Search

THE LANGUAGE OF MAŽVYDAS' WRITINGSSummaryThe native dialect of Martynas Mažvydas — the author of the first Lithuanian printed book—has not yet been established. Some investigators (A. Schleicher, V. Grinaveckis) have con­sidered him to be born in the region of Klaipėda or generally in the Dukedom of Prussia (P. Pakarklis), other scholars (K. Būga, Chr. S. Stang, J. Senkus) considered him to have come from the north-western part of the Samogitian dialect area, still others (A. Salys) — from the south-eastern part of that dialect area. However, in their investigations they all confined themselves solely to the linguistic analysis of the first Lithuanian book — Mažvydas' Catechism of 1547, while his other writings were almost totally ignored.The author of the present paper conducted a linguistic research of all Mažvydas' writings, including a better copy of the Catechism of 1547, obtained from the M. Gorky Library of Odessa and at the present time preserved at the Vilnius University Library. Dialect features of the writings were compared in great detail to the corresponding peculiarities of the present-day Lithuanian dialects and in the first place to those of the Samogitian dialects.The conclusions of the study were presented in the article published in parts in Baltistica, vols. XIII, 2, XIV, 1 — 2 and XV, 1. The following are the main conclusions of the study.Mažvydas' native dialect is to be localized in the south-western part of Southern Samogitian area; cf. the map in Baltistica XIII, 2, p. 369.The High Lithuanian dialectal characteristics appeared in the first Lithuanian book not due to Mažvydas' conscious efforts to conform to High Lithuanian (as previously many scholars were apt to assume) but owing to his being born in a dialectally mixed family: his father must have been a Samogitian, whereas his mother was a western High Lithuanian, a speaker of its northern subdialect. The analysis of Mažvydas' early writings (Baltistica XIV, 2) indicates that their dialectal features coincide with those of the writings of Vilentas who was his cousin. Later living in the Dukedom of Prussia, Mažvydas tried to adjust himself to the local West High Lithuanian dia­lect — more precisely to the dialect of Ragainė which did not differ much from Vilentas' native dialect.The interpretation of the sounds and forms of Mažvydas' works is closely connected with the establishment of his native dialect. The sequels of the article in Baltistica, XIV, 2 and XV, 1 deal with the analysis of the major phonetic, grammatical and lexical characteristics of Mažvydas' native dialect arid the elucidation of their developments in the period of over 400 years.

ON THE PROBLEM OF LITHUANIAN-BYELORUSSIAN LEXICAL CONTACTSSummaryThis paper deals with some translation loans in Byelorussian from Lithuanian, namely, ten semantic loans (the type of blr. адбiты “enclosed, fenced” atmùšti “to enclose, to fence”; blr. адбiцца “coire” atsimùšti “to mate”; blr. каза́ “blemish, flaw” ožỹs, ožkà; blr. сярэ́дзiна “waist” < lith. pusiáujas etc.), eigt word-building loans (the type of blr. абiя́кi < lith. apmuštìniai (klumpės) “kind of wooden boots”; blr. акíдацца < lith. apsimèsti “to slip on”; blr. еы́стрыгаць < lith. iškir̃pti “to cut out”; blr. приты́ка priẽkaištas “reproach” etc.) and three cases of loans of morphological formant (blr. бураке́ “borshch” < lith. burókai; blr. вайлакí< “kind of felt boots, valenki” < lith. veĩlokai; blr. кру́пы “groats” < lith. kruõ­pos). The author believes the translation loans can be considered as an essential linguistic argument in favour of the hypothesis about the great role of the Baltic substratum in forming Byelorussian dialects.

LITH. čiùtnas “CLEAN, NEAT, TIDY...”, taũsti (-čia) “TO LONG, TO BE SAD, TO GRIEVE” AND THEIR COGNATESSummaryThe author argues in the paper that the lexemes čiùtnas, čiutnùs “clean, neat, tidy; frisky, agile, swift”, čiutlùs “clean, neat, tidy”, čiutė́ti (čiùta) “lie in bed, drowse, slumber”, čiūtė́ti (čiū̃ti) “sit, lie motionlessly, hide”, čiūtinti “look after carefully, spoil”, tùtinti “spoil (by too much ten­derness)”, tuténti “look after (a patient); wrap up, envelop, dress”, tautė́ti (-ė́ja) “look after, take care”, taũsti (-čia) “long, be sad, grieve”, (-sta) “grow thin, weaker, feeble, be hard-up, be in distress, want; faint, swoon, be dizzy”, пи-taũsti (-sta, -čia) “forget one's family, home, break oneself of relatives, fall out, shim”, tautà “gens, nation” (and its correspondings in other IE languages), čiū́tys “a large number”, čiū̃tė “cone”, tūta “work, misery”, Latv. tũte “energy, power, strength”, tūtars “a small heap, pile of corn, hayrick, haystack”, tutinât “wrap up, envelop, dress” etc. might be cognate and belong to the IE root *te(ǝ) — “swell, distend”.

ON THE ETYMOLOGICAL IDENTIFICATION OF LITH. kúopa AND kaũpas SummaryThe paper deals with an etymological analysis of Lith. kúopa „crowd, throng, multitude; heap, pile etc.”, Latv. kuõpa „heap, pile; crowd etc.” and Lith. kaũpas „heap, pile”, which are supposed to stem from one and the same root. A thorough examination of these examples shows that they most likely belong to quite different roots from the etymological point of view, thus there is no basis to assume an apophony uo : au in Baltic. The vocalism uo of Lith. kúopa, Latv. kuõpa derived from Baltic ō represents e / o apophonic series. Lith. kúopa, Latv. kuõpa may be etymologically identified with the verbs Lith. kuõpti „clean; harvest, gather in; snatch, seize, grasp, grab, plunder”, Latv. kùopt „clean; apply, wait etc.”. The last two are the morphonological con­tinuants of the Baltic root *kep- (or *kap-) „take, snatch, seize, grasp” represented by Lith. kė̃p­ti, Latv. ķept, ķêpît, Lith. kàptelėti, kàpterti, kàpalioti, kapaliúoti, kópti. The vocalism au of Lith. kaũpas belongs to и apophonic series. Lith. kaũpas, OPr. Caupe- (in the river name Caupeaps) may be etymologically identified with the verb kaũpti „hill, earth up, hoe” (which in all probabi­lity is a denominative) and derived from the Baltic root *keu-p-/*ku-p- „bend, turn out(wards), become convex (while growing sour, thriving, getting in heap)” which is represented in Lith. kùpti, kupė́ti, Latv. kupt, kupêt, Lith. prisi-kiaupti, Latv. ķaũpêtiês.

CONCERNING SAMOGITIAN jeĩnis SummaryThe pronoun jeĩnis, -ė ʽhe, she’, noticed by V. Grinaveckis in a Samogitian dialect of Lithu­anian, is treated as an emphatic pronoun by the author of this paper. The pronoun originated on the basis of the epenthetic forms Acc. Sg. fem. jeĩnę and Instr. Sg. fem. jéine, used side by side with the regular dialect jeñję, jénje (= Standard Lith. Ją̃ją, ją́ja). The Nom. Sg. fem. jeĩnė (next to jeĩnę : jéine) appeared according to the pattern kárvė : karvę : kárve; the Nom. Sg. masc. jeĩnis arose (next to jeĩnė) according to the pattern medìnis : medìnė.

This paper discusses the variety of languages and the level of language competence required in job advertisements in Lithuania. The research is based on the data collected from on-line and hard-copy newspapers; job advertisements under investigation include those written in Lithuanian and other languages. The main findings suggest that in on-line advertisements employers require foreign language competence more often than those in the hard-copy adverts. It has also been observed that competence of two languages is of high demand. If employers require competence of 3 languages, the order of the languages is as follows: national (Lithuanian), lingua-franca (English), and others (Russian or Polish). Lithuanian is of high importance in job advertisements as employers tend to take into consideration the level of written and spoken Lithuanian. Finally, the data have revealed that in job advertisements language knowledge is described in very abstract terms, and references to the CEFR are hardly ever observed in the collected data.

