Apriboto veiksmo laiko raiška Europos Sąjungos dokumentuose

116 Languages and Culture | 84 RASUOLĖ VLADARSKIENĖ Institute of Lithuanian Language aPRIŽIRTsMo VEIKsMo laIKo raIŠKa EuroPos Union Documents KEY WORDS: limited action time, prepositional constructions, administrative language. the concept of time in administrative language is very important, because here it is often necessary to indicate the beginning, end, duration or sequence of the regulated actions. Although the expression of time in the common Lithuanian language is described in grammar (lKG 1976: 492–500; DlKG 1996: 540–542), monographs (Valiulytė 1998; Šukys 1998; labutis 2001), recommendation and educational publications (Kalbos patarimai 2003; Celiešienė, Džežulskienė 2009), the problem of the expression of time boundaries in administrative language remains relevant, especially when translating European Union (hereinafter – EU) documents into Lithuanian. A distinctive feature of these documents is to specify as precisely and clearly as possible the time limits for performing the regulated action, sometimes it is necessary to specify not only the start or end time of the event, but also the time zone, e.g. : Electronic application forms must be submitted online by 12 noon on the deadline for submission of applications. Central European Time (Central European Summer Time) (noon, Brussels time). The aim of the EC Call for Proposals on Article 29* is to examine the structure of constructions denoting a limited time of action and to examine problematic cases of their use based on translations of ES documents into Lithuanian. the time of a limited action can be indicated by the circumstances of time or quantity and the corresponding subordinate elements of time sentences. In fact, the meanings of time and quantity in administrative language, when it comes to the time limitation or relationship of an action, are very closely related. limited time may indicate the start or end time of an action or limits on its duration. * the article was prepared in the framework of the project “Study of the Language of European Union Documents”, financed by the State Lithuanian Language Commission under the “Programme for Research on the Functioning and Change of Lithuanian Common Language, Dialects and Other Language Variants 2011–2020”. r. VlaDarsKIENĖ. the expression of time-limited action in European Union documents 117 1. Structure of limited operation time structures 1.1. Prepositional constructions The main way of expressing the limited time of action in the administrative language is the construction of prepositions before, from, after, before. Other prepositions mentioned in Lithuanian grammar (lKG 1976; DlKG 1996) are not characteristic of administrative language. Prepositional constructions until, from, after, before are used: a) with the names of time units (with the names of time concepts, denoting years, seasons, months, weeks, days): until summer, from autumn, from the day of the end of the activity, after a year, two weeks ago, a year ago; b) with words denoting the limits of time phases (words of undefined meaning must be specified or their more specific meaning must be made clear from the konan text): until the end of the year, until the end of the specified period, until the start of the activity, from the start of the term, before the end of the period; (c) with the names of periods of time of general meaning (they must be specified or their more specific meaning is apparent from the context): before the deadline, after the initial stage, before the final stage, before the period; (d) with a specific date: before February 2011, before 15 January 2013, from 2008, after August 2010. ; e) with verb nouns of more specific meaning: after inspection, after oath, before inspection; f) with the names of natural phenomena: before the flood, after the drought, after the hurricane, before the earthquake; (g) with words denoting certain events: before an accident, after a fire, after an incident, after an event, before a crisis, before a disaster; (h) with the titles of the procedures: prior to authorisation, from the publication of the application, from the entry into force of this Regulation, after final consideration; i) prepositions until, from are used with adverbs denoting time: until now, from now on; j) prepositional preposition used with participants or semi-participants: before the entry into force of a regulation, before submitting proposals, before approving a decision, before concluding a contract. 118 Languages and Culture | 84 1.2 Comparative phrases with progressive adjectives Higher-level adjectives (before, after, before) usually align the sequence of two actions, indicating which of them is first: The Committee of the Regions [...] considers that the debate on the future of European cohesion policy must take place in parallel to the debate on the revision of the European financial system. Forward-looking opinion of the Committee of the Regions ol C 232, 27.8.2010. Sometimes one adverb can be used without indicating the equality of the home action, in which case it is considered to be compared to the conversational or discussional moment: However, such a reform would make the composition of the Grand Chamber even more diverse (at present, five of the thirteen members are permanent, whereas after the reform only two of the fifteen would remain). EC Opinion CoM(2011) 596, 30.09.2011. the comparative action can be described by the secondary part of the sentence: The member does not disclose the decision of the arbitral panel or parts thereof, unless it is published in accordance with this agreement. EC Proposal CoM/2010/326, 22 June 2010; The President shall convene the Board of Directors, as provided, if requested by a third of the members with voting rights. Decision of the Board of Governors OJ L 