Terminologijos komisijos (1921–1926) vaidmuo lietuvių literatūros mokslo terminijos istorijoje

The Role of the Terminology Commission (1921–1926) in the History of Lithuanian Literary Studies Terminology ASTA MITKEVIČIENĖ Institute of the Lithuanian Language KEYWORDS: Terminology Commission, literary studies terms, versification terms, names of stylistic devices, terminological synonymy In March 1921, the Terminology Commission was established under the Ministry of Education in Lithuania—the organized work of terminology officially began (for more, see Keinys 1967: 38–41; Auksoriūtė 2011). This article reviews the Commission’s activities in the field of literary studies terminology; some of the terms considered are compared with terms from the 19th century and with those in Kazys Bizauskas’s textbook on literary theory (1922). As is evident from its minutes, in its first year of work—the month of October 1921—the Terminology Commission tasked prose writer, literary historian, and critic Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas with forming a commission on literary terminology (a subcommittee). It was proposed that writers Liudas Gira and Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius be invited to join it (TKP No. 13). At its very next meeting, the subcommittee presented the Commission with a list of literary studies terms compiled by K. Bizauskas, author of the first Lithuanian textbook on literary theory; J. Tumas-Vaižgantas reported on it. These terms were considered at seven meetings in October and November of that same year. It should be noted that Jonas Jablonskis attended all these meetings, while Kazimieras Būga attended five. Antanas Smetona chaired six meetings, and Antanas Vireliūnas acted as secretary. The regular members of the Terminology Commission also attended the meetings: Pranas Mašiotas (6 meetings), Aleksandras Dambrauskas-Adomas Jakštas (5), J. Tumas-Vaižgantas (3), Pranas Dovydaitis (3), Adomas Varnas (2), and invited “collaborator” V. Krėvė-Mickevičius (3). K. Bizauskas, the person who submitted the terms, attended only one meeting. Unfortunately, unlike decisions concerning legal, road, geographical, and other terminology, the Terminology Commission did not publish its decisions on literary studies terms in a separate list. Discussion of literary terms in the Terminology Commission is mentioned by the compiler of the list of terms— 172 Asta Mitkevičienė Terminologijos komisijos (1921–1926) vaidmuo lietuvių literatūros mokslo terminijos istorijoje K. Bizauskas Fig. 1. Minutes No. 16 of the Terminology Commission 174 Asta Mitkevičienė Terminologijos komisijos (1921–1926) vaidmuo lietuvių literatūros mokslo terminijos istorijoje terms from individual fields of art, e.g.: architecture, sculpture, etc. It is worth noting that K. Bizauskas and later authors of interwar literary theory works adhered to a broad conception of literature (the object of literary studies includes not only fictional but also non-fictional texts and public speeches), and accordingly to broader boundaries for the terminology of literary studies itself. Most of the terms listed here are still readily recognizable today, and the majority are still in use. In all, the minutes of the Terminology Commission (see Fig. 1 for an example of the minutes) contain about 450 terms—not only nouns and noun phrases, but also adjectives and several verbs that can be used to form complex literary studies terms, e.g.: dramatic; eiletas; jaudus, jaudingas “emotional”; poėtinis, poėtiškas, poėtingas; vaizdus, vaizdingas; sistematinis, sistemiškas, sistemingas; asmeninti, asmenėti, suasmeninti, suasmenėti, etc. It is possible that they were also regarded as terms at the time. One or another word taken in isolation would not even be classified as terminology today, e.g.: mišras; vidujinis, išvidinis; nuoširdus, and the like. Russian equivalents are given for some terms in the minutes, and here and there comments are made about the use or meaning of terms, e.g.: “Literature must denote the same concept as is denoted by that word in foreign languages as well.” “Sakomasis and rašomasis work, sakytinis and rašytinis work, depending on which grammatical gender the rules of the language require.” “Proportionality, or balance. A work is proportional, balanced when all its parts are developed with due measure, evenly, neither too much nor too little” (TKP No. 14, underlined in the minutes). Let us pause over several groups of terms by meaning, first of all versification terms. The foundations of Lithuanian versification terminology (which is fairly systematic) were laid as early as the end of the 19th century. In 1898, V. Kudirka published Varpas, Tiesas eilėms rašyti. This was the first Lithuanian poetics. The Terminology Commission considered relatively few terms of versification. The Commission recorded the international terms rimas (V. Kudirka used