Verbum
https://www.journals.vu.lt/verbum
<p>Founded in 2010 and dedicated to publishing articles on the studies of Germanic, Roman and Slavic linguistics and education. Indexed in the <em>Scopus</em> database since 2021.</p>Vilniaus universiteto leidykla / Vilnius University PressenVerbum2029-6223<p>Please read the Copyright Notice in <a href="http://www.zurnalai.vu.lt/verbum/journalpolicy">Journal Policy</a>. </p>"New Regionalism" and Its Implementation in Ukrainian Legislation: The Terminology and the Political Implications
https://www.journals.vu.lt/verbum/article/view/34787
<p><span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">This paper investigates the terminology associated with "New regionalism" and its integration into Ukrainian legislation, analyzing its political and administrative implications. "New regionalism" is a contemporary administrative-territorial reform, with a focus on the principle of subsidiarity, which minimizes central authority intervention in local affairs. While not explicitly present in its regulations, certain subsidiarity elements are part of Ukrainian law. The study explores the adoption and implementation of "New regionalism" principles and terminology within the country's legal discourse. The second aim of the study was to examine how "New regionalism" could potentially influence the political dynamics and administrative structures, particularly in the context of decentralization efforts. By employing systematic and comparative methodologies alongside principles of dialectical analysis, the study offers insights into the evolving landscape of Ukrainian political and administrative terminology alongside its structures, which might play a crucial role in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.</span></p>
ArticlesNew regionalismterminologypolitical discoursesubsidiarityregional political subjectsUkraineregionalizationNazarii Melnyk
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2023-12-282023-12-2811110.15388/Verb.43Phrasemes in Academic Student Texts
https://www.journals.vu.lt/verbum/article/view/33049
<p>Vilma ZUBAITIENĖ, Gintarė JUDŽENTYTĖ-ŠINKŪNIENĖ, Eglė GUDAVIČIENĖ, Lina PLAUŠINAITYTĖ, Skaistė VOLUNGEVIČIENĖ<em>. Studentų darbų fraziškumas.</em> Kolektyvinė monografija. Vilnius, Vilniaus Universiteto leidykla, 2020, 614 p.</p>
Reviews-Danguolė Melnikienė
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2023-08-222023-08-221310.15388/Verb.40Expressions of Lithuanian Identity in the Spoken Language Corpus of Repatriated Children
https://www.journals.vu.lt/verbum/article/view/32885
<p>The aim of the article is to analyse the spoken corpus samples with the lexemes <em>Lietuva</em>, <em>lietuvis</em>, <em>lietuviškas </em>and <em>lietuviškai</em> of the repatriated children and to show how the children's Lithuanian identity expressed through the use of these lexemes. The aim of the research was to explore the perception of Lithuania among the repatriated children, what they (dis)like in Lithuania, what characteristics of Lithuania, Lithuanians, etc., they identify, etc. The research material consists of data from 73 children (aged 8-12). Examples of these lexemes were collected from the first part of the semi-structured interview "warm-up", in which the pupils introduced themselves, talked about their family, friends, place of residence, etc. In this part of the interview, the children were also asked what they like in Lithuania, what they don't like and why. The analysis of the examples found showed that the Lithuanian identity of the repatriated children is most broadly expressed through social and cultural aspects. This significantly points to factors important for adaptation.</p>
Articlesrepatriated children languageLithuaniaLithuanian identitycorpusaspectetchnolinguisticsAnželika GaidienėAurelija Tamulionienė
Copyright (c) 2023 Anželika Gaidienė | Aurelija Tamulionienė
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2023-10-162023-10-1611110.15388/Verb.41Topics in Foreign Language Teaching in Research Articles in Psycholinguistics: Reviewing the State-of-the-Art
https://www.journals.vu.lt/verbum/article/view/31495
<p>The article introduces a study whose purpose is to provide a review of research articles (RAs) in psycholinguistics which focus on foreign language teaching (FLT). To that end, the study examines a corpus of RAs in psycholinguistics that address FLT-related research topics, which are published in two international peer-reviewed journals, namely <em>Psycholinguistics</em> and <em>Eastern European Journal of Psycholinguistics</em>. The corpus was examined for the presence of research topics in FLT, as well as the RAs’ bibliometric data. The results of the corpus analysis revealed that the majority of the RAs were single-authored by female researchers, who focused on such FLT-related research topics as translation and interpreting, speaking in a foreign language (FL), and FL proficiency. It was established that the FLT-themed RAs investigated primarily English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and, less frequently, German, Chinese, Japanese, Latin, and Ukrainian. The findings are further described and discussed in the article.</p>
