Globaliosios anglų kalbos socialinės reikšmės potencialas: ką rodo skirtingų bendruomenių tyrimai?

This paper describes the social value of the global English language as identified in the investigations of various communities worldwide and shows how the social meanings of English relate to each other in a broader ideological field universal for today’s locally global world. The notions of indexical field (Eckert 2008) and bivalent indexicality (Cotter, Valentinsson 2018) are applied in the analysis. The aim of the study is to synthesize results obtained by different researchers from different ideological and communicative contexts and to explore the indexical potential of English, including its local varieties and mixed speech styles. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of a corpus of secondary sources, consisting of a total of 74 scholarly publications from the Expanding Circle communities, which were published in English in 1990–2020 (most of them during the second decade of the 21st century).In total, more than 50 social meanings of the global English language have been identified. It is likely that the abundance of social associations with English is due to the strong first-order indexes. Hence, the social meanings were grouped into the following nine indexical categories based on the presumed first-order sociocultural indexicalities: British and American culture; International sphere; Technologies, science and education; Economic and social status; Personal capital; Youth; Popular culture and media; Urban sphere; and Male. Positive social meanings dominate the indexicalities, but for some of them, bivalent indexicality (presence of contradictory positive and negative values) has been recorded. Although there is much overlap between these relative categories, the constellation as a whole is interpreted as a complex of several separate and multivalent indexical fields. It is to be hoped that this study not only illustrates that the notion of indexical field is applicable for analysis of the imagined global community of users of English, but also provides a broader ideological context for further research of the social meaning-making potential of the global English language.Taikant Penelope’s Eckert (2008) indeksinio lauko (angl. indexical field) sąvoką, straipsnyje aprašoma, kokias globaliosios anglų kalbos ir mišrių stilių socialines reikšmes yra nustatę skirtingų pasaulio šalių mokslininkai. Tyrimo tikslas – analizuojant ir sintetinant įvairiuose sociokultūriniuose ir komunikaciniuose anglų kalbos vartojimo kontekstuose pastebėtas socialines reikšmes atskleisti šios globaliosios kalbos indeksinį potencialą bei pailiustruoti galimus socialinių reikšmių ryšius. Tyrimo pagrindas – 1990–2020 m. laikotarpiu (daugiausia per antrą XXI a. dešimtmetį) anglų kalba publikuoti straipsniai iš vadinamojo Besiplečiančio rato (angl. Expanding Circle) bendruomenių, kuriose anglų kalba turi užsienio kalbos statusą. Pasitelkus devynias kategorijas (Britų ir amerikiečių kultūra; Tarptautinė erdvė; Technologijos, mokslas, išsilavinimas; Ekonominis ir socialinis statusas; Asmeninis kapitalas; Jaunimas; Populiarioji kultūra, medijos; Miestas; Vyras) ir grupuojant per penkiasdešimt identifikuotų socialinių reikšmių parodoma, kad šios reikšmės galėtų būti interpretuojamos kaip susiję daugialypiai indeksiniai laukai ar tokių laukų kompleksas

Driving Forces behind Language Change. Does Danish Theory Hold up in Lithuania?

The paper presents a large-scale investigation of attitudes towards standard and dialectal speech varieties in Lithuania. It aimed at, firstly, obtaining comparable data on assessments of speech variation under two methodologically different conditions: ‘unaware condition’ (the participants being unaware of the linguistic goals of the research) and ‘aware condition’. Secondly, it aimed at testing whether the two layers of consciousness yield two different systems of social values and how the evaluations accord with changes in language usage. The theory was developed by Danish scholars whose numerous experimental studies proved the driving force role of subconscious attitudes. The investigation closely followed the Danish methodology and was carried out in 23 secondary schools in 7 regions and the capital city of Lithuania, covering almost 1.5 thousand pupils in total. The regularity of the findings, i.e. the overall tendency to overtly valorise local dialects but subconsciously to downgrade dialect accented voices, confirmed that language awareness affects assignment of values to language and must be regarded as an important explanatory factor for the scenarios of language change

