Skyrybos ypatumai lietuvių kalbos ir literatūros valstybinio brandos egzamino darbuose

BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ Lietuvių kalbos institutas SKYRYBOS YPATUMAI LIETUVIŲ KALBOS IR LITERATŪROS KEY WORDS: essay, separation, punctuation mark, state maturity exam. INTRODUCTION Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about the Lithuanian language and literature maturity exam: starting with literacy, the selection of literary works, ending with evaluation Raštingumas dažniausiai suvokiamas kaip rašybos ir skyrybos įgūdžių turėjimas 1 . Apie and other things. the most typical tendencies of pupils’ spelling errors in the state maturity examination papers have already been written before (Tamulionienė 2015). This article continues the topic of student literacy in another aspect – examining the peculiarities of punctuation in student texts. The object of this article – forty 2014 and sixty 2018 Lithuanian language and literature state maturity exam works, rated 80-100 points, from various Lithuanian regions – the cases of divorce are problematic for these students, it is likely that 2 they may be unclear and the 2014 state maturity exam works, from them it is clear that the siekiama išsiaiškinti, kokie yra geriausius įvertinimus gavusių mokinių skyrybos ypatumai, – jeigu divorce errors are so many that it is almost impossible to describe in detail in one article, so it prastesnius įvertinimus gavusiems mokiniams. Beje, straipsnio autorė yra išnagrinėjusi didelę dalį was decided to first examine the peculiarities of divorce of one group – students who received the best grades. To analyze the language of the works, to identify the most typical punctuation errors in the texts of the students, to try to clarify the reasons and Straipsnio tikslas – atlikus valstybinio lietuvių kalbos ir literatūros brandos egzamino peculiarities of these errors, to reveal punctuation characteristics of the texts of the students. 1 In this article, the word literacy is used with the same meaning. 2 Darbai gauti iš Nacionalinio egzaminų centro pagal Lietuvių kalbos instituto ir Nacionalinio egzamino cooperation agreement with the centre. AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Peculiarities of Divorce in Lithuanian Language and Literature State Matura Examination BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 Papers | 2 In order to achieve the aim, the following main tasks are raised: 1) to examine theoretical aspects of divorce; 2) to identify the most typical punctuation errors of pupils based on the results of forty Lithuanian language valstybinio brandos egzamino darbų, įvertintų 80–100 taškų, kalbos analizę; 3) remiantis atliktos and literature analyses in 2014 and sixty in 2018; 4) based on the established peculiarities of separation of students' būdingiausių skyrybos klaidų tipais pamėginti išsiaiškinti tų klaidų priežastis; 5) atskleisti writing works. The article applies descriptive analytical method to examine the peculiarities of punctuation of student works, quantitative (calculation) method is applied to calculate and present the frequency of punctuation errors in student works. The first chapter of the article outlines the relevance of the study; The second chapter examines more typical problematic cases of divorce, provides comparative statistical characteristics of errors. In the article, all cases are illustrated with examples from essays. The language of the illustrative examples is uncorrected, kept authentic. 1. THEORETICAL PREMISES OF THE INVESTIGATION Punctuation is defined as “an applied branch of syntax, the object of which consists of the establishment of rules for the use of punctuation marks <...> in written language” (Gaivenis, Keinys 1990: 186), “it is a historically formed system of punctuation marks in written language, used to mark the structural (grammatical), semantic and intonational (melodic) breakdown of the text and its units (especially the sentence), to clarify, emphasize, activate the relevant logical and emotional expressive information. It is also a system of principles and rules for the use of punctuation marks” (Abaravičius 2002: 8). The beginning of normal punctuation in Lithuanian language can be considered the Syntax of Lithuanian Language by Jon Jablonski (1911). The book states that punctuation helps "to make it easier to read <...> and shows where to stop while reading, where to raise or lower the voice" (Jablonskis 1957: 542). In the 1922 edition of J. Jablonski’s Lithuanian Grammar, a separate chapter “Skirtamieji ženklai” (Distinctive marks) is devoted to punctuation. It is written about punctuation that “when reading, it is sometimes necessary to pause, raise or lower the voice, to say one or another thing in an exclamation or question <...