Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos

ACTIVITIES OF THE STATE COMMISSION OF THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE (Prepared on the basis of the 2016 report of the Language Commission) LANGUAGE PROGRAMMES The main aims and objectives of the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language (hereinafter, the Language Commission) are implemented through language programmes. Under the Programme for the Use, Standardisation and Dissemination of the State Language, 27 projects were carried out in 2016. Work began on a study of spelling and punctuation rules and the preparation of a new publication, “Lithuanian Spelling and Punctuation”, as well as a study of the current use, competition and trends of Lithuanian grammatical forms. The databases of the volumes in the “World Place Names” dictionary series World Place Names, prepared at the Centre for Scientific and Encyclopaedia Publishing, Africa. Antarctica. Australia. Oceania and Asia. (Afghanistan–United Arab Emirates; Cambodia–Vietnam), were transferred to the Language Commission’s subsite “World Place Names”, along with the search system that had been created. Support was provided for the teaching of language for specific purposes at higher education institutions and for state-language courses for residents of Lithuania whose native language is not Lithuanian. Fifty-six Lithuanian studies publications in two titles were purchased for higher education institutions and public libraries. Under the 2011–2020 Programme for Research into the Functioning and Change of Standard Lithuanian, Dialects and Other Language Varieties, 15 projects were carried out. At Vilnius University, the project “Accentuation Trends among Middle-Generation Intellectuals and Their Relationship to Standard Language Norms” was completed, and its results were presented to the public (accentuation recommendations were prepared, the electronic publication Recent Trends in Lithuanian Accentuation and Their Relationship to Codified Norms was published, etc.). The study “The Place of the Standard Language in the Mental Map of the Lithuanian Language” was conducted, and the scholarly study Language Variation and Evaluation from the Perspective of Perceptual Dialectology: Images of Variants and Places. was prepared. At the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, the project “A Study of the Functioning of New Loanwords in Standard Language: 2014–2016” was completed. At the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, the project “Research into Lithuanian Informatics and Computing Terminology” was completed, and the publication series “Lithuanian Dialects for Schools”, intended for general education schools, was also completed. Dialect data continued to be collected and archived at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and Vilnius University. BENDRINĖ KALBA 90 (2017) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos | 2 LEGAL PROTECTION OF THE STATE LANGUAGE The Ministry of the Economy of the Republic of Lithuania was informed that the draft law amending the Law on Advertising of the Republic of Lithuania contains a flawed definition of a sign, which does not comply with Article 17 of the Law on the State Language concerning the mandatory use of the state language on the signs of all enterprises, institutions, and organizations of the Republic of Lithuania. The Language Commission’s opinion was taken into account. An opinion on draft Law No. XIIP–3796 amending Article 5 of the Law on Identity Cards and Passports of the Republic of Lithuania was submitted to the Committee on Education, Science and Culture of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. The opinion adheres to the same provisions as those previously submitted to the Seimas when assessing earlier draft laws regulating the spelling of names and surnames in documents. In the Language Commission’s view, the names and surnames of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania should be written in Lithuanian characters in personal documents; however, in view of the needs of contemporary society, migration, and other factors, certain exceptions may be possible. To ensure compliance with the provisions of Article 21 of the Law on the State Language, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania was contacted regarding the inadequate regulation, in the implementing documents of the Law on Education of the Republic of Lithuania, of requirements for teachers to use language correctly, and the supervision of compliance with these requirements. It was recommended that the Regulations on the Attestation of Teachers and Student Support Specialists be supplemented to require all teachers undergoing repeat attestation and seeking a higher qualification category to refresh their knowledge of Lithuanian and complete a dedicated language course. STANDARDIZATION AND EXPERT ACTIVITIES In 2016, the Language Commission held 8 meetings and its expert subcommissions held 93 meetings. The Commission adopted 2 resolutions and 16 advisory resolutions, 15 of which were normative. Approximately 260 expert opinions were prepared on the correctness of personal names, place names, institution names, words and phrases, on interpreting the meanings of words and sentences, and other matters. Approximately 200 questions were examined concerning the formation and alteration of surnames, the bestowal or alteration of given names, the identity of the same person’s given name and/or surname, and other matters. The names of 18 settlements and approximately 400 street names were assessed, and the Address Register was informed of the stress patterns of the names of 25 newly registered settlements. Terminology. At meetings of the Terminology Subcommission, 1,107 terminology entries from legal acts (mostly draft acts), terminology queries submitted by European Union institutions through the single-window system BENDRINĖ KALBA 90 (2017) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos | 3 were considered, along with 40 terms submitted through that system, 6 draft terminology dictionaries, 2 dictionary supplements, a terminology standard, Lithuanian biological nomenclature names (2,212), and