Įvadas. Vilniaus kalba: naujas tyrimų etapas

Šiame teminiame žurnalo numeryje skelbiami mokslinio projekto „Kalba Vilnius II: miestas ir kalbos įvairovė“ (2012–2014) rezultatai. Drauge su savo pirmtaku „Kalba Vilnius I: Vilniaus kalbos vaidmuo šiandieninėje Lietuvoje“ (2010)1 projektas žymi naują sociolingvistinių Vilniaus kalbos studijų etapą, pradėtą po kelių dešimtmečių pertraukos nuo pirmųjų, daugiausia Laimos Grumadienės atliktų tyrimų.Šiandieniniams projektams suburta tyrėjų grupė, todėl jie kompleksiškesni, turi gerokai platesnį teorinį, metodinį ir empirinį pagrindą. Vilniečių kalbos ypatybės ne tik aprašomos deskriptyviai, bet ir siejamos su vartotojų tapatybės raiška ir tos tapatybės išoriniais vertinimais

Anglų kalbos vartojimas ir kodų kaita Lietuvos televizijų reklamose

The paper focuses on the problem of language domain loss and sets out to examine the relationship between Lithuanian and English in TV commercials in Lithuania. The aim of the research is to determine the spread of English, together with the functions of English elements in the commercials and code-mixing. The data consists of a corpus of TV commercials recorded in 2003 and in 2009; in total, more than 1200 commercials, broadcasted during the most popular TV programs in one week each year. The analysis has shown that TV advertising as a domain of Lithuanian language use is not being lost and the situation hasn’t changed over the years. There are almost no only English commercials. Most of the commercials are a mix of Lithuanian and English codes, while English is mostly used in the product names. There are few English slogans and not much other information in English in the corpus. It turned out that there might be a special strategy for the localization of commercials in Lithuania. The oral form of the commercials is more Lithuanized than thewritten form. The slogans and the product names are presented in translation or explained in Lithuanian. At the same time, the written part of the commercials can have more information in English. Some English insertions most likely have a symbolic function to make an impression that the product advertised is valuable or modern. The use of English in commercials may have the purpose of communicating prestige and especially targeting at an audience with a high social status or young people.Straipsnyje keliama Lietuvoje iki šiol labai mažai tirta kalbos domenų praradimo problema ir analizuojami anglų ir lietuvių kalbų santykiai televizijos reklamoje. Tyrimo tikslas – nustatyti anglų kalbos vartojimo apimtis ir plitimą, angliškų elementų funkcijas bei kodų kaitos pobūdį. Medžiaga rinkta 2003 m. ir 2009 m., vieną savaitę įrašinėjant Lietuvos televizijų transliuojamų žiūrimiausių laidų reklamas. Tyrimo medžiagą iš viso sudarė per 1200 reklamų. Dviejų laikotarpių palyginimas parodė, kad televizijos reklama Lietuvoje nėra prarandamas kalbos domenas ir situacija praktiškai nesikeičia. Vien anglų kalba transliuojamų reklamų beveik nepasitaikė, o didžiąją dalį korpuso sudarančiose mišriose reklamose vyravo angliški prekės pavadinimai. Pastebėta, kad daugiau informacijos anglų kalba pateikiama rašytine nei garsine forma, taip pat, kad reklamose panaudojama anglų kalbos simbolinė vertė ir prestižas

Graži ar protinga? Socialinės Vilniaus merginų tarties variantų reikšmės ir diskurso stereotipai

