Journal articles on the topic 'Lithuanian speakers'

This article analyses the absolute duration (ms) of stressed Russian vowels /a/, /o/ (graphs: “a”, “o”) and their allophones in unstressed positions after the hard consonants in the pronunciation of native and non-native Russian speakers in Lithuania. The results of the conducted spectral analysis reveal the specificities of quantitative reduction in the speech of the Russian speakers in Lithuania and the Lithuanian speakers that are learning the Russian language. These specificities are influenced by the two phonetic systems interaction. The speakers of both languages by the realisation of “a” and “o” violates the relation of unstressed vowel duration that is peculiar to the contemporary Russian language: the post-stressed vowels in closed syllables are shorter than the pre-stressed vowels; the first pre-stressed syllable differs from the second pre-stressed and post-stressed syllables by a longer voice duration. Both Russians and Lithuanians pronounce vowels longer in post-stressed syllables than in the pre-stressed syllables. This corresponds to the qualitative reduction of the Lithuanian language vowels /a:/ and /o:/. There are certain differences between the pronunciation of qualitative vowels “a” and “o” reduction among the native and non-native Russian speakers in Lithuania. The Russian speakers in Lithuania pronounce the second pre-stressed vowel longer than the first pre-stressed vowel; this corresponds to the degree of reduction of pre-stressed vowels “a” and “o” in the standardised Russian language. These degrees of quantitative reduction in the Lithuanian pronunciation are peculiar only for “a” in the Russian language. According to the duration ratio, the unstressed allophones “a” and “o” in the Russian language are closer to the unstressed /a:/ and /o:/ in the Lithuanian language in the pronunciation of Russian-Lithuanian bilinguals than in the pronunciation Lithuanian speakers.

The aim of the paper is to answer the questions about the extent of specific types of errors in Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian students’ performance on the same test and what it can say about native speakers’ and non-native speakers’ Lithuanian competence. Research material was a C-test completed by 326 third grade pupils of 6 Gymnasiums in Vilnius. There were 127 Lithuanian, 96 Polish, and 103 Russian pupils aged between 16–17. A total of 19,560 test items were analysed combining quantitative and qualitative error analysis methods.Data analysis leads to the following conclusions:1. The analysis of the extent of the errors revealed that the two non-native speaker groups are similar. The native speaker group made significantly fewer errors in all categories. The results of the analysis of the nature of errors suggest that, in principle, grammatical competence of non-native speakers is closer to that of native speakers than lexical competence.2. An examination of the same problematic points for all three groups reveals that, in most cases, both native and non-native speakers make the same mistakes, but non-native speakers make more of them. This suggests that the skills which differentiate between native speakers are the ones that are more difficult to develop for non-native speakers as well.3. Non-native speakers have a narrower vocabulary than native speakers, they make more lexical mistakes. However, it should also be noted that native speaker performance is also dominated by lexical errors.4. Analysis of the most problematic points revealed that grammar mistakes in such cases are more often made by native speakers than by non-native speakers. These grammatical mistakes are probably due to the lack of strong ability of native speakers to see beyond the words immediately following each other, to take into account more complex constructions, long sentences and to understand the logic of the text.

This article explores the Lithuanian heritage speakers’ community in the United States. It aims to look at the correlations between generation or age of arrival in the United States, and self-reported language proficiency. Usage of Internet materials in Lithuanian and involvement in Lithuanian activities are also addressed. The case study contrasts findings from two different sources: a survey conducted in two Chicago-area Lithuanian Saturday schools in 2007 and an Internet Survey administered to Lithuanian-American middle, high school, and college students via Survey Monkey in 2008. The empirical data indicate that Lithuanian heritage speakers form a diverse linguistic community having different linguistic competences in the heritage language. Consistent with the findings of other heritage languages (Carreira & Kagan, 2011), Lithuanian heritage speakers exhibit high oral proficiency but lack writing and reading skills. The correlation between the age of arrival and linguistic competence in Lithuanian was also observed: the younger the age of arrival in the United States, the weaker competence in Lithuanian was reported. Findings on Lithuanian heritage speakers’ involvement in the heritage community indicate that most of the respondents are highly involved in community activities. All of the third-generation (G3) respondents reported their involvement in Lithuanian Saturday schools, which indicates that Lithuanian education is still actively promoted among G3 heritage speakers.

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: We examined whether categorization of inanimate objects is influenced by learning a language with a different type of gender system. Previous research has examined speakers of languages without grammatical gender (English and Hungarian) who were learning a language with grammatical gender (Spanish and French). By contrast, we examined speakers of a language with grammatical gender (Lithuanian) learning a language with a structurally different gender system (Italian, Russian or German). Design/Methodology/Approach: We compared four groups (Lithuanians speaking only English and Lithuanian, Lithuanians learning Italian, Lithuanians learning Russian, Lithuanians learning German) in the completion of a voice attribution task where subjects are asked to attribute either the voice of a man or a woman to inanimate objects. Data and Analysis: We tested 128 subjects (32 for each group). The first group included Lithuanians who spoke only Lithuanian and English, and served as baseline for Lithuanians with a single grammatical gender system (Group B). The other three groups included Lithuanians that were proficient in either Italian (Group ITA), Russian (Group RUS) or German (Group GER). Data were analysed by means of mixed effects generalized linear models created using R glmer() function. We conducted a series of logistic regressions examining the following fixed effects: sex, age, distinction ‘artefact vs. natural object’, Lithuanian gender, proficiency in the relevant foreign language and the gender of each item in the relevant foreign language (i.e. either Italian, Russian or German). Findings/Conclusions: Our results suggest that the four groups behaved somewhat differently and that belonging to one group or the other was a significant predictor of a participant’s choices. It seems, however, that gender in the respective foreign language did not affect a participant’s choices. By and large, differences between the four groups did not mirror gender asymmetries between the four languages, yet learning a foreign language did appear to interfere with the standard pattern exhibited by baseline Lithuanians who had the highest frequency of attributions congruent with Lithuanian gender. Originality: Recent studies showed that the effects of grammatical gender on categorization might not be limited to native language, but could apply also to a second language acquired later in life. Whereas previous research has examined subjects speaking an L1 without grammatical gender, we followed Kurinski and Sera’s suggestion and tested native speakers of a gendered language learning an L2 with a structurally different gender system. More specifically, we compared native speakers of a language with two genders (Lithuanian) learning either a system with three genders (Russian), a system with three genders and gender-marking articles (German) or a system with two genders and gender-marking articles (Italian). Our goal was to understand whether language effects on cognition are influenced not only by specific properties of the L1 – as suggested by Kurinski et al., who noted a difference between English and Hungarian learners – but also by specific properties of the L2 gender system and by the typological gap between the L1 and the L2 gender system. Significance/Implications: We asked whether we would find language-specific effects suggesting that learning a foreign language systematically ‘pulls’ standard categorization patterns towards the L2 gender system. Our findings do not support this idea. However, our results do suggest that learning a foreign language weakens the strength of the link between each item and its gender.

The aim of the research was to investigate how native speakers of Russian, which is a highly complex inflectional language, cope with the acquisition of the similar by structure and complexity Lithuanian language. The subjects were adults of different age and education who learned Lithuanian in Belarus. I analyse errors related to the acquisition of noun case. The errors are divided into formal (acquisition of endings) and conceptual ones (choice of the appropriate case). I shortly compare my results with the results of similar research conducted in Lithuania where the subjects were native speakers of different languages.The results of the study show that similar errors are typical for native speakers of different languages irrespective of their morphological complexity. A complex inflectional system of a native language is not necessarily beneficial, but it seems to give some advantages for the acquisition of semantic (not syntactic) cases.

The paper investigates a twofold attitude towards linguistic diversity in the Lithuanian-speaking community, where, on the one hand, the dialects are valorised as a national and ethnographic asset and, on the other hand, certain restrictions on their use are imposed because of association with a lower social value and negative stereotypes. Three direct attitudinal studies serve as an empirical basis for the research: a quantitative survey, qualitative interviews and an experiment with high-school students on stereotypical traits of the dialect speaker. When discussing future prospects of dialect change, the overt values of the speakers are compared with the findings of the speaker evaluation experiment that have revealed subconscious values of dialectal speech. The research has shown that compared to the Soviet times, the ideological climate regarding dialects has become more politically correct. Positive attitudes are most prominent at a declarative level and when regional identity and the speaker’s affiliation with a particular community have to be emphasised. Daily personal experiences, however, with the functionality of a dialect and evaluations of social and geographic mobility of dialect speakers, show a less favourable assessment of dialectal speech in comparison to the standard (non-dialectal) varieties. It is very much due to a frequent negative stereotyping of dialect speakers. The subconscious attitudes also reveal that the dialectal variability of speech has an arguably lower social meaning compared to the non-dialectal variability. The attitudes and practices of non-professional (lay) people may be claimed to reflect a double-faced standardization ideology of the Lithuanian language, which valorises dialects as an ecologic asset and at the same time limits their functioning by putting them in the reserve of “immobile” speakers.

