Kļavinska, Antra

2024-04-26, Juško-Štekele, Angelika, Kļavinska, Antra

2021, Kļavinska, Antra

The aim of this paper is, by using Computational linguistics method to analyse collocations of ethnonyms leiši and lietuvieši ‘Lithuanians’ in “Balanced Corpus of Modern Latvian” (Līdzsvarots mūsdienu latviešu valodas tekstu korpuss), compare contextual semantics of both ethnonyms. Comparing the frequency of use of the lexemes lietuvieši and leiši ‘Lithuanians’ in the modern Latvian language text corpus, the prevalence of the ethnonym lietuvieši is evident, therefore, the ethnonym leiši, regardless of its use as synonymic designation (sometimes in one and the same text), can be considered as an obsolete word. The desemantisation cases of the ethnonym leiši, detected in the corpus, show its oldness and varied functionality in Latvian language. The evidences to prove the statement of the “Modern Latvian Language Dictionary” (Mūsdienu latviešu valodas vārdnīca) that the lexeme leiši nowadays “carries slightly pejorative stylistically expressive colouring” were not found in the text corpus. In general, the image of a Lithuanian reflected in the modern Latvian language text corpus is rather positive – mostly in historical, language, culture and sports contexts, yet in the context of economics and emigration rather negative impression of Lithuanians is expressed.

2019, Kļavinska, Antra

Apzīmējumam „nezinātniski priekšstati” jebkura pētījuma kontekstā ir šķietami negatīva semantika, proti, tas ir priekšstatu kopums, kam nav zinātniska pamata. Taču, no otras puses, apzīmējums „nezinātniski priekšstati” ir saistāms ar mūsdienu lingvistikā aktuālu pieeju, ko dēvē par folklinvistiku. Raksta mērķis ir atklāt latgaliešu (nespeciālistu) priekšstatus par poļu valodu, tās būtību un statusu senatnē un mūsdienās. Pētījuma avoti ir latgaliešu folkloras teksti, mūsdienu latgaliešu tekstu korpuss (MuLa), kā arī Latgales iedzīvotāju intervijas. Izmantojot folklingvistikas teorētiskās atziņas un metodoloģiju, minētajos avotos noteikts un salīdzināts: 1) kādi priekšstati par poļu valodas būtību un statusu ir pausti folklorā, mūsdienu latgaliešu rakstveida tekstos un nespeciālistu (nevalodnieku) intervijās; 2) kāda lingvistiskā attieksme pret poļu valodu pausta dažādos latgaliešu valodas tekstos. Pētījuma gaitā nonākts pie atziņas, ka folkloras, daiļliteratūras un publicistikas teksti, kā arī interviju dati apliecina poļu valodas ilglaicīgu klātbūtni Latgales teritorijā. Saskarsme ar poļu valodu ir notikusi un notiek gan makrovidē (katoļu baznīca, izglītība, sabiedriski pasākumi, poļu kultūras biedrības), gan mikrovidē (saziņa ar kaimiņiem, poļu izcelsmes radiniekiem). Folkloras tekstos, kas atspoguļo senāku lingvistisko sakaru slāni, izpratnē par poļu valodu spilgtāk izpaužas opozīcija “mēs – viņi” (sociālā nevienlīdzība, poļu valodas prestižs). Latgaliešu daiļliteratūra spilgtāk atklāj vēsturisko kontekstu: latgaliešiem poļu valodas prasme – a) iespēja izglītoties, “izrauties” no zemnieku kārtas; b) draudi zaudēt savu identitāti. Publicistikā un intervijās tiek atklātas poļu valodas funkcionēšanas sfēras mūsdienās, kā arī tās “izzušanas” tendences. Valodas raksturojumā tiek izmantots salīdzinājums ar citām zināmajām (galvenokārt slāvu) valodām, pausta gan pozitīva, gan negatīva, gan neitrāla lingvistskā attieksme.