Combining metalinguistic discourse analysis with statistical and qualitative speaker evaluation analysis the paper examines perceptions of phonetic variation in the speech of urban girls and discusses the impact of social stereotypes on the evaluation of their speech styles. The approach is adapted that speech variants are meaningful elements of a style cluster used by speakers for construction of certain personality types and stances and recognized by hearers as such (Agha 2007, Campbell-Kibler 2009, Blommaert 2010). Subconscious Speaker evaluation experiment was carried out in four upper-secondary schools of Vilnius. 14 female speech samples, representing three supposed speech styles indexed by either open back rounded [ɒ] (variant of standard Lithuanian /o/), or alveolar [s] (variant of dental /s/) or unmarked with regard to the mentioned features were presented for subconscious assessment to 232 students. The students were asked to rate the voices on several 7-point scales to assess the personality traits of the voices and their suitability for several professions. The idea was to investigate whether the students will recognize these speech styles of urban girls as different ways with language, whether this recognition will result in categorisation of speakers into separate social types and whether the discourse stereotypes will impact the assessments of students. The research confirmed the presuppositions. The voices that included an open rounded [ɒ] were subconsciously associated with the social stereotypes that were found in the discursive construction of the pop girls, the so called fyfas. These voices were assessed significantly more negatively on qualities related with personal maturity and trustworthiness, such as not being goal-directed, conscientious and intelligent, and most positively on the trait joyful. As well they were significantly more often associated with fashion, music and advertising branches. The highest intellectual capacities and skills as well prestigious professions such as businessman or physician were attributed to the unmarked voices, relating this speech style to the stereotype of a nerd. Whereas the voices that included alveolar [s] were perceived as belonging to an in between position – on most of the scales their ratings were lower than the unmarked voices’ and higher than the [ɒ] voices’. Such attribution confirmed the hypothesized assignment of alveolar [s] to “serious entertainment”, a style that is presented as serious in entertainment contexts. The research revealed significant association of this style with the music branch. To summarize, the studied speech styles are subject of conscious and subconscious awareness in the Lithuanian speech community. They are reacted to applying certain ideological schemes, be it stereotypes constructed and maintained by the public discourse or subconscious knowledge, formed by social and linguistic competence of the judges. There is no doubt that at least two of the studied styles – the unmarked Vilnius speech and the alveolar [s] including style are not limited to female speakers. The gender variable would be an interesting supplement to the further study of language variation in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.Straipsnyje kalbama apie socialines fonetinių kalbos variantų reikšmes – jų atpažinimą, vertinimus ir sąsajas su socialiniais stereotipais. Tyrimo pagrindas – viešajame diskurse skleidžiami socialiniai stereotipai ir pasąmoninio kalbėtojo vertinimo eksperimentu išgautos Vilniaus moksleivių reakcijos į merginas, kurių kalboje pasitaiko užpakalinės eilės lūpinis [ɒ] arba alveolizuotas [s], bei merginas, kurios nevartoja nė vieno iš šių garsų. Tyrimu siekta nustatyti, ar hipotetiškai išskirti trys kalbėjimo stiliai moksleiviams iš tiesų asocijuosis su trimis skirtingais socialiniais tipais. Metalingvistinio diskurso analizė derinama su kalbėtojų vertinimo eksperimento duomenų statistine ir kokybine analizėmis ir žiūrima, kokią įtaką kalbėtojo vertinimams daro socialiniai stereotipai. Eksperimentuojant su Vilniaus paauglių merginų kalbos garsais parodoma, kaip kalbos variantai, net ir būdami skirtingai įsisąmoninti, tampa socialiai reikšmingu indeksu kalbėtojams kategorizuoti į skirtingomis asmeninėmis savybėmis ir profesiniais siekimais pasižyminčius socialinius tipus

„Skolos bijosi – turtų nepadarysi“. Leksikos skolinimosi poreikiai ir polinkiai 1991–2013 m. rašytiniuose tekstuose

