CREATIVE TOOLS FOR THE FORMATION OF PUBLIC SIGNS IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT OF THE BALTIC STATES

In public space there is the information, that is always designed with a specific purpose. For example, signposts are placed to provide direction guidance and to highlight some of the most important objects. Public signs function as the visiting cards of some institution or enterprise, creating indirectly a definite image of these institutions or some ethnic or social groups, while graffiti is written to create and maintain a public image and to express emotions or attitudes towards some person, a group of people, events or processes. To achieve the expected objective the authors of signs often use the eye-catching texts that differ from linguistic and para-linguistic means, such as artistic expressive means, unusual combinations of words and cultural signs, bright colors, variations of letter fonts, shapes and sizes, different types of images and symbols.There have been selected three types of signs available in the linguistic landscape database consisting of 7347 public signs obtained in nine Baltic cities: firstly the largest group of signs by its percentage – the signs (ergonyms), which function as visiting cards of the institution or enterprise and which attract potential customers; secondly, these are graffiti texts, that are the least regulated language signs, reflecting free linguistic and semiotic experiments; and thirdly, these are advertisements, which more than any other public texts contain visual information and referral to a reader with rhetorical phrases and metaphors. In some cases, in order to determine the dissemination of any verbal text approach in the public space, posters are also viewed.The goal is to identify and characterize the most peculiar development means of excerpted public signs (linguistic and para-linguistic), as well as compositional characteristics of open space advertisements of institutions and enterprises. There has been used the semiotic landscape theory, in which the language is viewed in correlation with the visual discourse, culture and a way of thinking, accepting multimodality of signs (Kress, Van Leewen 1996; Scollon Scollon 2003; Jaworski, Thurlow 2010). There have been applied as well a theory of linguistic creativity and a theory of optical metaphors, which allow to determine and analyze different language and semiotic means, rarely used in public reports, as well as to interpret the transfer of meanings (Zawada 2005; Бутакова 2013; Kessler 2013). Interviews and e-mails to employees of companies and institutions justify a creation process and promotion of definite ergonyms.The original creation of elements of public reports are viewed in the article according to five language levels proposed by the onomastic J. Butakova: orthographic and graphic, word-formation, lexical, morphological and syntactical level. There was also discussed about the semantic level, highlighting less frequently found thematic groups of ergonyms and metaphorical messages, as well as about the semiotic level, describing compositional characteristics of open space advertisements of definite institutions and enterprises.Overall, public signs of the Baltic States are characterized by initial capitalization throughout the text, nominal phrases, lack of punctuation marks, a variety of signs and symbols, which directly reflect the scope of activities, functionality and specificity of institution or company, product or service. Only in signs of names it is typical to use nomenclature names and other onyms (antroponyms, toponyms), in advertisements there are large images, rhetorical questions or exclamation sentences, but graffiti is a visual magnification of casual users’ handwriting, stylized signatures or inaccurately written personal names, slangs with a negative connotation.Orthographic and graphic level depicts the broadest diversity of linguistic and semiotic means, especially in the signs of names and graffiti. The most commonly found differences are the usage of lower and upper case of initial letters, variations of their artistic design, highlighting a particular letter of the sign, changing the size, font, color of a word or a part of a word, as well as ignoring the rules of language. Some graffitis demonstrate the examples of graphic hybridization, combining different pattern systems in a single report.Word-formation is revealed in the article only in the signs of names, determining the fact, that the formation of diminutives, compound names, abbreviations and foreign formants is relatively rare, wherewith it is considered as a kind of linguistic approach in creation of signs.Since the public signs selected for the research, are characterized by nominal phrases, mostly substantives and groups of words, then in morphological and syntactical point of view there are interesting examples, which are only the samples of the usage of adjectives, verbs or linking words and which have a full grammatical center (especially in ergonyms and graffiti). The fact that there are almost no punctuation marks in public signs, the usage of quotes and commas in ergonyms, as well as doubling or tripling of exclamation marks or the usage of full stops, ellipses and question marks in graffiti and advertising is considered to be a kind of linguistic technique to attract the attention.Creative linguistic techniques in a lexical semantic level are considerably rarely used nomenclature words in name signs, symbolic ergonyms in the full names of public institutions, actualization of cultural and historical information in the local environment, time category, mythological and literary characters, human character traits, behavior and properties in ergonyms, romantic dedications and poems in graffiti, and linguistic metaphors in ergonyms, advertisements and graffiti.Semiotic public signs attract attention if they contain visual images and metaphors are the only information providers and if there is an untraditional layout, unusual shape or interesting combinations of visual elements. Some institutions and companies demonstrate a uniform compositional message in their open space advertisements.In general, it can be maintained that both linguistic and semiotic means play an essential role in providing and perceiving general message of public signs. There are not so many techniques for creative text presentations in the Baltic States’ public space, but they reflect authors’ perception of their scope (institution or company, products or services, events), near or distant space and values

