Stasiui Keiniui atminti

doi.org/10.35321/term31-13 In memory of Stasys Keinys Photograph by Leonas Vasauskas (2001), from St. Keinys’s personal archive I was not yet here, – the alyssums bloomed – – I will no longer be here, – They will bloom again. – And their petals will fall From the sun and the wind – Like handfuls of sand – On my heart – – S. Nėris. Alyvos. (1936. III) How inexorably quickly time passes... It seems only yesterday that we said goodbye to Him, spoke with Him, saw Him walking at an unhurried pace, wearing a national sash. And today we must bid a sorrowful farewell to His mortal remains and pay tribute to His immortal soul. It is hard to believe that He is no longer with us and that we must now use past-tense verbs – worked, wrote, taught, lived..., because His “death is still alive.” On that quiet March evening, carrying white chrysanthemums, we came to say goodbye to the Teacher, who departed for Eternity on March 15, 2024. From the photograph, the smiling Teacher looked at us all as if alive, wearing a cap and dark-rimmed glasses, with a passenger train in the background. A warm, simple, everyday photograph—and at the same time, profoundly symbolic. Terminologija | 2024 | 31 243 Stasys Keinys was born on September 20, 1936, in the village of Pakalupis, Viekšniai Rural District, Mažeikiai County. After graduating from Viekšniai Secondary School in 1954, he entered the Faculty of History and Philology at Vilnius State University (hereafter VU) to study Lithuanian language and literature. After his studies, in 1959, Jonas Kruopas recruited him to the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and Literature (hereafter the Institute) to “learn the trade of a terminologist” (Keinys 2004: 34). He later recounted this appointment in these words: “Jonas Kruopas had also taken the writer of these lines, freshly graduated from Vilnius University, to the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and Literature to work in terminology. That appointment proved decisive, because a few years later, when I entered postgraduate study at Vilnius University, my unforgettable supervisor V. Urbutis proposed a dissertation topic in terminology, and, after a dozen years, when J. Kruopas invited me again, I had to return to the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and Literature for a long time to work on lexicography and terminology, and after J. Kruopas’s death to continue some of his work” (Keinys 1998: 11–12). From 1966 to 1975 he worked at VU’s Kaunas Evening Faculty, earning the title of docent. In 1974, invited again by J. Kruopas, he returned to the Institute permanently, but did not give up teaching: he taught at the Šiauliai Pedagogical Institute, Vytautas Magnus University, and Vilnius Pedagogical University. Alongside his scholarly and teaching work, he also carried out organizational duties. From 1976 to 1992, he served as deputy chair of the Terminology Council under the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences; from 1987 to 1989, he headed the Institute’s Department of Contemporary Lithuanian Literary Language, and from 1989 to 1991, its Department of Language Culture and Terminology. St. Keinys’s five decades of scholarly work were extraordinarily fruitful. Several books were prepared, individually or with co-authors, as well as the first textbook on terminology, Terminology Alphabet (1980). Since 1966, he wrote more than 400 articles for scholarly and general periodicals, over 100 reviews, as well as surveys and other publications. Quite a number of works, as he put it, “little works and flashes of thought” found their way into two books on terminology: Contemporary Lithuanian Terminology (2005) and The Development of Lithuanian Terminology (2012). He also furrowed the first field of the present-day international journal of terminology studies, Terminology—he conceived of it (naming the journal Furrows of Terminology in 1994) and was the editor responsible for the first book, urging readers to “[b]ring [their] shoulders together and set [out] on a campaign for beautiful, clear, precise, correct 244 Palmira Zemlevičiūtė | Stasiui Keiniui atminti and graceful Lithuanian language of scholarship, for exemplary and Lithuanian terminology,” and urging all “who need, care about, and cherish the Lithuanian language of scholarship and the terms at its core” (Keinys 1994: 7) to plough the furrows of terminology, while himself tirelessly ploughing them—deep and fertile... He also labored on terminology dictionaries—preparing them or helping to prepare them, compiling, reviewing, correcting and editing