Review: Anastasija Kostiučenko, Sprachen und ihre Sprecher in Litauen. Eine soziolinguistische Untersuchung zum sozialen Status des Litauischen, Polnischen und Russischen (Languages and their speakers in Lithuania: A sociolinguistic study on the social status of Lithuanian, Polish and Russian), Berlin: Logos Verlag, 2016.This article offers a review of the monograph Sprachen und ihre Sprecher in Litauen. Eine soziolinguistische Untersuchung zum sozialen Status des Litauischen, Polnischen und Russischen (Languages and their speakers in Lithuania: A sociolinguistic study on the social status of Lithuanian, Polish and Russian) by Anastasija Kostiučenko. Her volume presents a study on attitudes to Lithuanian, Polish and Russian in Lithuania, applying the matched guise technique developed by Canadian psychologist Wallace E. Lambert in the 1960s. The monograph is an important voice in the discussion on the methods of sociolinguistic study. This review includes some polemical observations. Recenzja: Anastasija Kostiučenko, Sprachen und ihre Sprecher in Litauen. Eine soziolinguistische Untersuchung zum sozialen Status des Litauischen, Polnischen und Russischen (Języki i mówcy na Litwie. Badania socjolingwistyczne nad społecznym statusem języków litewskiego, polskiego i rosyjskiego), Berlin: Logos Verlag, 2016.Artykuł przedstawia recenzję książki Sprachen und ihre Sprecher in Litauen. Eine soziolinguistische Untersuchung zum sozialen Status des Litauischen, Polnischen und Russischen Anastasiji Kostiučenko. Monografia prezentuje badania nad nastawieniem do języków (language attitude) litewskiego, polskiego i rosyjskiego na Litwie. Autorka zastosowała metodę kanadyjskiego psychologa Wallace’a E. Lamberta matched guise z lat 60. XX wieku. Książka stanowi ważny głos w dyskusji na temat metod badań socjolingwistycznych. Recenzja zawiera elementy polemiczne.

The paper analyzes Lithuanian personal pronouns that are a challenge for learners of Lithuanian as a second language. The pronouns studied refer to ‘he’ and ‘she’ and correspond to jis and ji in the standard Lithuanian language as described in the Grammar of Modern Lithuanian and Dictionary of Modern Lithuanian and Lithuanian L2 textbooks. However, the repertoire of the spoken Lithuanian as demonstrated by the data of spoken corpora, consists of four pronouns: jis/jisai for masculine and ji/jinai for feminine. The analyses of the Lithuanian as a second language learners’ corpus shows that this variation of the natives’ speech is not really acquired by the second language learners and it does present a challenge in the more advanced stages of acquisition. If the beginning learners do not seem to notice this variation at all, some advanced speakers do incorporate the longer spoken variants into their speech but to extreme proportions and therefore overuse them when comparing to the native speakers. Also, at least one case shows the longer variants being not transparent enough to be acquired from the environment. This poses a variety of questions, also related to the necessity of studying the spoken variety of Lithuanian by the native speakers.

Legal language has its own technical terms that a translator has to know. This article considers some specificities of French and Lithuanian legal terms as well as specific turns of the sentence and the ways to train students to recognize and use them.

By focusing on public communication, the current study aims to investigate how the concepts of solidarity and equality have influenced the norms of public communication in the West (Scandinavia) and what differences can be found in the context of Lithuania, where the late modernity did not follow the same patterns as in Western societies. This comparative study takes a diachronic approach to the use of the pronouns du/De and tu/Jūs and other address forms in Danish and Lithuanian. We examine these forms in view of democratization processes and the decreasing level of formality in the two societies. The question in focus is how address forms are used in Lithuanian and Danish dialogues in TV-series, which represent everyday communication between strangers in the second half of the 20th century and the 21st century. The empirical data for the research consists of two Danish series ”Ka' De li' østers?” (1967) and ”Bedrag” (2016-2019), as well as two Lithuanian TV-series ”Petraičių šeimoje” (1964-1972) and ”Giminės. Gyvenimas tęsiasi 3” (2017). The study covers almost six last decades and analyzes different forms of address that speakers use to meet the appropriate level of formality in daily conversations. The results have revealed significant differences in the development of Lithuanian and Danish societies and formal communication. The data indicates that Danish dialogues have become less formal over time, public communication emphasizes equality of interlocutors and does not mark differences in social status. Communication between Lithuanians remains formal; the results suggest that the choice of strategies in Lithuanian dialogues between strangers correspond to those used by Danes in the second half of the 20th century. However, it may be assumed that the process of informalisation in Lithuanian public communication is still in progress.

Language standardization ideology prevailing in most European countries sustains a lower social value of dialects in comparison to the standard language. The linguistic variety of social elite, media, public administration, and public use – the standard language – is often rated as ideal or at least more adequate for most domains of language use than local dialects. This paper investigates the situation in Lithuania, analyzes linguistic attitudes towards dialects of upper-secondary school students in Lithuanian cities. The data gathered in the context of the project “Lithuanian language: ideals, ideologies and identity shifts, 2010-2013” group discussions organized in schools of nine Lithuanian cities (Alytus, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Marijampolė, Panevėžys, Šiauliai, Telšiai, Utena and Vilnius) as well as the experimental data, is analyzed for the social value of Lithuanian dialects. The research revealed both overt and covert prestige of dialects. The overtly declared prestige of a dialect is weak and the social value is lower when comparing to the standard language. Moreover, the usage of a dialect is fairly strictly limited and involving only a private sphere, non-official communication. On the other hand, an indirect evaluation when describing stereotypical characteristics of a dialect speaker has shown a rather positive covert prestige of the dialects. Even though dialect speakers are not distinguished by a superior status or social power and are most often seen as coming from a rural environment, which is not modern and associated with old traditions, social attractiveness of a dialect speaker is specifically emphasised, also the dimension of social solidarity and resistance to standardization associated with a dialect is highlighted. The results of the research point out some tendencies of the (not yet extinguished) vitality of dialects.

Leksinių samplaikų arba pasikartojančių žodžių sekų tyrimai anglų lingvistikoje atvėrė naujų tyrimo krypčių anglų kaip svetimosios kalbos studijoms. Tekstynų tyrinėjimai parodė, jog autentiškoje anglų kalboje itin dažnai pasitaiko pasikartojančių žodžių sekų, kurios produkuojant kalbą atkuriamos kaip nedalomi vienetai. Todėl tikėtina, jog kintant kalbos vartotojų pasiekimams tokių sekų kiekis ir pobūdis jų kalboje taip pat gali kisti. Straipsnyje pristatomas kontrastinis mokinių kalbos (angl. learner language) tekstynų tyrimas, analizuojantis leksinių samplaikų vartojimą skirtingų pasiekimo lygių mokinių kalboje. Keliama hipotezė, kad samplaikų vartojimo skirtumai gali lemti kokybinius įvairių lygių mokinių kalbos skirtumus. Tyrimo duomenys rinkti iš trijų tekstynų, kurių du (AFK1 ir LICLE tekstynai) reprezentuoja lietuvių gimtosios kalbos mokinių rašytinę anglų kalbą, o trečiasis (LOCNESS) – gimtakalbių anglų kalbos mokinių kalbą. Tyrimo rezultatai parodė, jog tekstynai skiriasi tiek pagal juose nustatytų samplaikų kiekį, tiek pagal vyraujančius struktūrinius ir funkcinius samplaikų tipus, apibrėžiamus pagal Biber ir kt. (2004) ir Biber (2006) taksonomijas. Žemesnio pasiekimų lygio mokiniai vartoja gerokai daugiau samplaikų, o tai rodo, jog jų kalboje yra daugiau pasikartojančios leksikos negu gimtakalbių mokinių kalboje, kuri laikytina leksiškai turtingesne. Be to, pagal struktūrinius ir funkcinius samplaikų tipus lietuvių mokinių kalba turi daugiau sakytinės anglų kalbos bruožų negu gimtakalbių mokinių kalba.

The paper analyzes the results of a sentence repetition task performed by Lithuanian L2 speakers of different language proficiency levels. This paper focuses on a set of targeted verb forms included in the task because they are less likely to occur in free production. The different forms the speakers produced are analyzed by considering their correspondence (or not) to the targeted form, by comparing the speakers among each other with respect to their learner variety and by comparing the task results to the repertoire of the same speaker in the free production data. In multiple cases of failed re-production, the analysis examines what the targeted forms were substituted with and tries to identify possible reasons for such substitution. This analysis confirms the general inability of the basic variety speakers to distinguish between morphologically different forms and the dominant trend showing that L2 learners are more meaning-focused than form-focused. The analysis also shows growing implicit knowledge, or at least gradual passive acquisition, of the less frequent forms as the speaker advances in the post-basic continuum.

Cynthia Vakareliyska. 2015. Lithuanian Root List. Bloomington. Indiana: Slavica Publishers. ISBN: 9780893574475. The book, modelled on Charles Gribble's Russian Root List (1981), is intended for both linguists and students of Lithuanian and addresses problems encountered by non-native speakers when attempting to determine the structure of a longer Lithuanian word and identify the morphemes it consists of. Vakareliyska suggests a solution in the form of a list of the most common modern Lithuanian roots and affixes together with variants and a list of rules responsible for the most regular variants.

This special issue of the journal Taikomoji kalbotyra/Applied Linguistics includes papers written on the basis of the presentations given at the International Applied Linguistics Conference Languages and People: Space, Time, Identity held in Vilnius University October 3-4, 2013. The Conference was organized by the Department of Lithuanian Studies of Vilnius University and the Lithuanian Association of Applied Linguistics (LITAKA). The total number of the Conference participants amounted to 60; they came from 12 countries: Australia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States of America. The plenary speakers of the Conference, world-known linguists Antonella Sorace (UK), Joseph Lo Bianco (Australia) and Mark Davies (USA), gave very impressive presentations on bilingualism and language acquisition, language planning and policy, language corpora as a powerful tool in language learning and teaching.

Summary The study tries to bridge the gap between research on how the Lithuanian language and its varieties are spoken and maintained by migrants and on how the standard language ideology affects the speakers of regional varieties in Lithuania. The paper investigates Lithuanian Samogitian migrants’ attitudes towards their regional variety, the main factors that might influence their beliefs and whether the standard language ideology is one of these factors. The in-depth analysis of 10 audio-recorded and coded interview responses has shown that in migration, similarly as in Lithuania, people’s attitudes towards Samogitian and the usage of it are governed by the three main factors, namely education, Soviet language policy and the linguistic pressure from society. Even though migrants do not feel intense pressure to speak the “right” language and feel much freer to use the variety of their choice when talking to other migrants, they still believe that it is common sense to use the standard in official gatherings, for public speeches or for official events.