> To show how we should read the writing, we use separate marks – tabs, or distinctive marks” (Jablonskis 1922: 270). The history of separation norming is described in detail in Vido Valskio article "Iš lietuvių kalbos skyrybos norminimo istorijos" (2014). According to the speaker, the most detailed skyrybos normų aprašu galima laikyti leidinį Lietuvių kalbos rašyba ir skyryba (toliau – LKRS; AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Special features of separation in Lithuanian language and literature state maturity exam BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 works | 3 three editions: 1976, 1989, 1992). This publication “generalizes and systematizes the whole division: detailed rules and numerous illustrative examples are presented <...> the basic principles of division regulation are briefly formulated: syntactic <...> and intonational” (Valskys 2014: 156). The LKRS writes that the intonational and semantic independence of the sentence part depends on various Albinas Drukteinis. The State Lithuanian Language Commission aplinkybių, todėl rašančiojo gali būti skirtingai suvokiamas (1992: 128). 2006 m. Valstybinė lietuvių kalbos komisija priėmė nutarimą „Dėl privalomosios ir pasirenkamosios skyrybos taisyklių“. Šį nutarimą rengė kalbininkų grupė, kuriai vadovavo by its resolutions No. N2 (103) and No. N-3 (104) approved the new rules of compulsory and optional divorce. A number of linguist articles have appeared in the public domain, introducing the motives of the divorce reform, the changed interpretation of some cases, etc. (Drukteinis 2006; 2007a; 2007b; Kniūkšta 2007). Linguist A. Drukteinis writes that “[t]he present stage of the separation process shows that the separation of the Lithuanian language is currently at a certain crossroads. The harmonization of the rules with the communicative goals of the author of the text, while respecting the principle of structural distinction, and the inclusion of formal characteristics also makes them partly inconsistent. The tendency to allow the writer to decide more is obvious. This is explained both theoretically and in the practice of appointment. If this were the stage of further and greater reorganizations, such a variety of distinction marks could be tolerated for a while, but in the long run the rules could be increasingly directed towards a free, i.e. text-clearness and expression-oriented, distinction, at least where the structure matters are obvious and do not need the support of tabs to understand them” (Drukteinis 2006: 205–206). A. Drukteinis listed the reasons why the rules of hyphenation had to be revised: the actual situation of the authors’ ability to distinguish according to the rules, possible confusion of the rules themselves, inability to apply them in specific cases, etc. (Drukteinis 2007b: 1–2). The linguist wrote that “the rules of compulsory assignment are based on clear, usually formal (grammatical, structural) features. They are only indicators of certain things of meaning, but they do not allow subjective interpretation of that meaning. The rules of optional assignment are formulated by indicating the intention of the author of the text – the desire to emphasize, to distinguish intonationally. Here the writer is left free to decide what nuances he would like to convey with punctuation” (Drukteinis 2007b: 1). In Lithuanian, punctuation is based on three principles: syntactic, intonational and semantic. The separation of mandatory and optional punctuation rules in 2006 appears to have made it easier for students and other text writers to apply the rules. But did that happen? The reform should ease Vos prabilus apie skyrybos pokyčius pasirodė diskusijų viešojoje erdvėje, kad tokia the situation of pupils (Augulytė 2005; Gliožerienė 2005; Norvilaitė 2005). AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Peculiarities of the divorce in the Lithuanian language and literature state maturity BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 examination works | 4 At the time, there was a lot of active discussion. After the debate subsided, there were doubts as to how the reform affected the teaching process. In meetings with teachers, this topic is often discussed, and it is increasingly said that students have not benefited from this reform – the more freedom of choice, the greater confusion. In general, when examining the students’ writing works, the impression sometimes arises that it is often difficult to understand the meaning of punctuation marks. With changing intonational tendencies of young people’s spoken language (increasing tendency to raise the intonation at the end of a sentence, etc.), these intonational accents sometimes cause confusion without fully understanding the structure of the sentence. The freedom to choose whether to write punctuation marks also gives a great responsibility, which not everyone manages to cope with. Other teachers, on the contrary, are pleased with the reorganization, claiming that the essence is not the mandatory or optional cases of divorce, that everything depends on the ability to convey those rules, that there is a aiškiai išmokyti sakinio santvarkos, ryšių tarp žodžių. Tiesa, beveik vieningai sutariama, kad lack of