The paper introduces available databases of new borrowings into Lithuanian and research into their main features and usage in public written texts, including the Internet, in 1991–2013. The research has shown that new borrowings of the Lithuanian language and the process of borrowing follow the same universal and general patterns noticed in other speech communities. Overall, about 1 500 different new borrowings and borrowed derivatives that have entered the Lithuanian language since early 90ies have been included into the databases. Due to the normative tradition of standard written Lithuanian, in more formal domains there is a tendency to graphically highlight borrowings either by inserting the quotation marks or by writing the borrowings in italics. However, in informal Internet texts (chats, commentaries, etc.) the borrowings are usually not highlighted. The morphological adaptation of most borrowings and orthographical adaptation of a large part of them give a clue to the integration potential of the Lithuanian structural paradigms. The distribution of the new borrowings across the word classes follows the patterns identified in other research: most borrowings are nouns, a much lower number of them are adjectives and verbs and a rather insignificant number are adverbs. Most new borrowings in the studied period include borrowings from English (approx. 70 per cent). Borrowings from other languages are much less numerous: depending on a text type, neo-Latinisms make up 5–8 per cent, words of French origin—3–7 per cent, words of Italian origin—4–5 per cent and Greek borrowings—2–3 per cent. The domains that include most new borrowings are technology and engineering, food, economics and business, also music. As already mentioned, borrowings from English clearly dominate in most domains. However, the semantic field of food seems to be the most diverse in terms of the origin of borrowings: most borrowings are of Italian origin, others come from of English, French, Spanish, Japanese and other languages. French and neoclassical borrowings make up more than 70 per cent of all borrowed law terms and almost 40 per cent of the terms of economics and business. The research of new borrowings into Lithuanian reveals fundamental changes in the socio-cultural development of the society and highlights the potential of the Lithuanian language to adapt to the needs of the speakers and to preserve the marks of ongoing cultural changes.Šiame straipsnyje pristatoma leksikos skolinių tyrimams skirta tęstinė Naujųjų skolinių duomenų bazė ir aptariamos jos pagrindu bei lyginant su kitais duomenynais ištirtos pagrindinės naujųjų skolinių ir jų vartosenos 1991–2013 m. viešuosiuose rašytiniuose (tarp jų, ir elektroniniuose) tekstuose charakteristikos – skolinių skaičius, grafinis pateikimas, rašybos ir morfologijos adaptavimas, skolintų žodžių klasės, skolinių kilmės kalbos, teminės grupės. Pastarųjų poros dešimtmečių rašytinės lietuvių kalbos skoliniai atskleidžia fundamentines Nepriklausomos Lietuvos visuomenės permainas, parodo ją kaip aktyvų, modernėjimo paskatų vedamą kultūrų kontaktų subjektą. Galima teigti, kad lietuvių kalbos naujiesiems skoliniams ir leksikos skolinimosi procesui iš esmės būdingos tos pačios savybės, kokios pastebimos kitų dabartinių kalbų bendruomenėse

Svetimybių vertinimas Lietuvoje: sociolingvistinė kalbos vartotojų požiūrio analizė

In Lithuania we have an official purist language policy, but no research has been done to find out the attitude of language users. An experiment was carried out in which 129 respondents were asked to express their opinion about loan-words in the Lithuanian language. The results of the experiment show that Lithuanians have a rather negative attitude towards borrowings. However, the attitude also depends on sex, education and age in particular: in the group of ageing people one may expect more negative feelings towards loan-words, inclination not to accept them in the public use of the language. Among the elderly population there are more people who believe that loan-words should be replaced by new Lithuanian coineers. On the other hand, the negative attitude is characteristic not only of older Lithuanians in general, but also of those with academic education, those with insufficient knowledge of English and especially of women

