Universiteto g. 5, LT-01513 Vilnius. Tel. (8 5) 268 7212
Head of the Department – Prof. Dr Vytautas Kardelis
Administrator – Rūta Valantinaitė
The Department of the Lithuanian Language consists of academic staff and one technical worker. It has three Professors, four Associate Professors, three Lecturers. Since 2011 the Head of the Department is Assoc. Prof. Dr Vilma Zubaitienė. There are no specific subdivisions in the Department, it administers teaching of language culture (coordinator – N. Linkevičienė) in different faculties of the Faculty on the basis of the funds provided by the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language under the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
The scope of scientific research at the Department encompasses a few linguistic trends: lexical, stylistics, grammar and language teaching studies. The main disciplines in lexical studies of the Lithuanian language are lexical semantics (theory and practice), lexicography, lexical, grammatical stylistics and stylistics of rhetoric. Key objectives of researchers in lexical semantics are to systematise word senses with an aim of compiling a cohesive picture of the lexical system. In addition, these studies should contribute to the development of lexicography (mono- and bilingual).
Having won the competition, the Department is at the last stages of composing the Dictionary of Lithuanian Linguistic Terms and the Dictionary of Lithuanian Jargon (led by A. Smetona and E. Zaikauskas). It also publishes an electronic scientific journal of contemporary Lithuanian (editor Assoc. Prof. Dr Irena Smetonienė). The aim of stylistics studies is to develop a theory about the style of conversational language, its culture and rhetorical devices, to focus on the significance of oratory, persuasiveness and culture of public speaking. In this particular sphere, Prof. Dr R. Koženiauskienė (her monograph Juridinė retorika (2005) [Legal Rhetoric]) Retorinė ir stilistinė publicistinių tekstų analizė (2013) [Rhetorical and stylistical analysis of publications]) and Assoc. Prof. Dr I. Smetonienė has made the greatest contribution (monography Reklama... Reklama! Reklama?, 2009).
The Department keeps important relations with secondary schools. They are maintained through specialists of Lithuanian language teaching K. Bredelis and B. Dobrovolskis (former department member) who take part in composing and negotiating on Lithuanian language teaching plans, programmes and textbooks for different grades in the Ministry of Education. L. Laužikas and A. Smetona are involved in these activities. Textbooks and supplementary teaching materials for school have been written by R. Koženiauskienė, A. Smetona, E, Jakaitienė and some former staff of the Department: B. Dobrovolskis, A. Paulauskienė, D. Tarvydaitė. Research interests at the Department are combined with teaching activity. The lecturers of the Department teach the main disciplines of contemporary standard Lithuanian at the BA level (history of lithuanian; dialectology of lithuanian; grammar of lithuanian: morphology, phonetics, syntax; stylistics and language culture) and MA level (trends and methods of modern linguistics, typology of languages, general phonology, general morphology, problematic cases of optography and punctuation of Lithaunian, terminology, lexicography).