Iš Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos komisijos veiklos

BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 THE STATE COMMISSION OF THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES (Prepared according to the 2014 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 2014, 38 projects were implemented under the State Language Standardization, Use, Education and Dissemination Programme 2006–2015. The last volume of the series of world place names dictionaries, prepared on behalf of the Language Commission, has been published. Asia (Cambodia–Vietnam) (Centre for Science and Encyclopedia Publishing), created the dictionaries of this series World Placenames. The Americas and the World. Africa. Antarctica. Australia. Oceania electronic databases and search engines. Three Lithuanian Language Institute publications relevant not only to the language community but also to teachers, pupils and students have been published: Klementina Vosylytė’s Comparative Dictionary, Žaneta Markevičienė’s and others. Vidiškių šnektos dictionary and series of Lithuanian language dialect school book Rytų aukštaičiai panevėžiškiai with CD. Furthermore, specialty language teaching in higher university schools, state language courses for foreign-speaking residents of Lithuania and immigrants from third countries were supported. Language education and dissemination projects are also supported. 934 Lithuanian publications of 30 titles were purchased for the public libraries of higher university schools, colleges, county, state and municipal libraries. Twelve 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. The Lithuanian University of Education has completed a research on the relationship of Lithuanian language syntax norms and recommendations with current usage. This will lead to a review of syntax norms and, if necessary, to recommendations for the public. On the website of the Lithuanian Language Institute, the publication “Administrative language topics” has been published. The publication was prepared on the basis of the scientific study “European Union document language study” supported by the Language Commission in 2011–2012. Several particularly relevant research projects on the current language (pronunciation tendencies, foreign words functioning in Lithuanian common language, terminology development), common language, dialects and other language variants interaction and change have been started. Comments on the draft constitutional law on the state language of the Republic of Lithuania have been submitted to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. Conclusion on two draft laws on the writing of names and surnames of the Republic of Lithuania in documents (No. XIIP-1653 and No. XIIP-1675). BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. Activities of the State Lithuanian Language Commission | 2 Article 16 of the State Language Act and the Civil Code not approved Article 2.40 provisions concerning the conformity of the names of legal persons to the Lithuanian common language norms, which provides for the legalization of the use of other languages in those names. A proposal was submitted to the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Lithuania to clarify the concept of signage defined in the draft law amending Articles 2, 12, 24 and 26 of the Advertising Act, so that it would not be possible not to use Lithuanian language in signs. Taking into account the request of the Language Commission, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has prepared draft decrees of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, which allow a person filling in an application for restoring citizenship or issuing a certificate of Lithuanian origin to write his or her name and surname from a travel or other personal identity document using the special Lithuanian letters ą, ę, į, ų, ū, ė, č, š, ž (so far there was no such possibility). IMPLEMENTATION OF THE TERM BANK OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA STATUTE During the year, 1288 approved term articles used or provided for use in legislative acts were published in the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania (website terminai.vlkk.lt), as well as 5 term articles of legislative acts or other documents that must be provided and 4 that cannot be provided. 1530 Lithuanian names of botanical and zoological nomenclature recommended or positively evaluated by the protocol decisions of the Language Commission have also been added to the Terms Bank. In total, at the end of 2014, this bank comprised 214,865 term articles: 10,618 approved, 203,078 to be submitted, 1,169 not to be submitted term articles. NORMATIVE AND EXPERT ACTIVITIES In 2014, there were 8 meetings of the Language Commission and 82 meetings of expert subcommissions. Around 230 expert opinions were prepared on the correctness of personal names, place names, names of institutions, words, compounds, interpretation of the meaning of words and sentences, etc. Termination. During the meetings of the Terminology Subcommittee, 1336 terms articles of legislative acts and their drafts were discussed, 25 terminology requests (32 terms) submitted by the European Union institutions through the one-stop system, 4 manuscripts of terminology dictionaries, 1 supplement to the dictionaries, 2 draft Lithuanian terminology standards, 1 supplement to the standard, names of Lithuanian nomenclature of botany and zoology. Further discussed in the European dictionary Eurovoc Version 4.4 (terms in the fields of social affairs, economics, trade, science, international relations, defence, etc.). 