clearer interpretation of some divorce rules, examples from real use, since the current divorce is mainly based on intonational and semantic principles. The question arises, how much these principles can be relied on in the teaching process, because “to rely on intonation, as an element of a higher syntactic level, the writer should have sufficient knowledge of the sentence structure” (Vasiliauskienė, Rimkutė 2007: 60). Since 2015, the Institute of Lithuanian Language has been examining the works of the state maturity exam in Lithuanian language and literature, as well as other graduates’ writing works. It is clear that the number of unjustified divorces is increasing, and it would seem that the meaning of divorce is not fully understood, which is why it is difficult to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the divorce rules. All this prompted me to take up this topic – to examine the separation of student texts. The works of the students who received the best grades were also selected not by chance, in order to clarify the most complicated cases of divorce, which are unclear even to the best writing students. It should be noted that the problems of divorce that arise at present are similar to those of the past. As early as 1938, Pranas Skardžius wrote that “many people place tabs without any order, as they see fit or as it seems better to them” (Skardžius 1938: 38), Petras Jonikas discussed which separation – grammatical logical, pause, intonation – should be used in Lithuanian (Jonikas 1939: 10). 133). Attention should also be paid to the fact that electronic communication (social networks, text messages, e-mails) is currently extremely popular. Electronic communication uses less punctuation than written text. Linguist Asta Ryklienė conducted a study which revealed that authors of electronic texts not only choose whether to use punctuation marks or not, but even tend to use them less often or more often than necessary (Ryklienė 2001: 78), AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Peculiarities of divorce in Lithuanian language and literature state maturity examination BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 works | 5 In short messages, “different usage tendencies and new ways of fragmenting the text are noted” (Nevinskaitė 2010: 290), “divorce is reduced, in some e-mails and online conversations it is absent” (Crystal 2006: 94). With the increase of electronic communication, it is important to strengthen punctuation skills in written text. Pupils’ separation skills in the state maturity exams were investigated by Vilija Salienė (2005: 101–103), Kęstutis Bredelis wrote about pupils’ separation skills (2011: 20–26). Zita Alaunienė, having analyzed the criteria for assessing essays for several years, writes in her article “The state of the Lithuanian language in schools – what can be corrected now?” that every year the number of errors allowed is increased, i.e. “literacy requirements are reduced” (Alaunienė 2018: 6). not observed (see Table 1). Kalbant bent jau apie skyrybos vertinimą didesnių pokyčių per pastaruosius penkerius metus Each year the National Examination Centre examines and publicly publishes the statistical analysis of the State Baccalaureate Examination (access on the Internet: https://www.nec.lt/). Based on the data of the National Examination Centre, Table 1 shows the results of the 2014–2018 state maturity examination in Lithuanian language and literature. TABLE 1. 2014–2018 results of the state maturity examination in Lithuanian language and literature, % (compiled by the author, based on data of the National Examination Centre) 2014 7 points for the separation from the total of 18 points for the correctness of the language Taškai (klaidų Number) 7 (0–2) 6 (3) 5 (4) 4 (5–6) 3 (7–8) 2 (9–10) 1 (11–14) 0 (15–...) Distribu- (per cent) tion of points 12,9 7,0 7,4 13,7 12,3 11,1 14,7 20,8 2015 Divorce scores 7 points out of 18 points for correctness of language Taškai (klaidų Number) 7 (0–2) 6 (3) 5 (4) 4 (5–6) 3 (7–8) 2 (9–10) 1 (11–14) 0 (15–...) Distribu- (per cent) tion of points 12,2 7,2 7,3 13,2 13,0 11,6 16,0 19,6 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Skyrybos ypatumai lietuvių kalbos ir literatūros valstybinio brandos egzamino darbuose | 6 BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 2016 m. Skyrybai skiriami 7 taškai iš kalbos taisyklingumui iš viso skiriamų 19 taškų Taškai (klaidų Number) 7 (0–2) 6 (3) 5 (4) 4 (5–6) 3 (7–8) 2 (9–10) 1 (11–14) 0 (15–...) Points 12.2 6.8 7.1 (percent) 13.0 12.4 11.7 15.7 21.0 Points 11.1 6.4 6.9 12.9 13.0 11.3 16.6 21.7 Points 5.8 5.7 5.9 6.6 6.5 6.4 6.7 6.4 6.0 5.4 5.2 4.7 3.9 3.5 21.1 In 2017, divorce is awarded 7 points out of 19 points for correctness of language In Taškai (klaidų Number) 7 (0–2) 6 (3) 5 (4) 4 (5–6) 3 (7–8) 2 (9–10) 1 (11–14) 0 (15–...) distribution (percent) distribution distribution 2018, divorce is awarded 14 points out of 38 points for correctness of language Points (errors 14 13 12 11 10 9 (6) 8 (7) 7 (8) 6(9) 5 4 3 2 1 0 (number 15) (0–1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) –...) (percent) Figures 1 and 2 below provide comparative information. The 2018 data is provided separately because the rating system has changed. 