Pavydėtina profesoriaus Vito Labučio darbų ir veiklos įvairovė

232 Languages and Culture | 85 Personnel ALBINUS DRUKTEINIS University of Klaipeda Envyable ProProfessor Vito labuČio VARIETY OF WORK AND ACTIVITIES In a commemorative article, we usually expect a description of scientific works and other activities, a revelation of personality. this, of course, should be. but, on the other hand, on jubilee occasions we listen to verbal descriptions and this would not be a new thing either for the celebrant himself or for others. For a scientist, it is probably more valuable to publish various, even polemical, reflections on the topics of his research, on the issues of other scientific works. Therefore, this article, even if it is commemorative, will focus on commenting on the published studies, reviews, individual notes in the short path of the researcher. Draktein. The enviable variety of works and activities of Professor Vito labutis 233 ti in them the most useful (of course, subjectively) statements, descriptions, positions for linguistics. Prof. Vitas Labutis is known primarily as a syntaxist, continuing the research and descriptions of the Lithuanian language syntax by Jonas Jablonskis and Jonas Balkevičius. The classification of word combinations, especially syntactic semantics, presented in the textbook Problems of word combinations (labutis 1976), which was published in 1976, is the basis for describing word combinations and word relationships in the descriptions of language syntax and in the syntax course of higher schools. No matter how many different studies and descriptions of compounds you read, it still seems more convincing not to assign pairs of words connected by a connective link to compounds, to split the connection of words passing through the predicative center into the connection of the word compound and the predicative connection of the sentence, i.e. the interpretation as a connection of two different levels, together with the refusal of the name predicative compound. Different directions of syntactic description offer different interpretations of syntactic relationships, but they do not seem so convincing when compared with the concept of syntactic relationships, which is associated with syntactic connections arising from the knowledge of reality and conveyed by meaningful words. truth (without avoiding controversy), so far it is not possible to explain the concept of compound word combinations consistently. considering as a compound the interconnection of two words of independent lexical meaning, connected by subordination relations, it is difficult to imagine how a third word could be inserted here. The dependent accent, having joined the dependent, simply forms a new word combination. and the interrelationship of word combinations is no longer a matter of word combination structure. When evaluating syntactic phenomena, functional similarities or differences have always been taken into account. After all, the interpretation of the words passing through the predicative center as a compound and as the center of the sentence is possible by separating the role of that word pair in the communicative unit – sentence (statement) from it as a unit of realization of syntagmatic relationships. Due to their functional closeness, in Lithuanian syntax (labutis 1998 and others) secondary elements are discussed next to sentence parts of the same kind. in general theoretical questions of functional approach Professor was raised for a long time. In the 1981 article Linguistics, the author, polemizing about the direction of description of language phenomena from form to meaning or from meaning to form, does not agree with the position “or”: both directions of research are necessary, complementing each other (labutis 1981: 57). It is generally assumed that the initial stage of the description of language phenomena or the level of language is dominated by the description from forms to meanings, and later, after accumulating the necessary information about each language unit or 234 Languages Culture | 85 their group, – the opposite. seems, the grammar of the Lithuanian language is now sufficiently described. However, such a study of metalinguistic commentaries in Kazimieras Župerka’s description of the competition of language means (Župerka 1995), which is strongly related to the speaker’s intentions and describes the functioning of language, can still be attributed to the study from form (expression) to meaning. Apparently, every new approach to the phenomenon of language, every new aspect of research requires determining the functions of language units in the chosen environment, in this case – in the act of communication. Thus, the need for both functional directions postulated in the article was an important theoretical provision of functional research, relevant not only in the specific case of the article. The detailed description of one of the functional directions is returned much later – in an article published in the electronic journal Lietuvių kalba (labutis 2007). The title of the article, “Introduction to the Speaker’s Functional Grammar”, suggests that the above-mentioned direction from meaning to form is extended on the meaning side to the speaker’s intention, to the act of communication. and this is completely explainable and acceptable: many facts of language, even the laws of the language system can be explained, or perhaps need to be explained, by the speaker's wishes to convey information about the external or internal world in one way or another. In the case of a language, the definition of the language itself can be difficult. The article reviews various models of functional description and concludes that the model of speaker’s functional grammar, discussed in the works of Simon Dik and Anna Sievierska, is the most interesting and promising. in Lithuanian linguistics there are examples of functional grammar