Theatrical productions are always an important aspect in the reception of any author in any country. They are instrumental in promoting the writer and his work, in bringing it closer to the ordinary readership. Particularly so in Lithuania which has a long and lively theatrical tradition of more than 400 years. The Kaunas State Theatre established in 1922 became an important centre in the cultural life of Lithuania and was the only professional theatre organization in Lithuania until 1931, which dramatized and performed Dickens’s works, among others. Stage adaptations played an important role in the reception of Dickens’s art, particularly in the inter-war period in the 1920s and 1930s: they were instrumental in the promotion of Dickensian image, in the dissemination of his writing and in enhancing its popularity; thus Dickens’s name became firmly entrenched in the Lithuanian cultural context. For general readers and theatre audiences Dickens became the most famous, the most representative and the most popular English writer, regarded as an iconic figure in English literature, in stature competing only with Shakespeare.The first theatre production of Dickens’s work in Lithuania was A Christmas Carol; it was put on stage by the famous director Antanas Sutkus in 1927. It was followed by stage adaptations of The Chimes, Oliver Twist and The Cricket on the Hearth.A theatrical production of Dickens’s novel The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club was put on stage on September 29, 2002. Adapted and directed by the actor Sigitas Račkys in early twenty-first century at the Klaipėda Drama Theatre, it really came as a surprise given the temper and tenor of the times which are not very favourable for the reception of Dickens’s writing. And, naturally, the response to it was ambivalent and controversial.By all evidence, the performance was probably not a very successful attempt at the stage production of Dickens’s Pickwick in spite of the director’s efforts and good-will. However, it can be valued as an endeavour to rekindle the contemporary viewers’ and readers’ interest in Dickens’s art, which turned out to be a challenge both for the director Sigitas Račkys and his team of actors.

The paper focuses on adult interrogatives, which appear to be among the most frequent and typical ways of communicating with young children. The main objective of the investigation is to identify and compare the variety and distribution of interrogatives in Lithuanian and Russian motherese. The analysis is based on the data of a longitudinal observation of a Lithuanian girl Monika (2;0–2;8) and a Russian boy Vanja (2;0–2;8). The transcribed corpus of conversations between children and their parents was annotated for a multipurpose automatic linguistic analysis using tools of the program CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System, MacWhinney 1991). Despite several differences (the general number of questions, and the dominant forms of indirect correction), it can be stated that interrogatives in both Russian and Lithuanian motherese are generally used for the same conversational strategies; the communicative strategies in the two languages seem to be similar or even identical. Moreover, during the observation period, the conversational strategies in both Russian and Lithuanian motherese developed in a similar way. This calls for a general conclusion that a correlation between parental conversational strategy and the type of language can be identified.

The paper focuses on the problem of language domain loss and sets out to examine the relationship between Lithuanian and English in TV commercials in Lithuania. The aim of the research is to determine the spread of English, together with the functions of English elements in the commercials and code-mixing. The data consists of a corpus of TV commercials recorded in 2003 and in 2009; in total, more than 1200 commercials, broadcasted during the most popular TV programs in one week each year. The analysis has shown that TV advertising as a domain of Lithuanian language use is not being lost and the situation hasn’t changed over the years. There are almost no only English commercials. Most of the commercials are a mix of Lithuanian and English codes, while English is mostly used in the product names. There are few English slogans and not much other information in English in the corpus. It turned out that there might be a special strategy for the localization of commercials in Lithuania. The oral form of the commercials is more Lithuanized than the written form. The slogans and the product names are presented in translation or explained in Lithuanian. At the same time, the written part of the commercials can have more information in English. Some English insertions most likely have a symbolic function to make an impression that the product advertised is valuable or modern. The use of English in commercials may have the purpose of communicating prestige and especially targeting at an audience with a high social status or young people.------ Straipsnyje keliama Lietuvoje iki šiol labai mažai tirta kalbos domenų praradimo problema ir analizuojami anglų ir lietuvių kalbų santykiai televizijos reklamoje. Tyrimo tikslas – nustatyti anglų kalbos vartojimo apimtis ir plitimą, angliškų elementų funkcijas bei kodų kaitos pobūdį. Medžiaga rinkta 2003 m. ir 2009 m., vieną savaitę įrašinėjant Lietuvos televizijų transliuojamų žiūrimiausių laidų reklamas. Tyrimo medžiagą iš viso sudarė per 1200 reklamų. Dviejų laikotarpių palyginimas parodė, kad televizijos reklama Lietuvoje nėra prarandamas kalbos domenas ir situacija praktiškai nesikeičia. Vien anglų kalba transliuojamų reklamų beveik nepasitaikė, o didžiąją dalį korpuso sudarančiose mišriose reklamose vyravo angliški prekės pavadinimai. Pastebėta, kad daugiau informacijos anglų kalba pateikiama rašytine nei garsine forma, taip pat, kad reklamose panaudojama anglų kalbos simbolinė vertė ir prestižas.

It is now commonly agreed that written academic texts are dialogic and interactive. How do academic writers increase interactivity of discourse? How do they organise texts and communicate with readers? Text-connectors is one of the many metadiscoursal categories used by writers to arrange their arguments and involve their readers. This paper considers the use of text-connectors in the Master’s thesis genre in Linguistics and analyses 70 theses by native and non-native (Lithuanian) students of English. The aim of the study is to work out a methodological framework for the analysis of text-connectors in the MA thesis genre and to compare the frequencies of text-connectors in native speaker (L1) and non-native speaker (L2) English theses as well as with frequencies in other genres. The classification of text-connectors developed in the study includes nine functional categories: addition, attitude, concession, contrast/comparison, illustration, restatement, result, sequence and summary; the procedural considerations cover the problems of reflexivity, multifunctionality, clustering and double use of text-connectors; the comparison of L1 and L2 theses shows an enormous overuse of text-connectors in L2 texts. ------ Straipsnyje bandoma tyrinėti kaip realizuojama tarpasmeninė kalbos funkcija moksliniame diskurse, kaip sustiprinamas rašytinio teksto interaktyvumas, kaip struktūruojamas tekstas ir kuriamas dialogas su skaitytoju. Metadiskurso strategijų vartojimas yra vienas iš būdų teksto paveikumui sustiprinti. Teksto konektoriai – tai metadiskurso kategorija, padedanti tinkamai sudėlioti argumentus tekste bei įtraukti skaitytoją į diskurso procesą. Tyrimu siekiama apibūdinti teksto konektorių vartojimą lingvistikos magistro darbuose. Tyrimo medžiaga – 70 magistro darbų, parašytų gimtąja ir negimtąja anglų kalba Britanijos ir Lietuvos universitetuose.Straipsnyje pateikiami tyrimo pirmosios dalies rezultatai: (1) magistro darbo žanro teksto konektorių analizės metodologiniai metmenys: teksto konektorių funkcinė klasifikacija, susidedanti iš devynių kategorijų, jų lingvistinės raiškos pavyzdžiai bei tyrimo proceso probleminių aspektų analizė; (2) statistinės analizės rezultatai: teksto konektorių santykinis dažnumas magistro darbuose (0,77) bei dažnumų palyginimas gimtakalbių ir negimtakalbių studentų tekstuose (0,56:0,90), rodantis, jos negimtakalbiai (Lietuvos universitetų) anglų kalbos studentai vartoja daug daugiau teksto konektorių magistro darbuose (+355,06) nei gimtakalbiai. Tikėtina tokio gausaus teksto konektorių vartojimo priežastis – perdėtas dėmesys teksto konektoriams anglų kalbos pratybose vidurinio ugdymo ir bakalauro studijų pakopose bei anglų kalbos vadovėliuose. Gimtosios kalbos įtaka kaip galima gausaus konektorių vartojimo priežastis atmetama, nes kai kurie tyrimai rodo, jog lietuvių gimtosios kalbos akademiniuose studentų tekstuose metakalbinėms teksto siejimo priemonėms skiriama nepakankamai dėmesio. Gausus teksto konektorių vartojimas magistro darbuose būdingas ne tik Lietuvos, bet ir kitų kultūrų studentams, todėl galima teigti, jog tai yra bendras anglų kalbos tarpukalbės (‘interlanguage’) ypatumas.