1 PAV. Comparative analysis of the results of the separation evaluation of the state maturity exam in Lithuanian language and literature in 2014–2017, % (compiled by the author, based on data of the National Examination Center) Number of points awarded for separation for the works examined in this article and the number of works Šalia taškų skliaustuose nurodomas galimas klaidų skaičius. AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Peculiarities of the separation in the Lithuanian language and literature state maturity BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 exam works | 7 2 PAV. Analysis of the results of the separation evaluation of the state maturity exam in Lithuanian language and literature in 2018, per cent (compiled by the author, based on data from the National Examination Centre) As can be seen from Šalia taškų skliaustuose nurodomas galimas klaidų skaičius. the data presented in Table 1 and Figures 1-2, in all the comparative years (2014-2018) the largest part of the students’ works consists of works that have collected 0 points for divorce. This figure fluctuates around 20-21% throughout the year. Therefore, when evaluating divorce, there are mostly students who make 15 or more errors in the essay. (%) is shown in Table 2. 2 LENTELĖ. Straipsnyje nagrinėjamų geriausiai įvertintų valstybinio lietuvių kalbos ir literatūros Summary of the results of the evaluation of the maturity exam works (in points) and the works (percent) (compiled by the author, based on the data of the National Examination Center) 2014 m. Darbai (proc.) 2018 m. Darbai (proc.) 7 points (0–2 errors) 45 14 points (0–1 error) 43.3 6 points (3 errors) 32.5 13 points (2 errors) 18.5 5 points (4 errors) 17.5 12 points (3 errors) 11.6 3 points (7–8 errors) 5 11 points (4 errors) 8.3 10 taškų (5 klaidos) 13,3 7 taškai (8 klaidos) 5 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. As it can be seen, the authors of the majority (almost half) of the works examined in the BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 article received the highest number of points for divorce, i.e. they wrote without punctuation errors or made only one other error. The statistics provided by the National Examination Centre (more information www.nec.lt) are very useful, it shows that the number of punctuation errors in the maturity exam works has not changed in recent years. These statistical analyses do not show specific cases, they provide only generalized data, they do not examine examples, therefore this article aims to clarify the specific characteristics of divorce. A brief review of the studies and a general statistical analysis show that divorce issues have been relevant for many years and that their divorce skills still need attention. First, it is necessary to find out what peculiarities of divorce are typical at the moment, then it will be possible to make recommendations on how to teach and apply certain divorce rules. This part of the article examines the cases of incorrect sentence assignment found in the 2014 and 2018 State Baccalaureate Examination papers. The hyphenation of the sentences examined in the article was evaluated only in the aspects found in the researched works, the cases of hyphenation are presented in the article according to the order established in the hyphenation rules, taking into account the sentence structure (singular and compound sentences). The order in which problematic cases are presented is not related to their frequency. 2.1. Problematic cases of separation of homonymous sentence parts After analyzing the separation of homonymous sentence parts in the state maturity examination works, it is evident that there are various cases of errors. It may be that the students are not completely clear about the concept of homogeneity, apparently, it is usually attributed not based on the sentence structure, but only intonation. In the first (a) case, the mistake is made not by separating the homonymous parts of the sentence from each other, but by separating them, because the homonymous parts of the sentence listed without conjunctions must be separated (not išskirti) kableliais, pvz.: AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Peculiarities of Divorce in Lithuanian Language and Literature State Examination Papers | 9 BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 (a) Supervisors could easily take the life of a child, a woman, a man, simply in order to collect the necessary number of 3 bodies. Every sense, every thing, has both good and bad qualities. Paprasčiausi debesys, apsiniaukęs dangus, gali atspindėti gyvenimo laikinumą. Tarp nekartojamaisiais sujungiamaisiais jungtukais sujungtų vienarūšių sakinio dalių kablelis nerašomas, skiriant vienarūšes sakinio dalis, šios taisyklės mokinių darbuose nepaisoma most often, e.g. : (b) A person can become a stranger not only to another person, but to the whole society, or even to himself. Mykolik thinks and realizes that he cannot marry just because his brother has created a family. <...