266, 11.10.2011. In translations of Es documents, comparative constructions with konän krečia date have become common, where the possible duration of an act is limited by indicating the possible earlier or later moment of the performance of the act: However, an agreement on the choice of applicable law, concluded in a n k s č i a u n e i 2 0 1 2 m. 21, shall also be valid if it meets the conditions laid down in Articles 6 and 7. Council Regulation (EC) No 1259/2010 of 20 December 2010, OJ L 343, 29.12.2010; No later than 1 November 2016, the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee a report on the application of this Directive, taking into account developments in the digital market. Directive 2011/77/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2011 OJ L 265, 11.10.2011; Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 78/2008 provides that the Commission shall submit a final report on the implementation of remote sensing measures by 31 July 2013 at the latest. EC Report CoM/2011/639, 10.10.2011; Member States shall ensure that v ė l i a u s i a i k i 20 1 5 v a sari o 5. the relevant parties carry out a safety assessment of all systems referred to in points (b), (c) and (d) of Article 2(1) that are in use. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1207/2011 of 22 November 2011, OJ L 305, 23.11.2011. r. VlaDarsKIENĖ. expression of limited action in European Union documents 119 More common in these cases would be the preposition to the construction; konstrukcij they are apparently chosen with an adjective to emphasize that the time limit of the action cannot be violated in any way. 1.3. Partial and semi-partial constructions Participial and semi-participal constructions can indicate various meanings of circumstances (time, condition, cause, concession). The most clear indicators of a limited time of action are the following groups of circumstantial words, which use divisors denoting the boundaries of different phases of time with nouns denoting more general concepts of time or specific units of time, or which combine subordinate elements of the sentence: The term of office of the other six Judges shall expire after the second change in the composition of the General Court following the entry into force of this Regulation. EC Opinion CoM(2011) 596 of 30 September 2011; If a request for an extension of the period during which the customs authorities are to apply the surveillance measures is submitted 30 days before the expiry of that decision, the competent customs authority may refuse to extend that period. EC Proposal CoM/2011/285, 24 May 2011; Such a possibility should arise by means of a s t a m l a i k o t e r m i n a t i o n for the producer of the phonogram to carry out these two acts of exploitation. Directive 2011/77/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, OJ L 265, 11.10.2011; Unless expressly stated otherwise in the contract, a transfer or assignment contract […] shall be deemed to have the effect that the performer would no longer be protected under Article 3(1) in the version in force on 30 October 2011. Directive 2011/77/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, OJ L 265, 11.10.2011. 1.4. Subordinate sentence elements The time limits of the action can be indicated by subordinate elements of the sentence, which specify time adverbs or words denoting time concepts of indefinite meaning: For this, some performers receive an advance payment of royalties, and payments are received on the day when the producer of the phonogram recovers the advance paid and makes the deductions stipulated in the contract. Directive 2011/77/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 October 2011 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of the rights of authors and associated rights in the information society, OJ L 265, 11.10.2011, p. 1. In order to ensure that those obstacles are removed, all those works protected by the i n t e r n a t i o n of which Member States are required to transpose this Directive should enjoy the same harmonised term of protection in all Member States. Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council 2011/77/ES, OJ L 265, 11.10.2011. 120 Language Culture | 84 This form of expression makes it possible to indicate precisely the time relationship, but it extends the sentence and is therefore not always useful in extremely long sentences of Es documents. 1.5. Composite structures In order to give a precise description of the temporal relationships between the actions covered by the ES documents and to avoid any ambiguity or uncertainty, the time frames for the actions are indicated by means of various composite constructions, made up of the already discussed compounds of a simpler structure: The results must be sent to the Commission by e-mail five working days before the end of the month in accordance with the timetable to be set out in the grant agreement. Call for applications (2011/C 330/08), 12 November 2011; The competent authority concerned shall notify the competent authorities of the other Member States and the Commission of the reasons on which it considers that a specific authorisation should be granted. EC Proposal CoM(2011) 542, 31 August 2011; After consulting the parties to the dispute, the WTO Director-General shall notify both Parties of the appointed member(s) of the panel. EC proposal CoM/2011/725, 10.11.2011. 