The fifteenth century was a very important period in the history of the Polish State and nation. It had a particular significance for the development of national consciousness. The union of the Polish kingdom with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1385) changed not only the boundaries of this new and unified state called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but also created new and specific conditions for the development of the nation. The different nationalities of the jagiellonian state, Poles, Ruthenians, Lithuanians, Germans, Jews, and Armenians played an important role in the lively exchange of cultural experience on the basis of a sometimes uneasy partnership. Poland guaranteed privileges to the lords, both spiritual and temporal, to the gentry, and to the patricians, estates that had emerged in the course of the fourteenth century. These were united by common sentiment and desire for a strong political foundation. The urban and rural populations of both Polish and non-Polish speakers were bound together by loyalty to the Crown and its territory. Like other groups in late-medieval Europe they saw such a political union as advantageous.

Foreign languages are becoming an essential prerequisite for a successful carrier among all professions including public health professionals in many countries. The expanding role of English as a mode of communication allows for university graduates to project and to seek their career in English-speaking countries. The present study was carried out in the framework of EU Leonardo da Vinci project “Specialist English as a foreign language for European public health.” The study aimed to get a deeper insight how the English language is perceived as a foreign language, by Polish and Lithuanian public health students, what is level of their language competence, which level of English proficiency they expect to use in future.Material and methods. A total of 246 respondents completed the special questionnaires in autumn semester in 2005. A questionnaire form was developed by the international project team. For evaluation of English competences, the Language Passport (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages of Council of Europe) was applied. Results. Current self-rated proficiency of the English language was at the same level for Lithuanian (3.47±1.14) and Polish (3.31±0.83) respondents (P>0.05). Majority of respondents (88.6% of Lithuanian and 87.8% of Polish) reported using the English language for their current studies. Respondents reported a significant increase in necessity for higher level of English proficiency in future: mean scores provided by respondents changed from B1 level to B2 level. Respondents gave priority to less formal and practice-based interactive English teaching methods (going abroad, contacts with native speakers) in comparison with theory-oriented methods of learning (self-studying, Internet courses). Conclusions. Similar levels of English language in all five areas of language skills were established in Polish and Lithuanian university students. Respondents gave more priorities to less formal and practice-based interactive English teaching methods (going abroad, contacts with native speakers) in comparison with theory-oriented or classroom-based methods of learning (self-studying, Internet courses). Survey showed a growing interest of students in improving English language in the future in Poland and Lithuania.

This paper focuses on Lithuanian L2 verb forms that do not exist in the target language. The data is drawn from the Lithuanian L2 corpus and includes spontaneous speech data by 17 speakers of different L1s and all three acquisition varieties (pre-basic, basic and post-basic). The non-existent verb forms make only a small part of the overall verb forms used, however, when distinguished from occasional mistakes, the forms that indicate grammatical development that are analysed show notable systematicity among different speakers. Five distinct and most frequent formants are analyzed in detail, namely -u, -a, -o, -(i)au, ė, that are used by several speakers with seemingly similar function. The analysis reveals specific functions and discusses different factors that have an effect on the acquisition of these formants. In many cases frequency is an important factor, however, with formants -u and -ė transparency and regularity seem to have a stronger effect and thus facilitate the acquisition. Formant -a, being nearly the most common and extremely multifunctional (i.e. rather unmarked), is incorporated into the system firstly as part of the base form and holds this position till a very advanced stage of Lithuanian L2 acquisition. Verb stem type also has an effect with the regularly suffixed verbs being acquired the easiest, while the mixed type and the primary ones cause many difficulties for the speakers. Overall, the systematicity discovered shows the creative structuring of the interlanguage that only occurs more actively in the post-basic variety of acquisition.

The paper addresses the problem of developing more effective strategies and skills of writing scientific and technical texts by non‐native speakers of English. The causes of poor writing are identified and general guidelines for developing effective science writing strategies are outlined. The analysis of difficulties faced by non‐native speakers of English in writing research papers is made by examining transport terms and international words which are based on different nomination principles in English and Lithuanian. Case study of various names given to a small vehicle used for passenger transportation in many countries is provided, illustrating the alternative ways of naming the same object of reality in different languages. The analysis is based on the theory of linguistic relativity. Differences in the use of similar international terms in English and Lithuanian, which often cause errors and misunderstanding, are also demonstrated. The recommendations helping non‐native speakers of English to avoid errors and improve skills of writing scientific and technical texts are given.

The paper provides an overview of Lithuanian spontaneous speech corpora and certain studies of the acquisition of Lithuanian as a first language. The author focuses mainly on those resources and papers that are published in English and thus can be used by non-Lithuanian speaking researchers as methodological and/or theoretical inspiration for further studies on different languages. Among the spoken corpora discussed in the paper are: the speech corpus Liepa, Sakytinės kalbos įrašų bazė, the Corpus of Spoken Lithuanian. The author pays special attention to the latter as it is closely connected to the development of the Lithuanian corpus of child and child-directed speech. The studies of the acquisition of Lithuanian as a first language are overviewed in the second part of the paper. The majority of studies on corpus data (including those conducted within international cross-linguistic projects) describe the acquisition of grammar by native speakers of Lithuanian. In the most recent research, there is a shift towards new aspects of first language acquisition (including phonology and morphophonology) and new methods (experiments becoming more and more popular).

The article presents the analysis of transport terms contained in the English — Lithuanian Dictionary of Automobile Transport and special texts. English terms are compared with their Lithuanian equivalents from the perspective of the theory of language relativity to identify universal and different patterns of expressing the same reality. All terms are classified into various groups according to this principle. It is also shown that an object expressed in Lithuanian by a single word may be denoted by multiple English words. Problems arising due to different approaches of speakers of different languages to objects of reality in giving names and classifying them are identified and some recommendations for their solution are given.

Vištytis habitat belongs to the western part of Western Highlanders of Kaunas. The border of East Prussia has been in this area, so these environs until are often called as paprūsė region. There is described location of Vištytis habitat in the Lithuanian dialect classification, specific features and dialectal attitudes of speakers in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The results of this research are discussed in comparing to other similar studies of Western Highlanders of Kaunas. The investigation revealed that the speakers of Vištytis sub-dialect tend to consider local speech variant as standard Lithuanian language. The local speech was evaluated by the speakers as partially non-correct, but attractive. This attitude was mostly determined by aspects of intelligibility and conventionality of the local speech code. Evaluation of dialectal speech in Vištytis habitat for the most part coincides with common self–evaluation pattern of Western Highlanders of Kaunas. The short linguistic distance to standard language, fairly high prestige of dialectal speech and the same language code in all linguistic situations are most representative characteristics of this pattern.

The current article analyzes the variability of length of /i/ and /u/ in stressed word endings characteristic to Lithuanian residents of Vilnius. Some Vilnius residents of Lithuanian origin pronounce these vowels as long or semi-long, though in written language they are written as short vowels. In the Lithuanian standardization ideology, such variability is characterized negatively and is referred to as the lengthening of the word ending. It is socially stigmatized, associated with the speech of uneducated Vilnius residents, speakers that belong to the working class, have a lower social status, or are affected by a Slavic language. The main goal of this survey was to identify the length of the stressed /i/ and /u/ in word endings and to determine with which social categories their longer variants correlate in Vilnius speech. A computerized sound analysis programme was applied to study 800 variants of /i/ and /u/ vowels, which were selected from interviews with 40 Vilnius city dwellers of different age, gender, professional activity, and social status. The analysis has revealed that in the Lithuanian speaking community of Vilnius the length of stressed vowels in word endings functions as a marker of speaker’s age, professional activity, and educational background. A statistically significant higher average length of /i/ and /u/ is typical of those Vilnius residents who are older, educated, and work in traditional industries or manufacturing, but not for service providers.

The Norwegian-Lithuanian Dictionary is a joint project of lexicographers from the universities of Vilnius and Oslo. The dictionary consists of approximately 48,000 entries. It is initially intended as a paper dictionary, but as it is compiled in XML, an electronic version is also planned for the future. The dictionary is bidirectional: that is, it is intended for native speakers of both Norwegian and Lithuanian, and it provides information on both the source language (Norwegian) and the target language (Lithuanian).The aim of the article is to give a presentation of the project, point out innovative aspects of the project, and analyse the jolly (expected) and less jolly (unexpected) challenges we faced in the two main stages of compiling the dictionary. In the first stage we adapted a base from another bilingual dictionary (the Large Norwegian-Russian Dictionary), reusing its lemma list and information on the source language, Norwegian. In the second stage we created a conception and a system for information on the target language, Lithuanian, and (perhaps for the first time in Lithuanian bilingual lexicography) included several types of information for non-native users of Lithuanian.

