Žymiajai gramatikos tyrėjai Nijolei Sližienei – 90 metų

242 GENERAL LANGUAGE | 95 Rasuolė VladaRskienė Lietuvių kalbos institutas Significant genetic research NIJOLEI sLIŽIENEI – 90 years of honorable anniversary in 2022 one of the most famous researchers of Lithuanian grammar, habil. dr. "Nijolė sližienė (Paliušytė)". Nijolė Paliušytė was born on November 7, 1932 in Raseiniai and attended Radviliškis secondary school. to study Lithuanian studies at Vilnius University in 1951. At the Faculty of History and Philology, at that time, Kazys Ulvydas was giving lectures on syntax, and at the same time he was looking for more talented students and offered them to come and work at the Institute of Lithuanian Language and Literature. As the jubilee told herself, remembering Kazys Ulvydas1, it was his concern that she got into this institution. K. Ulvydas himself called her when she graduated from the University and worked in the library of one of the ministries, and invited her to work at the Institute, because he was gathering a collective of authors of academic Lithuanian grammar. This proposal determined the further professional path of the jubilee. Lithuanian Language and Literature 1 Collaborators' memories of Kazys Ulvydas. Common Language 94, p. 8. Online access: https://journals.lki.lt/bendrinekalba/article/view/2070/2177. Photo by Astos LESKAUSKAItĖ. RUSULA VLADARSKIENĖ. The prominent researcher of grammar Nijolė sližienė – 90 years old. She worked for 44 years at the 243 Institute (since 1990 – the Institute of Lithuanian Language) – from 1956 to 2000, and all this time she worked mainly in the field of grammar2, initially in the grammar group of the Dictionaries Department, later – in the grammar department. In 1965, N. sližienė defended her PhD dissertation on the conjugated forms of the Lithuanian verb3, her dissertation supervisor was K. Ulvydas, although, as she has said, she did not supervise her very much, writing her dissertation more in consultation with Vytautas Ambraz. Nijolė sližienė was one of the most important authors of Lithuanian grammar. For the second volume of Lithuanian grammar (Vilnius, 1971) she wrote chapters on the category of verb type, conjugated forms of the verb, general, objective, characteristic, and in the third volume (Vilnius, 1976) she wrote chapters on the ordinary, summarized dialect, conjunctions, Ambrazas and Adelė Valeckienė, and then the entire text of the publication – Kazys Ulvydas. he “called the authors to his office, explained what was wrong, if someone succeeded, proved that it was good, and if it failed, he had to correct it”4. However, the scholar recalls with pleasure that she was the only mišriuosius, sudėtinius sakinius. gramatika buvo rašoma labai atsakingai, kaip pasakojo pati jubiliatė, pirmiausia parašytus tekstus redagavo Vytautas one who managed to diplomatically prove to K. Ulvydas that her written text did not need to be corrected, because at first she allowed the teacher to make energetic comments, and then gradually caused doubt that it might be well written, and agreed that nothing needed to be corrected. The linguist also worked hard on writing one-volume Lithuanian grammar. She has written chapters on verb tenses, personified forms, the nucleus of a sentence and its models, non-conjunctive sentences, mixed compound sentences in the grammar of contemporary Lithuanian language (1994–2006) and in Lithuanian grammar in Russian (Grammatika litovskogo jazyka, 1985) and English (Lithuanian Grammar, 1997, 2006). Together with other authors of grammars, she was awarded the Lithuanian State Prize for her work on Lithuanian Grammar in 1977, 2 More about N. sližienės grammar works see semėnienė Loreta. congratulate Nijolė sližienę. Language Culture 75, 166-169. 3 Algirdas sabaliauskas. History of the Lithuanian language. 1980–2010 Vilnius: Lithuanian Language Institute, 2012, p. 221. 4 Memories of co-workers about Kazis Ulvydas. Common Language 94, p. 8. Online access: https://journals.lki.lt/bendrinekalba/article/view/2070/2177. 244 GENDRINĖ LANGBA | 95 for work on one-volume grammar in Lithuanian, English and Russian languages in 1999 – Lithuanian Republic Science Prize. In 2002 she was awarded the Military Cross of the Order of the Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania. She also wrote articles about her grammar studies in various magazines. However, the most important work of the researcher, both in the opinion of her colleagues5 and herself, is a dictionary of Lithuanian verb conjugation (Vol. I – 1994, II(1) vol. – 1998, II(2) vol. – 2004), because she, based on the works of foreign researchers, interpreted their theory of valency in her own way and adapted it to the Lithuanian language. The purpose of the publication is clearly described in its preface: “The dictionary shows how verbs are used in speech, with what words, what their forms and constructions go, what is the meaning of those words and what semantic functions they perform in the sentence. The conjugation of verbs is described based on their valency properties. The dictionary presents those verbs whose use is more diverse and complex, and also takes into account fluctuations in use and errors made.” In 1994, Nijolė sližienė was