2. REQUIREMENTS FOR PRE-CONSTRUCTIONS In modern Lithuanian grammar, the limited time of action is divided into the time of the beginning or the end of the action, the time limited on both sides, the earlier or later time of action and the simultaneity of the action (DlKG 540–542). Elena Valiulytė, in her monograph Syntactic synonyms of contemporary Lithuanian language, distinguishes between the meanings of coincident and non-coincident times primarily according to the coincidence / non-coincidence of the action (in) occurrence with the time period shown by the syntakė sinės form as the highest semantic opposition (Valiulytė 1998: 190). The linguist presents a similar semantic system of syntactic forms of non-converging tenses as in the grammar of the contemporary Lithuanian language, only here she also allocates approximate tenses (it is not characteristic of the administrative language). When examining the expression of time limits in ES documents, it is appropriate to distinguish constructions denoting: • the earlier or later time of the action, • the start or end time of the action, these constructions, used in one sentence, describe time boundaries on both sides. r. VlaDarsKIENĖ. 121 The preceding time of action, i.e. the action that takes place before the occurrence of a certain, crucial moment, is indicated by the preposition before the construction (lKŻ 2005; DlKŻ 2006). Jonas Šukys (1998: 481) defines the time of such an action by indicating that it is either a specifically defined time when the mentioned thing or event appeared or began to exist, or an indefinite, usually short period of time before the speaking moment. The language of the Es documents is characterized by both cases: it is not only a matter of what has happened, but also of what is to be done, thus simulating a possible sequence of events: A natural or legal person, entity or body seeking to fulfil the obligation concerned, at least p r i š 7 d a r b o d i e n a s p r a n e š a about the activity or transaction to the competent authority of the Member State in which they are established. Et Regulation (EU) No 878/2011, OJ L 228, 03.09.2011; Most NRAs have conducted national consultations with the Commission on the implementation of this Regulation. EC Communication KoM/2006/0028, 06.02.2006. The subsequent time of action, i.e. the time, interval or event after which something happens, is indicated by the preposition after the construction. These constructions are particularly typical of administrative language because they can be used with nouns of various meanings (the names of concepts of time, measures of time, processes, natural phenomena or spontaneous events) and can indicate both the sequence of specific actions that have already taken place and the relationship of the actions to be regulated: After this, both organizations prepared a plan of corrective measures. EC Implementing Regulation No 1197/2011, OJ L 303/14, 22.11.2011; In June, after consultation with civil society and after discussions with the European Parliament, a strategy for 2007-2010 was adopted. EC Report to the Council and the European Parliament, Com(2008) 379, 23 June 2008; Following the investigation, it was found that the level of cooperation of Russia had been incorrectly assessed. EC Proposal for an Et Regulation, Com(2008) 34, 28.01.2008. Time limits are marked by the construction of prepositions from (beginning) and to (end). The prefix until indicates the beginning time of the action, i.e. the time from which the action begins, and from indicates the time until which the action lasts, i.e. the limit of the end of the action. Used together, these two constructions indicate time limits on both sides: Where a period measured in days is to be calculated from the date of an event or action, the day on which that event or action occurred shall be deemed to be excluded from the period in question. The European Parliament and the Council 122 Languages Culture | 84 Directive 2011/83/EU 304 of 22 November 2011; The act may be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and enter into force if the Council has informed the Commission that it does not intend to raise objections. EC proposal CoM/2011/121/2, 03.10.2011; From 2008 to 2013 this activity is carried out under Council Regulation (EC) No 78/2008. EC Report to the European Parliament and the Council, CoM/2011/639, 10.10.2011. The question is constantly raised about the meaning of the preposition that indicates the end of the period before the construction: whether the moment until which the action takes place is included in the period. In fact, this construction can be interpreted in two ways: a) the constructive noun may denote a period of time before the action occurs (Elena Valiulytė (1998: 315) considers this meaning to be the main one), e.g., grįžo iki Kalėdų; b) constructions until (till) can indicate the time, during which the action stops or even covers it entirely, e.g., sněžilo až do večera, čekal až do půlnoci. precisely because of such a possible interpretation of the dual time limit adminisä tracinėje Lithuanian language common corrective words including, including (KancKP 2007). In es documents, the beginning and end of the time limits are determined in accordance with the European Council Regulation, with the provisions of which the provisions of the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania are harmonized: “the time limit begins on the next day from zero hours and zero minutes after the calendar date or event that defines the beginning of the time limit, unless otherwise provided by law. … Where a time limit is set for the performance of an act, that act must be performed by twenty-four hours zero minutes on the last day of the time limit.’ (cf. CCC, Book I, Part IV, Chapter VI). Therefore, in administrative language, as well as in Es documents, the prefix until in the constructions of specific dates still includes the regulated action, so if it is stated: documents to be submitted by October 10, then documents can still be submitted on October 10. 3. PROBLEMATIC USE OF PREFAB CONSTRUCTIONS When translating Es documents into Lithuanian, problems arise with the use of prepositional constructions denoting time relationships, mainly uncertainties ath siranda about prepositional constructions with verb nouns. r. VlaDarsKIENĖ. 