec.), but these results cannot be relied on because the three respondents who spoke
fastest were representatives of the younger generation, so that the difference in speech rate could
be due to age rather than education.
Speech rate seems to depend most of all on the personal qualities of people, as these are
the constant and least subject to change. The general rate of speech is determined by individual
character features and we may accordingly classify people as fast-speaking or slow-speaking. Rate
of speech is a complex phenomenon of language. Its parameters are conditioned by many linguistic
and non-linguistic factors at the same time (character, age, speech situation, etc.), which require a
more thorough investigation.
KRZYSZTOF MALESA
Some preliminary remarks on spatial distinctions in Lithuanian
The conceptualization of spatial relations in the Baltic languages has not been thoroughly
investigated until now. Earlier studies of Lithuanian spatial expressions have concentrated on their
morphological and syntactic features. Such formal approaches give no insight in the principles of
conceptualization of spatial relations, as they focus on surface realizations without touching upon
the cognitive mechanisms underlying the choice of specific grammatical structures.
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The basic aim of this article is to introduce a few fundamental notions that can be used for a
description of the system of spatial expressions in Lithuanian within a cognitive framework.
Attention is paid mainly to the spatial properties of objects as reflected in language.
The elements of a spatial scene are not equally prominent. Certain elements of a scene are
picked out to represent the whole scene, whereas others remain in the background. This process of
singling out the basic elements necessary for the description of a spatial scene is called
schematization. It consists in the selection of a reference object serving as a ‘ground’ which can be
used for the purpose of locating the ‘figure’. The principles underlying the selection of the Ground,
as well as the means of locating objects as determined by the geometrical properties of both
Ground and Figure, are discussed.
Two theories, developed by the American cognitive school, are presented. The are based on the
notion of ‘prototype’ and ‘ideal meaning’. These notions open up new horizons for the description of
spatial expressions in the Baltic languages.
ROLANDAS MIKULSKAS
The problem of the coverage of postverbs in the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language
It was suggested some time ago that in certain Northern and North Western Lithuanian
dialects the verb displays a ternary aspect opposition similar in its development to that of Latvian.
The essence of the ternary aspect system is that in addition to the imperfective and the perfective
aspects there is one more intermediate category for which the term ‘perficientive’ was proposed.
The perficientive is formed by means of certain desemanticized case forms of nouns, analogous in
their meaning and function to the prefixes of the perfective verb. For these, the term ‘postverb’ was
proposed. When used with verbs with the general meaning of ‘annihilation’, these postverbs
indicate that the action is coming to an end or is reaching a certain boundary. The most widespread
postverbs are žemė(n) (local variants į žemę, žemyn (žem?n), žemynais (žemynais)), lauka(n)
(local variants lauko(n), laukonais, lauk), šalin, viršuõ (local variants viršu, viršum, virš). The article
discusses the problem of the coverage of postverbs in dictionaries.
In the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language, such postverbs had to be classified in terms
of parts of speech, and provided with grammatical markers. This was not done in a consistent way.
Some are described as emphasizing particles, others as a special type of adverbs, still others are
not distinguished from spatial adverbs. Grammatical labelling should, of course, be as consistent as
possible. In the case of postverbs, the function of aspect marker should be given prominence. The
examples should be selected in such a way as to reflect the geographical expansion of the
phenomenon. It seems that the editors have not succeeded either in treating postverbs
homogeneously or to present the illustrative material in a concentrated way.
In most cases, postverbs do not formally differ from the corresponding adverbs or case
forms and stand apart from them only by their grammaticalization. As a result of semantic
bleaching, they have ceased to perform the function of spatial adverbials, so that it would be
inaccurate to characterize them as ‘adverbs’. The term ‘illatives’ would be more accurate in view of
the importance of the illative in the proces of formation of postverbs.
Historically, most postverbs are illatives. An analysis of žemė(n) and į žemę shows that the
starting point of the process of grammaticalization as a perficientive marker is the use of žemė in
the meaning ‘surface on which we walk or the ground on which we stand’. By virtue of this meaning,
žemė(n) and į žemę can express the boundary of a downward movement and hence also the
completion of an action. Verb phrases with these illatives or their adverbial analogues žemyn
(žemyn) and žemynais (žemynais) can be divided into three semantic groups. They describe
processes of decay, destruction or removal (separation). Rarely there is also an additional notion of
downward movement, in which case the forms under discussion can also be interpreted as spatial
adverbs. The meanings introduced by žemė(n), į žemę, žemyn etc. are almost purely aspectual.
Forms like laukan and šalin are often ambiguous, especially when used with verbs of horizontal
motion. This is because the nouns from which these forms are derived tend to have abstract
meaning. Generally conveying the notion of an outward direction of the action, these illatives are
more disposed to play the role of an adverb; they hardly express the notion of boundedness which
is central to perficientive meaning. It is not easy to single out the cases where these words are used
as postverbs. For the purpose of their grammatical labelling one must therefore rely on the
available information about the area of expansion of perficientive constructions. This area can be
established on the basis of the use of the most popular postverb, žemė(n) and its variants. In the
new edition of the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language, postverbs should be covered in separate
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entries, comprising both the synthetic illatives and their prepositional varieties with į and the
accusative.
RITA MILIŪNAITĖ
Types of evaluation of languages features in prescriptive linguistics
The aim of the article is to introduce a system of degrees of evaluation of language features
which, if applied in normative grammar, could enhance the consistency of prescriptive work and the
effectiveness of language recommendations. The degrees of evaluation reflect different types of
relationship between the language features involved and the codified norms of the standard
language. In assigning them, the features of these norms are taken into account, viz. variation,
stability, language change, functional and stylistic differentiation etc. The author discusses four
degrees of evaluation, defines their basic features and looks at how they work out in practice.