The paper deals with the effects of prescriptivism on the Lithuanian language. The research includes one domain of language use – radio and television, and one aspect of language – lexicon, in the period between 1960 and 2010. The investigation is corpus-based and focuses on the use of words that are classified as “incorrect” by the Lithuanian norm-setters. The study is important both as a discussion of the impact of prescriptivism on language change in general, as well as of the indirect influence of media on language, since media can affect the symbolic evaluation of specific language forms.The paper consists of five chapters. The first chapter “Review of the research” discusses the theoretical assumptions and concepts needed for further analysis: it gives an overview of studies on the effects of prescriptivism conducted in Lithuania and elsewhere, presents the concepts of second-level indexicality and style, and outlines the key characteristics of media change in Lithuania that are relevant to the study. Studies on the success of prescriptivism do not give a definite answer as to whether prescriptivism works. Institutionalisation and a high degree of stigmatisation of the corrected language forms can be listed among the factors that increase its success; prescriptivism is likely to be less successful when the “forbidden” language forms are too convenient to be given up, or when prescriptivist rules are too complicated for lay language users and the rules contradict each other. In the case of media, the effect of prescriptivism is said to be weakened by media commercialisation.When applied to the analysis of non-standard words, first-order indexicality refers to situations when the non-standard forms are used as value-free instances of ordinary speech, in already established meanings; in these cases, the speakers are not aware that they are using “incorrect” forms. Second-order indexicality refers to cases when non-standard words are used for additional function, e.g., to express a speaker’s particular identity or to construct a certain (informal, friendly) speech style. The concept of style, referring to the social differences between individual speakers, is used to analyse the use of words in concrete situations. The paper gives an overview of three sociolinguistic concepts of style that are relevant in this study: style as a degree of formality (e.g., when the speaker accommodates to the formal context of the media and uses less non-standard words); as audience and referee design (e.g., use of non-standard words in programmes for young audiences); and as a speaker design (e.g., play with language by the programme host in order to construct a fun persona).In the study of non-standard lexis, it is important to account for certain features of Lithuanian media development, such as the Soviet period, which was characterised by the use of newspeak, and the commercialisation of the media in the contemporary period. Accordingly, the paper analyses the uses of incorrect words as a part of newspeak and their use for the entertainment-related purposes such as language plays in present times. The paper also addresses the transitory period of radio and TV development, which has features from both the previous and the later periods, as well as some unique characteristics of language use.The second chapter “Radio and TV speech in the prescriptive discourse” presents an analysis of the metalinguistic discourse on media speech produced by Lithuanian prescriptivists from the pre-war period up to now. The analysis shows how this discourse preserved the same dominant idea about media’s role in language standardisation. On the one hand, during this whole time, radio and television were approached as responsible for teaching listeners and viewers the “correct language”; on the other hand, simultaneously, the language of radio and television was perceived as failing to conform to the prescriptive norms set by the norm-setters. The huge societal shifts that happened during this time did not make a major influence on this discourse. It remained very stable during different periods of time. The social, cultural and political changes in society and the media were taken into account only by adjusting the argumentation – by presenting patriotic, moral, ideological or legal motives that were meant to justify the language prescriptions.The third chapter “Research methods and data” presents the Corpus of Radio and TV speech, the concept of non-standard words, and the sources of prescriptivist corrections used in the analysis. The corpus of radio and TV speech includes data from 1960 to 2011 and is constructed in a balanced way to represent the periods of Lithuanian radio and TV development (Soviet, transitory, contemporary), as well as programme genres (talk programmes, information programmes, journals/features/documentaries). The speakers are coded into six types: news reader/voice-over, talk show host, expert, celebrity, hero and vox populi. For the analysis, the non-standard words that are classified as “incorrect” in the normative tradition of the Lithuanian language were coded. These include old (mainly, Slavic) and new (mainly, English) loans, the so-called hybrid words (that have a borrowed part), semantic loans, translations, as well as some lexicalised uses of words and some lexicalised syntactic constructions. Two types of words are analysed – individual lexical words and functional words. The latter include various fillers and discourse markers, as well as pronoun constructions with tai (e.g. kažkas tai ‘some(body)’). Non-standard words were identified from older and present style guides, including the database of language corrections created by the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language.The fourth chapter “Change in the number of non-standard words: a quantitative analysis” investigates development of the use of non-standard words on radio and TV, as well as the frequency of usage of the non-standard lexical forms. According to the corpus data, the average frequency of non-standard words by one speaker is 17 per thousand words, which makes up about 2–3 “incorrect” words per minute. Non-standard discourse markers and fillers (9.8/1000 words) are used most frequently, whereas individual lexical words (5.6/1000 words) are much less frequent, and pronoun constructions with tai (1.6/1000 words) are rarer still. Closer analysis revealed that the only statistically significant change between the analysed periods (Soviet, transitory and contemporary) was a decrease of the frequency of non-standard lexical words in the contemporary period compared to the previous ones. The frequency of discourse markers/fillers and pronoun constructions with tai did not change. Regarding the speaker types, the uses of non-standard words decreased in those groups that are within easier reach of prescriptivism – news readers/voice-overs and talk show hosts. Also, to a lesser extent, in the group of experts. Those groups of speakers that are less likely to be subjected to language correction practices (ordinary people) did not seem to change their behaviour: the number of non-standard words in their speech did not decrease, on the contrary, a slight increase has been noticed. These findings confirm the effects of institutionalised prescriptivism. Regarding genres, non-standard words are least frequent in information programmes, which are mostly based on the reading of written texts. Lists of the most frequent non-standard words during the three periods overlap to a great extent, which means that despite prescriptivist practices, the most frequent non-standard words do not disappear from the air.The fifth chapter “Change in the functions of non-standard words: a qualitative analysis” investigates specific communicative situations of the usage of non-standard words and takes into account the media-related and societal contexts, as well as the stylistic and social functions of the corrected lexis. A common trait of the use of non-standard words during all periods, interpreted as the first level of indexicality, is the use of common, everyday vocabulary, most likely without being aware of the “incorrect” status of the chosen forms. Also, non-standard words are used as a part of professional language, in this case the speaker might be aware that he or she is using an ‘incorrect’ word, but chooses to use it nevertheless for convenience or because of its indexical value for professional identity. During all the periods, non-standard words are also used as indices of informal and authentic communication between close acquaintances; this function is performed by all types of the studied non-standard words, particularly old borrowings and frequent fillers.The study identified a few style- and social meaning-related uses of non-standard lexis that explain the choice of the corrected forms instead of the required equivalents. In the Soviet period, some non-standard words were used as a part of Soviet newspeak; old borrowings were used in references to the ideological enemies of Soviet rule, mainly the ones from pre-war Lithuania. In certain cases, these words were employed due to their stylistic value in an intimate and authentic discourse. The late Soviet period saw the first use of non-standard words as markers of informal communication. The use of non-standard words in the transitory period shows some of the functions from the Soviet period, e.g., they are used as an element of newspeak, albeit without the Soviet ideological value, or as expressions of informality. A particular feature of this period is the use of non-standard words as an index of live and authentic speech, which was not allowed during Soviet times, as a means of authentic communication, and the criticism and violation of Soviet taboos. The contemporary period is marked by a huge variety of functions of non-standard words. It brings in a number of new style-related functions of non-standard words: construction of youth-oriented identity and youth-oriented referee design, reference to past times (e.g., by using non-standard words reflecting the Soviet reality), or quoting. Perhaps the most distinctive features of this period are the use of non-standard words in the speech of professional journalists, as well as their use for the purposes of humour and entertainment (for the construction of certain personas), e.g., in language plays and stylisations. These uses can be explained by commercial media requirements, increasing trends of the informalisation of public speech and conversationalisation.The study concluded that the effect of prescriptivism on the use of non-standard words in radio and TV in Lithuania is limited. Firstly, the frequency of non-standard words decreased mainly in those groups of speakers that are subject to the formal, institutionalised power of language gatekeepers (media professionals). Secondly, the data shows a decrease only of those non-standard words that are easier to control by the speakers themselves – lexical words. The frequency of various function words that are more difficult to be aware of when speaking did not decrease. Thirdly, the largest decrease in non-standard lexical forms occurred in those speech situations where a prepared written text is used; this means that prescriptivist requirements have a greater effect when the speakers and the language are controlled, and less effect in spontaneous communication situations. The above-mentioned difference between professional and non-professional speakers demonstrates that speakers are able to control the lexical forms they choose.Analysis of the most frequently used non-standard words during different periods also demonstrates the limits of prescriptivism. The lists of the most frequently used non-standard words during different periods overlap to a great extent, which means that despite prescriptivist efforts, they were not eliminated from being used on air.Finally, the limited success of prescriptivism is demonstrated by the discussed social values of non-standard words, when they are used for various social and stylistic functions not possessed by a ‘correct’ equivalent. The qualitative analysis revealed the particular strength of old borrowings, which are used to create a sincere, friendly speech style, as well as a ludic speaker identity. On the one hand, it can be interpreted as a sign of the ineffectiveness of prescriptivism – if the words are needed, it is likely that they will be further used despite their ‘illegal’ status. On the other hand, when the speakers purposefully (e.g., on account of a particular association, stylistic value) choose a particular language form and are at the same time aware about its “incorrectness”, it is an effect of prescriptivism, only with the opposite outcome.The study is based on the analysis of spoken language on radio and TV, therefore it cannot be used to draw conclusions about the Lithuanian language in general. It is likely that the effect of prescriptivism on written language (because of its more formal style and particularly because of language editing practices) would be stronger. Nevertheless, broadcast media speech constitutes a considerable and important part of language use, thus we can conclude that the impact of prescriptivism on the Lithuanian language does not have far-reaching effects.