Straipsnyje siekiama apžvelgti anglakalbių ir besimokančių anglų kalbos studentų priešpriešos konektorių vartojimą. Medžiagą sudaro šiuo metu Vilniaus universiteto Anglų filologijos katedroje kaupiamas besimokančiųjų anglų kalbos tekstyno (ICLE –International Corpus of Learner English) lietuviškasis potekstynis (LICLE) ir pagal analogiškus kriterijus sudarytas gimtakalbių anglų kalbos vartotojų tekstynas (LOCNESS – Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays). Kontrastyvinės analizės metodu atliktame tyrime siekiama išsiaiškinti: (1) ar tiesioginis priešpriešos žymėjimas konektoriais yra vienodai paplitęs anglų kaip svetimojoje ir gimtakalbių kalboje ir (2) ar tiriamuose darbuose konektoriai yra vartojami tose pačiose sakinio ir teksto vietose. Ypatingas dėmesys skiriamas LICLE tekstyne dažniausiai pasitaikančiam konektoriui however ‘vis dėlto, tačiau’. Gauti rezultatai rodo, kad nors kiekybiniai priešpriešos konektorių vartojimo skirtumai nėra statistiškai reikšmingi, šios kategorijos konektorių pasiskirstymas tekste ir sakinyje LICLE ir LOCNESS tekstynuose skiriasi. Kai kuriais atvejais LICLE tekstyne pastebimos interkalbai būdingos vartojimo tendencijos. ------ This paper shows an attempt to present the analysis of contrastive connectors in advanced Lithuanian learners’ and native speakers’ English writing. For the purpose of the study LICLE corpus (Lithuanian subcorpus of ICLE (International Corpus of Learner English)) was used. A comparison is made with the native speakers’ data obtained from the British segment of LOCNESS (Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays). Several comparisons are made with the American and the A-level segments of LOCNESS as well. The central research questions are (1) whether advanced Lithuanian learners openly mark contrastive relations in the same way to natives and (2) whether text and sentence distribution of contrastive connectors is the same in the corpora under consideration. A special attention is paid to the use of however, which is the most commonly used contrastive connector and occupies the first place among the top ten connectors in the LICLE corpus. The obtained results indicate that though there is no statistically significant difference in the quantitative use of contrastive connectors, their distribution patterns in LICLE to a greater or lesser extent differ from those of the native speakers’. The Lithuanian learners, for example, significantly overuse contrastive connectors in a non-preferred sentence-initial position whereas the native speakers’ preferred sentence-medial position is significantly underused. This tendency is not characteristic only of the Lithuanian learners of English and could be considered a common phenomenon of the interlanguage.

The paper focuses on the problem of identity in A. L. Kennedy’s novel So I’m Glad and the short story Original Bliss. It argues that the structure of identity in the aforementioned works partly accounts for the ethics advanced in Kennedy’s work. At the centre of each work there is a romantically involved couple whose love stories offer interesting examples of a relationship between self and other. Kačkutė be­lieves that the other in Kennedy‘s writing is peculiar­ly positioned neither in or outside the subject, it cor­responds to Judith Butler’s idea of the constitutive outside that is brewed inside the subject. Either way such dialectics of the self and other results in a po­sitive identity development. Such change is marked by traumatic and physically painful experiences, but results in a cathartic moment that suggests the pro­found ethics underlying Kennedy‘s artistic project.

The morphology of Gothic, as well as that of other older Germanic languages, has traditionally been analysed in phonological terms, with classifications that reflect earlier stages in the development of Germanic. This paper represents a pioneering attempt at applying the ‘canonical’ approach to the analysis of older Germanic, with a view to producing an adequate synchronic analysis of the morphological properties of the Gothic adjective. It is demonstrated that the traditional separation of strong and weak forms is synchronically unreasonable, and determination represents a non-canonical morphosyntactic feature of the Gothic adjective. Even though the traditional stem-class labels are obsolete from a synchronic point of view, synchronic form variation within Gothic adjective paradigms warrants distinguishing four inflectional classes, a classification which coincides with the traditional philological taxonomy. In addition to inflectional class, Gothic adjectives have been found to have stem indexing and syncretic index features. ------ Gotų kalbos ir kitų senųjų germanų kalbų morfologija tradiciškai nagrinėjama remiantis fonologiniais kriterijais. Tokioje tradicinėje formų klasifikacijoje atsispindi ankstesnieji germanų kalbų raidos etapai; taigi, toks analizės metodas – sinchroniškai neaktualus. Siekiant nuosekliai aprašyti gotų kalbos būdvardžių morfologinius požymius sinchroniniu požiūriu, straipsnyje taikomas kanoninis metodas. Pirmiausia pristatoma „kanono“ sąvoka, apibrėžiamas kanoniškumas fleksijų morfologijoje ir pateikiama grynųjų morfologinių požymių tipologija. Kanonas, tai – abstrakcija, kuri yra daugelio kanoninių kriterijų konvergencijos rezultatas. Nustatant kalbos reiškinio kanoną, išplečiamos reiškinio teorinės ribos ir sukuriama kanoninė erdvė, kurioje galima logiškai ir nuosekliai klasifikuoti reiškinio apraiškas. Remiantis kanonine metodologija straipsnyje įrodinėjama, kad tradicinis stipriųjų (neapibrėžtųjų) ir silpnųjų (apibrėžtųjų) būdvardžių paradigmų atskyrimas yra sinchroniškai nepateisinamas, kadangi determinacijos (apibrėžtumo/neapibrėžtumo) kategorija, tai – pilnavertė morfosintaksinė būdvardžių kategorija. Skirtingai nuo skaičiaus, linksnio ir giminės kategorijų, determinacija laikytina nekanoniška. Argumentuojama, kad sinchroniniu požiūriu tradicinė būdvardžių klasifikacija pagal istorinį kamiengalį – nebeaktuali, kadangi patys kamiengaliai paradigmose sinchroniškai nebeapčiuopiami. Nepaisant to, fleksijų sistemoje egzistuojanti leksiškai determinuota formų įvairovė sudaro prielaidą išskirti keturias būdvardžių klases, kurios sutampa su istorine klasifikacija pagal kamiengalį. Taigi galima teigti, kad senoji kamieno morfologija ilgainiui virsta morfosintaksine morfologija. Be minėtų keturių būdvadžių fleksinių klasių, gotų kalbos būdvardyje išskirtini dar du grynai morfologiniai požymiai: kamieno rodiklis ir sinkretiškumo rodiklis.

Based on a corpus of articles from two regional subscription newspapers representing the most widespread type of daily papers in Germany, this contribution analyses quotations in headlines of press articles and their relation to the corresponding sequences in the text body, thus focussing on the quotations’ intratextual reference quality. It turns out, that a considerable part of these “quotations” shows modifications of the formulations given in the text body. How the modifications are actually formed is modelled by a five-stage scale, and which functions they fulfil is illustrated by selected examples.