atsiliepimą Vrp 1898 1 14), cezūra (V. Kudirka’s perkirtimas Vrp 1898 1 14, caesura Vrp 1898 2 28), while alongside the term posmo, of Baltic origin and used by V. Kudirka and other 19th-century authors, the minutes also record sruoga. According to LKŽe, the latter was proposed by J. Jablonskis, but never gained currency (in K. Bizauskas’s Literatūros teorija (1922), posmas appears on p. 91 and strofa on p. 91). V. Kudirka used the terms metriškos // toniškos // siliabiškos eilės Vrp 1898 1 14, with almost identical Terminologija | 2013 | 20 175 derivational components of mixed origin, the Terminology Commission also formed the terms metriškas // toniškas // silabiškas eiliavimas. The aforementioned K. Bizauskas textbook has metriška eilėdara BizL 82, silabiška eilėdara BizL 81, and the synonyms toniška eilėdara BizL 82 and garsinė eilėdara BizL 82. The Terminology Commission recorded three one-word terms denoting the same concept of “versification”—eilėdėtis, eilėdara and versifikacija—although the previous examples show that compound terms contain the component eiliavimas. K. Bizauskas mostly used eilėdarą BizL 78, although versifikacija BizL 78 was also used (in the earlier edition: eiliavimas BizR 54 and versifikacija BizR 52). Eilėdėtis did not catch on. The Terminology Commission’s minutes include the synonyms logikos // loginis kirtis, baltosios // berimės eilės (cf. V. Kudirka’s baltos / baltosios eilės Vrp 1898 3 40); K. Bizauskas’s textbook has only logikos kirtis BizL 79, baltosios eilės BizL 91. Thus, K. Bizauskas did not take everything from the Terminology Commission’s resolutions, although it should be noted that he participated in precisely the meeting at which versification terms were discussed. It is also useful to compare the names of stylistic devices with the corresponding terms in Kazimieras Macius’s article on folk songs, published in 1900 in Žinyčia. In that article, most names of stylistic devices in Lithuanian were probably used for the first time. It should be noted that some terms in the article and the Terminology Commission minutes coincide, e.g.: irony, metonymy, trope; others are phonetic or morphological variants. For example, K. Macius used antiteza Žnč 1900 1 80, figura Žnč 1900 1 72, giperbola Žnč 1900 1 78, sinekdoка Žnč 1900 1 82, whereas in the Terminology Commission’s minutes we find antitezė, figūra, hiperbola, sinekdocha, etc. K. Macius called ellipsis išleidimu Žnč 1900 1 82; the Terminology Commission proposed the synonyms elipsė and išleidimas. K. Macius used užtylėjimas Žnč 1900 1 82 in the sense of “omission,” whereas the Commission used the unsuccessful term nutrūkimas. Macius’s article has the term atkartojimas Žnč 1900 1 79; the Commission’s minutes record pakartojimas, atkartojimas. K. Macius also used the terms šaukimas Žnč 1900 1 72, laipsniavimas Žnč 1900 1 82, and apostrofa / apostropa, arba atsigrežimas Žnč 1900 1 43. To name rhetorical exclamation, the Terminology Commission recorded šūkis, sušukimas; for gradation, kilimas? (gradacija) (cf. Latin gradatio—a gradual ascent); and for apostrophe, kreipimasis, apostrofa. Once again, K. Bizauskas did not follow the Terminology Commission blindly: he used the variant hiperbola and added the Lithuanian term perdėjimas BizL 68, chose the terms nutylėjimas BizL 76, and 176 Asta Mitkevičienė Terminologijos komisijos (1921–1926) vaidmuo lietuvių literatūros mokslo terminijos istorijoje not nutrūkimas, pakartojimas BizL 71; sušukimas BizL 77. He also used the synonyms laipsniavimas (gradacija) BizL 74 (cf. sutvirtinimas arba laipsniavimas (gradacija) BizR 49), kreipimasis, arba apostrofa BizL 70. The terms discussed show that the Terminology Commission did not avoid synonymy. Alongside the synonymy of Lithuanian and international terms, which is justified in terminology, the unjustified abundance of synonymous compound terms attracts attention. For example, dailės // dailinis romanas “fictional novel?”; dailus // dailusis // dailingas pasakojimas; didaktinis // didaktiškas romanas (there is also pamokomasis romanas); didysis // pirmasis // vyresnysis veikėjas – герои; jungiamasis // jungtinis periodas; mitų // mitinis epas; pasaka apie gyvulius ir gyvulių pasaka; prozos // proziškas // prozingas veikalas; romantinė // romantiška poema; šeimos // šeiminis romanas, etc. The minutes also record synonymous one-word terms of Lithuanian origin, e.g.: apsakymas and apsakas; dienoraštis and dienraštis (now distinguished); įkvapas and įkvėpimas; pamokymas and pomokis; išpažintis, pasisakymas and pasipasakojimas; [periodo] slūgimas and kritimas, etc. Does this mean that users of literary studies terms are given a choice? Or perhaps the Commission itself did not reach agreement on some of the terms under consideration? Most likely, as K. Bizauskas wrote in the aforementioned preface, these terms belong to the period of deliberation. Is it really appropriate? Terminologija | 2013 | 20 177 CONCLUSIONS 1. In 1921, the Terminology Commission discussed approximately 450 terms submitted by K. Bizauskas at seven meetings. These included terms from literary studies and related fields, as well as general scientific terms (mostly nouns and noun phrases, along with adjectives and a few verbs). J. Jablonskis participated in all the discussions. 