The Department of the Philology was established in 1966, being one of the two first departments of Vilnius University Kaunas Evening Faculty. The community of the Department is proud that the spread of the Lithuanian language was a sign of the beginning of VU academic and scientific traditions in Kaunas. The first head of the Department was the Lithuanian philologist Vladas Žulys who had just got his aspirant degree. In 1968 a part of the Department of Philology was named the Department of Lithuanian language and culture. The head of the Department was assoc. prof. Vitas Labutis who was later replaced by assoc. prof. Adomas Šoblinskas, then by assoc. prof. Juozas Jasaitis. In 1991 VU Kaunas Evening Faculty became Kaunas Faculty of Humanities and the Department was renamed the Department of Lithuanian Philology. Assoc. prof. Albertas Ružė was the head of the Department for ten years. Since September 1st,1998 assoc. prof. Ramutis Karmalavičius was appointed to head the Department. From November 2001 till August 2008 the scientists and teachers of the Department worked being lead by assoc. prof. Aleksandras Krasnovas. Since September 2008 the head of the Department is assoc. prof. Daiva Aliūkaitė.

The academic imperative of the Department of Lithuanian Philology is to educate a qualified specialist in Lithuanian language who is capable to consider and solve the problems of Lithuanian language and literature; gets in the global critical, first of all humanitarian experience and ideas, also in the global critical discourse; manages to create and estimate academic, critical, publicistic, promotional, political, negotiation, etc. discourse.

The studies in the Department comprise three levels. In 2003 the scholars of the Department found the bachelor‘s degree programme in Lithuanian Philology and Advertisement which is now one of the most popular interdisciplinary programmes. The study programme of Lithuanian Philology and Advertisement  is implemented on the basis of binary specialization. The programme is to educate the specialists of wide profile and provide them with the basic knowledge of Lithuanian linguistics and literaturology, also to form the firm cultural foundation which determines the abilities to write, create, analyse and think analytically. The analytical knowledge of building the theoretical advertising discourse, analysis, perception, interpretation and language as a means of influence and reaching the goal, guarantees new fields of using philological expertise. The conception of Lithuanian Philology and Advertisement ensures that the graduate students are competitive members in Lithuanian labour market.

The literaturologists of the Department are responsible for full-time Master‘s degree studies in Lithuanian literature. In VU Kaunas Faculty of Humanities the studies in literaturology take two years to obtain and develop highly-qualified specialists, able to construct both academical and ‘usable‘, i.e. critical, publicistic, promotional, political, negotiation, etc. discourse. Moreover, graduate students are professional morphologists, able to investigate competently genetics, history, structure and functions of discourse. They are able to perceive the spread process and business of literature; a reader anthropology and the basic principles of reciprocity between discourse and the audience; reception of literature texts, regularities, the types of the audience and discourses, the features of written and audiovisual communication.

The linguists of the Department are responsible for full-time Master‘s degree studies in Lithuanian linguistics. The studies take two years to obtain after which highly-qualified specialists in Lithuanian linguistics enter VU Kaunas Faculty of Humanities. The graduate students of Lithuanian linguistics are able to construct the public discourse and academic texts as well as to analyse the interaction between language and social environment. The linguistic specialists act independently in the plane of interdisciplinary language and social environment, perform scientific research and create new models of language functionality and speaking impact to the society. Moreover, graduate students independently and creatively formulate new problems of linguistics, integrate them in the current situation of humanities and are able to critically apply the theoretical principles of modern linguistics and methods to solve the linguistic tasks. The interdisciplinary study context determines that the young philologists succesfully share results of research in various modern media and initiate the active discourse of Lithuanian linguistics in relation to the changes in language research all over the world.

The scientific imperative of the Department is the conceptualization of linguistic parameters of advertisement; nominative, stylistic, cognitive and social research of language parameters in general; research for fiction as well as poetics and rhetoric in public discourse.

The literaturologists who do research on the Structure of literary consciousness and its process, gather together to analyse fiction as well as poetics and rhetorics of public discourse, primarily advertisement, in synchronic and diachronic aspects. The linguists who do research on Linguistic and extralinguistic parameters, gather together to identify the linguistic and extralinguistic parameters of advertising discourse; they use methodological instrumentation of sociolinguistics and perceptive dialectology to investigate dialectal discourse and linguistic attitudes of consumers; apply the investigative strategies of cognitive linguistics and linguaculturology to explore the concepts of logical and artistic contemplation as well as the linguistic expression; employ the experimental methods to investigate the Lithuanian phonetics; record the regularities of onomastics and its development; they also apply the principles and strategies of sociolinguistics and media linguistics to investigate media dialects.