3 terminology dictionaries, 1 terminology standard and 1288 terminology articles were approved at the meetings of the Language Commission. These are the terms of legislation, most often their drafts, in the areas supervised by state institutions (finance, public security, culture, law, economy, transport, communications, agriculture, fisheries and food, energy, environment, health, pharmaceuticals, social security, defence, etc.). BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. About 400 consultations on terminology and foreign words have been provided by e-mail and telephone. Translators, editors, terminologists of European Union institutions, Lithuanian institutions, private institutions, other interested parties. Two protocol resolutions on Lithuanian names of ornamental plants and one protocol resolution on Lithuanian names of some beetle families were adopted. Personnages et personnages. The resolution “On the amendment of the spelling of Sanskrit names and terms” was adopted – it was decided that in fiction and literature of a similar nature only the traditional, established in the Lithuanian language form of the name of the founder of Buddhism Buddha (not Budha) should be presented, as well as somewhat clarified rules of spelling of Sanskrit names and terms. It was decided to include the names of ethnographic regions in the list of Lithuanian place names. It was also decided to supplement the list of Lithuanian place names and to add another, also recognized as a normative form, Bardėnai, next to the official form of the village name Bardinai; this form is provided as the primary form. The subcommittee investigated the names of places (villages, rivers, parts of cities, bridges), as well as the problematic issues of the formation and abbreviation of personal names and surnames. Together with invited experts, the editors of the World Placenames dictionary discussed the issues of transcription of placenames in some Asian languages. At the joint meetings of the Subcommissions of the Names and Grammar, the provisions on the use of personal names in other languages in court documents were discussed. Lexicon. Taking into account the peculiarities of the management of borrowed vocabulary, the procedure for norming borrowed vocabulary has been clarified – it will be normed by Language Advice Books, recommendations adopted by protocol resolutions. At the same time, the borrowed part of the List of Major Language Errors approved by Decision No. 68 of 18 December 1997 (sub-item 1.1 “Unpresentable foreign words and their derivatives” and sub-item 1.2 “Unuseable new foreign words”) was abandoned. The evaluation of the words in the list of major language errors has not changed, and they continue to be excluded from common language. The following words are transferred to the Language Advice Book Lexis: Borrowing Use (2013). By Protocol Resolution No. PN-6, the List of Foreign Words Correspondents was supplemented – it includes 40 names of culinary, medical, artistic fields borrowed from the Japanese language. Several dozen recommendations for foreign words in various fields have been submitted Consultation in the bank. The subcommittee of the dictionary discusses the articles of the letters B, C, H, J, O of the General Lithuanian Dictionary. Grammar, spelling and punctuation. At the meetings of the Temporary Subcommittee on the Translation Manual, the final version of Part I of the Translation Manual for the Institutions of the European Union (released in 2014) was discussed, as well as the first version of Part II. Spelling. The pronunciation of some adverbs has been adjusted. The Subcommittee on Advice and Pronunciation considered the problematic issues of common words (provided by the editors of the Common Lithuanian Language Dictionary) and actual words (provided by the Research Group on Citizen Names). Evaluation of textbooks. The textbook evaluation subcommittee considered 15 manuscripts of general education textbooks – a total of 25 books (some textbooks in several parts). The mark confirming the correctness of the language was immediately given to 17 books, 4 books were returned to publishers for correction, 4 books are manuscripts of transferred textbooks, only comments were made about them. The language of 51 textbooks published by higher education institutions was assessed: 2 textbooks met the correctness requirements, 19 textbooks met the correctness requirements partially (the textbooks contain things to be corrected), BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. From the activities of the State Lithuanian Language Commission | 4 The language of 30 textbooks did not meet the requirements of correctness, they contained major vocabulary, syntax, punctuation and spelling errors. OTHER WORK About 37,500 language consultations were provided during the year, of which 15,240 online and about 22,300 by telephone. 20,895 consultations were provided to the Registry Centre through a special electronic system regarding the compliance of legal entity names with the Lithuanian common language norms. The language consultation bank database was supplemented with 579 new entries in 2014 (now there are over 11,500 title words). The language commission website has opened a new subsite pasaulio-vardai.vlkk.lt. The database of the first two volumes of the dictionary World Placenames, prepared by the Science and Encyclopedias Publishing Center, Europe and America, has been transferred to it on the initiative of the Language Commission. This website publishes place names of 98 countries – about 70 thousand pages of place names. A working group consisting of representatives of all university higher education institutions carried out an overview of the programmes of specialty language courses taught in higher education