The article focuses on the speaker evaluation experiment conducted in the spring of 2016 in Vilnius schools with Russian as the language of instruction. The aim of the experiment was to reveal the students’ subconscious attitudes (evaluations) and determine whether the four speaking styles of Vilnius, which had been distinguished conventionally for the purposes of the research, were recognized by the respondents and what social meanings the styles were associated with. The same experiment was conducted in 2014 in Vilnius schools with Lithuanian as the language of instruction. The study proved the hypothesis that there was a clear hierarchy of the speech styles differentiated by the variants of /i/, /u/, /i + R/, /u + R/ of different duration used in a stressed position. The styles are socially significant to ethnic Lithuanian school students and function as markers of social personality types associated with different personality traits, professions and ethnicity. This year’s experiment is based on the assumption that the social stigma created by standardization ideology and associated with Slavic speakers has affected the subconscious attitudes of students from Russian schools so much that Vilnius speech styles will evoke to them similar associations to those of the students of Lithuanian origin; in other words, phonetic variants which distinguish the styles are likely to identify the same social types of speakers.The research has proved the initial hypothesis. The style Kam+GalSL used by Vilnius city dwellers of Slavic origin tends to be perceived as revealing a Slavic background but does not serve as a marker of high social status and high professional competence. Therefore, even though the participants of the experiment attend Russian schools, their linguistic attitudes are not lingo-centric, namely, they are involved in the same field of social meanings as the Lithuanian school students (such social meanings as non-Lithuanian, less educated, having a poorer job are chosen when reflecting on the Slavic pronunciation). Therefore, the respondents may apply the same ideological scheme on the subconscious level while evaluating the speech of a group to which they belong according to the distinguished features of stimuli. Additional social meanings of this style include otherness (weird), poor communicational skills (poor speaker), low social status and working-class professions indicating meanings (laborer, janitor, market dealer).It seems that the variability of duration in stressed /i/, /u/, /i + R/, /u + R/, which is typical of Lithuanian city dwellers in Vilnius, acquires a different value among Russians speakers in Vilnius. The Kam speaking style, originating from a dialect and distinguished by phonetic variants, is associated with a lower social value in comparison with the styles Kam+GalLT and Neu, which include strongly stigmatized phonetic variants, associated with the speech of Vilnius city dwellers. Both styles Kam+GalLT and Neu are associated with a social type of a speaker of high social status, substantial income, leading positions and high professional competence; however, their sub-types of association are different. Representatives of the Kam speaking style are characterized as provincial, of lower status, working-class professions and representatives of the services area.

It is not enough just to describe the distribution of linguistic variants in a speech community in order to explain language variation and change in apparent time, it is important to examine what attitudes language users have towards them as well as social meanings ​​attributed to them. To date the social meaning of vowel lengthening as a relevant feature of Vilnius speech has, however, not been studied. In February–March in 2014 speaker evaluation experiment was conducted in two socially and ethnically unmarked schools with Lithuanian as the language of instruction. The schools were ranked in the middle position in the rating of city schools; all of them were located in two socially unmarked boroughs of Vilnius. The experiment aimed at determining the social meanings that vowel lengthening acquires among Vilnius city pupils. A total of 231 senior (9–10) class pupils took part in the study. The experiment has confirmed the hypothesis that vowel lengthening in Vilnius speech is not evaluated ambiguously and has more than one social meaning. It is the articulatory context, in the other words – the cluster of other pronunciation features of a speaker (or stimuli type) that is decisive in which of the meanings is actualized. It has also showed a clear hierarchization of the stimuli types which reveal natural variability of short vowel lengthening in the speech community of Vilnius: 1) Kam+GalLT, 2) Neu, 3) Kam and 4) Kam+GalSL. The study has revealed that if vowel lengthening in the stem of the word and in the inflectional ending occurs in the articulatory context of the speakers of Lithuanian origin, it is perceived as a marker of high social status, power, high professional competence of the speaker as well as representing businessman profession, a speaker who could work as a newsreader, hold leadership positions. Personal traits like „educated“, „wealthy“, „successful“, „managing“, „youthful“, „urban“ and „having a good job“ have mostly been assigned to the latter types of speakers with statistically significant difference. If vowel lengthening occurs in the articulatory context of the speakers of Slavic origin, it is recognized as Slavic and associated with low social status, linked to services and working-class occupations. In addition, all the mentioned personal traits to this type of stimuli have been assigned most rarely by the pupils. Only the stem lengthening articulatory context has been linked to the category of provinciality and this stimuli type representing speakers have been mostly considered to be suitable for service occupations.

SummaryThe aim of this article is to analyze the differences between Lithuanian and French sounds and to provide a general outlook of the Lithuanian articulatory phonetics mainly intended for French speakers. Such a comparative analysis is relevant because (a) there is no consistent equivalent between written and spoken language, even in Lithuanian, which has a relatively young written language, (b) the international phonetic alphabet does not always accurately reflect differences in pronunciation, (c) the contrastive perspective helps learners to focus on differences that could be unnoticed. Besides the articulatory aspects, the orthographic issues where the spoken form cannot be directly deduced from the written form by a simple relation from grapheme to sound but depends on the graphemic context (mainly related to some assimilation processes) are given a special attention. The questions that remain controversial between Lithuanian phoneticians (such as the retroflex status of the phonetic counterparts of <š> and <ž>) are also mentioned. The comparative analysis shows that the two systems exhibit significant differences: most sounds are not shared. Nevertheless, differences are often slight, so that it is more an issue of orthoepics. Attention should be paid to the differences in the duration and qualitative characteristics of long and short vowels and the relation of graphemes <a, e, o, i> to sounds. From the point of view of consonants, [], [r, rj], [x, ] are problematic, their pronunciation must be learned separately. The pronunciation of palatalized consonants as simple consonants, and not as clusters with [j] as the second element, is also challenging for French speakers.

The paper analyses selected terms from the perspective of linguistic relativity. It examines how the speakers of English, Lithuanian, and Russian perceive similar phenomena, how this specific perception is reflected in the linguistic nomination, and what difficulties this difference may cause for a translator. The analysis has demonstrated that some dog breeds are grouped differently in given languages, which presents certain problems of translation. The translator must possess considerable knowledge of cynology vocabulary or seek for a professional advice in order to produce a correct translation of dog breeds from English into Lithuanian and Russian, and vice versa.

AbstractInput variability is key in many aspects of linguistic learning, yet variability increases input complexity, which may cause difficulty in some learning contexts. The current work investigates this trade-off by comparing speaker variability effects on L2 vocabulary learning in different age groups. Existing literature suggests that speaker variability benefits L2 vocabulary learning in adults, but this may not be the case for younger learners. In this study native English-speaking adults, 7- to 8-year-olds, and 10- to 11-year-olds learned six novel Lithuanian words from a single speaker, and six from eight speakers. In line with previous research, adults showed better production of the multispeaker items at test. No such benefit was found for either group of children, either in production or comprehension. Children also had greater difficulties in processing multiple-speaker cues during training. We conclude that age-related capacity limitations may constrain the ability to utilize speaker variability when learning words in a new language.

The present article addresses the principal phonetic phenomena of the languages used in borderland areas and their interaction. It analyzes of dialectological and sociolinguistic material collected from the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century from three points in the Šalčininkai district. It analyzes the phonetic convergence of the dominating local language varieties — Belarusian, Polish and Lithuanian — and establishes the tendencies of this process. The situations of natural communication in the context of code-switching are analyzed in the study: when the speakers are fluent and use several languages at the same time by actively switching between them in conversations. The research is, based on the theory proposed by Valerijus Čekmonas, the researcher of the interaction of languages and Slavicist: the speaker switches between languages according to certain rules, which can be described by algorithms. Based on this method of algorithms, the study reveals the phonetic tendencies and proves a very important role and influence of the now passively used Lithuanian language on the articulation of contemporary Slavic languages.The research showed that the reasons of convergence of phonetic phenomena of the language varieties functioning in the borderland areas are mainly sociolinguistic. After comparing the phonetic peculiarities of local Polish and Belarusian dialects, it turned out that the phonetics of both dialects is essentially the same. The informants pronounce the soft consonants used in the local Lithuanian dialect in the same way as they are pronounced when speaking local Slavic dialects. The cases, which are not typical of Belarusian and Polish dialects, when consonants are intensively confused, were recorded; it is likely a feature of the Lithuanian substratum.

A Lithuanian word is quite an autonomous prosodic unit. Nevertheless, in some cases a word loses stress, connects to an adjacent word, and becomes a part of a succeeding or preceding word. The aim of this research is to establish and describe the prosodic autonomy of the Lithuanian language word and its determinants.The database for this analysis consists of some audio recordings of novels, which were used in this study (11 h 20 min, 22 speakers). A computational programme was designed by Prof. Dr. G. Raškinis.The empirical data showed that the words with clitics comprise about ¼ of all the words. The data analysis suggests that the word autonomy depends on many factors: phonetic structure (monosyllabic words often lose their stress), morphological features (uninflected parts of speech, especially prepositions, often do not have a stress), the structure of a sentence (a potential clitic can get a stress in an elliptic sentence), pragmatic intentions (a word with a phrase stress will get a lexical stress), and the pressure of the rhythm (a potential clitic can keep stress due to the succeeding unstressed syllable). The latter factor is important for the rhythm of the speech for two reasons. First, a clitic can eliminate a stress clash, which might be formed if both words had stresses. Second, if clitic is connected to the word with a first stressed syllable, the second syllable would become stressed. Such word is articulated easier than the word which begins with a stressed syllable. However, the rhythm does not have a major impact on the word autonomy in the Lithuanian language. The phonetic structure and morphological features have the most significant influence on the prosodic autonomy of a word.

Summary The acquisition of lexical competence is a complex process, because for learners, it is not enough to distinguish the form and meaning of a lexical element in order to know how to integrate it correctly into the language context. The skill also involves the understanding of the properties of lexical and grammatical combinatorics. The present analysis of the written production of Lithuanian learners of French as a Second Language (FSL) is based on an annotated corpus and focuses on apposition. The term refers to a noun to which it provides additional information on its quality or nature. Choosing apposition for the study is prompted its particular use for elucidation in French then makes it possible to compare its use by FSL learners of and native speakers. The use of apposition in L1 of the analysed level is not very frequent, which poses another question, namely, how Lithuanian learners convey information without apposition. We task ourselves with noting, the different uses of apposition in FSL learners’ writing and analysing their particularities and correspondences in native speakers’ use. Apposition, as NP (noun phrase) constituent, will be analysed syntactically, taking into account correct, erroneous or uncertain constructs. The learners’ writings serve to orient the didactic reflections towards the general use of apposition in the learners’ corpora and a better represent typical interlanguage constructions.

