Valentinai Skujiniai atminti

232 Stasys Keinys | In memory of Valentinas Skujiniai (1937.X.2–2015.IV.27) Valentine's Needles to remember (1937.X.2–2015.iV.27) Among pain, tears, laughter, and many paths of life, But they will all bring the crowds of people to the castle common. (Putin, The Common Castle, 1913) SECTION K Institute of Lithuanian Language At noon on 30 April 2015, the body of the famous Latvian linguist Valentina in Riga, the homeland of the most famous and hard-working Latvian linguist Skujiņa (Valentīna Skujiņa) was buried in the Forest Cemetery (Meža kapi) of the last decades. Among the many bouquets that covered the tomb and the wreaths and baskets set up around it, the common ring of candles lit up the eyes of Lithuanian white roses brought from Vilnius by our terminologists Albina Auksoriūte and Angela Kaulakienė, whose hearts told them to travel a long way to accompany a good acquaintance and companion of Lithuanian terminologists to eternity. V. Skujinia was a great scholar, educator of the culture of the native Latvian language and a lover of her homeland. Being simple, friendly, talkative, a great organizer, in addition to being a good singer and a traveler, she had many acquaintances both in her native country and abroad. She's a frequent guest. 233Terminologija | 2015 | 22 has also been in Lithuania, participating in Baltic congresses, scientific conferences and other language events organized by scientific institutions and higher education institutions. In addition, from 1976 to 1990, the Baltic terminologists and linguists were united by joint theoretical and methodological seminars held every two or three years in Vilnius, Tallinn and Riga; Valentina was the main organizer of a couple of seminars in Riga (it was not only in those seminars that people used to call each other by name). V. Skujinia began her academic career while still studying Latvian language and literature at the University of Latvia in the last (fifth) year in 1959, when she was accepted to work at the Institute of Language and Literature of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. After graduating from the university, she soon got a bar of never-ending Latvian terminology work, to which was added a language culture requiring constant care. V. Skujinia endured this dual burden for more than fifty years, moving from laboratory assistant to head of the Terminology and Language Culture Group, and after Latvia regained independence, to head of the Terminology Department of the Latvian Language Institute. She was also scientific secretary of the Terminology Commission of the Latvian Academy of Sciences from 1961, vice-chairperson from 1992 and chairperson from 1999. There is also a mountain climbing course on the mountain. In 1969, he defended his PhD dissertation “Technical sciences terms creation in Latvian” („Tehnisko zinātņu terminu veidošana latviešu valodā“). The theoretical monograph Latviešu terminoloģijas izstrādes principi (Principles of the development of Latvian terminology), published in 1993, provides a comprehensive explanation of the internal and interlingual and a brief overview of the non-verbal foundations of terminology development and management, based on the work of the aforementioned Terminology Commission over forty years (of which thirty had already been worked in by the author herself), as well as dictionaries of terms in various fields, bulletins and other publications published during that time. For this fundamental summarizing work on Latvian terminology, V. Skujiņš was awarded the doctorate of philology in the same year. In 1994, V. Skujinia was elected a corresponding member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, and three years later – a full member (from 2000 to 2012 she was also a member of the Senate of the Academy). In addition, since 1995 V. Skujinia has been a member of the International Institute for Terminology Research (iiTF) in Vienna and several other Latvian and international institutions. 234 Stasys Keinys | In memory of Valentinas Skujinis (1937.X.2–2015.IV.27) V. Skujinia was a very hard-working and active researcher. Although the most important theoretical and practical direction of her work throughout her years of scientific activity was Latvian terminology, she devoted a lot of time to the culture of the Latvian language, its establishment as a state language and its quality (she was a member of state language commissions for several years), scientific and technical language. The scope of the researcher’s work is easily understood by the fact that, in addition to the aforementioned dissertation and monograph, she has written several other important books – a dictionary of Latin and Greek parts of words used in Latvian (1999), a study on the 15th-century Latvian writer Georgs Mancelis’ dictionary Lettus (1638, the first dictionary of the Latvian language) and the collection Phraseologia Lettica (2006), two books dedicated to the Latvian language of official professional writings (1993; 1999, 2003, 2014), about 600 articles and articles popularizing science and science (language culture, terminology and other fields) published in scientific publications and general periodicals (part of them have been published in Lithuanian, Austrian, Danish, Estonian, Canadian, Russian, German and other countries and international scientific publications). By the way, it is probably her active cooperation in the periodical press and her care for the language that led to the linguist V. Skujinia being accepted into the Latvian Journalists’ Union. He has made a significant contribution to Latvian lexicography. She is one of the authors of the first one-volume normative interpretative dictionary of the Latvian language (Latviešu valodas vārdnīca, 1st edition 1987). She has worked especially productively in the field of terminology dictionaries – her name as an author, co-author, scientific editor or reviewer, expert has been entered in about seven dozen dictionaries of Latvian terms in various fields, she has led the preparation of large dictionaries of economics and management and pedagogy. Along with these works, the team led by V. Skujienė has written a large explanatory translation dictionary of basic linguistic terms (Valodniecības pamatterminu skaidrojošā vārdnīca, 2007) with English, German and Russian equivalents. It should be added that a considerable amount of the linguist’s time was devoted to the preparation of terminology bulletins recommended by the Terminology Commission of the Academy of Sciences, the harmonization of the standards of the Republic of Latvia and other practical terminology work. The extraordinary activity of V. Skujiņa as a scientist is evidenced by her participation in numerous scientific conferences in Latvia and other countries, the organization of conferences, the preparation and editing of their theses and materials, as well as collections of scientific articles. Very interesting and, besides 235Terminology | 2015 | 22 Undoubtedly, not only for Latvians, but also for the rest of the world, the publication of the Terminology Commission of the Latvian Academy of Sciences “Terminoloģijas Jaunumi” (“Terminology News”), conceived and edited by V. Skujiņa and published since 2002, is useful. By the way, the famous Latvian terminologist was also a member of the editorial board of our Terminology (5-19 books) from 1998 to 2012. For about three decades, V. Skujinia carried out her mission as a terminologist and language culturalist by assisting higher education institutions in Latvia – the University of Latvia, the Liepaja Academy of Education (University), the Riga Technical University and the Latvian University of Agriculture. In 1999 she was awarded the title of Professor in Liepaja. The main subjects taught by V. Skujinė were terminology, language culture, in addition to the occasional teaching of technical language and stylistics. For his contributions to Latvian terminology and language culture, V. Skujiņš was awarded the Janis Endzelins Prize of the Latvian Academy of Sciences (2001), the Eugene Viusters Prize of the International Terminology Information Centre (iNFOTeRM) (2006) and the Golden Owl Award of the Latvian Academy of Sciences and the Grindeks Foundation (2007). Colleagues of the Latvian Language Institute wrote in their farewell letter: “A distinguished linguist has left us – a renowned Latvian terminologist and theoretician of terminology, author of many dictionaries of terms, a worker of language culture and practice, a sincere and compassionate colleague, an energetic and hard-working man who dedicated his life to the Latvian language and nation.” The wonderful colleague, friend and helper will be remembered with a good word for a long time, her terminology works will be used by Lithuanian terminologists, and for a long time Velione will be mourned, in the words of her own letter, by her youth friends in terminology, whom she gladly remembers. Unfortunately, as Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas wrote (verse „Fantazijos iii“, 1925), Libera! - Free! – oh, you won’t To whom death reigns in life, To whom the shadows left by the sun The crosses of mourning marked the forehead.