Mokslinė konferencija „Kalbos teorija ir praktika“

Kaunas University of Technology On November SIGITA STANKEVIČIENĖ 20, 2009, the Department of Linguistics of the Faculty of Humanities of Kaunas University of Technology organized the scientific conference “Language Theory and Practice”. Traditionally organized every two years, the conference aims to bring together linguists, localization specialists, terminologists, terminology managers, translation theoreticians, translators and editors to share scientific insights, practical experience, promote interdisciplinary dialogue, and cooperation among representatives of various branches of linguistics and other sciences. The conference was attended by speakers from 11 institutions, 45 papers were read in Lithuanian, English, German and Russian. Jurgita Mikelionienė, Head of the Department of Linguistics, and Audra Daubarienė, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, opened the conference and greeted the participants. Two papers presented in the plenary session reflected the main themes of the conference: the first one was devoted to the problem of translation. the second for terminology and language technology issues. Violeta Kalėdaitė, associate professor of the Department of English Philology at Vytautas Magnus University, in her presentation on the preservation and adaptation of cultural realities in the translation of K. Donelaitis’s “Metų” into English, examined the dilemma of the translator as to how to preserve the cultural colours in the translation so that it would not be too exotic and remain understandable to representatives of other cultures. Erika Rimkutė, associate professor of the Department of Lithuanian Language at Vytautas Magnus University and researcher at the Computer Linguistics Centre, read a presentation on the possibilities of automatic terminology in Lithuanian language, in which she reviewed the research already carried out in this field in Lithuania and abroad, and discussed electronic terminology resources. The speaker also presented an experimental textbook of educational and scientific terms, from which the terms were automatically selected. discussed the stages of the term recognition process, tools and challenges. E. Rimkutė emphasized that the automatic determination of terms, although it takes more time than manual, is more objective, helps to detect those frequently used stable compounds, tu €L 2 Sigita Stankevičienė | Scientific Conference Language Theory... which are not defined as terms but which, due to their common use, can be considered as such. In addition, having a textbook, creating concordances of analyzed words or combinations and searching for terms in them, the detailed context is visible, based on which it is possible to define terms more easily and objectively. After the plenary session, the conference participants continued their work in three sections. The third session was devoted to terminology, with five presentations. Vilija Celiešienė (Kaunas University of Technology) in her presentation Įvairiakilmė kompiuterijos terminų sinonimija (Different-language synonymy of computing terms) examined the change of synonymy of computing, analyzed synonym lines of different-- language terms in two editions of the Encyclopedia of Computing Dictionary by V. Dagienė, G. Grigas, T. Jevsikova (2005 and 2008). She found that in the dictionary of the previous and later editions, borrowed terms are given preference — there are slightly fewer synonymous lines with the main Lithuanian terms. Comparing the two editions, it can be said that the number of synonyms of computer terms has not decreased over the years. Some of the synonymous terms in the 2nd edition had no synonyms before. In addition, some synonym lines with basic Lithuanian terms gave preference to borrowed terms. There are also cases of synonyms not being related: former synonymous terms are presented as separate terms in the new edition. Virginija Stankevičienė (Kaunas University of Technology) also examined the problem of competition between own and borrowed terms in her presentation Lithuanian and international terms in radioelectronics terminology. The lecturer analyzed synonymous terms in the 2000 five-language Dictionary of Radioelectronics Terms, which contains many polyword terms, presented for the first time in Lithuanian. She sought to find out what trends are typical when creating new dictionaries and whether their own language is considered a priority when creating new and refining existing terms. Aušra Rimkutė (Institute of Lithuanian Language) in her presentation On some problems of terminology management in textbooks for general education and vocational training (si) discussed the most common terminology shortcomings in textbooks. During the evaluation of the textbooks it was noted that their manuscripts use outdated terms, because the authors do not rely on the latest dictionaries of terms in the relevant field. Quite often textbook editors do not comply with the requirement to spell all the terms provided in the text or in the accompanying glossary with definitions of terms. The most common error is in terminology. Significant requirements of terms are forgotten – brevity and accuracy. Though both terms are synonyms. both their variants are undesirable in terminology, textbooks Terminology | 2009 | 16 283 manuscripts use them. The Lithuanian and international terms are mostly used synonymously. Preference shall be given to Lithuanian terms. Solveiga Sprindienė (Lithuanian National Library), reading the report Concerns about the professional language of restorers, regretted that the Lithuanian document restoration terminology is still poorly standardized, there is a great lack of professional terms. The speaker identified the