description. The functional description of adele Valeckienė (Valeckienė 1998), based on the London (Helidėjus) functional school, although interesting, is oriented to the features of the language system, to its structure, and this distances the description from the features of the act of communication, from the most important functions of language, although the direction of the description is from meaning to ways of its realization, i.e. the description is both more systematic and close to current theories. V. Labutis’s article as a program of functional research – it is called the introduction to functional grammar – is important for various studies of the Lithuanian language at least in that area. One of the characteristics of this article, which is also characteristic of other articles by the author and of all his studies in general, is a careful review of the history of research in the analyzed field. The concept of proposition, as it is described in the article, was already used by the authors of the Por Royale grammar in the middle of the 15th century. and significant (modes of signification) have come from the speculative grammars of the 12th century, called modists. a. Printing. The enviable variety of works and activities of Professor Vito labutis 235 or a completely different case of atids and past, and small things of description. We know how important it is to use samples properly in research. It is possible to select the most appropriate examples to illustrate the statement, to generalize from a sufficient number of examples. The method of selecting examples determines the reliability of reasoning, statements. The presentation recently read by the Professor at the conference dedicated to the centennial of the syntax of the Lithuanian language by Jonas Jablonskis was precisely about the examples presented in this syntax description, their diversity and importance*. attention was drawn to the importance of natural examples, common in colloquial language, as well as examples from various sources, sometimes no less indicative of the descriptive subject than their generalizations. At the same time, it is a look back at past works, at what is valuable and applicable in current research. Attention to the accuracy of the subject, the search for the most appropriate word, phrase to convey the idea – this is what can be learned from the published researches of the Professor, educational publications, what was learned when writing his own scientific works from his notes as a supervisor or reviews of articles. The scientific interests of Vito labutis are extremely diverse. Kazis Pakalkas published the Old Konstantino Sirvydo Dictionary (1997) and soon after published the article “Why are the descriptive languages not mentioned in Konstantino Sirvydo dictionary?” (labutis 2001). It presents interesting reasonings about the reasons why Lithuanian should not be mentioned in the dictionary and why all languages should be mentioned in the dictionary’s title. Translations from English and into English are increasing – an article is published on the equivalents of impersonal sentences in Lithuanian and English, comparing their models (labutis 2008). In 2002, he prepared a seemingly distant for a syntaxist publication, Daukšių krašto žodynas (Dictionary of the Daukšių region), a tribute to the native dialect. In 2011, a comprehensive article was published about Juozas Lazauskas, an enlightened person from the region of Daukšiai (labutis 2011). and that's far from all that could testify to that diversity. Although a linguist should be a scientist in one of the fields of science, it is probably the most difficult for a linguist to limit himself to scientific research. Language is a means of thinking, a means of conveying ideas is also for scientists of all fields, and for any speaker engaged in any activity, so the competence to discuss language I think everyone has. A linguist, however much he would like to delve into the depths of the science, cannot remain aloof from various discussions about language and linguists, about language use and its regulation. * The article by Prof. Vito Labutis, based on the presentation at the conference, is published in this volume of Language Culture, pp. 19–36. 236 Language Culture | 85 In even a few articles, the professor responds to the thoughts of linguists and non-linguists about the organization of language, the ideology of language regulation. very consistently and argumentatively answers, for example, the reasonings expressed in the group conversation of intellectuals about unjustified language regulation, about the dictates of linguists, about the worship of the Lithuanian language and about its inability and inadequacy for certain areas of activity (labutis 2011a). Sometimes even in a bitter manner, but quite restrained, the author reflects on statements that are far from restrained and scientific. One can fully agree with the author that the lack of understanding of language as a part of a nation’s culture and history leads to a dead end, and wonder how unsuccessful the interpretation of language development and activities related to its analysis are. The reasoning of the so-called modern linguists, who are involved in language theory, is also analyzed – about prescriptive and descriptive descriptions (labutis 2011b). The author shows with examples of specific studies that it is not possible to separate these two ways of description, that any proposal of regulation of usage arises from the analysis of the language system, the laws and the evolution. It can be added that only a linguist who has not done similar work can think that the norm-setters set the norm from the eye or pull from the hat. For a whole decade, there has been a discussion about the regulation of the use of non-Lithuanian surnames, partly written in non-Lithuanian characters, which has grown into more general themes of the preservation