Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos

BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 IŠ VALSTYBINĖS LIETUVIŲ KALBOS KOMISIJOS VEIKLOS (Prepared according to the 2015 report of the Language Commission) Language Programs & Courses The main objectives and tasks of the activities of the State Lithuanian Language Commission (hereinafter referred to as the Language Commission) are implemented through language programmes. In 2015, 32 projects were implemented under the State Language Standardization, Use, Education and Dissemination Programme 2006–2015. A new website of the Language Commission has been created. The term bank of the Republic of Lithuania has been supplemented with nearly 15 thousand term articles. The Science and Encyclopedia Publishing Center has created an electronic database of the volumes Asia (Afghanistan–United Arab Emirates) and Asia (Cambodia–Vietnam) of the World Place Names Dictionary series. Vilnius University has updated the descriptions of Lithuanian as a foreign language proficiency levels Lūžis, Pusiaukelė, Slenkstis and Height. The Institute of Lithuanian Language has completed the scientific edition of the oldest church book in Lithuania (Joniškis 1599–1621 baptismal records). The collection of scientific articles Problems of Language History and Dialectology 4 and Kazimieras Garšva’s monograph Latvian Lithuanian Schnecks with CD have been published. Further support was provided for the teaching of the specialty language in higher university schools, scientific research projects, state language courses for non-Lithuanian residents, the preparation and publication of thematic pages of the magazine Gimtoji kalba. 550 Lithuanian publications of 38 titles were purchased for higher education institutions and public libraries. 15 projects have been carried out under the 2011–2020 Programme of Research on the Functioning and Change of Lithuanian Common Language, Dialects and Other Language Variants. Several particularly relevant research projects on the interaction and change of the present language, common language, dialects and other language variants started in previous years will continue. Vilnius University has updated the electronic scientific resource Historical Dictionary of Lithuanian Language. Klaipėda University has completed filling in the Maritime Terms Usage Database. The Lithuanian Language Institute has prepared a publication Valerijus Čekmonas. Language interaction in Lithuania. 68 Lithuanian publications of 3 titles were purchased for higher schools and public libraries. JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. From the activities of the State Lithuanian Language Commission | 2 LEGAL BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 PROTECTION OF THE STATE LANGUAGE The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania has received proposals to clarify some of the concepts and definitions of the draft constitutional law on the state language of the Republic of Lithuania and the wording of several articles. The proposal of the Lithuanian Science Council that the draft Constitutional Law on the State Language should provide the possibility for Lithuanian scientists to submit the scientific part of the research funding application documentation only in English was not approved. At the request of the Law and Legal Order Committee of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, the Language Commission submitted an opinion on the draft law No. XIIP-1653(2) on the spelling of names and surnames of the Republic of Lithuania in documents. In evaluating the draft, the Language Commission followed the same provisions as those set out in the opinion submitted to the Seimas at the end of 2014 on the draft laws No. XIIP-1653 and No. XIIP-1675 on the writing of names and surnames of the Republic of Lithuania in documents: the names and surnames of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania in personal documents must be written in Lithuanian characters, but certain exceptions are possible, taking into account the needs of society and citizens. Such exceptions are proposed for persons who have acquired citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania – their names and surnames in personal documents issued by the Republic of Lithuania could be written in Latin characters according to the source of the document (identity document issued by another state), as well as for citizens of the Republic of Lithuania who have married foreigners and take their surnames and children of such spouses. In order to encourage the creation of Lithuanian terminology, the Ministry of Education and Science and the Lithuanian Science Council have been proposed to consider the preparation of dictionaries of explanatory terms of various scientific fields as a scientific work and to include this provision in the methodology of evaluation of scientific (artistic) works of scientific and study institutions. Provisions on the use of personal names in court documents, formulated after summarizing the discussions of the interinstitutional consultations held in the Language Commission, have been submitted to the National Courts Administration. New State Language Use, Standardization and Dissemination Programme 2016–2020 has been prepared For the year 2018. In 