Visual Representa of a Woman in the Semiotic Landscape of the Baltic States

Linguistic landscape (LL) research of nine cities of the Baltic States shows that feminine discourse is of an essential significance in the public space. This is linguistically proved by feminine person’s names in ergonyms, also by female ergonyms and graffiti themes. However, there are multi-modal advertisements reflecting women and female items in the public space, and they are to be viewed from the perspective of the semiotic landscape. There are 294 photos reflecting a woman excerpted from the LL data base to describe visual images of a woman, focusing on the archetypes and concepts on woman’s role in society. There is a semiotic landscape research method, perception of a visual identity in advertising marketing and pop-culture, theories of the archetypes used in research. There are theoretical issues of research discussed, as well as stated target audience described linguistically and visually in the article. Furthermore, there is a general description of the excerpted material provided emphasizing typical features and interpreting several advertisements. There is an elaborated analysis of the social roles and archetypical images of visually demonstrated women given. At the end there are conclusions and a summary

Application of Project Management Information Systems in Efficiency Improvement of Quality Management System

Project management information systems (PMIS) and quality management system (QMS) are two components in the project oriented organization that helps to achieve required quality of the project product. QMS define quality framework and PMIS helps to ensure quality framework requirement related to the projects. The objective of paper is to evaluate and demonstrate PMIS options for efficiency QMS development and maintenance. QMS requirements are identified according to ISO 9001:2008 standard and PMIS options of efficiency improvement are evaluated according to ISO 9004:2009 self-assessment tool

Revaluation of graffiti as unwanted texts in language acquisition

The aim of the article is to theoretically substantiate the use of graffiti in the learning process and practically demonstrate how graffiti texts could be included in language acquisition (especially in the language as a first language lessons). Graffiti examples are taken from the linguistic landscape of Latvia to discuss with secondary school pupils the language use in the city, emotions in language, as well as to enhance understanding of linguistic and visual images on the various levels. The education context of Latvia is presented first, then the edusemiotics theory is briefly explained, followed by the general description of graffiti as a public sign. In the practical part, three ideas for work with graffiti during lessons of the Latvian language are proposed. The end of the article offers an assessment of examples and conclusions. Graffiti as authentic text is a tool to attract the pupils’ attention and to speak about both specific linguistic issues and the issues important to the pupils. Methodologically practical examples showed that including graffiti texts in the learning process is not an impossible or a deprecatory idea

SPACE CATEGORY IN THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF LATGALE REGION

The space is a significant parameter of world’s existence, and a component making human’s experience and the view of the world; any culture’s understanding of the underlying principles of world’s formation, human’s place and purpose within it is associated with it. Language signs of the linguistic landscape are one of the external factors promoting and influencing formation of the world and its feeling, as well as territorial identity, overcoming or narrowing geographical and psychological borders.The object of the research – a category of the space in the linguistic landscape of four administrative- territorial units – Daugavpils, Rēzekne, Līvani cities and Vārkava district, the object – language signs with a word or word compound explicitly expressing space.The aim of the research – to find out how and with which language means language signs with additional space indications make concepts on space and feeling of identity to a certain area in Latgale regional linguistic landscape.A method of the linguistic landscape was used to collect data, a content analysis was important for data selection; post-structural and descriptive methods were applied to develop the research.Basic categories of the space within the context of the linguistic landscape are as follows: language space, information space, geographical space and public space, as the existence of the language signs are not possible outside them. The selected language signs confirm that words and word compounds representing real and mythical space are additionally given in the linguistic landscape of Latgale region.The most significant conclusions:1. The most often used words expressing space in the linguistic landscape of the research areal are: nomenclature words – a centre, a shop, a bank, a salon, a pharmacy, a school – and place-name Latgale (all of them are mentioned more than 20 times). The most involved words in making word compounds – a centre, and a salon (e. g., Centre of Friends; Fortunetelling Salon, Salon of Alcoholic Drinks).2. The language signs expressing actual space are predominant – house-names (e. g., a shop, a bank, a pharmacy, a bar, etc.) related to the public and material area, and place-names (Latgale, Rēzekne, Vārkava, Daugavpils, Līvani). A choice of house-names suggests that human needs, desires and opportunities to meet them are set as a primary issue; money circulation is the main criterion for movement through the space. Usage of place-names, in its turn, proves that the larger is the territorial unit, the more seldom it is additionally emphasized in the language signs.3. Features characterizing mythical space – polycentrism – creation of several centres and a sign even in the level of one street (e. g., there are pharmacies of 2 different companies the „Pharmacy Centre of Līvāni” in Rīga Street in Līvāni); worlds or lands of self-made goods or services (e. g., Photo World, Health Island, Alkoland, etc.); usage of words related to the celestial area – „above” (e. g., Moon Pharmacy, Sun Store, Cloud, Star Bookstore, etc.). Focusing on oneself, and things that are familiar, close and secure

DEFINITION AND FORMAL REPRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESSES

Project management information systems are used to support project management processes. The typical project management processes are defined by the project management methodologies, such as PMBOK. It is necessary to formalize representation of these processes to use them in modelling, analysis and implementation of the project management information systems. The purpose of the article is defined key processes of project management and to identify appropriate techniques and tools for their formal representation. In the article groups of the project management processes are listed and representation techniques such as UML, XPDL and YAWL are evaluated. The comparison of process representation techniques is shows that the most appropriate is XPDL. Guidelines for project management process definition using XPDL are formulated. These formalized processes further will be used in configuration of the project management information systems