Summary This research intends to find out whether Lithuanians studying English as a foreign language make certain mistakes because of the influence of their native language. It focuses on negative transfer in writing in English and is qualitative rather than quantitative. The article discusses the errors and illustrates them with examples that come from a corpus for which the data was obtained from 34 Moodle forum posts written by English B2 students, native speakers of Lithuanian who were in year one or year two of their studies in various study programmes but also studied English at Vytautas Magnus University as an obligatory subject. The students participated in this forum in October 2018 and reflected on the week of presentations they had recently had: they were asked to write what they liked or did not like in the presentations their colleagues had given in class, what went well and what did not, what they should improve in the future, etc. This study identified the types of errors (based on Camilleri, 2004) that occurred most frequently and their source (based on Camilleri, 2004; Brogan & Son, 2015). Most frequently the students made errors in the cases where there was a specific grammatical category in English, but it was non-existent in Lithuanian, while sometimes the source of errors was literal translation from the native language. The error analysis shows that in the English classroom specific attention should be given to the verb forms “is” and “are”, “was” and “were”, “has” and “have”, articles, collocations, tense agreement, quantifiers, the sentence structure of the English language and the importance of word meanings.

The paper presents a comparative analysis of English and Lithuanian metaphorical terms based on the names of the parts of human body, plants, animals, materials, clothes, utensils, etc. The analysis is aimed at identifying their common and differing features as well as spotting the specific patterns of English terms presenting difficulties for speakers of Lithuanian in their comprehension, translation and usage. It has been found that metaphorical terms are used by both languages, however, they are more common in English. The differences lie not only in the number of the respective terms but in the semantic structure as well. English terms of the models considered often do not allow for literal translation. The difficulties of their comprehension and translation may be overcome by applying the theory of linguistic relativity. Different approaches of the English and Lithuanian languages to classifying the objects of reality are also considered within the framework of linguistic relativity and some case studies are presented.

The article describes the Corpus of Spoken Lithuanian, its structure, compilation stages (collection of the recordings, transcription, and grammatical annotation), and the methodology of data collection and digitalization; in addition, it discusses the possibilities of corpus application in the research of natural language usage and the research, which has already been carried out, using the corpus data. At present (2017), the corpus, which is freely accessible for internet users, contains 226,174 word forms. The users of the online corpus version can perform search of a word or a word form and obtain data on the frequency of the form in the whole corpus or its part as well as see grammatical information about it. In 2016-2017, the Corpus of Spoken Lithuanian was supplemented by new data resulting from the implementation of the project “Contemporary Spoken Lithuanian: A Corpus-based Analysis of Grammar and Lexis” (LIP-085/2016) financed by the Research Council of Lithuania under the programme of the State Lithuanian Studies and Dissemination Programme for 2016–2024. The project will also create a new internet access, which will provide more possibilities for the users. The updated corpus consists of 256 conversations (383,587 words) produced by 1,086 speakers (659 females and 427 males), whose age ranges from 3 to 81 years. When developing the Corpus of Spoken Lithuanian, much attention was paid to its composition, i.e. the proportions of the corpus. In order to improve the universality and suitability of the corpus for a more varied analysis, the principle of a balanced corpus was maintained; therefore, several criteria were taken into consideration when collecting the data: the nature of spoken language (private vs public speech) and structure (dialogues vs polilogues), different communication situations (direct vs indirect (e.g. a telephone conversation), demographic indicators, and social relations among the interlocutors. Therefore, in 2018, users of the updated version of the corpus will be able to filter results according to different categories, such as gender, age, place and structure of the conversation, and perform a more detailed search. It is expected that when the users are provided with more possibilities to analyse corpus data on the internet, the amount of spoken language research will increase comprising different areas of lexis and grammar.

Learner corpus research continues to provide evidence of how formulaic language is (mis)used by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). This paper deals with less investigated multi-word units in EFL contexts, namely, phrase-frames (Fletcher 2002–2007), i.e. sets of n-grams identical except for one word (it is * to, in the * of). The study compares Lithuanian and Polish learner writing in English in terms of phrase-frames and contrasts them with native speakers. The analysis shows that certain differences between Lithuanian and Polish learners result from transfer from their native languages, yet both groups of learners share many common features. Most importantly, the phrase-frame approach highlights structural peculiarities of learner writing which are otherwise difficult to capture.

Combining metalinguistic discourse analysis with statistical and qualitative speaker evaluation analysis the paper examines perceptions of phonetic variation in the speech of urban girls and discusses the impact of social stereotypes on the evaluation of their speech styles. The approach is adapted that speech variants are meaningful elements of a style cluster used by speakers for construction of certain personality types and stances and recognized by hearers as such (Agha 2007, Campbell-Kibler 2009, Blommaert 2010). Subconscious Speaker evaluation experiment was carried out in four upper-secondary schools of Vilnius. 14 female speech samples, representing three supposed speech styles indexed by either open back rounded [ɒ] (variant of standard Lithuanian /o/), or alveolar [s] (variant of dental /s/) or unmarked with regard to the mentioned features were presented for subconscious assessment to 232 students. The students were asked to rate the voices on several 7-point scales to assess the personality traits of the voices and their suitability for several professions. The idea was to investigate whether the students will recognize these speech styles of urban girls as different ways with language, whether this recognition will result in categorisation of speakers into separate social types and whether the discourse stereotypes will impact the assessments of students. The research confirmed the presuppositions. The voices that included an open rounded [ɒ] were subconsciously associated with the social stereotypes that were found in the discursive construction of the pop girls, the so called fyfas. These voices were assessed significantly more negatively on qualities related with personal maturity and trustworthiness, such as not being goal-directed, conscientious and intelligent, and most positively on the trait joyful. As well they were significantly more often associated with fashion, music and advertising branches. The highest intellectual capacities and skills as well prestigious professions such as businessman or physician were attributed to the unmarked voices, relating this speech style to the stereotype of a nerd. Whereas the voices that included alveolar [s] were perceived as belonging to an in between position – on most of the scales their ratings were lower than the unmarked voices’ and higher than the [ɒ] voices’. Such attribution confirmed the hypothesized assignment of alveolar [s] to “serious entertainment”, a style that is presented as serious in entertainment contexts. The research revealed significant association of this style with the music branch. To summarize, the studied speech styles are subject of conscious and subconscious awareness in the Lithuanian speech community. They are reacted to applying certain ideological schemes, be it stereotypes constructed and maintained by the public discourse or subconscious knowledge, formed by social and linguistic competence of the judges. There is no doubt that at least two of the studied styles – the unmarked Vilnius speech and the alveolar [s] including style are not limited to female speakers. The gender variable would be an interesting supplement to the further study of language variation in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

This article analyses online greetings in the Russian, Polish, Lithuanian and German languages. The author treats greetings as a speech act which helps the addresser to remind the addressee of his/her good attitude towards him/her on the basis of a particular occasion—the addressee’s birthday. The author analyses this speech act in relation to the specific communicative and mental scenarios of the culture to which the speaker belongs. The entirety of standard speech acts and the combination of intentions of the speakers form a genre. The genre of modern online greetings seems contiguous to folklore genres, because most of the texts do not have authors. Moreover, these texts move from one Internet site to another, resulting in a wide circle of “implementers”—users.The author distinguishes some typical characteristics of online greetings among the four cultures. An emphasis on the figure of the speaker and an incantatory character are typical of Russian greeting texts. Happiness, health and eternal youth are the key objects of these Russian texts. Russian greetings are related to the future. German greetings are mainly related to the birthday celebration itself. Greetings are often related to a review of life: on this occasion the addressee is encouraged to reflect on whether s/he has lived the past year appropriately. The word courage (Mut) is constantly repeated in German greetings, whereas this word is absent from the Russian greetings. The figure of the speaker is marginally expressed in Polish greetings. The sweetness of life is present in Polish greetings, whereas it is observed neither in German nor in Russian texts. May all your dreams come true is a cliché element of Polish greeting texts. Lithuanian greetings distinguish themselves by their melancholic tone.The author relates the detected specific features of online greetings to the ideas of philosophers and historians on the unique means of expressing one’s national character.