other questions of terminology and replacing foreign words with Lithuanian equivalents. At meetings of the Language Commission, 3 terminology dictionaries and a terminology standard received positive assessments, and 1,121 terminology entries (182 sets of terminology entries) were approved. These were terms used or proposed for use in legal acts and other documents in areas overseen by state institutions, including the environment, energy, finance, defence, culture, social security and labour, transport, communications, law, economics, health, public safety, agriculture, fisheries and food, among others. By means of its protocol resolutions, the Language Commission approved two recommendations on Lithuanian names for poisonous plants and 5 recommendations on the names of certain amphibians and molluscs. Approximately 300 consultations on terminology, replacing foreign words, and word meanings were provided by email and telephone. Those consulted included translators, editors, and terminologists from European Union institutions, as well as civil servants and employees of Lithuanian institutions, employees of private institutions, and individuals. During the year, 1,121 approved terminology entries (182 sets of terminology entries) for terms used or proposed for use in legal acts and other documents were published in the Terminology Bank of the Republic of Lithuania (http://terminai.vlkk.lt). In addition, 1,023 Lithuanian biological nomenclature names were added to the Terminology Bank as recommended terms: 623 plant names, 377 amphibian names, and 23 mollusc names. At the end of 2016, the Terminology Bank of the Republic of Lithuania contained a total of 238,725 terminology entries: 12,966 approved, 224,597 recommended, and 1,162 not recommended. Grammar. The Subcommission on Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation considered the results of a study of the relationship between current usage and the Lithuanian syntax norms and recommendations presented in the Language Advice book Syntax: Use of Cases—specifically, the section on cases—and began considering prepositions. At meetings of the temporary “Translation Guide” subcommission, comments were prepared for the Lithuanian Translation Directorate of the European Parliament on the formation and spelling of Lithuanian names for United Nations institutions and bodies; a list of United Nations institutions and bodies with comments was also submitted. A working group established by the Language Commission prepared a draft of rules for transliteration from Yiddish and Hebrew. BENDRINĖ KALBA 90 (2017) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos | 4 Personal names and place names. The Subcommittee on Proper Names considered current issues concerning Lithuanian place names, the conformity of citizens’ given names with the norms, and changes to surnames; it coordinated the stress of given names with accentology specialists and submitted to the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language a frequency list of recommended names of Baltic origin (prepared by Prof. Dr. Daiva Sinkevičiūtė). At joint meetings of the Subcommittees on Proper Names and Grammar, provisions on the use of personal names from other languages were considered. The State Commission of the Lithuanian Language adopted a resolution amending “On Lithuanian Spelling and Punctuation,” as well as a resolution recorded in the minutes, “On the Recommendation ‘On the Grammatical Adaptation of Authentic Personal Names.’” At the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a Lithuanian form for the new name of the Ukrainian city Dnipropetrovsko was established: Dn幣pras. Based on the changes to the names of populated places adopted by Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, a list of Ukrainian and Lithuanian-adapted forms was compiled (approximately 1,000 populated-place names). Lexicon. The recommended List of Foreign-Word Equivalents was supplemented by a protocol resolution. The dictionary subcommittee reviewed the reviews of entries for the letters b, d, and ž, as well as the entries themselves, in the Dictionary of Standard Lithuanian being compiled at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. The structure of the Language Advice section Word Meanings, which had begun to be compiled, was discussed, along with its degrees of evaluation, principles for presenting meanings, and entries for the letters b and d. Stress. In light of research findings on stress patterns, the Subcommittee on Pronunciation and Stress continued its review of stress recommendations and, at the suggestion of the Terminology Subcommittee, considered the stress of compound adjectives and adjectives formed with the prefix be-. Six recommendations were adopted (by resolutions of the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language recorded in the minutes) concerning the stress of compound adjectives and adjectives formed with the prefix be-; the pronunciation of international words with stressed stem diphthongs el, er ir eu; and changes to the stress of certain nouns of foreign origin, suffixed adjectives, and adverbs. Textbook assessment. The Textbook Assessment Subcommittee reviewed manuscripts for 36 general-education subject textbooks—48 books in total (some textbooks consisted of several parts). Nineteen books were immediately awarded a mark certifying linguistic correctness; three books were returned to publishers for correction; and comments were provided on 26 books—manuscripts of textbooks being reissued. The language of 15 higher-education textbook manuscripts was assessed: the language of 11 textbooks did not meet the requirements for correctness, while that of four met them only partially. Of the 10 textbooks already published and submitted for expert review, the language of six did not meet the requirements for correctness, while that of four met them only partially. BENDRINĖ KALBA 90 (2017) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos | 5 OTHER ACTIVITIES In 2016, 38,600 language consultations were provided, including 14,720 online and 23,880 by telephone. The Centre of Registers was provided with 19,281 consultations through a dedicated electronic system