> those who managed to survive there at least a little longer began to suffer from cold-induced diseases and scurvy. <...> has all the necessary traits of manner: courage, foresight, and feels his power, and does not intend to give in to others. His patriotism, Vincas Kudirka sought to show to the society, and to the youth, so that they would follow the example of a good citizen. A noble person means sincere, faithful, and loving. For example, how some fruit smells, or porridge eaten in kindergarten in childhood. Several times mistakenly not distinguishing homonymous sentence parts, connected by repeating the same conjunctions, e.g. : (c) Meanwhile, Severina’s husband dies and she remains in absolute poverty, now with neither love nor money. <...> the same memory can both hurt and sadden us. <...> remembering more precise events, everything is always possible to do or remember. 2.2. Problematic cases of hyphenation of explanatory parts of sentences The concept of explanatory parts of the sentence is expanded by the notion of clarification in the current punctuation rules. Only one other case of incorrect interpretation was found in the texts of the examined students. This may also be because the punctuation of singular parts of a sentence has become optional, while the punctuation of several explanatory parts of a sentence is apparently clear to the students who write best. Only one case was found where several homonymous sentence parts before the generalizing word at the end of the sentence were not separated (a), the mononymous interpretation in the middle of the sentence had to be separated 3 In the examples in subsection 2.1, the homonymous parts of the sentence are underlined. AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. The peculiarities of divorce in the works of the Lithuanian language and literature state BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 maturity exam | 16 Young people are urged to hurry, because the most important works must be done while there is still enough strength and desire, later the priority becomes material well-being. Atskirai minėtini keli pavieniai klaidingi lyginamųjų šalutinių dėmenų skyrimo atvejai (e). It is possible that these elements are confused with comparative sentences, and their punctuation is optional; also found one case, when the same kind of elements of the sub-sentence were connected by a non-repetitive conjunction and (f) and separated by a comma, e.g.: (e) Often such enthusiastic desires to change the world may seem a bit utopian, but the human influence on the surroundings can be as great as most imagine. Thus, alienation in Lithuanian literature unfolds as if we lacked values, were dehumanized, incomplete. (f) The ruling power can decide who is destined to live and enjoy the beauty of “high moments” and who will suffer and struggle. 2.9. Problematic hyphenation Kaip rodo nagrinėjami pavyzdžiai, mokiniai yra gerai perpratę, kaip skirti cituojamą the text. Most of the students’ essays contain excerpts from the works and they are correctly distinguished, except for two cases where they forgot to write a colon after the introductory words, e.g. : A line of the poem is repeated, the author writes “Rise, rise, rise, rise...”. 11 Although David realizes that Goliath is superior (in the piece it is said "My hands are but a shepherd's staff"), he shows moral steadfastness by entering into an unequal battle. 2.10. Problematic cases of punctuation in connective sentences When examining the division of complex conjugated sentences, it is clear that it is clearer for the students – most often the elements of conjugated sentences are connected by the conjunctions o, but, however; these conjunctions are well remembered by students, so the sentence elements connected by them are easy to distinguish. Only a few cases were found where there was no punctuation against the rarer conjunctions only, therefore, connecting elements of the connective sentence, e.g. : 11 The examples in subsection 2.9 are underlined quotes. AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Skyrybos ypatumai lietuvių kalbos ir literatūros valstybinio brandos egzamino darbuose | 17 BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 Be abėjo, ir šiais laikais toks principas yra išlikęs tik dabar jis demokratiškesnis ir kiekvienas pilietis gali pareikšti nuomonę 12 <...>. The poem “National Song” became the anthem, so the lyrical subject is raised above materiality. Their relationship turned into nothing more than a spiritual fellowship, so Mykolik knew that he would never forget them again. 