AbstractThe Republic of Ireland (ROI) and Northern Ireland (NI) have recently become attractive migrant destinations. Two main dialectal varieties are recognised on the island, but little is known about their adoption by new speakers. Focusing on a panlectal feature, discourse like, we conducted a quantitative sociolinguistic investigation of its adoption by seventeen young Polish and Lithuanian migrants in Armagh (NI), and thirty-six Polish and Chinese adult migrants in Dublin (ROI), with comparator samples drawn from native speakers. Findings show that like rates in both cities diverge, but that migrants mirror local frequencies. Clause-final like is restricted primarily to native speakers, but is twice as frequent in Armagh than in Dublin. English proficiency has a significant effect on the likelihood of young migrants in Armagh adopting the clause-final variant. The article's significance also stems from the original contribution it makes to our understanding of how sociolinguistic competence is acquired in ‘superdiverse’ settings. (Discourse like, identity, migration, Northern Irish-English, Hiberno-English, Ulster English, Southern Irish-English)*

The study presents the results of a synchronic and diachronic corpus-based analysis of discourse markers in Lithuanian. The paper aims to analyse patterns of usage and functional diversity of the most frequent discourse markers in contemporary spoken Lithuanian as well as to determine what kind of structural and functional changes occur in the diachronic process of discourse marker formation and what kind of factors foster the emergence of discourse markers. Three major structural groups of the markers were subject to the analysis: (a) particles, (b) adverbs and pronouns, (c) different verbal and nominal forms and their constructions.The data have been drawn from the corpora representing contemporary spoken Lithuanian and from Old Lithuanian texts (the 16th-17th centuries). The corpora of contemporary spoken Lithuanian exhibit a variety of different communication settings: they represent casual interactions between interlocutors who know each other very well, e. g. family members and close friends, or include more formal instances of speech production, e. g. interviews, TV and radio shows. The three corpora used for the synchronic analysis were the following: the sub-corpus of spontaneous private speech of the Spoken Corpus of the Lithuanian Language, compiled at Vytautas Magnus University, the online database of interviews Vilnius Speaking (only the interviews with native speakers of Lithuanian were included) and the Radio and TV Corpus (namely, the period of 1993–2011 was taken into account), compiled by the Department of Sociolinguistics, Institute of the Lithuanian Language. The analysis of the discourse markers in old Lithuanian was mainly based on the 16th-17th century texts, namely Postilė by Jonas Bretkūnas (1591), Postilė by Mikalojus Daukša (1599) and Punktai sakymų by Konstantinas Sirvydas (1629; 1644).In contemporary spoken Lithuanian the discourse markers under analysis have revealed a wide range of textual and interpersonal functions. The textual functions include signaling a conclusion, generalization (i.e. tai ‘so’, vat ‘there, here, so’, reiškia ‘it means’, (vienu) žodžiu) ‘in short’), elaboration, reformulation, word-search (i.e. na ‘well’, nu ‘well’, šita ‘this, so’, tenai(s) ‘there’, ta prasme ‘I mean’), the start of a new topic (i.e. tai ‘so’, na ‘well’, nu ‘well’, va ‘there, here’, žinok ‘you know’), filling a gap in conversation (i.e. šita ‘this, so’, na ‘well’, nu ‘well’) and creating the coherent and smooth flow of discourse (i.e. reiškia ‘it means’, kaip sakant ‘so to say’). The interpersonal functions show reference to shared knowledge and are realized by the markers čia ‘here’, gerai ‘ok’, žinok ‘you know’, ar ne/ane ‘yes or no’, which seek to establish a relationship with the addressee. The speaker may show agreement with the addressee, mitigate his/her statement or avoid providing a straightforward answer. The present study has also revealed a wide range of combinations of discourse markers, such as tai va ‘so here’, tai tada ‘so then’, tada dabar ‘now then’, o tai gerai ‘but so ok’, dabar žiūrėkite ‘now look’, dabar sakyk ‘now say’ expressing textual and interpersonal functions. Functional diversity of the discourse markers may result from their primary lexical or grammatical meaning, position in a sentence, speech act type, co-occurrence with other discourse markers and type of spoken discourse.The study of the 16th-17th century Lithuanian texts shows that common discourse markers in contemporary spoken Lithuanian are most frequently traced back to adverbs (na ‘well’, nu ‘well’, čia ‘here’, ten(ai) ‘there’, dabar ‘now’) and less frequently to pronouns (tai ‘this’). The adverbs examined in the old Lithuanian texts marked textual deixis and, as a result, they may also have acquired metalinguistic or textual functions. The adverbs čia ‘here’ and dabar ‘now’ were used as emphatic particles denoting the author’s subjective stance. Participial constructions containing verbs of speaking (trumpai sakant ‘shortly saying’, prastai kalbant ‘simply speaking’, etc.) were employed as textual markers, i.e. reformulating or paraphrasing the author’s thoughts. The data provide evidence that discourse markers in Lithuanian may have developed from adverbial phrases and complement clauses illustrating the two universal paths of semantic development (cf. Brinton 2017, 285-289). However, the 16th-17th century Lithuanian texts do not contain discourse markers of imperatival origin, such as žinok ‘know’, žiūrėk ‘look’, palauk ‘wait’, eik tu ‘come on’ or discourse markers deriving from the second-person singular or plural forms supranti ‘understand’ (SG), suprantat(e) ‘understand’ (PL) or the third-person form reiškia ‘it means’, as in the old texts these markers had their primary lexical meaning and may have developed discourse functions only in later stages. The particles gi and juk displayed intersubjective functions, as they were employed in contexts of shared knowledge.

The paper introduces available databases of new borrowings into Lithuanian and research into their main features and usage in public written texts, including the Internet, in 1991–2013. The research has shown that new borrowings of the Lithuanian language and the process of borrowing follow the same universal and general patterns noticed in other speech communities. Overall, about 1 500 different new borrowings and borrowed derivatives that have entered the Lithuanian language since early 90ies have been included into the databases. Due to the normative tradition of standard written Lithuanian, in more formal domains there is a tendency to graphically highlight borrowings either by inserting the quotation marks or by writing the borrowings in italics. However, in informal Internet texts (chats, commentaries, etc.) the borrowings are usually not highlighted. The morphological adaptation of most borrowings and orthographical adaptation of a large part of them give a clue to the integration potential of the Lithuanian structural paradigms. The distribution of the new borrowings across the word classes follows the patterns identified in other research: most borrowings are nouns, a much lower number of them are adjectives and verbs and a rather insignificant number are adverbs. Most new borrowings in the studied period include borrowings from English (approx. 70 per cent). Borrowings from other languages are much less numerous: depending on a text type, neo-Latinisms make up 5–8 per cent, words of French origin—3–7 per cent, words of Italian origin—4–5 per cent and Greek borrowings—2–3 per cent. The domains that include most new borrowings are technology and engineering, food, economics and business, also music. As already mentioned, borrowings from English clearly dominate in most domains. However, the semantic field of food seems to be the most diverse in terms of the origin of borrowings: most borrowings are of Italian origin, others come from of English, French, Spanish, Japanese and other languages. French and neoclassical borrowings make up more than 70 per cent of all borrowed law terms and almost 40 per cent of the terms of economics and business. The research of new borrowings into Lithuanian reveals fundamental changes in the socio-cultural development of the society and highlights the potential of the Lithuanian language to adapt to the needs of the speakers and to preserve the marks of ongoing cultural changes.

Atlas of the Baltic languages: from idea to pilot projectDialectologists from Latvian Language Institute of the University of Latvia and the Department of Language History and Dialectology of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, have developed a proposal for a joint project entitled, The Atlas of the Baltic Languages, which is intended to demonstrate the close kinship of these two Baltic languages. A pilot project, supported by a grant from the University of Latvia and Directorate for the Millenium of Lithuania has been carried out between 2006 and 2008 to determine what the form and eventual content of such an atlas might be.In 2009 a summary of work carried out on the pilot project on Atlas of the Baltic Languages, Prospect has been published which includes 12 geolinguistic maps, with commentary in Latvian, Lithuanian and English. The publication also contains in the introduction homage paid to the living and extinct Baltic languages, as well as an overview of the history of the study of dialects in both countries and the characteristics and regional distribution of the dialects of Latvian and Lithuanian. The publication also describes the principles followed in creating these geolinguistic maps and associated commentary.This article describes recent progress made in research on the regional distribution of dialects of both Baltic languages. For more than a century research on the dialects of the Latvian and Lithuanian languages has taken place in parallel, separately gathering data on the various dialects of each respective language. It is, therefore, necessary first to examine, briefly, the histories of the respective geolinguistic research endeavours.The first records of differences between the territorial extents and diversity of Latvian and Lithuanian are to be found in surviving grammars and dictionaries of these languages compiled in the 17th century.The first map showing the geographical reach of the Lithuanian language is to be found in the grammar compiled in 1876 by Friedrich Kurschat. The first geolinguistic map of the Latvian language was published in 1892 by August Bielenstein.The systematic efforts at gathering Latvian and Lithuanian non-material cultural assets date from the second half of the 19th century. A new chapter in the study of Lithuanian and Latvian dialects began in the 1950s after a decision was taken to produce atlases of the two languages. At the end of the 20th century the atlases of the Lithuanian and Latvian language were published. This was the main basis for joint project – The Atlas of the Baltic LanguagesThe maps created in the framework of the pilot project, The Atlas of the Baltic Languages, show the principal grouping of most terms used by the speakers of these two living Baltic languages. An in-depth geolinguistic study of the Latvian and Lithuanian languages could produce important findings in the field of the history of the Baltic peoples. Атлас балтийских языков: проект разработкиВ 2009 году был издан сигнальный проект Baltu valodu atlants (Атлас балтийских языков), в котором кроме 12 геолингвистических карт с комментариями на латышском, литовском и аглийском языках, дана обширная вступительная часть, посвященная живым и мертвым балтийским языкам, краткая история диалектологических исследований обеих стран, характеристика и распространение диалектов латышского и литовского языков, а также принцип составления карт и комментариев. В основу Атласа балтийских языков легли предыдущие геолингвистические исследования и собранные по вопроснику диалектные материалы обоих балтийских языков.В течение более столетия исследования диалектов литовского и латышского языков развивались параллельно. Языковые в диалектные данные были собраны и обработаны в отдельности для каждого языка. Необходимо затем проследить историю геолингвистических исследований диалектов обоих языков.Первые сведения о территориальных различиях латышского и литовского языков были отнесены уже в грамматиках и словарях XVII века.Первую карту распространения литовского языка предложил Фридрих Куршат (Friedrich Kurschat) в изданной в 1876 году грамматике литовского языка.В 1892 году была издана первая геолингвистическиая карта латышского языка, ее автором был священник немецкой национальности Август Биленштайн (August Bielenstein).Во второй половине XIX века в Европе собирались этнографические материалы и исследовались местные языковые особенности. В это же время появляются первые программы собирания латышской и литовской нематериальной культуры. Новый период в исследовании латышских и литовских диалектов начался в 50-ые годы XX века, когда было решено издать атласы литовского и латышского языков. В основу Атласа балтийских языков легли изданные в конце XX века диалектологические атласы литовского и латышского языков, составленные в нем карты показывают их общие лексические ареалы.