SILVIJA PAPAURĖLYTĖ
Some features of the concept of sadness in the Lithuanian language
Feelings are a domain of reality that is highly sensitive to people’s experience. In order to
formulate them, language generalizes individual experiences and establishes their common
features. In describing emotions, it is difficult to operate with clusters of semes. Cognitive grammar
operates with concepts comprising the whole information concerning a thing that is present in the
consciousness of all users of a language. The aim of the present paper is to reveal the
conceptualization and differentiation of the emotional state of ‘sadness’ in Lithuanian.
The analysis is based on texts from fictional literature and periodicals as well as on the
corpus compiled by the centre of computational linguistics of Vytautas Magnus University.
The lexicon of the emotions is situational. Words describing emotional concepts single out
the basic elements of a situation, viz. who experiences the emotional state, what is its cause, how
can the emotional state be defined, how is it expressed etc. We consider the following factors to be
important in describing the emotional states covered by the concept of ‘sadness’: subject, cause,
location, characteristics, expression, and consequences. The present paper focuses on one part of
the situational scenario connected with the emotional state of sadness, viz. the correlation between
emotional states and their causes.
The causes of an emotional state of sadness belong to two types: lack and loss. An
emotional state of the first type is caused by the absence of people, animals, moral values, activity
or other, less important things. Loss may be of two types: the loss of a person, animal, object or
moral value may be temporary, and return to a previous emotional state may be possible; or
complete and irrecoverable loss may be involved (a person’s death, the loss of moral values).
Emotional states connected with permanent or temporary loss show more differentiation.
More words are available to describe them, the choice depending on the nature of the lost object,
the type of loss and the possibility of recovery in the future. However, language tends to generalize
as well. The same word can name different emotional states with different causes.
LORETA SEMĖNIENĖ
Adjectival agreement and the problem of the neuter forms of Lithuanian adjectives
In this article, different approaches to the problem of the neuter forms of Lithuanian
adjectives are discussed and an attempt is made to define the principles underlying gender
agreement. Departing from the tradition of Lithuanian grammar, where agreement is viewed as one
of the types of syntactic relationship, the author considers agreement to be a purely formal
relationship between words. The notions of controller gender and target gender are introduced. For
the purpose of the description of gender agreement, substantivized adjectives, which function as
agreement controllers, are set apart from non-substantivized ones. The neuter forms of the former
are marked for animacy and opposed to animate masculine and feminine forms.
Non-substantivized adjectives can only be agreement targets. Their neuter forms agree with neuter
(inanimate) controllers (substantivized adjectives, pronouns etc.) and are also used as default
agreement forms.
ELENA VALIULYTĖ
On a hitherto unnoticed semantic function of the Lithuanian genitive
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With the transitive verbs gauti ‘get’ and duoti ‘give’ the genitive of certain nouns such as
dovana, lauktuvės ‘gift’ etc. can be used alongside the accusative object to denote the purpose of
the action, e.g., Gavau paveikslą dovanų ‘I was offered a picture as a gift’ (cf. Gavau paveikslą kaip
dovaną). This genitive of purpose can occupy several positions in the sentence; it can precede the
accusative object or follow it. In the former case, the sentence can be compared to one in which the
accusative is added epexegetically to a genitive object, cf. Gavau dovanų paveikslą ‘I was offered a
picture as a gift’ and Gavau dovanų – paveikslą ‘I was offered a gift, a picture’.
RAMUNĖ VASKELAITĖ
Types of syntactic relationship in Lithuanian nominal groups
The article opens with a discussion of the traditional treatment of syntactic dependency in
Lithuanian grammar. In traditional grammar, government (valdymas) and adjunction (šliejimas) are
distinguished on the basis of heterogeneous criteria: in some cases only morphosyntactic features
are taken into account, in other cases they are distinguished according to whether the dependent is
syntactically required by the head or not, though at the same time morphosyntactic criteria are also
taken into account. In this article it is pointed out that classifications based on the form of the
dependent are morphological rather than syntactic, and that for the purpose of describing syntactic
relationships the only relevant criterion is whether the dependent is syntactically required by the
head or not. Attempts to combine this criterion with morphosyntactic criteria in earlier Lithuanian
grammars have led to numerous and contradictions. In this article it is proposed that formal
(morphosyntactic) criteria should be disregarded in distinguishing complements from adjuncts.
Complements are dependents required by their heads, adjuncts are dependents not required by
their heads. These notions are used in decsribing the nominal groups of modern standard
Lithuanian.
An analysis of Lithuanian nominal groups, carried out from this angle, reveals the existence
of several types of heads and dependents. Complements are characteristically required by abstract
derivative nouns but not by nouns with a concrete meaning (whether derivative or primitive).
Semantically, complements comprise mainly objects, but also certain types of adverbials and
possessive modifiers, whereas adjuncts comprise adverbials, attributive words and infinitives of
purpose.
BOHUMIL VYKYPEEL
Some observations on the phonemic stock and its morphophonological classification
In the present paper an attempt is made to describe the Lithuanian expression plane (the
phonological system) according to the principles of glossematics. This description is then compared
with the morphophonological description of Lituanian proposed by Tomaš Hoskovec. On this basis
a few observations are made on the relationship between the glossematic description of the
expression plane of language and morphophonology.