Annales of Ennius, partly aimed at survey of Roman history year by year, partly at memorizing Roman heroes and equating them to gods, though had a few antecedant models in Hellenistic epic, remains unrivalled in respect of vastitude and bravery of the innovatory devise. The poem, praising deeds of Roman god-like ancestors, kings, consuls and tribunes, had certain political aspirations tending to melt the scepticism towards Greek culture and its reception among conservative members of aristocracy of Ennius’ time. On the other hand, being performed in traditional Roman convivial setting, Annales were in accord with Roman piety and reverent attitude towards gods, whence poet’s aim at his own otherness and impartiality might be discerned.Annales of Ennius not only reminds its readers of Roman strategy of gaining over Carthaginian or Greek deities during Roman expansion outside Appenines, but also claims their common identity with Roman gods, whence the idea of Greek and Roman cultural affinity and common genealogy comes. This idea most probably originates from the deep consideration of homeric and hellenistic epic and their exegetical traditions combined with other philosophical views (even contrasting ones) attainable in III B. C. Italy. However, the state of extant text of Annales, consisting of over 600 fragmentary verses (plus around 100 more or less identified testimonia together with recently deciphered fragments from Herculanean papyrus), doesn’t provide us with certain argument what attitude in Ennius’ notion prevailed, unless we investigate one by one all the mentions of gods in this poem. The complex task is treated in this article in a selective manner: the main attention is paid only to the limited part of over 40 deities present in Annales, namely, to the Greco-Roman dodekatheon or di consentes, most clearly attested in Ann. 240–241 Sk. The method of investigation rests on the description of each deity separately, both trying to establish the most characteristical features of each in Ennian depiction and compare with the evidence of his / her contemporary cult and degree of syncretization.In the course of analysis, a somewhat parallel attempt is also made to verify Cicero’s message concerning Ennius’ belief in gods in general (Div. 1, 58). The analysis shows quite divergent result resting upon incomplete status of our sources: some gods are depicted as participants of human actions, some remain mere vague representatives of natural phenomena.The bulk of conclusions deals with national dependance, hierarchy and stylistic variation of Ennius’ dodekatheon. Material of this paper clearly indicates the national priority in Annales: the most honoured both statistically and virtually are the four ancestral Roman gods (di genitales) – Juppiter, Juno, Venus and Mars. Each of them also appears in certain non-Roman context (Trojan, Greek, Carthaginian or Sabinian), where their Roman priority is not emphasized, unless their Latin name is taken into account. The latter fact combined with Ennian technics of Homer’s imitation and hellenistic erudition enables him to rewrite ancient history from the Roman point. This actually happens on the theological level when Roman state gods become continuators of variously reinterpreted homeric greco-trojan gods. Annals of Ennius thus attest the absorbtion of Greek Olympic pantheon into Roman state pantheon. Depiction of gods in the poem also has certain “expurgatory” mark, since very few traces of obscenity in gods’ portrayal are present (with exception of Mars, called homo pulcer with possibly euhemeric hint). On the other hand, the sublimity of Ennian gods is moderate: there are several indications of their humanly sensitive and not indifferent stance in their contacts with people (esp. Juno, Juppiter and Venus).A considerable group of Olympian gods in the current fragmentary shape of Annals remains not clearly presented: some produce no material for deeper analysis (e. g. Diana and Ceres), some appear only in the metonymic use (Neptune, Volcanus), others could be characterized on the ground of mere indirect reference to their ritual elements, mythological or allegorical identity (Vesta, Minerva, Mercurius). Permanent attention to universal aspects, esp. to the mysthic and prophetic ones (Minerva, Apollo, Muses), and avoidance of “undignified” features show perhaps definite poet’s attitude and support modern view of Ennius’ both honorable and impartial position towards Roman “political Olympus”.

The paper presents the translator’s decisions regarding elements of foreign culture as examples from the novels Memory of my Melancholy Whores by G.G. Marquez and Fury by S. Rushdie, both in three translations. In the theoretical part the established term Ausgangskultur (source culture) is replaced by Bezugskultur (culture of reference) in order to avoid suggestion of granted identity between culture and language. It is shown that all translators in general aim at the reader’s conformity but are not consequent at all regarding the strategy of rendering the elements of foreign culture. The technique overrules the strategy; each of the analyzed translations contains transportations of foreign elements, explanations of the latter and cases of their replacing by domestic phenomena.

This paper engages with the scholarly discussion of the process of globalization and how they relates to changes in our discipline. The first problem is the fact that most of the scholarly literature on globalization originates from the social sciences and it is unclear how this body of scholarship transfers to what we are doing, i.e., how it relates to aesthetic issues and the understanding and critique of cultural practices. It is one thing to describe the portrayal of contemporary culture with its emphasis on consumer goods and material processes of exchange in contemporary literary texts, thematically so to speak, and it is quite another to engage with the concept of globalization on a structural level. What does a discipline of literary and cultural studies look like that has a refined understanding and critical engagement with globalization as a process that characterizes contemporary societies worldwide, not one that is simply borrowed from the social sciences and then tested on literary texts? What are the main topics of such a newly realigned discipline and what are its methodological premises? German Studies in a globalized age is an endeavor that highlights the negotiation of cultural values on a local level in a global context. Literary and cultural studies in a global age should focus on what they do best, i.e., describe the functioning of aesthetic structures. The national literatures need to shift their focus from a nationalist philological agenda to a more global arena, not to be confused with traditional comparative literature that presumes the existence of different nationalist agendas that then can be compared. Literary and cultural studies in a global and digital age must be expansive and situate its regional focus within global concerns on a thematic as well as a structural level.

In this paper, I have tried to show that the meanings of Modern Norwegian modal verbs may best be described in terms of gradable scales (clines) both with respect to epistemic and non-epistemic modality.Epistemic modality deals with the degree of commitment;Deontic modality – “ – degree of moral desirability;Dynamic modality – “ – degree of readiness.The use of such gradable scales (clines) enables us to draw a semantic map which adequately covers the relevant semantic area – and to make some hypotheses about the diachronic development of the meanings of the Norwegian modal verbs.

Šiame straipsnyje pristatomas leksinių ertmių reiškinys bei jo potipis – morfologinės ertmės. Morfologinių ertmių, kurios atsiranda dėl tam tikrų dviejų kalbų derivacijos potencialų skirtumų (šiame straipsnyje – neigiamos reikšmės perteikimas priešdėlių pagalba anglų ir lietuvių kalbose), analizė parodė, kaip tokia morfologinio pobūdžio sąvokų leksikalizacijos stoka įtakoja vertimą, t. y. domėtasi, kaip morfologinės ertmės perteikiamos vertimo kalboje. Straipsnyje pirmiausia aptariami vertimo atvejai dvikalbiame anglų–lietuvių kalbų žodyne. Pastebėta, kad tokiais atvejais dažniausiai vartojami vertimo metodai yra vertimas sinonimų grupe bei aprašomasis vertimas. Aptariamos su tokiu reikšmės perteikimu susijusios problemos. Žodynų vertimai palyginti su vertimais tekstuose, kurie gauti pasitelkus Lygiagretųjį anglų – lietuvių kalbų tekstyną. Tokių dviejų šaltinių vertimų palyginimas užbaigiamas diskusija apie išplėstinio vertimo vieneto sąvoką ir tekstynų medžiagos panaudojimą vertime bei šiuolaikinėje leksikografijoje. ----- Machine translation systems, machine-readable dictionaries or other computer-oriented electronic lexical resources present a challenging task in the case of the Lithuanian language. Many of them are related to the problem of non-equivalence resulting from cultural and systemic differences and thus existing on various levels of a language – lexical, morphological and syntactic. This paper focuses on instances of non-equivalence between Lithuanian and English on the morphologicallevel. More specifically, the resolution of non-equivalence problems caused by morphological gaps between English and Lithuanian is investigated. Morphological gaps represent a type of lexicalgaps, which are understood as lack of direct lexicalisation for a certain concept.

Įrašomas į diktofoną žodinis užrašyto teksto vertimas yra hibridinis žodinio ir rašytinio vertimo variantas, daugelyje kalbų paplitęs a-vista vertimo pavadinimu. Jis skirtas klientams, kurie pageidauja suprasti rašytinio teksto turinį pigiausiu būdu. Vertėjas skaito tekstą ir sinchroniškai verčia jį į kitą kalbą, įrašydamas į diktofoną. Darbo rezultatas – įrašytas tekstas klausymui. Jo turinys tikslus, tačiau skambėjimas – kaip neparengtos kalbos. Įgūdžiai, intelektinės pastangos bei kiti veiksniai panašūs į sinchroninį vertimą, tačiau produktas nėra momentinis, t.y. jis gali būti kartotinis, o vertimo procesas lankstesnis, primenantis vertimą raštu. ----- With the growing market for language services, the changing needs of clients, and the technological advance, arise new tailor-made types of translation that fall in-between the traditional categories (such as oral/written, simultaneous/consecutive, transient/permanent, etc.), attempting to combine their advantages and best suit the given purpose. Initially inspired by a practitioner’s point of view, enhanced by a theoretical analysis, the paper presents the characteristics of a type of sight translationthat is recorded for the client, which seems to be a very convenient form and an optimal solution for certain purposes.

The article discusses issues concerning terminological-conceptual equivalence between so called “systems of concepts” of two language and culture communities in the context of the work of a translator or the translatability of terminologies. Based on several studies (mostly concerning legal terminology) carried out in the last few years in MA papers of students of the study program Interpreting/Translation of Vilnius University some of the general questions of terminology work can be pointed out that are connected to the problem of the so called terminological “gap” and need to be reassessed. On the basis of the studies concerning the language combination German-Lithuanian not only “pure” linguistic differences between those two languages but also “differences in the matter” (i.e. differences between the language and culture communities) always were identifiable. The examples presented in this article should demonstrate how those gaps in “systems of concepts” can be dealt with so that it can be useful in the work of an interpreter or a translator who stands between those two languages and cultures.