on the conformity of legal entity names with the norms of standard Lithuanian. The Language Consultation Bank was supplemented with 416 new entries (it now contains more than 12,500 headwords). At Vilnius University, the descriptions of the content of Lithuanian as a foreign (state) language instruction—Breakthrough, Threshold, Threshold, Advanced—were updated, and new descriptions for levels C1 and C2 were prepared and submitted to the Ministry of Education and Science, which is responsible for developing a language proficiency assessment system, to support the further development of a system for teaching, assessing, testing, and certifying Lithuanian as a foreign language in accordance with European standards. The State Commission of the Lithuanian Language continued its assessment, begun in previous years, of the Lithuanian language used in higher education. Master’s theses and dissertations submitted to the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences’ competition for the best research works were assessed. It was noted that the language quality of the works submitted to the competition was unsatisfactory: more than 80 percent were judged not to meet the requirements for linguistic correctness, with numerous errors in syntax, lexicon, and punctuation. Speaking at the Conference of Rectors of Lithuanian Universities, the Chair of the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language, Daiva Vaišnienė, emphasized that academic writing, terminology creation and use, and functional literacy skills should be developed and reinforced through a course in language for specific purposes, whose teaching in higher education institutions is funded through a program coordinated by the State Commission. In recent years, however, an increasing number of study programs have ceased to include such a course. In 2016, the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language held 12 seminars at 11 higher education institutions to improve standard Lithuanian skills among lecturers and doctoral students, as well as editors of scholarly journals, textbooks, and other materials. Two seminars were held for editors and translators of scholarly journals, textbooks, and other materials. Taking into account the objective of the Information Society Development Programme for 2014–2020, “The Digital Agenda of the Republic of Lithuania”—“to create and develop publicly accessible language and written-language resources and services, and to deploy Lithuanian-language technologies and digital products in ICT”—the Subcommittee on Language Technologies considered five project proposals submitted by research and study institutions and proposed that the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania include them in the list of projects funded by the programme. An extended meeting of the Subcommittee on Language Technologies was held at the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language, attended by representatives of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the “Infobalt” association, and the aforementioned BENDRINĖ KALBA 90 (2017) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos | 6 The providers of project proposals. Priority projects and the possibility for information technology developers to make use of the tools and resources created were discussed. It was noted that, in developing public electronic services, the goals of both the public sector and business coincide: language tools and resources must be of good quality, freely accessible, and available for use and further development in other products. The State Commission of the Lithuanian Language is one of the partners in the European Language Resources Consortium (ELRC), initiated by the European Commission and coordinating the development of multilingual translation tools and their use for public administration needs. On 24 February, the Office of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, ELRC, the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language, and the Representation of the European Commission held a seminar for representatives of the state institutions of the Republic of Lithuania. On 3 June, the 6th Conference of the Lithuanian Terminology Forum took place. It was organized by the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language together with the Lithuanian Language Department of the Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission, the Lithuanian Language Unit of the Directorate for Translation of the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, and the Office of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. In 2016, the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language became a member of the Terminology Working Group of the Association of Translation Companies of European States (COTSOES). One of the activities of this international organization is harmonizing terminology among the institutions of the European Union member states. At the initiative of the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language, the first Lithuanian Language Days were held from 16 February to 11 March. Around 800 events promoting the Lithuanian language in Lithuania and abroad and enhancing its prestige took place in 53 municipalities and Lithuanian communities abroad. On 19 February, the State Commission’s awards for significant work in the creation of Lithuanian terminology, the fostering of the language of science, and public language education were ceremonially presented in the hall of the Academy of Sciences. The National Dictation competition was held for the ninth time. The competition is organized by the Civic Thought Institute, and the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language is one of its partners. Assistance was provided in organizing the 9th national schoolchildren’s competition “Clean Language – Clear Mind.” More than 16,000 pupils in grades 5–10 from schools in Lithuania and abroad took part. Received 2017 09 28 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ State Commission of the Lithuanian Language Gedimino Ave. 60, LT-01110 Vilnius [email protected] BENDRINĖ KALBA 90 (2017) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204