2013, Kļavinska, Antra

Proper names, including ethnonyms (folk, tribal and other ethnic community names), is an essential component of any language lexis, which particularly brightly reveals a variety ofextralinguistic processes. The aim of the paper is to analyze the conformity of ethnonym transonymization (the change of proper name class) and deonymization (the change of proper name into appellative) in the culture of Latgale, and linguistic techniques and extralinguistic factors. Linguo-culturological approach has been used in the research, and the link between cultural-historical and social processes in the research of linguistic processes has been taken into account. Determining the origin of ancient ethnonyms, the researchers of the Baltic languages acknowledge a transonymization model typical to the Balts: hydronym → name of region→ ethnonym (Zinkevičius 2005, 186–187). This paper attempts to reveal various ethnonym (denoting mostly foreigners) transonymization models in the system of proper names of Latgale, nominating motivation, and the types of word-formation. It seems that the ethnonyms that denote the neighbouring nations (Estonians, Lithuanians, Russians) most frequently turn into other proper names. Transonymization models have been identifi ed as follows: 1) ethnonym → anthroponym → oikonym (or ethnonym → oikonym → anthroponym), for example, l ī t a u n ī k i ‘the Lithuanians’ → L ī t a u n ī k s ‘a surname’ → L ī t a u n ī k i ‘a village in Preiļi county’; 2) ethnonym → microtoponym, for example, ž y d i ‘the Jews’ → Ž y d a p ū r s ‘a marsh in Vārkava county’; 3) ethnonym → anthroponym, for example, č y g u o n i ‘the Roma people’ →Č y g u o n s ‘a nickname for a dark-haired man’; 4) ethnonym (→ oikonym) → ergonym, for example, l a t g a ļ i ‘The Baltic tribe’ → “L a t g a ļ i” ‘a farm in Mērdzene rural municipality of Kārsava county’. Transonymization of ethnonyms in the culture of Latgale is motivated by historical and social processes. Transonymization processes present the evidence of Latgalians’ stereotypical perception of foreigners, compact settlement of different ethnic groups in Latgale, and historical events. Various types of word-formation are used in the transonymization process: 1) semantic, i.e., only the meaning changes, the morphemic system of lexeme is notchanged, for example, ethnonym p o ļ a k i → oikonym P o ļ a k i (→ surname P o ļ a k s (the male singular form of the ethnonym)); 2) morphological, typically suffixes are added to ethnonyms (sometimes phonetic changes in the root occur), for example, i g a u n i ‘the Estonians’ → surnames I k a u n ī k s (ikaun-+-nīk-s); I g o v e n s (igov-+ - en-s); 3) syntactical, forming compound words, for example, the ethnonym k r ī v i ‘the Russians’ has motivated the oikonym K r ī v a s o l a <Krīva sola ‘Russian Village’, K r ī v m a i z e s < Krīvu maizes ‘Russian bread’; 4) formation of analytical forms, where one of the components has ethnonymic semantics and the second component is a nomenclature word (hill, meadow, marsh, lake, etc.), for example, Ž y d a p ū r s ‘Jew’s marsh’, an attributive adjective, for example, a village M a z i e L ī t a u n ī k i ‘small Lithuanians’, a substantive of other semantics, for example, a meadow Č i g o n e i c a s j ū s t a ‘Gypsy’s belt’. Proper names of foreign origin motivated by ethnonyms have taken their stable place in the system of proper names of Latgale, for example, L a t i š i, a village in Pušmucova rural municipality of Cibla civil-parish (in Russian латыши ‘the Latvians’). Proper names of ethnonymic semantics, used to name various phenomena and realities, are often included in the lexicon of various dialects of Latvian and even other languages. If to assume the fact that ethnonyms are proper names, then it can be concluded that the appellatives mentioned above have appeared in deonymization process: ethnonym → appellative. Moreover, the material of Latgalian dialects confirms the existence of deethnonymic proper names, for example, a lot of different realities are associated with the ethnonyms denoting Roma people: č y g u o n i ‘participants of masquerade parade’; č y g o n k a 1) a sort of winter apples, the apple of this sort (dark green and red); 2) the railroad; 3) achimenes (flower, Achimenes); 4) mushrooms: wild champignon (Rozites caperata) or ugly milkcap (Lactarius necator); č y g u o n a s a u l e ‘the moon’. Appellativeness of ethnonyms has an associative character. The names are reflecting the Latgalians’ stereotypical perception of appearance, occupation, character traits, and traditions of foreigners as alien and different, however, acceptable and assimilable phenomena.