2.11. Unnecessary punctuation Išanalizavus mokinių rašinių skyrybos atvejus rasta tokių, kurių skyrybos ženklų rašymo the motivation is difficult to justify: in one case it can be assumed that there is confusion with insertive punctuation, elsewhere it is possible to see a case of interpretation, most cases of unmotivated punctuation are when a comma is written between the factor and the participle, other cases are apparently random, e.g. : Isn't it a shame that a character has become 13 unnecessary to anyone, just because it's outdated? Sometimes, when life becomes an unbearable burden, love, the only one, pushes a person forward. Because the best remembered, good emotions, time spent together <...>. <...> Tilius, unconditionally falls in love with young, blonde, windy Agnė. Šis bruožas, asocijuoja dorą, garbingą, kilnu žmogu. A man has several memories <...>. Ir meilės jausmas šeimai, niekada neužgęs. It was extremely difficult for Mykola, but for love, he played at the wedding with all his strength. <...> because often new things, we want to touch, feel <...>. 2.15. Summary Nagrinėjant mokinių darbus pastebėta, kad daugiausia problemų kyla skiriant connecting sentences (28% of all the errors found in the papers). Although the punctuation of connective sentences has not fundamentally changed (more complex or rare cases of punctuation are not studied in school), it remains the most difficult for students. This shows that the pupils are not completely clear how to notice the secondary elements, apparently, there are difficulties in understanding the sentence structure. Although textbooks and other methodological tools that teach the rules of punctuation are full of recommendations on how to avoid mistakes when distinguishing secondary accents, this does not save. 12 In the illustrative examples in subsection 2.10, the point of the connecting sentence, which should have been preceded by a punctuation mark, is underlined. 13 In the examples in subsection 2.11, unreasonable divorces are underlined. AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Peculiarities of punctuation in the Lithuanian language and literature state maturity exam BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 works | 18 It is obvious that the skills of pupils need to be strengthened by teaching sentence structure, word taisyklės, ir kiti metodiniai patarimai galės būti veiksmingesni. connections, and then also punctuation of marks (18% of all cases of errors found in the works). The pupils make the most mistakes when distinguishing the extended points after the pointing word, i.e. they usually do not notice them and do not distinguish them or they distinguish them only from one side. And in this case, it only proves once again that the structure of the sentence, the relationships of the parts of the sentence are not understood. In some cases, this may be justified by the fact that students may confuse extended grades with extended circumstances, and the separation of these is optional. Pupils also make a lot of punctuation errors (17% of all errors found in the assignments). It may seem easy to distinguish: the list of both insertive and modal words is almost exhaustive, so it should simply be noted. Confusion may also arise from changes in the rules of punctuation – modal words were not separated before, but are now. Particles, except by the way, were also not distinguished; The reorganized rules extended the list of possible particles to distinguish, so it is often mistaken to distinguish particles, thinking that they indicate a modality. There are also frequent mistakes in distinguishing the homonymous parts of the sentence (14% of all cases of errors found in the papers). We tend to separate the homogeneous parts of the sentence (rather than separate them from each other); The examples show that it is not clear to the students how to distinguish homonymous sentence parts with repetitive or non-repetitive conjunctions, it may be that the distinction of homonymous sentence parts is based solely on the intonation principle. Optional extended circumstance punctuation remains confusing for students (11% of all errors found in the assignments). It would be possible not to distinguish these circumstances at all, but intonationally, apparently, sometimes the need to distinguish is felt and it is forgotten that in such a case it is necessary to distinguish from both sides. Other problematic appointments are rare, occurring one after the other. A slightly larger group of sentences (9% of all cases of errors found in the works) where it is only possible to guess when explaining the motivation of divorce. The option to assign or not to assign does not always help to distinguish cases of omissions (6% of all brūkšnys ar jokio skyrybos ženklo, tik kartais, matyt, tai pamirštama ir intonacinė pauzė žymima cases of errors found in the works) – only one punctuation mark is possible, not a hyphen but a dėmenis (3 proc. iš visų darbuose rastų klaidų atvejų), aiškinamąsias sakinio dalis (3 proc. iš visų comma. Only a few erroneous cases occurred when distinguishing conjunctive sentences (3% of all cases of errors found