Learning a foreign language and locality through an animated documentary film

This paper describes one 4-week long online language learning module which utilizes the animated documentary film My Favorite War (Burkovska-Jakobsen, 2020) and analyzes four students’ final essays. The learning module was created considering ethnographic views of cultural inferences (Spradley, 2016), the framework of social space (Lefebvre, 1991), multimodal theory (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006), and the model of learning activities, or knowledge processes (Cope & Kalantzis, 2015). It was developed for a Latvian language course at the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) in 2021. Its goals are to help students learn more about the target language and locals’ place-based experiences, and to promote students’ semiotic consciousness while developing their multiliteracies. However, the assignment’s assessment criteria related to the interaction of semiotic resources and of linguistic and non-linguistic information were not shared in order to find out if students would include these issues in their essays. Analysis of students’ essays show that after the learning module, students were able to comprehend (a) some individual compositional elements from the film; (b) symbolic and functional meanings of differently marked spaces; and (c) the main character’s feelings in various social spaces, internal conflicts, relationship models, and thoughts about family, work, war, historical truth, and independence. The described learning model can inspire educators worldwide to develop similar teaching practices for other less commonly taught languages

THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF PRINT ADVERTISEMENTS IN DAUGAVPILS: 1920–1930

The theme described in the title is connected with public advertising texts from two informational sources: newspapers printed in Daugavpils („Daugavas Vēstnesis” ‘The Daugava Herald’, „Daugavas Vārds” ‘The Daugava’s Word’, „Latgales Ziņas” ‘Latgalian News’ and „Latgales Vēstnesis” ‘The Latgale Herald”) and the linguistic landscape of the city, which characterizes the public information space. Commercial discourse is essential to this space, as a large part of public texts have the representation and promotion of establishments, companies and societies as a primary goal, in addition to the exhibition of offered goods and services.The aim of the article is to define and characterize from the perspective of linguistic landscape the tools and techniques used to represent businesses and establishments in Latvian print advertisements in the 1920s and 30s. In fulfillment of this goal, content analysis and the diachronic linguistic landscape approach has been used for data analysis and interpretation (Backhaus 2005, Pavlenko 2010, Pavlenko, Mullen 2015, Pošeiko 2015). For summarization of obtained results, the descriptive method has been used.Latvia is characterized in the interwar period by a unified language policy – including policies with mechanisms for the management of specific languages – highlighting the role of the Latvian language as the state language in the organization of public life and in nationalist ideology, and facilitating its use in all sociolinguistic functions. However, the interwar period in Latvia also marks the beginning of a period of Westernization – especially in the economic and cultural spheres – detectible in cinema, theater and concert posters; print advertisements for shops and consumer services, and business names in the urban environment.During this period newspapers were printed in Latvian, but some papers, calendars and journals were printed in Latgalian, Russian and Polish. Company names, advertisements and partially-legible posters are visible in period photographs of the linguistic landscape. Advertising information at the beginning of the 1920s is only to be found in Russian, or with bilingual Russian-Latvian texts. Monolingual language signs in Latvian – noticeably missing diacritic marks and appropriate word endings – only begin to be seen from the 1930s

Project Management Knowledge Retrieval: Project Classification

Project management knowledge contains a wide range of information that can be accumulated from theory and practice. This knowledge is not always readily available to project manager and that can leave a significant impact on project management efficiency and success. Therefore, this knowledge is necessary to store in the project management knowledge repository and then to retrieve it when necessary. To find this knowledge it is necessary to define attributes for searching relevant projects and knowledge associated with these projects. The objective of this paper is to develop a set of project classification attributes that can be used to describe project characteristics and use them in similarity definition. The project classification attributes are defined as a part of the architecture of project management knowledge retrieval. They are identified by analyzing several project management methodologies and are validated by classifying twenty two empirical information technology projects

ASSESSMENT OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE EFFICIENCY OF SECTORAL ACTIVITIES IN THE NATIONAL ECONOMY

To work effectively for commercial companies in different sectors of the economy, it is of interest to business owners, investors, management, employees, the state and society as a whole. The efficiency of commercial companies is crucial for the process of financial and economic decision-making. In Latvia, there have been neither in-depth research studies on the efficiency of financial activity, nor studies on the efficiency of certain sectors of the economy. The aim of the research is to summarize and analyse data on factors influencing the operational efficiency of commercial companies working in the national economy sectors: number of employees in the sectors, number of enterprises, value of exports and imports, personnel costs and number of employees in enterprises of a given sector, gross investments in material matters, land, machinery, equipment, non-financial investments in intangible assets and fixed assets, turnover, indicators of financial performance of enterprises, which provide aggregated information on liquidity, profitability and solvency of enterprises. The data processing used ibm spss statistics v21 method. The result of the research study is to group the factors that have a significant impact on the efficiency of the economic sector