them, standardizing, accentuating and refining their terms, and proposing new ones of his own coinage, in keeping with the spirit of the native language. He was deeply troubled by the shortcomings of terminology in every field and did all he could to remedy them. He paid particular attention to railway terminology. He began the campaign to create and standardize railway terms at the Railway Department in 1991, although his first “acquaintance” with the iron road had come in his early youth. “My father worked on the railway, and when I finished secondary school, he even hoped that I too would become a railwayman,” St. Keinys once recalled. He said that whenever he boarded a train, he had complete trust in the railway workers (Usonienė 1988: 3). And when they dealt with linguistic questions, they undoubtedly trusted him. Stabdas, iešmynas, kelynas—these are all terms he created. And there are hundreds more terms he formed using the word-formation resources of Lithuanian! For his long and fruitful work standardizing Lithuanian railway terms, in 2000 St. Keinys was awarded the Honorary Railway Worker Badge by order of the Minister of Transport of the Republic of Lithuania. In this way, the work of our dear father, now remembered with affection, who had worked for many years “by the railway,” was meaningfully carried on and commemorated. St. Keinys’s outstanding contribution to Lithuanian lexicography was a monumental work—Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas (hereafter, the Dictionary)—a general, single-volume prescriptive dictionary of the standard language, the first of its kind to be published in independent Lithuania (Keinys 1993: 9). He was editor-in-chief of its third (1993), fourth (2000; electronic edition, 2002), fifth (2003; electronic edition), sixth (2006; electronic edition), seventh (2012), and eighth (2021) revised and expanded editions, striving to ensure that the Dictionary would not promote word fashions, but rather guarantee the firmness and stability of usage. No one reads a dictionary straight through like a novel. But St. Keinys did! When he undertook to edit it, he read it from A to the final letter, more than once (Keinys 1993: 9). In 2002, the fourth edition of the Dictionary was published on CD-ROM, and in 2003 it was put online. All thanks to his care. The industrious Editor’s efforts were highly praised: in 2002 he received the Felicija Bortkevičienė Memorial Language Prize for the computerized version of the Dictionary, and at the Infobalt 2004 exhibition, the Dictionary was selected as the best Lithuanian lexicographic publication. Terminologija | 2024 | 31 245 St. Keinys’s work was extraordinarily broad and varied. It is hardly possible to describe it in this short article. He was an editor of dictionaries and books; a member of editorial boards; a compiler and preparer of dictionaries, collections of conference abstracts and scholarly works, bibliographic indexes, and article collections; a language consultant; a dissertation supervisor and opponent, and a member of doctoral committees (defense boards); and supervisor of more than sixty diploma, bachelor’s, and master’s theses. Who could count all the work he did in his lifetime for the Lithuanian language and terminology, filling white pages with black letters?!... In 2006, St. Keinys’s Bibliografijos rodyklė (Bibliographic Index) appeared, comprising nearly 700 entries. Yet even after its publication, he did not stop writing... Like an ant, he kept bustling about, knowing no rest... As a laboratory assistant in the Terminology Department at the time, I, the author of these lines, had occasion more than once to type up articles he had handwritten, initially even on a typewriter. That tiny handwriting has remained deeply etched in my memory; it was not always possible to decipher, and could never be confused with anyone else’s. He would bring in a stack of small sheets of paper, all cut to the same size (who knows how many he must have had!). Even now, I can see the words neatly lined up on those slips. It seems to me that he polished each one, as river water smooths pebbles over time, and that they settled into sentences on those little sheets like even furrows behind a plough. He loved to sow rare Lithuanian words into the fields of his articles, like seeds. He relished them. Here is a handful of such words: pakušinti, pagvildyti, agnus, prabildyti, išprūsis, žalantis, vingurti... He would often also consult a dictionary to look up the meanings of one or another word. He once mentioned that he had considered studying journalism. It is therefore no surprise that a