in the works) and comparative sentences (3% of all cases of errors found in the works). Figure 3 shows the percentage distribution of typical punctuation errors in students’ essays. AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Peculiarities of punctuation in Lithuanian language and literature state maturity exam papers BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 3 PAV. Būdingosios skyrybos klaidos mokinių rašiniuose (proc.) Šiame straipsnyje aptartos tik pačios būdingiausios geriausiai įvertintuose mokinių | 19 papers found punctuation errors. The study is carried out further. After examining more papers (and those with lower scores), carrying out other necessary research and consulting with teachers, a comprehensive study is expected. In the future, it is expected to analyze the evaluations of teachers' separation errors, i.e. what problems, uncertainties arise when teachers evaluate student works, in which cases their evaluations do not coincide, etc. This would further highlight the causes of divorce errors and make it possible to make specific recommendations on how to avoid these errors. CONCLUSIONS 1. In Lithuanian, punctuation is based on three principles – semantic, intonational and grammatical. At the moment, the semantic principle, associated with the grammatical, prevails. More freedom means more responsibility, especially when it comes to the teaching process. To apply the rules and thus avoid many mistakes can only be done with a good understanding of the internal structure of the sentence, the relationships of words in the sentence, having a strong sense of precise intonation. After analyzing the punctuation errors of 100 Lithuanian language and literature state maturity exam works, assessed at 80-100 points, it became clear that the most common punctuation errors are made in the secondary elements of the sentence. When distinguishing connective sentences, you usually have to rely on the grammatical 14% 3% 3% 18% 11% 17% 6% 28% 2% 3% 9% Uniform parts of a sentence Aiškinamosios sakinio dalys Comparative phrases Certificates Extended circumstances Inserts Skip Connective sentences Quotes Connective sentences Unnecessary punctuation AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Peculiarities of punctuation in Lithuanian language and literature state maturity exam works BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 | 20 punctuation principle (of course, other methodological recommendations can also help, e.g., to learn connective words, etc.). The abundance of errors indicates the need to strengthen the teaching of sentence structure, word connections. 3. Another abundant group of punctuation errors is the incorrect punctuation of extended marks after the mark word. In their structure, extended circumstances may be similar to extended circumstances, and their separation is optional. Without a good understanding of their difference and the sentence structure, there are problems with assigning marks (in this case, not assigning at all). On the other hand, in the case of divorce of the most extended circumstances, it is also clear that the option of not separating at all does not always help. In the sentence, intonation is used to emphasize the beginning and the end of the circumstance, so it is wrong to distinguish these circumstances only from one side. 4. In the reorganized punctuation rules, the punctuation of modal words has changed, the list of possible particles has been extended. Examined examples from the students’ writing works show that this is somewhat misleading for the students – having ignored the list of insertive and modal words that can be used to distinguish particles, they confuse these particles with others and distinguish them as modal words. 5. the boundaries of uniformity are not always easy to establish (with the recast of the rules, there is no longer a strict line between interpretation and uniformity); The analysis of students’ texts revealed that the most common error is in distinguishing simple and clear cases of enumerative homogeneity. The tendency to separate such homogeneous parts of a sentence is becoming more pronounced. This may be due to confusion with the punctuation of the explanatory parts of the sentence (they can be distinguished in the sentence from both sides). 6. Other cases of punctuation errors show only individual punctuation peculiarities: sometimes unmotivated punctuation marks are written, confusion is caused by omission of punctuation (comma is usually written instead of a hyphen or the possibility of not punctuating), several times incorrectly be skyrybos ženklų palikti sujungiamųjų sakinių dėmenys, sujungti rečiau vartojamais allocated quoted text, connecting opposites, supporting conjunctions (only, therefore, because of that). 