2023, Iveta Dembovska, Kļavinska, Antra, Zanda Dimanta-Svilpe, Asta Raupeliene

This study aims to examine the nature of smart villages and the factors in their development in relation to the tourism industry in the Baltic states. This research employed theoretical literature analysis to conceptualize the factors contributing to smart village development, discourse analysis (analysis of good smart village branding practice), a qualitative approach and descriptive analysis to analyse semi-structured expert survey e-questionnaires to identify the nature of smart villages, as well as to analyse factors in the development of smart villages in relation to tourism in the Baltic states. Specialists who represent tourism, other businesses and the discipline of economics were chosen as experts. The experts indicated that the development of smart villages can contribute to essential and important factors in the development of tourism such as the growth of a creative economy, the development of community culture, values, traditions and symbols, the production of local food, the establishment of unique natural, cultural and recreational objects, as well as improvement in infrastructure and the introduction of new technologies. The study contributes to an understanding of the development of smart villages, given the important factors that were examined. The smart village approach is a relatively new approach to sustainable rural development and tourism promotion. In Europe, it is a better-known approach to developing local areas and tourism, yet each region has its own distinctive features.

2021, Kļavinska, Antra

Capitalisation in writing is usually determined by tradition. Different written languages can have their own grammatical, conceptual or stylistic capitalisation rules. Orthographies exist which do not have the division into capital and small letters. The aim of the article is to find out what problems with capitalisation foreign students in Latvian higher education institutions have during the acquisition of writing skills in Latvian as a foreign language. The research source are the essays written by learners of the Latvian language (foreign students studying in Latvian higher education institutions): the data of the Latvian language learner text corpus being created in the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Latvia were used. The requirements for the acquisition of capitalisation in the context of language learner competences are analysed in the study; the most typical capitalisation errors and possible reasons for them are analysed; and the author’s practical experience teaching the Latvian language to foreign students is revealed.

2008, Kļavinska, Antra

The research is based on the processed questionnaire data gathered during the ethnolinguistic expedition to Indra municipality in the rural part of the region of Kraslava in June, 2007 (120 respondents). The paper analyzes the answers of the respondents regarding the ethnic self-identification of the people, their knowledge of languages, the dominance of languages,, and their functions in the micro and macro environments of Indra municipality. The most important conclusions are: There is a noticeable difference between the official statistical data and the notions of ethnic belonging of the respondents: the official statistics state that the dominant ethnic group in Indra municipality are Belorussians; however, the major part of respondents consider themselves to be Russians. The Russian language dominates in verbal and written communication in both the micro and the macro environment. Many respondents admit that they speak „their own” language in the municipality - Russian with lexical, morphological and phonetical elements of Belorussian and Polish. The role of the Latgalian language in the rural municipality is not important; the respondents do not see any perspectives for its use in the future. The Latvian language as the official language is respected in the administration of the municipality; however, there is a wish to recognize both Latvian and Russian as official languages. The roles of the school (for the acquisition of the Latvian language) and of the Church (the language of praying is Polish, but masses are held in Russian and Latgalian) are important for the formation of the linguistic scenery of Indra municipality. In the polyethnic and multilingual environment of Indra municipality, there is a predominantly tolerant attitude towards different languages and ethnic groups.