The paper is based on the concept of experiencing consciousness that embraces the experience expressed in the text and the lived pre-textual experience. The reversibility of the fiction and the experienced reality is investigated.The investigation discovers the map of the town constantly recurring in the poetry of Nyka-Niliūnas. This reconstructed map is identical to the native town of the poet. The town reveals itself in the poetry as the own lived town of the speaker.The same topography of the town is repeated in the diaries in the forms of the dreams as well as of the reminiscences. The special substrate of the speaking consciousness is evident. The interconnection between the three modes of consciousness – poetic, remembering and the dreaming – is exposed. All the three intensive forms of the consciousness deal with the personal identity. The recurrence of the space of the town is motivated and the perpetual return to the same space is clarified.

The first Prussians’ encounter with Christianity ended in the martyrdom of the missionary St. Adalbert; it took place on the 23rd of April, 997. What provoked his martyrdom is far from clear to this day. According to some hypotheses, the Prussians were provoked by St. Adalbert’s unfamiliar pontifical vestments that he put on to celebrate Mass, or simply by his unacceptable appearance. The present paper draws attention to the beginning of the conflict with the Prussians. Its cause is St. Adalbert’s unusual behaviour – reading prayers from a book. This could have been perceived as a way of communicating with the supernatural world which threatened the community, as a magic charm. It is important to note the day when St. Adalbert was martyred. According to the Christian calendar this is St. George’s day. In many countries of Central and Eastern Europe this is the day when working the fields symbolically begins. Later sources attest that the pagan Prussian festival of the rebirth of nature, the celebration of spring which was supposed to guarantee future harvest, coincided with this day. Christian missionary with his rituals, externally based on the reading of liturgical books, may have created a perception that his activities would harm future fertility of the earth and animals.

In this research paper the play Probočių šešėliai [The Shadows of Forefathers] written by famous Lithuanian philosopher Vidunas is analysed in details. Besides classical critical analysis of the text, deconstruction as the method is used as well, making the meanings intended by the author reversible. The innovation of the research is the third methodical part of it – the hermeneutic-phenomenological protocol. The results and the process of the research are described concerning the dynamics of time and problem solving. What is most often left undisclosed in a real research – its temporal duration, findings and disappointments, here is very strongly put on the surface of the consciousness. The researcher in this way is disclosed as the embodied and the embedded agent in the process of research. Analysis of the direct object of the research – the play Probočių šešėliai – along these methodical lines of structural deconstruction and hermeneutic-phenomenological protocol clarifies the figure of Visuomis as a non empathic philosopher. This predicate might be projected to the whole spiritualistic philosophy of Vidunas. Much discussed philosophy of the body developed by Vidunas is strongly questioned, analysing a few examples from the life of Vidunas himself: the early childhood and the turningpoint event of his falling from the ship. The whole body of Vidunas in this event was shocked, as he describes himself, and Vidunas understood in the new light the relevance of the body in the experience of the world. Does this event might be considered as the “Lithuanian version” of the collision of God of the Philosophers and God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac?

This paper presents the quantitative analysis of Russian and English resources in Vilnius adolescents’ language. The analysis draws on Vilnius Adolescents’ Language Corpus data, documenting the linguistic practices of 10–16 year old adolescents from differently socially and ethnically marked Vilnius neighbourhoods. The research has revealed strong correlation between ethnic marking of Vilnius neighbourhoods and both frequency as well as lexico-functional variation of Russian resources. Creativity, playfulness, situational strategic use of Russian resources characterize the language of adolescents from ethnically marked neighbourhoods. In contrast, Russian resources among adolescents in ethnically unmarked neighbourhoods have been limited to slang and swearing. In addition, Russian resources may correlate with such values as toughness and masculinity as they were twice more frequent among boys (from ethnically unmarked neighbourhoods) than girls. English resources are available to adolescents through computer-mediated communication, popular culture. Accordingly, the frequency of English resources and lexico-functional categories are similar among adolescents irrespective of the ethnic marking of the district. Generally, Vilnius adolescents’ practices of using Russian and English resources can hardly be described as one system. It is rather an open, dynamic interplay of different sub-systems having their internal organization, norms, which correlate with gender or ethnic marking of Vilnius neighbourhoods.

Currently more and more research is devoted to the analysis of the linguistic situation of Lithuanian towns and villages (cf. Ramonienė et al. 2010). The issues of the choice of linguistic varieties and analysis of the trends of using dialects in private and public life as well as relationship between dialectal speech and standard language deserve special attention (Ramonienė et al. 2010; Ramonienė 2006; Aliūkaitė 2007; 2011; Kalėdienė 2009). This paper makes use of the material and the quantitative data from the project The sociolinguistic map of Lithuania: towns and villages implemented by Vilnius University, the Lithuanian Language Institute and Vytautas Magnus University in 2010-2012 as well as of the maps drawn by Viktorija Baranauskienė on the basis of the same data (2013). A more detailed analysis of dialects used by children in communication with their parents in the towns of Žemaitija region (cf. the map The use of dialects in communication with parents among the respondents and regional distribution of dialects) is given and the features of a dialect used in Klaipėda, the largest town of Žemaitija, and smaller towns as well as the opinions of the residents of Žemaitija about the most usual, most valuable and most intelligible dialect and promotion of the use of dialects among young people are discussed separately. The quantitative data is presented in graphs and maps. According to the quantitative data, the use of heterogeneous, or ‘mixed’, and homogenous, or ‘pure’, dialects of the towns of Žemaitija region in communication with parents is as follows: the Žemaitian dialect prevails in many ‘pure’ towns of Žemaitija such as Plungė, Rietavas, Telšiai, Gargždai, Šilalė, Skuodas. The residents of these towns are also more favourably disposed towards the Žemaitian dialect—the majority would encourage young people to learn and speak the dialect; however, a smaller percentage think that the Žemaitian dialect is the most beautiful. In the ‘mixed’ towns of Žemaitija region (where both the Aukštaitian dialect and the Žemaitian dialect are used) Šiauliai, Kuršėnai and Šilutė only 1–5 per cent use the Žemaitian dialect in communication with parents, but there the Žemaitian dialect is considered the most usual and the most beautiful.

Combining metalinguistic discourse analysis with statistical and qualitative speaker evaluation analysis the paper examines perceptions of phonetic variation in the speech of urban girls and discusses the impact of social stereotypes on the evaluation of their speech styles. The approach is adapted that speech variants are meaningful elements of a style cluster used by speakers for construction of certain personality types and stances and recognized by hearers as such (Agha 2007, Campbell-Kibler 2009, Blommaert 2010). Subconscious Speaker evaluation experiment was carried out in four upper-secondary schools of Vilnius. 14 female speech samples, representing three supposed speech styles indexed by either open back rounded [ɒ] (variant of standard Lithuanian /o/), or alveolar [s] (variant of dental /s/) or unmarked with regard to the mentioned features were presented for subconscious assessment to 232 students. The students were asked to rate the voices on several 7-point scales to assess the personality traits of the voices and their suitability for several professions. The idea was to investigate whether the students will recognize these speech styles of urban girls as different ways with language, whether this recognition will result in categorisation of speakers into separate social types and whether the discourse stereotypes will impact the assessments of students. The research confirmed the presuppositions. The voices that included an open rounded [ɒ] were subconsciously associated with the social stereotypes that were found in the discursive construction of the pop girls, the so called fyfas. These voices were assessed significantly more negatively on qualities related with personal maturity and trustworthiness, such as not being goal-directed, conscientious and intelligent, and most positively on the trait joyful. As well they were significantly more often associated with fashion, music and advertising branches. The highest intellectual capacities and skills as well prestigious professions such as businessman or physician were attributed to the unmarked voices, relating this speech style to the stereotype of a nerd. Whereas the voices that included alveolar [s] were perceived as belonging to an in between position – on most of the scales their ratings were lower than the unmarked voices’ and higher than the [ɒ] voices’. Such attribution confirmed the hypothesized assignment of alveolar [s] to “serious entertainment”, a style that is presented as serious in entertainment contexts. The research revealed significant association of this style with the music branch. To summarize, the studied speech styles are subject of conscious and subconscious awareness in the Lithuanian speech community. They are reacted to applying certain ideological schemes, be it stereotypes constructed and maintained by the public discourse or subconscious knowledge, formed by social and linguistic competence of the judges. There is no doubt that at least two of the studied styles – the unmarked Vilnius speech and the alveolar [s] including style are not limited to female speakers. The gender variable would be an interesting supplement to the further study of language variation in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