2. Comparing the Terminology Commission’s terms with those used by V. Kudirka (1898) and K. Macius (1900), we can observe both terminological change (rimas instead of atsiliepimas, šūkis ir sušukimas instead of šaukimas) and continuity of usage (posmas, išleidimas, “ellipsis”). The Terminology Commission’s minutes also contain terms that did not become established later, such as eilėdėtis, “versification.” 3. The minutes contain numerous synonymous terms. In some cases, K. Bizauskas selected one of the synonyms; in others, his textbook also includes synonyms (the same or different ones), or the concept is designated differently. 4. Although the list of literary studies terms considered by the Terminology Commission was not published separately in the press, it can nevertheless be said that the Commission’s consideration of literary studies terminology was not in vain. A large proportion of those terms entered usage immediately through K. Bizauskas’s 1922 textbook on literary theory, from which students learned and which later authors of literary works most likely consulted. Thus, the Terminology Commission’s role in the history of literary studies terminology was indirect. LITERATURE AND SOURCES Auksoriūtė A. 2011: Terminologijos komisijos (1921–1926) veiklos apžvalga. – Terminologija 18, 80–91. Bizauskas K. 1923: Literatūros teorija. Vadovėlis aukštesniosioms mokykloms, 4-asis leid., Kaunas. BizL – Bizauskas K. Literary Theory. Textbook for upper secondary schools, 3rd ed., Kaunas, 1922. BizR – Bizauskas K. Raštijos bei literatūros teorija. Pirmoji dalis, Kaunas, 1918. Keinys St. 1967: Lietuvių terminologijos kūrimo apžvalga (iki 1940 m.). – Lietuvių terminologijos raida, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos instituto leidykla, 2012, 29–56. LKŽe – Lietuvių kalbos žodynas (I–XX, 1941–2002), elektroninis variantas, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas, 2005. – www.lkz.lt. TKP – Minutes of the Terminology Commission (Nos. 13–21), 1921. Held at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. TŽŽe 2002: Interleksis. Kompiuterinis tarptautinių žodžių žodynas. Ats. red. A. Kinderys, Vilnius (el. leidimas). Vrp – V. K. [V. Kudirka]. Writing lines of verse. – Varpas, 1898, No. 1, 14–15; No. 2, 28–30; No. 3, 40–42. Žnč – Samogita [K. Macius]. Prasmė ir gražumas Lietuvos dainų. – Žinyčia, 1900, Nr. 1, 33–84. THE ROLE OF THE TERMINOLOGY COMMISSION (1921–1926) IN THE HISTORY OF LITHUANIAN LITERARY TERMINOLOGY In 1921 in Lithuania the Terminologijos komisija (Terminology Commission) was established under the Ministry of Education. The sub-commission of literary terms was constituted in October 1921. At the very next meeting of the Terminology 178 Asta Mitkevičienė Terminologijos komisijos (1921–1926) vaidmuo lietuvių literatūros mokslo terminijos istorijoje Commission the sub-commission presented the set of literary terms (and terms of related domains and basic science terms as well) compiled by Kazys Bizauskas, author of the first Lithuanian textbook on literary theory. Those terms were discussed in seven subsequent meetings with the participation of the greatest Lithuanian linguists Jonas Jablonskis and Kazimieras Būga. The Terminology Commission discussed about 450 terms: basic literary terms (turinys “content”), names of stylistic devices (elipsė “ellipsis”), terms of versification (pėda “foot”), names of genres (istorinis romanas “historical novel”), names of features related to literature (rimo vaizdingumas “imagery of rhyme”), names of actions related to literature and literary work (aprašymas “description”) etc. In comparison with the chosen 19th century sources of literary terms certain terms were changed and for other terms traditional usage was maintained. Some of the terms discussed were not established, for example sruoga “strophe” (now posmas, strofa). In the records of the Terminology Commission there are quite many synonyms of terms. It seems likely that terms were recorded at the discussion stage. Although the list of terms discussed was not published in the press, the work of the Terminology Commission in the field of literary terms was helpful. The majority of terms came into usage through Kazys Bizauskas’ textbook Literatūros teorija (Literary Theory) (1922), although he didn’t follow all recommendations of the Terminology Commission. Received 2013-10-22 Asta Mitkevičienė Institute of the Lithuanian Language P. Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius Email: [email protected] Terminologija | 2013 | 20 179