2021, Kļavinska, Antra

Several text corpora have been created in Latvia, including learner corpora. One of the latest projects is the Latvian Language Learner Corpus (LaVA), which contains the works of international students studying in Latvian higher education institutions who are learning Latvian as a foreign language. The texts are morphologically tagged automatically, and learner errors are tagged manually. A sufficient scope of publications is available, which provides the theoretical basis for the creation of Latvian language learner corpora; however, there is a lack of studies or practical methodological guidelines concerning the opportunities for their application, and there is little data about the use of text corpora in language acquisition. The aim of this study is to explain from the theoretical perspective for what purposes learner corpus data may be used, as well as to illustrate the methodological groundwork with examples from the LaVA corpus. Analysis of theoretical literature has demonstrated the functions and meaning of learner corpora in research, and experience with the use of corpora in acquiring a foreign language has been analysed. Examples of the use of the LaVA corpus as a didactic resource have been prepared using Corpus Linguistics methods. The study was conducted within the state research programme project “The Latvian Language”. After studying the functions of learner corpora from the theoretical perspective, it was concluded that the target audience of the LaVA corpus mainly includes teachers of Latvian as a foreign language (LATS), authors of teaching materials, as well as Latvian language learners. To facilitate the use of the LaVA corpus, it is important to have basic knowledge of Corpus Linguistics, an understanding of the theory of language, as well as an understanding of foreign language teaching methodology. LATS teachers can use the LaVA corpus data in the creation of curricula and teaching materials, in the preparation of language proficiency tests, etc. Using the inductive approach in language acquisition, language learners can also become language researchers, can analyse the errors of other learners, etc. Undeniably, the LaVA corpus can be used in broader linguistic research, for example, in contrastive interlanguage analysis, comparing the data of language learners with the data of native speakers or the data of different groups of language learners.

2012, Kļavinska, Antra

The research interest of the author of the article in the ethnosis living in Latgale, intercultural communication is related to the compilation of the entries for „Latgalian Linguo-Territorial Dictionary” with ESF project „Linguo-Cultural and Socio-Economic Aspects of Territorial Identity in the Development of the Region of Latgale” (Nr. 2009/0227/1DP/1.1.1.2.0/09/APIA/VIAA/071). The tasks of this research: 1) to prepare a review about the frequency of linguistic contacts and themes for conversations in jokes; 2) to determine the linguistic attitude of the addressee and the sender; 3) to trace linguistic processes in the event of intercultural communication. The theoretical background of the research is based on the speech act in theory (J. Searle), highlighting the impact of social and historical factors on the speech act (D. Hymes). In order to describe the results of linguistic contacts linguistic, social and historical factors shall be taken into consideration. Jokes (131 unit in total) have been selected according to the following components of the speech act: form of message – dialogue; sender and addressee – Latvians and non-ethnic Latvians (Russians, Poles, Jews, Gypsies, etc.) of Latgale and representatives of other regions; communication channel – oral and written communication; code – patois, dialect, language; theme – daily life, culture, religion, politics etc.; situation – Latgale of 20th century (episodically – Latvia, Russia, Germany, USA, Lithuania). The analysis of the expressions of language contacts in the texts of jokes lets conclude how intensive the mutual contacts of various languages and their users were in Latgale in the 20th century: if in the first half of the century the linguistic contacts were extremely diverse (interaction of Latgalian Latvians, Russians, Jews, Gypsies, Polish), then in the second half of the century mostly the linguistic contacts of Latvian (Latgalian) and Russian speaking population were domineering under the impact of the russification policy. The result of linguistic contacts are: 1) a tolerant attitude towards other languages and their users is typical for a Latgalian (character of jokes), but he/she has a negative position to an strange language (Latvian, Russian) as an expression of enforced power; 2) in the communication process one can observe intentional of code-switching and unintentional of code-mixing (basis of the comic: interlinguistic homonyms, homoforms); 3) linguistic interference: phonetic, lexical and grammatical borrowings (from Latvian, Russian, English); 4) foreign language skills (in the beginning of 20th century the modest foreigner language skills led to more frequent misunderstandings). The achievement of the aim put forward, result is a significant component of the speech act. The analyzed material of jokes proves that in many communicative situations this aim is not reached due to the weak communicative competence of the addressee and addresser (lack of awareness, understanding and recognition of the linguistic and cultural features of the representative of another ethos). Therefore, a conversation takes place, but an intercultural dialogue is not formed. Under current complex economic, political and linguistic situation in Latvia these are significant reasons for splitting of the society.