main shortcomings of the language of the restorers: a lot of Russicisms, Germanisms, Polonisms, which appeared in the Soviet years, and in the period of independence — Anglicisms; in the absence of Lithuanian terms, restorers create unmotivated, strange terms, even use dialects; many synonymous terms are used, as each restoration unit develops its own professional vocabulary. The speaker emphasized that the need to approve restoration terms (and in the absence of them — to create new ones) has been discussed by restorers at several conferences. The Lithuanian Department of Standardization issued the terms standards LST ISO 4046:2007 Paper, cardboard, pulp and related terms (parts 2—5) and LST ISO 5127:2008 Information and documentation. The explanatory dictionary only filled a small part of the gaps in the professional language of restorers. Birutė Briaukienė (Kaunas Medical University) presentation Some aspects of student attitude to the language of specialty aims to investigate how students of Kaunas Medical University evaluate their own and lecturers’ language: to find out what students expect to learn while studying the language of specialty and to determine whether the language of students has changed after studying the language of specialty. The data of the questionnaire survey show that the attitude of students to their own language at the beginning and end of the specialty language studies did not differ statistically significantly, and the students tended to evaluate the language of the lecturers worse at the end of the specialty language studies than at their beginning. Furthermore, the hypothesis that the language competence of students increases after specialty language studies was confirmed. Terminology-related issues were also touched on in other section meetings. The second section — language technology and comparative linguistics — discussed terminology in linguistics. Jolanta Kovalevskaitė and Erika Rimkutė (Vytauto Didžiojo University) in their presentation “The expression of contemporaryness in Lithuanian language” stated that the comparative study of morphological samples revealed the need to clarify the terms of linguistics that designate contemporaryness, to establish the relationship of the terms sample, compound, addition, addition. The speakers proposed to expand the existing definition of morphological sampling, i.e. to consider as sampling not only a consolidated compound consisting of two or more words, but also adult words. Hans-Harry DrėBfiger (Vilniaus 284 Sigita Stankevičienė | Scientific conference Theory of Language... University) examined the problem of equivalence of German and Lithuanian linguistic terms. Some linguistic terms, according to the speaker, are considered realities, because they identify only one phenomenon characteristic of each language. The problem of using and translating these terms is encountered when writing comparative and comparative linguistic works. At the meeting of the first section, Translation, which deals with specialized translation, three papers were presented on terms as translation units. The problems of equivalence of terms, competition of native language and international term in translation texts are particularly important for translators of technical and other fields of texts. Violeta Janulevičienė and Sigita Rackevičienė (Mykolas Romeris University) examined the issues of translation of criminal law terms from English into Lithuanian, the differences in the formal structure and semantics of terms, which are determined by different traditions of term creation. After comparing 30 pairs of terms consisting of the names of criminal offences in two legal systems (Lithuania and England-Wales), the speakers found that there are differences in the ways of forming both solid and composite terms. Most of the unified terms in English are compound words, whereas in Lithuanian verb-adverbial nouns predominate. The Lithuanian legal language does not avoid long compound terms with three or more levels of management, while the English compound terms are shorter and their formal structure is simpler. The semantics of terms shows that only a small number of terms in the studied languages can be considered absolute equivalents. Most of them are only partial equivalents, describing only partially similar offences. Aušra Stepanovienė (Mykolas Romeris University) also discussed the difficulties of translating legal terms in her presentation Peculiarities of Legal Translation. The author drew attention to the problem of semi-term translation. Janina Liatukaitė (Vytauto Didžiojo University) in her presentation Problems of translation of medical equipment manuals examined the translation of English terminological compounds into Lithuanian. The rapporteur noted that many of these compounds are translated into Lithuanian for the first time and do not have approved equivalents, so errors are made. Other presentations from all three sections examined various issues of fiction, children’s literature, translation of technical texts, presented comparative studies of different language domains, discussed the problems of intercultural communication and language contacts, focused on the use of language in electronic discourse and language technologies. A collection of thesis of conference reports has been published. Terminology | 2009 | 16 285 The scientific conference “Language Theory and Practice” was useful not only for researchers and lecturers, but also for students of the Faculty of Humanities of the university that organized the conference. Received 2009-12-15 Sigita Stankevičienė Kaunas University of Technology Gedimino g. 43, LT-44240 Kaunas E-mail: sigita.stankeviciene(at)oktu.lt 286 Sigita Stankevičienė | Scientific conference Theory of language...