institutions and presented a new version of the Specialty Language Programme (approved by a protocol resolution). In 2014, a study on the state of Lithuanian language in higher education institutions was completed. The experts of the Language Commission evaluated the language of 77 textbooks, 1068 master’s theses and 714 doctoral dissertations. It was found that 66% of textbooks did not meet the language correctness requirements, as many as 38% of master’s theses and 17% of doctoral dissertation abstracts were classified as having a low level of literacy. The results of the study were presented at the meeting of the Lithuanian University Rectors Conference. Together with the Conference of Rectors, the Language Commission addressed the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania – it was proposed to review the Lithuanian language programs of general education: to strengthen systematic Lithuanian language teaching and to provide graduates of general education schools with the necessary Lithuanian language foundations. The Lithuanian Science Council was approached and it was proposed to oblige the editors of reference books, dictionaries, encyclopedias and other publications funded from its programmes to submit to the Language Commission for evaluation the terms articles of these publications and to publish them in the term bank of the Republic of Lithuania, to ensure the language correctness of monographs, journals and other scientific publications funded from the programmes implemented by the Lithuanian Science Council. It is not the first time that the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania has been proposed to provide measures to ensure better language quality of teachers working in the Lithuanian general education system: to take into account the language correctness of the educational content transmitted when organizing the external evaluation of school activities, to supplement the regulations on teacher certification so that all teachers who are re-certified and are seeking to obtain a higher qualification category update their knowledge of the Lithuanian language and attend a special language course. The Study Quality Assessment Centre has been proposed to include in the description of the achieved study results a provision on the ability to teach in the correct Lithuanian language, knowledge of the subject terminology. At the beginning of the year, the Language Commission discussed with the members of the State Baccalaureate Examinations Evaluation Commission the description of language evaluation of thesis in Lithuanian language and literature. It was used to evaluate the final works of students in 2014. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ. From the activities of the State Lithuanian Language Commission | 5 The Language Commission discussed the language teaching part of the draft Lithuanian language and literature curriculum for basic education. The program organizers were advised to supplement the language part, to specify some things (syntax, punctuation). On June 20, the Language Commission held a consultation, in which the current situation of teaching Lithuanian as a foreign and state language and the evaluation of achievements was examined. On the initiative of the Language Commission together with the Committee on Education, Science and Culture of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, with the assistance of the French Institute in Lithuania, an international conference “State language policy: insights and guidelines” was held in the Seimas on 24 March. Guests from Estonia, Latvia, Denmark and France introduced the documents governing language policy in their countries and some aspects of their implementation. The annual conference of the Terminology Forum of the Institutions and Bodies of the European Union and the Republic of Lithuania (LTF) was held on 6 June. The language commission was one of its organizers. The National Dictation Competition was held for the seventh time. More than 7,000 people participated in the first stage of the competition, the dictation was written in all Lithuanian municipalities, Vilnius Book Fair and Lithuanian embassies abroad. The Language Commission is one of the partners of the dictation organizer P.A.I. Civic Thought Institute. The Language Commission, as a partner, participated in the implementation of the program “Language I create!” initiated by the Lithuanian Union of Students, which aimed to remind the national problem – incorrect language use and decreased literacy. Helped the organizers of the 7th national school contest “Clean language – clean head”, contributed to the preparation of the contest “Little Dictation 2014”, in which 4th grade students of Vilnius city schools participated. Ten years ago, the Lithuanian Internet domain lt began to register names with distinctive Lithuanian alphabet letters. On the occasion of the anniversary, the Lithuanian Computerists Union together with the lt domain name registration service Domreg.lt, the Language Commission and the association Infobalt organized the election of the most beautiful lt domain name. A committee of representatives of these institutions selected 21 names and proposed the most beautiful one to be chosen by the readers of the news portal Delfi.lt. The most beautiful name of the kindergarten website was chosen klaužada.lt. Cooperation with the creators of the Lithuanian television program “Good day, Lithuania” – in the second half of the year, every other week, the employees of the Language Commission introduced viewers to language topics. Received 05/11/2015 JŪRATĖ PALIONYTĖ State Lithuanian Language Commission Gedimino pr. 60, LT-01110 Vilnius [email protected]