Articlesforeign language (FL)foreign language teaching (FLT)psycholinguisticsresearch articles (RAs)Oleksandr Kapranov
Copyright (c) 2023 Oleksandr Kapranov
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2023-07-072023-07-0712210.15388/Verb.39Prompting Metalinguistic Awareness in Large Language Models: ChatGPT and Bias Effects on the Grammar of Italian and Italian Varieties
https://www.journals.vu.lt/verbum/article/view/32583
<p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">We explore ChatGPT’s handling of left-peripheral phenomena in Italian and Italian varieties through prompt engineering to investigate 1) forms of syntactic bias in the model, 2) the model’s metalinguistic awareness in relation to reorderings of canonical clauses (e.g., Topics) and certain grammatical categories (object clitics). A further question concerns the content of the model’s sources of training data: how are minor languages included in the model’s training? The results of our investigation show that 1) the model seems to be biased against reorderings, labelling them as </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">archaic</em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;"> even though it is not the case; 2) the model seems to have difficulties with coindexed elements such as clitics and their anaphoric status, labeling them as ‘not referring to any element in the phrase’, and 3) major languages still seem to be dominant, overshadowing the positive effects of including minor languages in the model’s training.</span></p>
Articlescartographyquantitative syntaxChatGPTTopicsItalian varietiesAngelapia MassaroGiuseppe Samo
Copyright (c) 2023 Angelapia Massaro | Giuseppe Samo
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2023-12-202023-12-2011110.15388/Verb.42The Term depression in Contemporary Lithuanian Journalism
https://www.journals.vu.lt/verbum/article/view/29712
<p class="western" align="left"><span lang="en-GB">The article attempts to look into the ways that the special meaning of the term <em>depression</em> (Lith. <em>depresija</em>) changes in the discourse of journalism and the factors that drive those changes. </span>Analysis of nearly 2,000 sentences featured in the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language that contain the term <em>depression</em> has shown that only one meaning of this term (medical) undergoes transformation as the term transcends the boundaries of a special field, while the rest of its meanings are not susceptible to change. <span lang="en-GB">First, the terminological meanings in which this term is used in the material covered by the analysis basically do not change at all, and no break between the term and the underlying concept occurs. Second, the terminological (medical) meaning changes to an extent, and the concept becomes simplified. Third, the terminological meaning undergoes a series of different semantic transformations and the term becomes even more detached from the special meaning, acquiring a number of emotional, expressive shades. These transformations depend on the topics covered by texts, the intentions of the authors, the contextual partners (adjectives, verbs), which often carry some stylistic connotations. Still, it can be sometimes difficult to determine the extent of transformation of the terminological meaning of the term <em>depression</em> with a high degree of accuracy. At times, the boundary between the term <em>depression</em> and the word <em>depression</em> becomes unclear.</span></p>
ArticlestermmeaningdeterminologisationjournalismPalmira Zemlevičiūtė
Copyright (c) 2023 Palmira Zemlevičiūtė
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2023-02-132023-02-1311010.15388/Verb.38Analysis of English-Spanish False Friends
https://www.journals.vu.lt/verbum/article/view/28831
<p>The present study aims to carry out an analysis of English-Spanish false friends in order to establish the most prevailing type of false friends and to determine their degree of falseness and semantic resemblance. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct the research. The results of the analysis have shown that the most dominant part of speech among false friends in English and Spanish is the category of nouns. The vast majority of false friends share their origins in Latin. The most prevailing type of false friends is semantic total. The data gathered from the questionnaire display that the majority of language users are familiar with the phenomenon and can recognize and understand the meaning of the false friend word pairs.</p>
Articlesfalse friendsnounetymologypart of speechsemantic totalLina Inčiuraitė-NoreikienėDeimantė Šarkaitė
Copyright (c) 2022 Lina Inčiuraitė-Noreikienė | Deimantė Šarkaitė