awarded the doctorate of habilitation for her research on the conjugation of Lithuanian verbs. In addition to the theoretical research of grammar, the linguist was always concerned about language practice. She also did a lot of work there. One of the most significant is the preparation of Lithuanian spelling rules. For a long time she was the most authoritative specialist in Lithuanian spelling, and her spelling rules are the basis of the updated spelling rules. Together with Adele Valeckiene he prepared the normative publication Lithuanian Spelling and Interpunction (1976, 1989, 1992), for which he wrote the Writing part. She described the changes in spelling rules in detail in her article Ar daug pasikeitė ortografija (Has spelling changed much?) (Language Culture, hereinafter referred to as KK 28, 1975). At the beginning of the article it is stated that the spelling section "generalizes the spelling practices so far, without making any fundamental spelling reforms. The basic rules of spelling are the same as those that have been in force since the time of John Jablonski. The subjects of writing here are only more broadly exposed and abundantly illustrated with examples. It is true that some incoherences have been smoothed out, spelling has been adapted to the pronunciation in some places, here and there there has been an effort to stabilize fluctuating spelling issues, – as a result of which there has been another spelling change” (ibid., p. 4), and these changes are discussed further: j writing after b, p in the roots of consonants ugrus, pjauti, spjauti; the spelling of the third-person vowels y, ū and i, u in the future tense of bi-syllabic verbs; explained the writing of words together and separately, as well as the writing of prepositional constructions tai5 sabaliauskas Algirdas. History of the Lithuanian language. 1980–2010 Vilnius: Lithuanian Language Institute, 2012; semėnienė Loreta. congratulate Nijolė sližienę. Language culture 75, 166–169. RUSULA VLADARSKIENĖ. The prominent researcher of grammar Nijolė sližiene – 90 years 245 cycles; corrected the spelling of the hyphen between real nouns; Simpler rules for word wrapping are provided. slightly improved capitalization of real names beginning with real place names; The original spelling of non-Lithuanian real names was legalized, and this was recommended in scientific works, information literature, advertisements. From 1990 to 2002, N. sližienė was a member of the State Lithuanian Language Commission. It is also worth mentioning that N. sližienė was one of the most active authors of Language Culture, she wrote 51 articles for this publication and has also contributed to the preparation of notebooks. In the very first Language Culture Notebook (1961) we find two articles of the linguist and she continued to write for 44 years on issues of language practice relevant to this publication. The topics of the articles are varied, although most of the publications are about syntax and spelling problems. The first publications of N. sližienės in Language Culture reveal one of the main objects of her research – the laws of the use of words in sentences, the linguist was concerned all her life not only to investigate them and describe them based on the modern theories of linguistics at the time, but also to consistently and argumentatively explain problematic cases of use, paying special attention to the lexical meaning of the word, because it “determines certain powers of association” (KK 78, 2005, p. 128). There are 10 articles written on this topic, including publications on the general meanings of verbs (nominative (KK 45, 1983), genitive (KK 1, 1961), utilitary (KK 1, 1961), local (KK 16, 1969)) or the use of prepositions from, from (KK 66, 1994). The publications also discuss specific more relevant cases of expression, which is very clearly seen from the eloquent headings, some of which immediately reveal the discussed problem: “To happen, to do, to be to whom and with whom” (KK 54, 1988); “Caring and worrying: what or for what?” (CC 67, 1995); “Joy, complaint – not about what, but about what” (KK 68, 1995); “Condemned – what, for what and with what punishment” (CC 71, 1998); Others mention only the verb whose usage is examined: “Meaning and use of the verb mediate” (KK 75, 2002); „The synonymic meaning of the verbs trūkti, stokoti, trūkti and the peculiarities of their use“ (KK 78, 2005). But most of the linguist’s publications (19) in Language Culture deal with problematic spelling cases. these articles were written at a time when spelling rules were being discussed, so now it is curious to look at what spelling issues arose at that time. In fact, the actuality of spelling has changed little, and 50 years ago it was concerned how to spell correctly long and short vowels in the root of words (KK 17, 1969; KK 20, 1971; KK 28, 1975), especially of the future 246 GENERAL LANGUAGE | 95 time 3-person forms (KK 47, 1984), appropriate consonants („Baugštus, bugštus, baištus and their vedic spelling“, KK 21, 1971). Very detailed article by a linguist on the spelling of compound names (KK 18, 1970), explaining the peculiarities of the spelling of compound names, the criteria for assigning generic and proper names, discussing