journalistic streak runs through many of his articles: “Oh, how often we lack the spirit [of our ancestors – P. Z.], such devotion and selfless service, while bending like reeds to every wind or even the slightest breeze and being buffeted on the outskirts of the raging storms of globalization!”; “Time passes without stopping. Or perhaps it stands still, and we, the wayfarers of this earth, unaware of it, run and hurry toward the kingdom of dust”; “That is how he [Kazimieras Gaivenis – P. Z.] was found then, in that autumn of youth that had summoned us to Vilnius, and that is how he remained”; “Then you feel that the meaningful days of autumn are no worse than the spring of greening meadows, nor the hot summer breathing life’s fullness”; “<...> and he himself [Kazimieras Eigminas – P. Z.] sprinkled much with the life-giving dews of culture, love of homeland and native land, and the rich native language”; “Today she may not even understand why the heart of a noble Lithuanian weeps when it gazes at the mists above the Curonian Lagoon, when it hears the deep rustling of the beautiful Rominta Forest, as though the souls of the exterminated Lithuanians of the region and their Prussian brothers were singing the songs of their former lives.” 246 Palmira Zemlevičiūtė | Stasiui Keiniui atminti How do I remember him? He would spend his summers not overseas, but in his beloved homeland. In Vilnius, he had a favorite shop where he would go to buy fresh bread. He enjoyed joking around among young terminologists, and smiling himself when they burst into laughter. He did not chase after foreign words (so fashionable nowadays); once, he even tried to write an article without using any at all. And, like no one else, he faithfully stood guard over the Lithuanian word and the Lithuanian term. He read Ferdinand de Saussure in the original French. He lived among books and through books. He used to say that it would be hard to find the one he wanted, so many had been leafed through, read, and arranged over the course of his life... He would come to the Institute carrying a leather briefcase. As if unseen, he would take from it sometimes chocolates, sometimes spring tulips when March 8 came around. It was a pleasure to work with him and learn from him, a great Scholar of language and terminology who thought freshly and vividly, not by rote, and also to chat with him about everyday matters. Always understanding, ready to listen, offer advice, encourage, and reassure. And smiling even in his old age. He taught us how to work: tirelessly, with dedication, for he himself worked with complete devotion throughout his life. One of the most prominent Lithuanian terminologists, an immensely industrious linguist, an excellent educator, one of the most distinguished Samogitians working in the field of language scholarship, a respected linguist, a good teacher, the father of the journal Terminologijos, a linguist known throughout society... These are all words about St. Keinys—spoken by his students. “Words Like Bells” is the title of an article about Simonas Daukantas and his great Polish–Lithuanian dictionary, written by St. Keinys in 1993. This time, I will dare to rephrase ever so slightly the Teacher’s words dedicated to the famous Samogitian, words that also apply to him himself: his words echo like bells. They tell how he cherished, elevated, and refined our language, and how this noble Samogitian, a great lover of the Homeland, cared for it. With words like bells, he taught, teaches, and will teach this love. So may the bells of his words never fall silent, strengthening our pride in the Lithuanian language and Lithuanian terminology. And for us terminologists, their ringing will never cease. “When, 49 years ago, we—eighteen- to twenty-year-olds from every part of Lithuania—gathered beneath the vaults of Vilnius University, it probably never occurred to anyone that this city would be home to some of us for our entire lives, and that here, at rest, we would find our final resting place. And surely not one of us imagined that the decades allotted to us would fly by so precipitously, and that the day would come when our group would begin to dwindle, when some would Terminologija | 2024 | 31 247 lemta stovėti prie kitų kapo duobės ir tarti paskutinį sudiev“ (Keinys 2012 [2003]: 254). Dvidešimt su viršum metų prabėgo nuo šių Jo ištartų žodžių Kazimiero Gaivenio laidotuvių dieną, 2003 m. liepos 14-ąją. Ir netruko išaušti diena, kai Vilnius, Jo jaunystės ir viso gyvenimo miestas, priglaudė Paties kūną. Paliko tik mažas smėlio kauburėlis Rokantiškių kapų kalnelyje po plačiašakiais visžaliais