of the Lithuanian language, the relationship between the language system and usage, usage and its regulation. Professor has published a number of articles on these issues or has otherwise responded to the issues of names. The professor clearly defends the provision to write non-Lithuanian surnames adapted, according to pronunciation, presenting according to the case and original. In commenting on the preamble of the draft submitted to the Seimas, the author sees its contents that go beyond language theory and are dangerous for language. In his opinion, also based on the lexical research of evalda jakaitienė, personal nouns are part of the language system, like other nouns, only their semantics is different (labutis 2010). and there is no denying that. at least in certain areas, texts in those areas could be subject to compulsory adaptation (not just grammatical correction). On the other hand, the general wording (5.1) of the 60th Decision of the State Lithuanian Language Commission is imperative, i.e. it should be understood as a compulsory adaptation, only the contradictorily described conditions of adaptation make it unimportant and optionally applicable. This provision is also defended in another discussion article (labutis 2007b), which raises the importance of precise and unstressed arguments. a. Printing. Enviable variety of work and activities of Professor Vito labutis 237 A lot of time and energy the Professor devoted to normative work. He is the author of a part of the Language Practice Tips (1976, 2nd edition 1985), the author of Language Tips 2: Syntax (s1, s2, s3 – 2003), the author of numerous articles on various issues of language use in the mother tongue. Closely related to this work is his work in the State Lithuanian Language Commission and its working group for the preparation of the Language Advices, as well as in the Lithuanian Language Society and during its restoration (since 1989) and development of its activities. The deep analysis of the work at the conventions of the Society was always a good starting point for further activities. Now, when the Society has distanced itself from the topical issues of language, it would be useful to recall V. Labutis’s considerations about the conceptual nature of its activities. In more than one article Professors draws attention to poor translations (labutis 2005a, 2005b) and makes various suggestions how to avoid the deteriorating situation of translations. The practical aspect of language does not slip out of sight even in purely theoretical research. For example, in the semantic analysis of transport verbs (labutis 2007a) the author does not miss the opportunity to comment on the penetration of the verb vežti into the place of its more specific synonyms in the usage and presents it as one of the conclusions of the study. such broad interests is professor Vitas labutis. After his honourable anniversary, he was still able to be met at some conference dedicated to language issues, read his thoughts, for example, in the comments on the discussion of the Lithuanian language program for secondary education, communicate at the international island summer school of linguistics in Rokiškis district. I doubt that we, being younger, have the desire and persistence not to lose sight of all the most important matters of language. With this review I wanted to celebrate the Professor’s work, once again mention the work done and look for the most important attractive points in those works, try to see the peak of thoughts, the most important point of interest, which encourages those looking at those works not to think that something has already been done and it is possible to rest. literature labutis V. 1976: Problems of word combinations. – Teaching aid, Vilnius: labutis V. 2005a: Increased demand for translators – new threats Vilnius State University. labutis V. 1981: syntax description possibilities and challenges. – Linguistics 32(1), 54–61. 238 Language Culture | 85 labutis V. 1998: Lithuanian language syntax. 2nd revised edition, Vilnius: Vilnius University Press. labutis V. 2001: Why are descriptive languages not mentioned in Konstantinas Sirvydas's dictionary? – website-publication Postilei – 400. Accessed via Internet: <http://postilla.mch.mii.lt/Informacija.htm> (accessed 2012 m. December ). to the Lithuanian language. – Language Culture 78, 205-209. labutis V. 2005b: review: bill Mc Farlan. Speak plainly and understandably. "Rasa Klikūnienė". – Native Language 5, 19–24. labutis V. 2007: Introduction to Speaker's Functional Grammar. – Lithuanian language 1. Accessed via the Internet: <http://www.lietuviukalba.lt> (accessed December 2012). labutis V. 2007a: Semantics and synonymy of transport verbs. – Language Culture 80, 32-44. labutis V. 2007b: Let's discuss language issues with honor! – Bernardinai.lt; 2007 06 08. Accessed via the Internet: <http://www.bernardinai.lt> (accessed December 2012). labutis V. 2008: impersonal sentences in Lithuanian and their equivalents in English. – Language Studies 12, 5–10. labutis V. 2010: are nouns words? – Bernardinai.lt; 2010 03 09. Accessed via the Internet: <http://www.bernardinai.lt> (accessed December 2012). labutis V. 2011: Juozas Lazauskas – pedagogue, textbook author, Lithuanianist, philosopher, editor... Mokslo Lietuva, no. 21 (465), December 21. labutis V. 2011a: Modern intellectuals turn their backs on the Lithuanian language and mock linguists. – Lietuvos Aidas, August 19. Accessed via the Internet: <http://www.aidas.lt> (accessed December 2012). labutis V. 2011b: Roots of Language Culture and the Rising Winds of Modernism. – Language Culture 84, 9-16. Valeckienė A. 1998: Functional grammar of Lithuanian language, Vilnius: Institute of Science and Encyclopedia Publishing. Župerka K. 1995: Competition of language means as an object of Lithuanian language stylistics, Šiauliai: Šiaulių pedagoginis institutas. Received 20 December 2012