their spelling system, motivation and exceptional cases. The author also argues for changes in spelling rules, which, in her opinion, will help to avoid spelling fluctuations and inconsistencies. Since the spelling of composite real names remained essentially unchanged, this article is relevant to this day, although the state order and state institutions have changed, but the basic rules of spelling their names have remained the same. About the names of direct meaning (calling them real names) N. sližienė writes: “the real names of states, state institutions, companies, organizations, important dates and historical events and other names are written according to two rules. The general rule is to capitalize only the first word of a compound name, as well as proper nouns and other capitalized names. <...> According to this rule, almost all properly composed names are written. Only a small number of them are subject to the exceptional rule established by tradition: all their words, except for official words and the word party, are capitalized” (KK 18, 1970, p. 58). Several articles are devoted to the spelling of real names and names: the spelling of geographical object names is explained (KK 32, 1977), the marking of a person's name and father's name (KK 38, 1980). There are many doubts about the transitional cases, which can be interpreted differently. N. sližienė very precisely explains when the names of persons can be written in lowercase: „<…> the transformation of real names into generics is most pronounced when they are used in the plural form, because then there is an obvious departure of the individual name from one specific person and transfer to many persons in order to characterize them in one way or another. the real name becomes a generic name.” It is further reasoned that it is more difficult to say whether a real name has become a generic name, “when it is used in the singular form and associated only with one person, because then it does not acquire a clear generic meaning and more or less retains its individual meaning”, so there may be spelling variants (KK 19, 1970, p. 53). One of the most relevant and difficult spelling topics is the writing of real names and names of other languages, to which several articles are dedicated, together with the introduction of the resolutions adopted by the Language Commission (KK 36, 1979; KK 53, 1987). sližienė’s thoughts about the spelling of common and proper words of other languages in Lithuanian texts are relevant today: “<…> proper words of other languages RUSULA VLADARSKIENĖ. For the prominent researcher of grammar Nijolė sližiene – 90 years 247 established, it is only necessary to protect and follow džių galas lietuvinamas pagal tas pačias pagrindines taisykles, kaip ir bendrinių. svetimžodžių galo lietuvinimo tradicijos yra pakankamai senos ir them” (KK 24, 1973, p. 7). In sližienės publications, the current issues of spelling also reflect the change in cultural realities related to political changes in the state: with the strengthening of national revival, the question arose of how to write the names of national dances (KK 56, 1989), when to write the word holy (šv.) (KK 68, 1995), the rise of Western culture was also accompanied by the question of disco, pop and video writing (KK 64, 1993). There was also written about the abbreviation of words and names of institutions (KK 39, 1980; KK 53, 1987), about compound words with accent semi- (KK 22, 1972), about the writing of j (KK 58, 1990). The linguist was concerned not only with the problems of usage directly related to her research, but she, like most of the linguists of her generation, was an active promoter of the mother tongue, felt the duty to educate the general public and encourage the use of correct language. Therefore, a number of publications are devoted to issues related to the peculiarities of different areas of language use. Four publications were written on the clerical language: how to address letters and clerical letters (KK 16, 1969), examining the shortcomings of the assembly language (KK 17, 1969; KK 55, 1988), some corrections of the clerical language (KK 35, 1978). also written about medical language (KK 23, 1972; KK 52, 1987); on the language of works on art (KK 33, 1977). The author of this article had to work together with the jubilee, although not in the same department, but the paths often crossed: first of all, at the beginning of her professional career, she had to feel the benevolent help and abundant advice. and later brought together the interest in spelling problems, a decade ago together we proposed to discuss changes in the rules of writing real names (though they were not approved). I was always fascinated by the warm, pleasant communication and the objective approach of the honourable colleague in finding solutions to problems, because the basis of all her work was the creation of a system, motivation and consistent compliance. On the occasion of the honorable anniversary, we want to once again rejoice in the abundance and significance of the work done by the jubilee, and wish her bright and long years of life. RAsUoLĖ VLADARsKIENĖ Lietuvių kalbos institutas Petro Vileišio g. 5, Lt-10308 Vilnius, Lithuania [email protected]