2022-12-302022-12-30111110.15388/Verb.37Language Policy at Universities in the Process of Internationalisation: Vilnius University Students’ Views
https://www.journals.vu.lt/verbum/article/view/10263
<p>The current paper focuses on the study of novel lexical items, i. e. the processes involved in the making of new words, in order to discover which methods contribute to the expansion of the current English lexicon. The research is based on the new words coined since 2004 which are included in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Online (ensuring that the items in the sample cover various semantic fields, are of diverse origins, and all are already accepted into the working vocabulary). Two objectives are completed to explore the subject and achieve its aim: 1) to establish the concept of new words and to overview the processes of lexical expansion in the English language, and 2) to determine which methods are employed and which are absent in the creation of new words in current English by analyzing the novel lexical items retrieved from the OED Online. Quantitative and qualitative methods are applied in this study. The results indicate that the concept of new words is not straightforward in the English language. More often than not, the terms neologisms and new words are used synonymously to refer to recent, novel lexical items recognized and used by the language community. English has an extensive inventory of word-forming tools classified into these distinct categories: word-formation, semantic change, borrowing, and other; each further subdivided into various processes. Overall, the subtypes of word-formation – derivation, shortening and compounding – are used the most in the creation of recent additions to the lexicon. Predominantly, the findings are consistent with the tendencies of lexical expansion observed in previous studies. </p>
Articlesinternationalisationuniversitylanguage policyteaching and learning languagesstudents’ viewpointsRoma KriaučiūnienėRasa Šlikaitė
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2022-12-302022-12-308810.15388/Verb.34Multilingualism as a Key Challenge for Higher Education Language Policy: The ARQUS Perspective
https://www.journals.vu.lt/verbum/article/view/30797
<p>Language plays an essential role in education, where it serves as both the medium of instruction and key to communication. To warrant successful teaching, learning, research and academic mobility, universities must develop a clear vision about the role of language(s) at their institution. For example, they must develop strategies to promote continual growth of their students’ and staff’s professional and academic language skills. This article will report on an initiative undertaken within the Arqus European University Alliance to formulate a comprehensive language policy. To do so, five thematic areas essential to language policies in higher education were identified and questions were developed to gather information from all of the partner universities. This information was then incorporated in the planning and design of a language policy for the Alliance. The Arqus Language Policy now stands as a guideline for university members to develop a clear vision of language in higher education as well as a joint reflection and agreement on the role of multilingual communication in society. In the second phase of the project, further actions and measures can be planned on this basis.</p>
ArticlesLanguage PolicyHigher EducationHigher Education SpaceMultilingualismPluriculturalismLanguage PlanningOlaf BärenfängerAlba DelgadoKerstin Gackle
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2022-12-302022-12-309910.15388/Verb.35Arqus University Alliance Staff Members' Linguistic and Intercultural Needs: Survey Results
https://www.journals.vu.lt/verbum/article/view/30799
<p>The Arqus European Higher Education Alliance identified as one of its priorities the development of linguistic and intercultural competences of university staff as a measure to ensure high quality teaching and services to students and staff. The present paper presents the main results of a questionnaire that was sent to all academic and administrative staff of the alliance member universities in May and June 2021 that asked about their linguistic and intercultural training needs. The findings of the results were intended to guide actions within the language policy of the universities and serve as a basis for designing joint workshops for staff members according to their needs. The overwhelming majority of the 2206 staff members that completed the questionnaire deemed intercultural training and language training necessary for their professional activity. The languages indicated were wide in range, whereby English clearly stood out, reflecting its growing importance as the <em>lingua franca </em>in academia.</p>
Articlessurveyuniversity stafftraining needsinterculturalismmultilingualismSimone KlingeBarbara Gödeke
Copyright (c) 2022 Authors
2022-12-302022-12-30101010.15388/Verb.36