The paper deals with the sociology of literature of Pierre Bourdieu, one of the most influential figures in contemporary sociology of art. Initially, Bourdieu intended to overcome dichotomy of formalistic and contextual approaches, to transcend both the subjectivism and objectivism and to situate culture within broader social context and power relations. The sociologist suggested a systematic approach to literary practise and elaborated a theory of fields, the key terms of which are field, habitus, economic, social, cultural and symbolic capital, struggles, stake, structural homology, positions, dispositions, domination, strategy etc. The specificity of the literary field is defined mostly by the concepts of relative autonomy and “reversed” economy. Bourdieu examines the social positions of individuals and institutions involved in making cultural products (writers, publishers, critics, readers etc.), the social conditions, circulation and consumption of literary works. In this conceptual framework, literary text gains a specific status as the independent object of analysis (even such literary features as genre, narrative devices, types of characters etc. have special social meaning and function), what distinguishes Bourdieu from many his predecessors. His practical researches bring together various methods and combine empirical analysis with a strong theoretical frame. Numerous contemporary projects of sociology of culture are based on Bourdieu’s ideas. Some issues, however, have been brought for discussion, especially the universality of the notions and the concept of autonomy. Bourdieu constructed a powerful, highly theoretically structured model for interpretation of literature. It integrates every element of culture and provides tools for revealing their complex dialectical relations. Bourdieu’s sociology of literature might be a beneficial mode of analysis for Lithuanian literary scholars.

The paper analyses the discourse of the black narrator and protagonist – Eva in Gayl Jones’s novel Eva’s Man. The French feminist theory of l’écriture féminine with its emphasis on textuality of gender has been applied to prove that the Afro-American woman creates her Self while writing and her text becomes the essence of her identity since any other opportunity of emotional, intellectual and spiritual evolution has been denied to her. It is explained that the black woman revolves against the boundaries of the hierarchical system, into which she had been placed, silenced and transformed into an object of male manipulation. The analysis of the novel suggests that the liberation of the black woman from the male construct coincides with the progress of her self-creation. Eva disrupts the rationalistic discourse, subverts the phallologocentric order, and establishes a dialogue of gap and silence. The black narrator’s text transforms the traditional canon of woman as ground, her body as the blank page and subjugates the black male body to secure her ciphers on it as her own text. It has been stressed that the woman’s conscious conversion into the subject and the creator enables her to translate the man into the object.

Phaedrus’ speech in Plato’s Symposium was often ignored by Platonic scholars as unphilosophical, and has been analysed mostly in its rhetorical aspects. This narrowed the intentions of the dialogue down to theoretical speculations, neglecting a practical problem – namely, which values of the Greek polis remained relevant in the epoch of radical cultural transformation through which Plato lived. The detailed analysis of Phaedrus’ speech reveals some of its aspects that remained latent until now, establishing that the system of concepts of ‘shame’ and ‘aspiration to glory’ derives from the traditional system of values of Greek military community, and thus has a concrete historical and social content. It was precisely Socrates and later Plato who embarked on the revision of the Greek concept of ‘shame’ (as Plato’s Apology attests). The paper employs additional sources that help to recreate the historical context of the speech and to inscribe it into its authentic Sitz im Leben.Furthermore, Lysias’ speech against Alcibiades is linked with Phaedrus’ speech and the whole context of the Symposium.

The article refers to the data of The Database of New Borrowings, collected in the period of 1998–2010. An attempt is made to analyse the evolvement of new meanings of some international words and to identify the main tendencies. The Lithuanian administrative language is well maintained and innovations occur very seldom; however, if they occur, they tend to rapidly spread to other areas of standard language. After joining the European Union, with an influx of the EU documents translated into the Lithuanian language, the influence of the English language on the Lithuanian administrative language became unquestionable. This is particularly obvious in the international words used in administrative language. First of all, new meanings of international words conveying the original language meaning appear in the translated documents, afterwards the meanings can be found in Lithuanian documents and later may also be found in other language usage areas. The article discusses the new meanings of international adjectives and their suitability for administrative language. The paper also analyses some cases of polysemous nouns, which have preserved in their new international meanings an obvious link to the original meaning of the word. Some new meanings of international words find their place in standard Lithuanian; others are replaced by their Lithuanian equivalents or more traditional international words.

The paper analyses affixation of new borrowings in Lithuanian and the process of their integration into the system of Lithuanian morphological paradigms applying the framework of Natural Morphology. Two word classes, nouns and adjectives, have been analysed and productivity patterns of the new lexicon are presented and discussed. To the group of new borrowings are assigned those items that have been accepted into Lithuanian since 1990 or those that have not been included into the “Dictionary of International Words” (1985). The corpus of data used for the present analysis is compiled from the material found in the Database of New Borrowings, which provides information about borrowing into Lithuanian in written public texts of the last two decades, and the Corpus of Spoken Lithuanian (2006–2009). It has been found that the new borrowings follow the inflectional and derivational rules of the most productive morphological paradigms of Lithuanian. The most productive inflectional class of the borrowed nouns is -as, less productive is -is (-io), and the least productive is -a. As for the suffixes, the most productive are -imas (signalling abstract nouns), -ininkas (naming of persons), and the feminine derivational form -inė (from the masculine form –inis) for naming of instrument/ location. The newly borrowed adjectives, as a rule, are only rarely integrated into Lithuanian vocabulary by just adding the Lithuanian inflectional endings, they are mainly integrated using a suffix. In the adjective group the most productive suffix is -inis, while the least productive is -iškas. The research of new borrowings as either inflectional or derivational. This is due to the fact that the derivational relationship between the base and the derived forms in the case of new borrowing is difficult to identify and to prove.

This special issue of the journal Taikomoji kalbotyra/Applied Linguistics includes papers written on the basis of the presentations given at the International Applied Linguistics Conference Languages and People: Space, Time, Identity held in Vilnius University October 3-4, 2013. The Conference was organized by the Department of Lithuanian Studies of Vilnius University and the Lithuanian Association of Applied Linguistics (LITAKA). The total number of the Conference participants amounted to 60; they came from 12 countries: Australia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States of America. The plenary speakers of the Conference, world-known linguists Antonella Sorace (UK), Joseph Lo Bianco (Australia) and Mark Davies (USA), gave very impressive presentations on bilingualism and language acquisition, language planning and policy, language corpora as a powerful tool in language learning and teaching.

This paper discusses Stanley Fish’s notion of interpretive communities, based on interviews conducted with interpreters who operated in Estonia from 1944 to 1991 while Estonia was a Soviet republic. 43 semi-structured convergent interviews were conducted: 21 with people who worked as interpreters and 22 with people who recruited interpreters or worked with an interpreter during this period. This study has presented a new perspective for the consideration of interpretive communities as defined by Stanley Fish. It has demonstrated the applicability of the notion on the basis of interviews conducted with interpreters. It is clear that interpreters apply interpretive strategies, depend on reader’s activities and on the structure of the reader’s experience. In analysing the gathered material, I applied a novel approach and extended Stanley Fish’s notion of interpretive communities from readers to interpreters. My conclusion is that Estonia’s post-World War Two interpreter community falls into two interpretive communities, the dividing line being languages used (Russian as the A or B language versus English, German, Swedish, Polish, French or Spanish as the B language, etc.) and experience (local versus international). While this study focused on interpreters in Estonia after World War II, it could be beneficial to compare the findings with other Baltic and East European countries. The analysis of interviews revealed that the interpreters operating in the years reviewed did not always meet the requirements of a professional interpreter. They were all interpreters by chance, however, not professionals. It should be recognized that factors such as the interpreting setting and preparation, as demonstrated in the above examples, played an important role. This research could be taken a step further and interviews conducted with interpreters active since the restoration of independence.

