Elements of Lithuanian Stylistics 3020-1A3ESL

The exercises deal with fundamental problems of Lithuanian stylistics. During classes the possibilities of the Lithuanian language in this domain are presented in a systematic way. The students are acquainted with stylistic devices – variants and synonyms (at all linguistic levels) and figures of speech (lexical-semantic, derivational, morphological, syntactic, graphic and phonetic). While reading texts selected by the teacher (or fragments from them) the students learn to identify the linguistic forms and figures of speech they have been told about. While composing their own texts on a given theme they learn how to avoid lexical and syntactic repetitions, to choose their words with precision, to use neutral or stylistically marked words (e.g. diminutives or augmentatives) according to the communicative situation and the function of the message. They are sensitivized both to unequivocality and logical consistency of formulations and to coherence at text level.
On the basis of individual examples the students learn to distinguish between varieties of Lithuanian from different epochs (e. g. between 16th, 18th and 20th century language). Analysins selected fragments from literary and publicistic texts they learn to recognize stylistic idiosyncrasies of their authors. The define functional styles (artistic, scholarly, official, publicistic and colloquial), and are able to list their distinguishing features. Using the example of advertizing texts they acquaint themselves with the phenomenon of interpenetration of functional styles. Among functional styles most attention is paid to the publicistic style (the students read reportages, analyze their structure, write a publicistic text of their own), scholarly (reading with understanding of an uncomplicated pholological text) and official (name and function of basic utility documents – official letter, CV, application).

The estimated number of hours the student must devote to achieve the learning outcome defined for the course is:
a) contact hours: 30 h.,
b) homework: 30 h.,
c) preparation of written examination: 30 h.

Type of course

obligatory courses

Mode

Classroom

Prerequisites (description)

The student must have a command of Lithuanian at B1 level, understand contemporary texts of an informative, publicistis or literary character, be able to use a Lithuanian dictionary.

Learning outcomes

On completion the student:
(KNOWLEDGE)
– is able to define the principal stylistic devices used in Lithuanian and to point out examples in a given text;
– is able to list the principal functional styles and their main features;
– is able to recognize and to distinguish stylistic figures, functional styles and kinds of stylization;
(SKILLS)
– is able to analyze the style of advertizing texts;
– is able to use the basic syntactic figures (rhetorical devices, syntactic parallelism, repetitions, inversion, ellipsis and unfinished utterances) in exercises;
– is able to edit utterances by correcting stylistic mistakes (superfluous repetition, ambiguity, improper use of words);
– is able to transform a text in order to adapt it to the person of the reader, the communicative situation or the function of the message;
– is able to write a publicistic text using selected stylistic devices (mainly lexico-phraseological and syntactic synonyms);
– is able to write an official letter, an application or a CV.

Assessment criteria

The evaluation is based on:
a) current preparation for classes and activity during classes;
b) written tasks (reportage, official letter, podanie, CV);
c) written examination.

Bibliography

Obligatory reading

1. R. Koženiauskienė, D. Mikulėnienė: Lietuvių kalba. Stilistika. Kalbos stiliai. Kalbos stilizacija. Tekstų ir žanrų stilius. Šiuolaikinės lietuvių kalbos raida. Lietuvių kalbos vadovėlis bendrojo lavinimo ir profiliuotojo licėjaus III kl. Puńsk: Wydawnictwo „Aušra“ 2009.
2. E. Wierzbicka, A. Wolański, D. Zdunkiewicz-Jedynak: Podstawy stylistyki i retoryki, Warszawa 2008.