2015, there were 8 meetings of the Language Commission and 87 meetings of expert subcommissions. About 260 expert opinions on personal names, place names, names of institutions, words, compounds, interpretation of the meaning of words and sentences, etc. were prepared. Rated 29 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. From the activities of the State Lithuanian Language Commission | 3 BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 names of residential areas, about 380 street names, Address Register was informed about the accentuation of 17 newly registered names of residential areas. Approximately 200 questions regarding personal names were examined – mainly concerning the peculiarities of making and changing surnames, as well as the granting or changing of names. Termination. At the meetings of the Terminology Subcommittee, 1605 terms articles of legislative acts (mostly drafts) and other documents, terminological requests from European Union institutions via the one-stop-shop system (34 terms), 9 manuscripts of terminology dictionaries, 1 draft Lithuanian terminology standard, 1 643 names of Lithuanian nomenclature in biology, etc. were discussed. Continued European dictionary Eurovoc Discussion of version 4.4 – discussed terms in the fields of transport and documentation. During the meetings of the Language Commission, 9 dictionaries of terms, 3 supplements to dictionaries, 2 standards of terms, 1,287 articles of terms (197 sets of articles of terms) were approved – terms of legislation in areas supervised by state institutions (environment, energy, finance, defence, culture, social security, law, transport, communications, economy, health, public security, agriculture, fisheries and food, etc.). More than 300 consultations on terminology and foreign words have been provided by e-mail and telephone. Translators, editors, terminologists of the European Union institutions, as well as civil servants of Lithuanian institutions, employees of private institutions and other interested parties were consulted. A resolution was adopted on the amendment of the rules for the evaluation of the dictionaries of terms, a protocol resolution on the amendment of the general requirements for the preparation of dictionaries of terms, recommendations on the names of some plants, amphibians, molluscs. During the year, 1,287 approved (197 sets of term articles) and 10 proposed (1 set of term articles) term articles used or proposed for use in legislation or other documents were published in the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania (http://terminai.vlkk.lt). The bank also includes 1,120 Lithuanian names of biology nomenclature recommended by the protocol decisions of the Language Commission. The bank has been supplemented with terms from the Explanatory Dictionary of Electrical and Electronic Products, the electronic Lithuanian–English and English–Lithuanian Dictionary of Psychoanalysis Terms, the Explanatory Dictionary of Woodworking Terms, the Explanatory Dictionary of Clothing Terms, the Dictionary of Linguistics Terms, the Explanatory Dictionary of NATO Terms, the Explanatory Dictionary of NATO Medical Terms AMedP-13(A), 29 terms standards (5,372 terms articles). JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. From the activities of the State Lithuanian Language Commission | 4 BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 Personal names and place names. The Subcommittee on the Names of Persons discussed the issues of name standardization and surname change relevant to citizens, discussed dialect forms of names and the core of the Lithuanian Names of Persons. It is the most commonly used name in Baltic countries. At the joint meetings of the Subcommittees for the Nomenclature and Grammar, the Working Group of European Union Institutions’ specialists in Lithuanian translation prepared the material “Practices of use of personal names in other languages and problems in translating EU documents into Lithuanian”. A draft of Grammar Regulations for Personal Names in Other Languages has been prepared. Lexicon. The recommended list of foreign words matches has been updated. The dictionary subcommittee considered the reviews of the articles of the General Lithuanian Language Dictionary of the letters B, Č, D, E, F, Z and the articles themselves. Grammar. The Grammar Subcommittee considered the question of the family of non-syllable nouns with the pronounced ending -ė (atelier, foyer, essay, tour, etc.) of other languages. The provision provided in the Grammar of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language and in the 2002 Language Advice Book Grammatical Forms and their Use that such nouns should be avoided with masculine words was approved. The subcommittee also considered the evaluation of some morphological variants of nouns (akmenio, smailas, kuo, etc.) – such variants should be considered to be avoided and not included in the Common Lithuanian Language Dictionary. To discuss the results of the study of the relationship of Lithuanian language syntax norms and recommendations (provided in the Linguistic Advice Grammar Booklet) with current usage. At the meetings of the Temporary Subcommittee on the Translation Manual, the final version of the Translation Manual for the Institutions of