2017, Kļavinska, Antra

Determination of the ethnonymic lexical semantics can be considered as one of the aspects of ethnic studies in linguistics. Who are the Latgalians, Latgals, Suits, Selonians and other ethnographic groups, according to the modern concepts? The answer to this question can be found in the Dictionary of Contemporary Latvian Language (MLVV), which is fully available on the Internet since 2014. The aim of the paper is to analyse the names of Latvian ethnographic groups and the principles of defining meanings in MLVV, especially focusing on issues related to names of Latgalian Latvians. Lexicographic data analysis and contextual approach are applied in this research with the help of which extralinguistic factors (linguistic and situative context) are revealed. One of the most important tasks in lexicographic work is the inventory of the material, in other words, selection of word entries, illustrative texts, collection and classification of information from preceding dictionaries. In the present paper, the electronic version of the eight-volume Dictionary of the Literary Latvian Language (1972–1996) has been used for comparison. The Balanced Corpus of Modern Latvian, consisting of ~4.5 million word use cases, is applied to determine the contextual semantics and the usage frequency of the names of ethnographic groups. MLVV materials show that there is a lack of consequence in the designation of ethnographic groups and definition of their meaning. The names of ethnographic groups (as well as other ethnonyms) as entries are mostly provided in the plural, for instance, latgalieši, suiti, zemgalieši (Latgalians, Suits, inhabitants of Zemgale), etc., some of them in singular forms: kurzemnieks, vidzemnieks (inhabitant of Kurzeme, inhabitant of Vidzeme). In the previously published Dictionary of the Literary Latvian Language, the names are provided in the plural, and the data of the modern Latvian language corpus show that all the analysed lexemes are used in plural form more often. The definitions of the meanings are lacking consistency. Firstly, the scope of definitions is broad: the territorial belonging to a certain Latvian ethnographic region is taken as a basis for all the explanations of the meaning; some definitions have references to linguistic and cultural peculiarity. Secondly, none of definitions has a reference that it is an ethnographic group of Latvians; only in one case, the designation of ethnic origin latvieši (Latvians) is provided. The explanation ‘inhabitants’ (of the region) is applied most often, which indicates the belonging of the lexeme to katoikonyms, not ethnonyms; also, the explanation ‘indigenous inhabitants’ (of the region) indicates indirectly that they might be Latvians. The novelty of the dictionary is that there are two meanings for the lexemes latgaļi (Latgalians) and sēļi (Selonians): the first one characterizes the Baltic tribes, the second – inhabitants/ natives of the cultural historical region (more precisely – ethnographic group of the Latvian nation). At the same time, it is not considered that lexemes latgalieši, kurzemnieki, vidzemnieki, zemgalieši (Latgalians, inhabitants of Kurzeme, Vidzeme, Zemgale) in contemporary Latvian also have at least two meanings: the meaning of ‘ethnographic group of the nation’ in modern texts, especially in the media, is complemented by a more general meaning of ‘inhabitant of the region’, in other words, the ethnonym becomes a katoikonym. The advantage of the electronic dictionary of contemporary Latvian is the possibility to edit it constantly; therefore, it is worth to pay attention to separate lexical semantic groups when developing the dictionary. In that way, it will be possible to avoid inconsistency in definitions of meanings. In order to separate ethnonyms from katoikonyms, in the definitions of the ethnonyms analysed in the paper, the designation of ethnic community ‘ethnographic group of Latvian nation’ can be applied as the main component, supplemented by semes indicating the connection with a certain territory, and possibly, the characterization of cultural, religious and linguistic peculiarity.