The aim of the article is to analyse reasons of using new lexical borrowings in advertising, taking into account features of advertising as a genre. The empirical basis of the analysis consists of advertisements including borrowings that were collected in the Database of the New Borrowings. The article offers a qualitative analysis of borrowings in advertising. The theoretical basis of the article is a generalised classification of reasons for lexical borrowing, which includes designative, semantic, stylistic and sociopsychological reasons. Further a more detailed explanation is given by presenting the results of research on multilingual advertising: borrowings are used to fill in a semantic gap; because of creative motives in search for more interesting ways of expression; they help to associate the product with a particular cultural stereotype; or they can help to express the identity of a particular social group. From the viewpoint of advertisers, borrowings help to attract attention to the advertisement or product, to demonstrate its advantages by a symbolic value of other languages, to address a particular audience or to play with language for an emotional effect. The analysis of the Lithuanian data revealed a trend of the majority of borrowings used in advertisements for designative and semantic reasons, in order to name a new object. The origin languages of the borrowings vary; they include English, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese. Some borrowings are used next to their equivalent of Lithuanian origin for metalinguistic reasons. In the group of stylistic reasons, English borrowings are used for creating allusions, language play, and in order to attract the attention of the audience. In the group of sociopsychological reasons, borrowings from English are most prominent; they mostly serve to emphasize the exceptional value of the product. They might also be used as euphemisms. For symbolic reasons, borrowings from French and Italian are also used. English borrowings that are a part of youth slang are used in advertisements to create a youthful identity of the product and to address young consumers. The analysis of spelling of borrowings (original vs. adapted) might also be explained by their functions in the text: original spelling helps to emphasize the authenticity of the designated object, increases the symbolic value of the borrowing. In contrast, the adapted spelling of marked borrowings in the advertisements addressed to young people emphasizes their slang origin. In summary, the analysis of the Lithuanian advertisements confirmed most of the reasons for borrowing found in previous studies on multilingual advertising. The paper concludes that borrowings do not only serve a supplementary role when they are needed to fill a lexical gap, but are also intentionally used as a stylistic, symbolic, identity construction tool in order to enhance the effectiveness of advertisements.

The paper introduces available databases of new borrowings into Lithuanian and research into their main features and usage in public written texts, including the Internet, in 1991–2013. The research has shown that new borrowings of the Lithuanian language and the process of borrowing follow the same universal and general patterns noticed in other speech communities. Overall, about 1 500 different new borrowings and borrowed derivatives that have entered the Lithuanian language since early 90ies have been included into the databases. Due to the normative tradition of standard written Lithuanian, in more formal domains there is a tendency to graphically highlight borrowings either by inserting the quotation marks or by writing the borrowings in italics. However, in informal Internet texts (chats, commentaries, etc.) the borrowings are usually not highlighted. The morphological adaptation of most borrowings and orthographical adaptation of a large part of them give a clue to the integration potential of the Lithuanian structural paradigms. The distribution of the new borrowings across the word classes follows the patterns identified in other research: most borrowings are nouns, a much lower number of them are adjectives and verbs and a rather insignificant number are adverbs. Most new borrowings in the studied period include borrowings from English (approx. 70 per cent). Borrowings from other languages are much less numerous: depending on a text type, neo-Latinisms make up 5–8 per cent, words of French origin—3–7 per cent, words of Italian origin—4–5 per cent and Greek borrowings—2–3 per cent. The domains that include most new borrowings are technology and engineering, food, economics and business, also music. As already mentioned, borrowings from English clearly dominate in most domains. However, the semantic field of food seems to be the most diverse in terms of the origin of borrowings: most borrowings are of Italian origin, others come from of English, French, Spanish, Japanese and other languages. French and neoclassical borrowings make up more than 70 per cent of all borrowed law terms and almost 40 per cent of the terms of economics and business. The research of new borrowings into Lithuanian reveals fundamental changes in the socio-cultural development of the society and highlights the potential of the Lithuanian language to adapt to the needs of the speakers and to preserve the marks of ongoing cultural changes.

This special issue of the journal publishes research papers focusing on new borrowings in Lithuanian. They approach the problem of borrowing from different perspectives: sociolinguistic, morphological, lexicographic, and terminological.

This article, based on the paper presented at the ISHR 2013 Conference (July 24–27, 2013, Chicago), reconsiders the rhetorical image of Isocrates, preserved in his literary works and especially in three of the most prominent speeches, Panegyricus, Antidosis, and Panathenaicus, discusses certain controversies and difficulties of determining his public character and his attitude towards the audience and, basing on both empirically gathered data (references found in Isocrates’ writings) and on the theoretical basement provided by the consideration of the classical rhetoric tradition and the modern communication science approach, reviews the main aspects of the speaker’s self-presentational tactics as seen in his self-reflexive statements (found in the mentioned speeches), the examination of which could lead to a better comprehension of the otherwise obscure picture of this influential Athenian rhetorician.

Language standardization ideology prevailing in most European countries sustains a lower social value of dialects in comparison to the standard language. The linguistic variety of social elite, media, public administration, and public use – the standard language – is often rated as ideal or at least more adequate for most domains of language use than local dialects. This paper investigates the situation in Lithuania, analyzes linguistic attitudes towards dialects of upper-secondary school students in Lithuanian cities. The data gathered in the context of the project “Lithuanian language: ideals, ideologies and identity shifts, 2010-2013” group discussions organized in schools of nine Lithuanian cities (Alytus, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Marijampolė, Panevėžys, Šiauliai, Telšiai, Utena and Vilnius) as well as the experimental data, is analyzed for the social value of Lithuanian dialects. The research revealed both overt and covert prestige of dialects. The overtly declared prestige of a dialect is weak and the social value is lower when comparing to the standard language. Moreover, the usage of a dialect is fairly strictly limited and involving only a private sphere, non-official communication. On the other hand, an indirect evaluation when describing stereotypical characteristics of a dialect speaker has shown a rather positive covert prestige of the dialects. Even though dialect speakers are not distinguished by a superior status or social power and are most often seen as coming from a rural environment, which is not modern and associated with old traditions, social attractiveness of a dialect speaker is specifically emphasised, also the dimension of social solidarity and resistance to standardization associated with a dialect is highlighted. The results of the research point out some tendencies of the (not yet extinguished) vitality of dialects.

The article aims to introduce the corpus of broadcast media (radio and television), which was compiled in the framework of the project Lithuanian Language: Ideals, Ideologies and Identity Shifts to the academic community. The corpus includes about 63 hours of transcribed recordings from 1960 to 2010. The article discusses theoretical principles of corpus sampling, which were based on the criteria of time periods and genres; the methodological issues encountered when constructing the sampling scheme; shares the practical experience of selecting and gathering recordings to be included into the corpus; and presents the actual structure of the corpus. One of the main requirements for any corpus is its representativeness and balance. One possible way to achieve them is to distinguish objectively defined text types and to build the corpus along these lines. Thus the composition of the corpus of the broadcast media was designed on the basis of two criteria: periods of broadcast media development and genre. There are three periods distinguished: Soviet 1960–1987, transitional 1988–1992 and contemporary 1993–now. In respect of genre, three groups of programs are included: talk programs (further subdivided into the types of interview, debate and talk-show); documentaries, features and journal programs; information programs. The article discusses problems that were encountered when trying to implement the corpus along these lines: problems of availability of materials due to technological peculiarities of different periods and organisational factors of archive institutions; the issue of balance between the periods; the problems of genre comparability and different extent of diversity of genres in different periods, and continuity of genres. Finally, the composition and the size of the corpus are presented (63 hours of recordings, about 350 thousand words). The paper concludes that despite the limited availability of materials and other problems discussed above which is why the corpus cannot be regarded as perfectly representative and balanced, it is sufficient for research into public language change. This was confirmed by tentative research studies done on its basis. The corpus meets the usual technical requirements: the transcriptions have been made in CLAN software developed within the CHILDES project, the recordings have been transcribed, coded and morphologically annotated following the conventions of the CHILDES project, the speakers have been assigned individual codes, and the transcriptions have been linked to the sound/image files.