the European Union, Part II, Chapter on Verbs and Prepositions, was discussed. Spelling. The Council and Spelling Subcommittee, taking into account the data of the spelling tendency survey, started a review of the spelling recommendations. Proposals for correcting the pronunciation of certain nouns, adjectives and adverbs were considered. The problematic issues of common and actual words were also discussed, as well as the prefixation of pronounced doubles el, er, eu in international words. Evaluation of textbooks. The textbook evaluation subcommittee considered 14 manuscripts of textbooks for general education – a total of 16 books (2 textbooks in two parts). The mark confirming the correctness of the language was immediately given to 6 books, 3 books were returned to publishers for correction, 7 books are manuscripts of transferred textbooks, only comments were made about them. Since 30 April 2015, the Textbook Evaluation Subcommittee of the Language Commission has also assessed the language of manuscripts of higher education textbooks. The subcommittee evaluated 4 higher education institutions JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. From the activities of the State Lithuanian Language Commission | 5 BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 textbooks manuscript language: the language of one textbook did not meet the correctness requirements, the language of three textbooks met them partially. OTHER WORK About 38,400 language consultations were provided during the year, of which about 16,480 were online and about 22,000 by telephone. The Registry Centre received 17,431 consultations through a special electronic system regarding the compliance of names of legal entities with Lithuanian common language norms. The language consultation database has been supplemented with 452 new entries over the past year (now it contains over 12,000 headings). On January 13, 2015, the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences presented a study on the Lithuanian language in doctoral studies, carried out by the Language Commission. It has been found that some higher university schools only partially implement the requirement of the Regulations on Doctoral Studies regarding the correctness of the dissertation language. After evaluating the language of the abstracts of 714 doctoral dissertations, it was found that 17% of the abstracts did not meet the correctness requirements, 31% of the abstracts met them only partially. Based on the results of the language research of higher education textbooks, master’s theses and doctoral dissertations, the Language Commission submitted proposals to the Ministry of Education and Science and the Lithuanian Science Council on ensuring the correctness of the Lithuanian language in the field of science. The Language Commission organized two seminars for the editors of higher education textbooks “Current issues of editing scientific papers” and a seminar on terminology issues. The seminars discussed topical issues of spelling, punctuation, syntax, terminology, discussions and consultations were held on issues of editing higher education textbooks. The Language Technology Subcommittee considered five project proposals from various institutions and bodies and submitted them to the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania, proposing to include them in the list of projects funded by the Information Society Development Programme 2014-2020 “Digital Agenda of the Republic of Lithuania”. The projects are related to the creation of a Lithuanian digital environment, development of language technologies and resources, accessibility and dissemination of electronic language services. Language Commission website VLKK.lt published new Palemon font version (3.0). On 5 February 2015, the Committee on Education, Science and Culture and the Language Commission held a conference in the Seimas entitled “Twenty Years of the State Language Act”. The Language Commission was one of the organizers of the international conference “Scientific, Administrative and Educational Terminology Components” organized by the Lithuanian Terminology Forum (LTF) and the Lithuanian Language Institute on 4-5 June (together with the European Commission Translation Office). JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos | 6 BENDRINĖ KALBA 89 (2016) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 Lithuanian Language Department of the General Directorate, Lithuanian Language Institute, Council of the European Union and Seimas Chancellery of the Republic of Lithuania). The National Dictation Competition was held for the eighth time. The Language Commission is one of the partners of the Civil Society Institute of Civic Thought. Helped the organizers of the national student competition “Clean language – clean head”. Daiva Vaišnienė, Chairperson of the Language Commission, participated in the 13th Annual Conference of the European Federation of National Language Institutions (EFNIL) in Helsinki on 7-9 October. It focuses on administrative language, which should be clearly understood by citizens, straightforward, concise and correct. Received 23 December 2016 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ State Lithuanian Language Commission Gedimino pr. 60, LT-01110 Vilnius [email protected]