Pratarmė

This special issue of the journal publishes research papers focusing on new borrowings in Lithuanian. They approach the problem of borrowing from different perspectives: sociolinguistic, morphological, lexicographic, and terminological.Šiame teminiame „Taikomosios kalbotyros“ žurnalo 2013-2014 (3) numeryje publikuojami naujausi vieno lietuvių kalbos skolintos leksikos sluoksnio – vadinamųjų naujųjų skolinių – tyrimai iš kelių disciplinų perspektyvos – sociolingvistikos, morfologijos, leksikografijos ir terminologijos. Naujaisiais skoliniais laikomi maždaug nuo Nepriklausomybės pradžios į lietuvių kalbą atėję įvairių kalbų kilmės žodžiai ar jų kamienų vediniai su lietuviškomis morfemomis, formaliai žiūrint, tie, kurie iki tol nebuvo įtraukti į tarptautinių žodžių žodynus, pirmiausia, į paskutinį sovietmečiu išleistą „Tarptautinių žodžių žodyną“ (1985). Beveik visų straipsnių pagrindinis empirinis pagrindas – tęstinė Lietuvių kalbos instituto Naujųjų skolinių duomenų bazė (toliau – NSDB) – specialiai suprogramuotas įrankis, teikiantis duomenų apie įvairiuose lietuvių kalbos rašytiniuose šaltiniuose paskutinius keliolika metų vartotus naujuosius skolinius

Didmiestis ir sostinė "geriausios lietuvių kalbos" percepcijose

The paper examines the ideology of the best language in the Lithuanian speech community. The research is based on synthesis of various metalinguistic data collected during previous research by the author. The regularity of the findings and stereotypical attitudes found in the data suggest that the idea of ​​the best Lithuanian in the Lithuanian speech community is closely linked to the largest city of Lithuania and the one of the highest social status – the capital Vilnius. Through the association with the city of Vilnius, the language of the „metropolis” and the „capital” acquires prestigious social meanings and the highest position in the hierarchy of Lithuanian language varieties. Metalinguistic localization in the metropolis gives following attributes to the best Lithuanian: non-dialectal, grammatical, correct, spoken by educated persons. Additional social values are developed through the association with the dwellers of the capital city and the urban center of the country itself: “modern”, “youthful”, “international”, “cosmopolitan”, “advanced”, as well as “self-confident”, “successful”, “wealthy”, “educated” and “cultivated”. All these attributions can be linked to the category dynamism, a valuable social value for, especially, young members of the community. Compared to the studies conducted elsewhere, it can be assumed that both linking of the ‘best speech’ with the speech of the metropolis or the capital city and the positive social associations of the capital city, is universal. All the research data collected using different methods during different investigations point to that there is basically no hierarchical relationship between the Vilnius speech and the standard Lithuanian in the best language perceptions of the Lithuanians. These two varieties are being integrated into one concept of the best speech spoken by best speaker, the one of the highest status, the most dynamic and competent as well possessing the best personality traits. Neither the stereotypical features associated with Vilnius speech (such as language mixing), nor the structural features of it (such as the so-called vowel lengthening, heavily criticized by the Lithuanian standard speech norm-setters), do not affect the concept of the best language by the community. Vilnius residents themselves and the general speech community evaluate linguistic features and prestige of the Vilnius speech differently from normative textbooks. The research presented in the paper makes it possible to predict that the link between capital Vilnius and the best speech of the community is the condition that will allow the speech of Vilnius to be taken over by language users and spread.Straipsnyje analizuojamas socialinių ir ideologinių veiksnių (miesto, sostinės, oficialiosios bendrinės kalbos ideologijos) poveikis lietuvių kalbos bendruomenėje galiojančiai geriausios kalbos sampratai. Tyrimo pagrindas – įvairiapusišku metodų kompleksu su įvairiomis tikslinėmis informantų grupėmis gauti Vilniaus kalbos ir kalbėtojų metalingvistiniai vertinimai. Reguliariai pasikartojantys ir stereotipiški kalbos vartotojų vaizdiniai leidžia teigti, kad lietuvių kalbos bendruomenėje geriausios lietuvių idėją neabejotinai veikia asociacija su didžiausiu ir aukščiausio statuso Lietuvos miestu Vilniumi. Struktūrinės Vilniaus kalbos ypatybės, į kurias orientuota normatyvinė lietuvių kalbos paradigma, nevaidina lemiamo vaidmens kalbantiesiems Vilniaus kalba priskirti prestižines socialines savybes, o pačiai kalbai kategorizuoti kaip lietuvių kalbos standartui