Structural approach to word formation in Lithuanian is still dominant, meanwhile cognitive insights have not been applied yet. The object of this paper is the aspects of cognitive grammar to word formation. In the article, cognitive semantic notions and their application to the morphological analysis of cognitive grammar are introduced. In the cognitive theory of grammar, symbolicity plays a significant role. The essence of cognitive grammar is based on the idea that language units are bipolar language signs. A linguistic unit consists of phonological and semantic poles which are linked by a symbolic structure. A category is a network of meanings of a derivational morpheme, which, as in the case of lexical category, is structured in terms of prototype and periphery. The prototype of a category is considered to be the most typical member, whereas other senses of the prototype comprise the periphery. Morphological expressions are closely related to each other and comprise cognitive domains. A domain is perceived as knowledge in terms of which derivational morphemes can be interpreted. Compositionality is a process when the composite structure is determined by the meanings of its constituents. This process plays an integral part in understanding the senses of new morphological expressions. Full and partial compositionality types are typical of morphological expressions. In compounding, full compositionality is endocentric, meanwhile partial compositionality is exocentric. A large number of units are pertinent to each other by schema and instance relations. A schema is defined as a general model made of instances. The schema reflects the general meaning of instances. Due to further elaboration the instance becomes a basis for a new schema and its elaborating elements become new instances.

[Literatūrzinātne, folkloristika, māksla = Literature, Folklore, Arts: Okazionālā poēzija: veltījums kultūras tekstos. Окказиональная поэзия: п о с л а н и е в текстах культуры. Occasional Poetry: an Epistle in the Texts of Culture. Krājuma sastādītājas: Ludmila Sproģe, Nataļja Šroma. Rīga: Latvijas Universitāte, 2012. 92 lpp. (Latvijas Universitātes raksti = Acta Universitatis Latviensis = Scientific papers University of Latvia. 782. sējums = Volume 782)]

The paper investigates a twofold attitude towards linguistic diversity in the Lithuanian-speaking community, where, on the one hand, the dialects are valorised as a national and ethnographic asset and, on the other hand, certain restrictions on their use are imposed because of association with a lower social value and negative stereotypes. Three direct attitudinal studies serve as an empirical basis for the research: a quantitative survey, qualitative interviews and an experiment with high-school students on stereotypical traits of the dialect speaker. When discussing future prospects of dialect change, the overt values of the speakers are compared with the findings of the speaker evaluation experiment that have revealed subconscious values of dialectal speech. The research has shown that compared to the Soviet times, the ideological climate regarding dialects has become more politically correct. Positive attitudes are most prominent at a declarative level and when regional identity and the speaker’s affiliation with a particular community have to be emphasised. Daily personal experiences, however, with the functionality of a dialect and evaluations of social and geographic mobility of dialect speakers, show a less favourable assessment of dialectal speech in comparison to the standard (non-dialectal) varieties. It is very much due to a frequent negative stereotyping of dialect speakers. The subconscious attitudes also reveal that the dialectal variability of speech has an arguably lower social meaning compared to the non-dialectal variability. The attitudes and practices of non-professional (lay) people may be claimed to reflect a double-faced standardization ideology of the Lithuanian language, which valorises dialects as an ecologic asset and at the same time limits their functioning by putting them in the reserve of “immobile” speakers.

The paper focuses on vowel lengthening in Vilnius speech. This feature has been stigmatised by Lithuanian language planners as a feature of Slavic origin, which has influenced Vilnius speech and therefore has to be avoided as non-standard and incorrect. The aim of the study was to find out how frequent the lengthening of short vowels is in the speech of Vilnius and how it depends on linguistic and social factors and self-monitoring of speech. The research is based on the classical Labovian interview with seventeen second and third generation residents of Vilnius (aged 18–40), 4.5 hours of speech in total. The research has shown that vowel lengthening is far from common in Vilnius speech. It depends largely on the type of syllable and the place of stress; the lengthening mostly affects just stressed syllables and usually in word stem. The lengthening of short inflectional endings, which is highly associated with Russian or Polish accent and regarded as the worst feature of urban speech, seems to be extremely rare. It has also been shown that the tendency to lengthen manifests itself quite consistently; informants who lengthen stressed vowels in the stem of the word more often than others tend to lengthen syllables at the end of the word. This applies to all contextual styles. In spite of relatively big individual difference in speech of informants, the research revealed that vowel lengthening in Vilnius speech is mostly used by the oldest of our informants and by men more than women. The dependence of vowel lengthening on contextual style turned out to be quite controversial and may point to the development of different speech norms in Vilnius.

The paper presents the translator’s decisions regarding elements of foreign culture as examples from the novels Memory of my Melancholy Whores by G.G. Marquez and Fury by S. Rushdie, both in three translations. In the theoretical part the established termAusgangskultur (source culture) is replaced by Bezugskultur (culture of reference) in order to avoid suggestion of granted identity between culture and language. It is shown that all translators in general aim at the reader’s conformity but are not consequent at all regarding the strategy of rendering the elements of foreign culture. The technique overrules the strategy; each of the analyzed translations contains transportations of foreign elements, explanations of the latter and cases of their replacing by domestic phenomena.

The morphology of Gothic, as well as that of other older Germanic languages, has traditionally been analysed in phonological terms, with classifications that reflect earlier stages in the development of Germanic. This paper represents a pioneering attempt at applying the ‘canonical’ approach to the analysis of older Germanic, with a view to producing an adequate synchronic analysis of the morphological properties of the Gothic adjective. It is demonstrated that the traditional separation of strong and weak forms is synchronically unreasonable, and determination represents a non-canonical morphosyntactic feature of the Gothic adjective. Even though the traditional stemclass labels are obsolete from a synchronic point of view, synchronic form variation within Gothic adjective paradigms warrants distinguishing four inflectional classes, a classification which coincides with the traditional philological taxonomy. In addition to inflectional class, Gothic adjectives have been found to have stem indexing and syncretic index features.

Based on a corpus of articles from two regional subscription newspapers representing the most widespread type of daily papers in Germany, this contribution analyses quotations in headlines of press articles and their relation to the corresponding sequences in the text body, thus focussing on the quotations’ intratextual reference quality. It turns out, that a considerable part of these “quotations” shows modifications of the formulations given in the text body. How the modifications are actually formed is modelled by a five-stage scale, and which functions they fulfil is illustrated by selected examples.

The paper is an attempt to give an overview of several periods in the development of English Studies in Lithuania from its establishment as an independent academic discipline in 1923 until now. [...]

This volume includes articles based on linguistic papers given at the International Conference marking the 40th anniversary of the Department of English Philology and the Department of German Philology of Vilnius University held 18-20 September 2008. The articles cover a large variety of linguistic topics ranging from theoretical to applied, from historical to contemporary dimensions of language study. Many linguists seem to give preference to the contrastive axis of study which often offers a framework of research opening a multitude of vistas onto the same data or phenomena. We are grateful to all contributors of the volume: guests of the Conference, teachers and doctoral students of the Department of English Philology and the Department of German Philology. Our special thanks go to our Teachers—professors of the Departments who worked in the Departments in the years of Soviet occupation and whose dedication and energy made this anniversary a reality. We are also grateful to the sponsors of the Conference without whose generosity the event would have been impossible: the Lithuanian Foundation for Culture at the Ministry of Culture, Emmy Huetemann Fund, the Embassy of Austria in Lithuania, UAB Alumnus, VU Faculty of Philology, VU Saturday School of English and VU Department of Translation Studies.

The importance of the analysis of learner language has long been recognised. The ICLE project has facilitated the research into interlanguage offering reliable data on advanced students’ written work. The Lithuanian subcorpus of ICLE is currently being compiled at Vilnius University. The present paper will report on a pilot study carried out on the material of LICLE on the use of resultive connectors and also will present a brief comparison of the Lithuanian learners’ usage with that of native speakers’ as well as advanced learners’ of other language backgrounds. The central research questions will be the following: • whether advanced Lithuanian learners use English resultive connectors in the same way as native English university students; • whether advanced Lithuanian learners’ usage of English resultive connectors is similar to other non-native learners’; • what possible explanations could be offered.