7. the overall statistical analysis of the works of the state maturity examination in Lithuanian language and literature shows that the frequency of punctuation errors of pupils has remained almost unchanged over the past five years, the majority (about 21%) of pupils make 15 or more punctuation errors in the writing, thus they receive 0 points for punctuation; the highest score for divorce is on average about 11-12% of pupils. This figure has also remained almost unchanged for five years. 8.An overall analysis of statistical data and individual divorce errors shows that divorce is a difficulty for many students. These difficulties appear to be due to a variety of reasons: AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. 8. The peculiarities of separation in the Lithuanian language and literature state maturity BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 exam works | 21 misunderstanding, due to separation teaching, confusion of optional and compulsory separation cases, misunderstanding of sentence structure and connections between individual words, etc. In order to identify more specific reasons for divorce errors and ways to avoid them, it is important to further investigate the works of other students, to separately examine the most difficult cases of teacher’s divorce assessment, which give rise to doubts for teachers themselves. 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Skyrybos ypatumai lietuvių kalbos ir literatūros valstybinio brandos egzamino darbuose | 23 BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 THE SPECIFICS OF PUNCTUATION IN THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE NATIONAL GRADUATION EXAM PAPERS Summary This article deals with the punctuation in the papers (essays) of the Lithuanian language and literature national graduation exam, covering a scope of forty essays from the 2014 Lithuanian language and literature national graduation exam and sixty, from the 2016 exam; all essays were graded between 80 and 100. The study aimed to find out which of the punctuation mistakes were the most typical in student papers, attempting to dissect their causes and specifics and disclose the typical punctuation qualities of student texts. Statistical analysis of punctuation mistakes covering a period of five years has shown that punctuation is a rather significant problem, with a substantial group (21 per cent) of students still receiving 0 grades for their punctuation (which means they make 15 mistakes and more). A more thorough investigation of the punctuation in the top-graded papers has revealed that most of the punctuation mistakes present in them relate to punctuation of secondary clauses. Another large group of mistakes is found in the punctuation of extended attributes. These attributes structurally resemble extended adverbial modifiers a lot, leading to confusion in punctuation. On the other hand, in terms of the punctuation of extended adverbial modifiers as such, it is evident that the possibility of using no punctuation at all does not always help either. As far as intonation is concerned, it is natural to want to stress either the beginning or the end of this modifier, and mistakes are only made in punctuating the adverbial modifiers on one side. Changes in the punctuation of modal words have expanded the list of particles that can be punctuated, and students do not always memorise this list and tend to mix these particles up with others, punctuating them. Mistakes are made in punctuating cases of listed uniformity as well. There is a clear inclination towards punctuating such uniform parts of the sentence on both sides instead of separating them. Other cases of punctuation mistakes covered only point to individual characteristics of punctuation, with students sometimes using unmotivated punctuation marks, showing confusion in terms of hiatus punctuation, repeatedly making mistakes in punctuating quotes, elements of coordinate clauses, and so on. The overall analysis of statistical data and separate punctuation mistakes shows that punctuation is difficult to a lot of school students. The difficulty is most likely caused by various reasons: the understanding of the rules, the teaching of punctuation, the confusion in choosing AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Skyrybos ypatumai lietuvių kalbos ir literatūros valstybinio brandos egzamino darbuose | 24 BENDRINĖ KALBA 91 (2018) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 optional and mandatory punctuation cases, the failure to understand the grammatical able to narrow down the composition of the sentence and the connections between individual words, and so on. To be specific causes for making punctuation mistakes and potential methods of avoiding them, it is critical that analysis of the papers by other students continues and the most complicated cases of grading punctuation by teachers, those that even the teachers themselves are dubious about, are investigated separately. KEYWORDS: essay, punctuation, punctuation mark, national graduation exam. AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ Lietuvių kalbos institutas Petro Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius, Lithuania [email protected]