medžiais, kuklus medinis kryžius ir žvakės liepsnelė, gailiai virpčiojanti vėjyje... Tik be kelių mėnesių 88-erius metus Jam buvo skirta „vaikščioti šios žemės takais“ (Keinys 2010: 237). Ir kas gal aprėpti, kas gal išmatuoti šią netektį, lig širdies dugno sukrėtusią? Bet lai neleidžia mums griausti ir širdį lai atgaivina Mokytojo viltingi, pranašingi žodžiai: „Mokslo gyvenimas ir buvimas bei išlikimas moksle nesibaigia su žmogaus mirtimi. Žmogus, būdamas mari būtybė, savo darbais gali būti nemarus“ (Keinys 2003: 16). Toks Jis ir liks visų mūsų atmintyje ir širdyje – Didelis ir Nemarus Kalbininkas ir Terminologas ir Šviesus Žmogus. Rest in Peace, Dear Teacher! May the little green trees rustle over your Eternal Rest! And may the Eternal Light shine upon you! SOURCES AND REFERENCES Creating Railway Terminology: [a conversation with linguist Stasys Keinys, compiler and standardizer of Lithuanian railway terms] / interviewed by V. Leščinskas. – Geležinkelininkas, 2001, March 16–31, 6. Rimkutė Aušra 2006: Terminologas Stasys Keinys. – Terminologija 13, 246–249. Kaulakienė Angelė 2006: Kalbininkas Stasys Keinys. – Stasys Keinys: bibliografijos rodyklė, sudarė Adelė Noreikaitė, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas, 9–10. Keinys Stasys 1974: Svarus toponimikos veikalas. – Kauno tiesa, rugsėjo 8, 4. Keinys Stasys 1975: Daug pirmųjų skambučių. – Tarybinis mokytojas, sausio 22, 2. Keinys Stasys 1980: Lietuvių muzikos terminologijos ma maestras. – Kalbos kultūra 39, 94–95. Keinys Stasys 1992: „Geležinkelininko žodynėlį“ palydint. – Geležinkelininko žodynėlis: (Terminai), sudarė N. Juškaitė, St. Keinys, Vilnius: Leidybos redakcinis centras „Lietuvos auto“, 6–18. Keinys Stasys 1994: Malonusis skaitytojau! – Terminologijos vagos 1, 7. Keinys Stasys 1994: Terminologijos ir kalbos kultūros specialistui K. Gaiveniui – 60 metų. – Gimtoji kalba 2, 27–28. Keinys Stasys 1995: Kaip atsirado 2000 žodžių. – Tarp knygų 9, 23–24. Keinys Stasys 1995: Paminklai, tvirtesni už varį. Didžių baltų raštijos sukakčių metai. – Gimtasis kraštas, kovo 2–8, 5. Keinys Stasys 1997: Žemaičio fiziko šnekos. – Tarp knygų 5, 20–21. Keinys Stasys 1998: I. Kruopas ir lietuvių terminologija. – Terminologija 5, 7–20. Keinys Stasys 1999: Iš visų šaltinių gėręs: [kalbininko ir kraštotyrininko K. Eigmino 70-osioms gimimo metinėms]. – Gimtoji kalba 1, 21–23. Keinys Stasys 2000: Pr. Skardžiaus terminologijos srities veikla ir jos reikšmė. – Terminologija 6, 69–77. Keinys Stasys 2001: 1901 m. Petro Kriaušaičio „Lietuviškos kalbos gramatikos“ kalbos mokslo terminai. – Terminologija 8, 50–64. Keinys Stasys 2003: Kazimieras Gaivenis kaip žmogus ir mokslininkas. – Kazimieras Gaivenis: bibliografijos rodyklė, sudarė A. Noreikaitė; redagavo St. Keinys, R. Mielkuvienė, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos instituto leidykla, 9–16. 248 Palmira Zemlevičiūtė | Stasiui Keiniui atmintin Keinys Stasys 2004: Nepalaužta kalba. – Fizikų žinios 26, 14–15. Keinys Stasys 2004: Žiupsnis minčių apie Kazimierą Gaivenį ir jo metą. – Terminologijos istorijos ir dabarties problemos: straipsnių rinkinys: Kazimierui Gaiveniui atminti, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos instituto leidykla, 9–10. Keinys Stasys 2009: Žymus terminologijos vagavarys (75-ųjų Kazimiero Gaivenio gimimo metinių proga). – Terminologija 16, 302–306. Keinys Stasys 2010: Jono Kruopo darbų reikšmė mūsų kalbai ir mokslui. – Leksikografija ir leksikologija 2: Jono Kruopo 100-osioms gimimo metinėms, sudarė Vilija Sakalauskienė, Albina Auksoriūtė, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas, 13–23. Keinys Stasys 2012: Pratarmė. – Stasys Keinys. Lietuvių terminologijos raida, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos instituto leidykla, 11–13. The Book We Had Waited Two Decades For: [A. Stirblytė’s conversation with St. Keinys, editor-in-chief of the 3rd edition of the Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian]. – Tiesa, 1993, November 18, 9. Order No. 39 of the Minister of Transport of the Republic of Lithuania, dated 2000 09 06, “On the Award of the Badge of Honorary Railway Worker.” – Geležinkelininkas, 2000, September 1–15, 6. Umbrasas Alvydas 2016: Nuo žodžių iki žodynų: Stasiui Keiniui – 80. – Terminologija 23, 259–266. Umbrasas Alvydas 2024a: IN MEMORIAM doc. dr. Stasiui Keiniui. Prieiga internete: http://lki.lt/in-memoriam-doc-dr-stasiui-keiniui/. Umbrasas Alvydas 2024b: Stasį Keinį į amžinybę palydint. – Gimtoji kalba 5, 27–30. Usonienė Aurika 1998: Geležinkelininkai pasitiki kalbininkais. – Geležinkelininkas, vasario 27, 3. Palmira Zemlevičiūtė Terminologija | 2024 | 31 249