The aim of this research was to measure the vocabulary size of native speakers of Lithuanian language attending the 11th grade in small cities and to compare the results with the research conducted in Vilnius schools. This paper aimed to find out whether the place of residence and the gender factor have a statistically significant influence on the size of the vocabulary and discover if any sociolinguistic factors can impact it. The research material consisted of 242 responses given to a sociolinguistic survey and vocabulary size test. T-test and regression analysis were applied in the research.The results of the study indicated that the average vocabulary of an 11th grade student consists of approximately 51,400 lemmas. Vilnius school students have an average vocabulary size of about 52,800 lemmas; the vocabulary size of small towns students is lower – 50,000 lemmas. The T-test statistical analysis has revealed that the difference in the mean size of the vocabulary across genders is statistically significant (p = 0,011). It was found out that the vocabulary size of students living in Vilnius is statistically significantly bigger than that of students in the smaller cities (p = 0,002). The regression analysis indicated that gender can affect the vocabulary size. The analysis showed statistical significance (p = 0,004) that watching movies in the Lithuanian language can impact the vocabulary size of students living in small towns.

Šiame tyrime buvo žvelgiama į trijų Vilniuje gyvenančių tautinių grupių: lietuvių, rusų ir lenkų, tautinės savimonės sąsają su tautybe ir kalba. Tiriant dalyvavo Vilniaus universiteto studentai lietuviai bei Vilniaus mieste gyvenantys lietuviai, rusai ir lenkai, moksleiviai. Tyrimas buvo atliktas pasitelkus daugiamačių skalių metodiką. Dalyviams buvo pateikti Lietuvoje gyvenančių žmonių apibūdinimai, apimantys trijų tautybių asmenis: lietuvius, rusus ir lenkus, kalbančius viena iš trijų kalbų: lietuvių, rusų ir lenkų, bei kategorija „Aš pats“. Iš viso buvo dešimt apibūdinimų. Atliekant tyrimą, dalyviams knygutėse buvo pateiktos dešimties apibūdinimų porinės kombinacijos, pvz., „lenkas, gyvenantis Lietuvoje ir kalbantis lenkiškai: Aš pats.“ Dalyviai buvo prašomi visas poras įvertinti pagal panašumą pagal 9 balų skalę, kur 1 balas reiškė „labai skiriasi“, o 9 balai – „labai panašūs“. Rasta, kad lietuvių jaunimo tarpusavio artumo išgyvenimą ypač skatina lietuvių kalbos mokėjimas. Taip pat matyti tautybės ir kalbos sąveika. Rusų jaunimas vertina savo tautybę ir kalbą, bet yra atviras ir lietuviškumo poveikiui. Lenkų jaunimas save sieja su lenkų tautybe ir kalba, bet taip pat rodo aiškų priešiškumą lietuviškumui. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: kalba, tautybė, tautinė tapatybė.HOW ARE WE ALIKE? LANGUAGE AND ETHNICITY AS DETERMINANTS OF SIMILARITY IN THREE ETHNIC GROUPS Algis Norvilas, Ieva Valskytė-Janušaitienė Summary This study asked the question: what role do language and ethnic-cultural background play in perception of similarity amongst members of three ethnic groups: Lithuanians, Russians, and Poles in Vilnius, Lithuania. Based on the results of the classic studies of Taylor et al. (1973) and Giles et al. (1976) it was predicted that language would have a powerful consolidating effect on each respective ethnic group, but especially the two minority groups: Russians and Poles. Ethnic-cultural background would also draw people closer together, but less visibly so. It was also expected that the two factors would show interaction. Forty Lithuanian students from Vilnius University and 25 of each Lithuanian, Russian, and Polish students from Vilnius area high-schools participated in the study. The groups were about evenly divided in terms of gender. The study utilized the methodological technique of multidimensional scaling (MDS). The participants were first presented with labels (descriptions) of people living in Lithuania. The labels incorporated reference to one of three ethnic groups (Lithuanians, Russians, and Poles) and one of three spoken languages (Lithuanian, Russian, and Polish). Crossing the three ethnic descriptions with the three languages produced nine labels (e.g., A Pole living in Lithuania who speaks Russian, A Lithuanian living in Lithuania who speaks Polish, etc.), to which the label MYSELF, a reference to one’s own person, was added to serve as an anchor point in relation to the other labels. All told, then, the participants were exposed to ten labels. After viewing the labels, the participants were given a booklet in which the ten labels were presented as pairs in all possible combinations (e.g., A Lithuanian living in Lithuania who speaks Lithuanian: A Russian living in Lithuania who speaks Lithuanian, etc.). This time they were asked to leaf through the booklet and to evaluate each of the paired labels for their degree of similarity by circling the appropriate value on a nine-point rating scale. The value of one signified that the paired labels were “very different”, and nine that they were “very similar”. The results were analyzed by first computing the mean similarity values for each of the paired label combinations. The resulting matrix of mean values was then subjected to an MDS analysis. In the case of Lithuanian participants, it is clear that language exerts a potent effect on drawing people closer together. Not only did the participants see other Lithuanians who spoke Lithuanian as being very similar to them, but they also saw Russians and Poles who spoke Lithuanian as moving in their direction. Overlap in ethnicity likewise enhanced the experience of similarity, but this was only true for high-school students. There is also noticeable interaction such that, for instance, the same language might draw Russians and Poles towards the Lithuanian side, but their different ethnicity would still keep them at bay. The results for the Polish participants were similar to those of the Lithuanian group, but only selectively so. They also perceived language and ethnicity as enhancing the experience of similarity, but this occurred only in relationship to the Lithuanian group. They saw Russians in terms of both language and ethnicity as essentially similar to themselves. The Russian participants present a more complex picture. The Russian men and women showed different reaction patterns to the role of language and ethnicity. Generally, Russians seem to place greater emphasis on ethnicity than language as a binding variable. Otherwise, their response patterns were marked by pervasive interaction. Key words: language, ethnicity, ethnic identity.

The present study explores the images of standard Lithuanian of young people at a gymnasium located in the area of the standard language. The data were obtained from a questionnaire based on the methodological principles of perceptual dialectology. The image of the standard language in the consciousness of the respondents emerges from the analysis of the questionnaire data: the frequency of linguistic codes, the mental maps of the standard language areas, and associations of the standard language. The analysis of the data shows that the gymnasium students tend to distance themselves from the regional linguistic code. The respondents’ disassociation from the local variety and their stronger preference for the code of the standard language is probably related to their sense of language security in the area of the linguistic homeland (including that of the standard language). The mental maps show that the young people associate the standard Lithuanian with the larger or smaller area of central Lithuania, which includes cities (Kaunas, Vilnius), adjacent non-dialect areas (Jonava, Kaišiadorys), and one or two dialect zones; it nearly overlaps the area of the standard language delineated in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Vilnius is the part of this image – probably of its status of the capital city and a significant social, cultural, and urban centre of attraction. The gymnasium students think that speakers of the standard language are city dwellers first and foremost, while the mental connection between the code of standard language and education occurs less often. Such views might have emerged due to the location of the city – hence that of the respondents’ linguistic homeland. Identifying the standard language user as an ordinary person or a Lithuanian could most likely be explained by the fact that the standard language is not only a national language to the young people: it is also an equivalent of their linguistic code. The gymnasium students do not associate the standard language with linguistic norms (the correct use of language). The consistency of the young generation’s attitudes (both those visualised on the maps and verbalised in the questionnaire answers) suggests the high value of the variety spoken in the area they associate with the standard language. The results of the study provide insights into the functioning, vitality, and continuity of the standard language in this area.

This paper stems from the ongoing debate on the changing role and status of English in different parts of the world, with a special interest in the socio-historical background of a post-Soviet country. The international status of English has given rise to different reactions among speakers, ranging from attraction to resentment (cf. Onysko, 2009: 34). These reactions are expressed in public online discourse, which provides a rich resource of empirical evidence to study public attitudes and language ideologies. Digital media offers an especially important strategic site to disseminate ideologies and shape public opinions. This paper analyses the spectrum of discourses operating within Lithuanian digital media to perpetuate attitudes towards English and the values associated with it.

Šakiai and Jurbarkas sub-dialects belong to the northern part Western Highlanders of Kaunas region. There is described location of this area in the Lithuanian dialect classification, specific features, dialectal speech self–evaluation and vitality in the beginning of the twenty-first century. According research results Šakiai and Jurbarkas sub-dialects constitute an integral area. there are many common features, this area is transitional to Lowlanders dialect. Dialectal speech self–evaluation is different between two dialects. The Šakiai dialect speakers fully aware of its dialectal dependence, they are able to define its own dialect. However, dialect users note little dialectal features in their own speech, dialectal identity more based on geographical Location and administrative division. The Jurbarkas dialect speakers more fail to identify themselves can not to define its own dialect. The dialect names mostly are made by places of residence names. However, users of this dialect more note dialectal features. Dialectal speech prestige and vitality is high in both sub-dialects. The code switching is uncharacteristic to this area. The least noticeable features are stable, the most noticeable features most disappearing. There are not observed distinct features of the new dialect. High vitality of the dialectal speech is based on small difference from the standard language, not on dialectal prestige or linguistic provisions of dialect speakers.