123 As is apparent from an analysis of the structure and semantics of the expression of the limited time of action, there are two pairs of prepositional constructions: the prepositions before and after denote the preceding and the following time, and the prepositions from and until denote the limits of the time of action. In the language advice (KP s2: 72–73; 82) prepositional combinations after and before verb nouns with the suffix -imas (-ymas) are considered as avoiding tini use (Prieš spausdinimą (–Prieš spausdinant) must carefully read the proofreading; After graduating from high school, he was appointed to work in the agricultural sector. The use of prepositions from–to with verb object nouns is not negatively evaluated. In the case of abstract verbs, until is considered as a secondary variant of the norm (He started working before graduating from school // until graduating from school), and the use of the preposition from with abstract nouns is undefined. administrative language is generally characterized by an abundance of abstract verb nouns, and when translated from English this form of expression becomes very common even where actions can be translated as verbs. The abundance of verb nouns in translations of Es documents may be encouraged by the desire to convey the original idea as accurately as possible, unfortunately, sometimes accuracy is perceived too primitively – translations are made in the same forms of expression. A look at the pile of translations of Es documents shows that prepositional constructions are more common with participles and semi-participles: Greece had serious financial stability problems even before Regulation (EU) No 407/2010. EC proposal, Com(2011) 482, 01.08.2011; Before releasing goods for free circulation, the results of the checks shall be communicated to customs. Commission Regulation (EU) No 284/2011, OJ L 077, 23.03.2011; The Court of Auditors recommends [...] that the Commission strengthen its assessment of key elements of rural development programmes prior to their adoption. Court of Auditors Special Report No 7/2011, 22 September 2011. The constructions with the suffix -imas in verb nouns, which the Language Tips (KP s2) suggest to avoid, are used less often. They are easily replaced by participle or semi-participle constructions: the Law on the Amendment of the Law on the Protection of Minors from the Negative Impact of Public Information, adopted by the Lithuanian Seimas on 14 July 2009, has not yet entered into force and must be revised before it comes into force. EP Resolution of 17 September 2009 (2010/C 224 E/04), 19 August 2010; In the Member States visited, the Court of Auditors’ audit also found weaknesses in the implementation of checks prior to the release of goods for free circulation. Court of Auditors report (2011/C 326/01), ol C 326, 10.11.2011. 124 Languages and Culture | 84 Translations of Es documents do not always comply with the recommendation of the Language Advice Board to avoid using verb nouns with the suffix -imas in the singular form in combination with the prefix po: Changes in the applicable law made after the conclusion of a contract do not affect its formal validity and cannot adversely affect the rights of third parties. Decision of the EEA Joint Committee No 78/2011, OJ L 262, 6.10.2011. Comparing the use of prepositions after and before constructions in the translations of Es dokumentuų those shows that the preposition po with verb nouns with the suffix –imas is used much more frequently. There are several reasons why translations of ES documents, where prestige is sought and often even secondary variants of the norm are denounced as not suitable for use, spread avoidable usage. Firstly, the prepositions before the constructs that should be avoided to indicate the previous time of action are easily replaced by participle or semi-participle constructions, because the preposition indicating the time relationship remains in both constructions. Different is the preposition after the construction, in the variant presented here – in the extended circumstance – there is no preposition denoting the time limit. It should be noted that the extended fractional or semi-fractional circumstance does not have a clear boundary (reference point) meaning, often even from the context it is not possible to determine its precise meaning. and for documents this is not appropriate, as it is necessary to indicate the exact time limit of the action. the second reason why avoidable prepositional post constructions konään are in conflict with their corresponding equivalents is that the prepositional po can be used with the noun derived from the nouns with the suffix -imas; the specification of these nouns is indicated by the indicative forms used with them (e.g. primary, initial, final) or by the plural form: If several objections are filed, the rejection of one or more of these objections may make it impossible to accept the application for registration. EC Reg. No 607/2009, OJ L 193, 24.7.2009; This obligation should apply if, after the Commission has been informed by a Member State, its actions […] continue to be reckless and potentially harmful to the smooth functioning of the economic and monetary union. EC Proposal, CoM/2010/524, 29 September 2010; The decision of the Civil Service Tribunal is determined by the conclusions reached by the majority of the judges after the final hearing. Consolidated version of the Rules of Procedure of the European Civil Service Tribunal of 25 July 2007 ol C 177, 2 July 2010; However, with regard to such a choice, there is a tendency, for reasons of proportionality and respect for the fundamental rights of citizens, to limit the types of communications to be included in the system. EC Communication, CoM/2011/429, 2011 07 13.