The scholars of the Department of Lithuanian Philology together with their colleagues from the Department of Germanic Philology organize the international scientific conferences on the paradigm of texts and contexts that call together Lithuanian and foreign scholars. Lithuanian and foreign researchers are invited to evaluate discourse parameters of ethno-eco-interlinguistics, identify the pragmatic dimensions of discourse, and grope the metamorphosis of language in electronic discourse, explore the influence of microcontent and macrocontent to the reflection of fiction or text of sorts, discuss hermeneutics dealing with the formation of meaning and its textual expression, etc. The conference “Text and context: the formation of meaning” took place in 2003; “Texts and contexts: the movement of language” in 2004; “Texts and contexts: the spread of information” in 2005; “Texts and contexts: interactive perspectives” in 2008. The conference “Texts and contexts: conflicts and collusions” will take place in October 2010. 


The young researchers, i.e. graduate students who are interested in the researches of literaturology or linguistics complement the scientific potential of the Department of Lithuanian Philology each year. Currently there are 9 scientific dissertations being prepared in the Department. The successfully defended dissertations show the intensity of scientific life in the Department. In 2001 Saulutė Juzelėnienė defended her dissertation “The Peculiarities of the Connotative Meaning of the Semantic Units: An In-depth Analysis and Classification of the Contextual Elements Related to the Expression of the Connotative Meanings of Colour Names”. Two dissertations were defended in 2004. Literaturologist Gabija Bankauskaitė-Sereikienė defended her dissertation “Modernism in the literary criticism and poetry of Balys Sruoga (1911-1929)”, whereas linguist Rita Baranauskienė presented her dissertation “Semantic roles of cases: agent and patient“ to the scientific community. In 2005 Rolandas Kregždys defended his dissertation on the diachronic linguistics “The Hereditary Names of Body Parts (with ŏ/ā Stems) in Baltic Languages“; Eugenija Vaitkevičiūtė defended her dissertation on literaturological research “Juozapas Albinas Herbačiauskas at the crossroads of two cultures“. In 2006 Eglė Klimaitė-Keturakienė presented her research project “Tradition of Historical Self-Awareness and Its Modification in the Lithuanian Poetry of the 19th Century”. In 2007 Jonas Jonušas defended his dissertation “Cultural and Literary Contexts of the Journal “Akademikas”; Daiva Aliūkaitė defended her dissertation on perceptive dialectology “Dialectal discourse and standard language: the cultural value of the objective and subjective differences“. Laura Butkutė will defend her dissertation “Stylistic Possibilities of Occasional Phraseologisms in Journalistic Style”and Eglė Gabrėnaitė will also defend her dissertation “Topics of Advertising: the Instruments of Persuasion” in 2010. 

GRADUATE STUDENTS: stay in touch with Alma Mater and other meaningful ways of life.

The lecturers team of the Department of Lithuanian Philology and academic community are a good example of Alma Mater effectively providing knowledge and experience to the students who feel duty and responsibility to share fruits of knowledge in no other place but their university. There are 10 graduate students who work in the Department of Lithuanian Philology: assoc.prof. Aleksandras Krasnovas, assoc.prof. Ilona Mickienė, assoc.prof. dr. Saulutė Juzelėnienė, assoc.prof. Gabija Bankauskaitė-Sereikienė, assoc.prof. dr. Rita Baranauskienė, assoc.prof. Daiva Aliūkaitė, lect.dr. Eglė Klimaitė-Keturakienė, lect. dr. Robertas Kudirka, lect. Lina Bačiūnaitė.

It is important to indicate that the philologists‘ experience gained in Kaunas Faculty of Humanities is also shared with other universities, institutes and colleges in Kaunas and Lithuania. For example, assoc.prof. Alvydas Butkus, lect. dr. Jurgita Venckienė and lect. Violeta Butkienė work in Vytautas Magnus University; assoc.prof. Nijolė Bankauskienė works in Kaunas University of Technology; assoc.prof. Virginija Vasiliauskienė works in the Institute of the Lithuanian Language; assoc.prof. Ramutis Karmalavičius works in the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore; assoc.prof. Birutė Briaukienė works in Kaunas University of Medicine; Aušrinė Peleckienė works in Kaunas University of Applied Sciences; Aldona Ruseckaitė works in Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum. Agnė Bielinskienė, Rūta Bagdanavičiūtė-Kavaliauskienė, Ugnius Keturakis continue the graduate studies in Vytautas Magnus University while Audronė Lapienienė continues the graduate studies in Kaunas University of Technology. Furthermore, every other book published in Kaunas testifies to the literary competence of Kaunas Faculty of Humanities graduate students. The editors Danutė Vienažindienė, Violeta Lukoševičienė, Eglė Dumskytė, Jurgita Ivanauskaitė, Pranas Dastikas working in Kaunas University of Technology “Technologija“ Press and being liable for the language of science fiction are Kaunas Faculty of Humanities graduate students. Roma Konsevičiūtė works in Vytautas Magnus University Press.

Many philologists who chose their career paths as writers, poets, critics or journalists grew up in the tension of literaturological, linguistic and culturological ideas of the Department of Lithuanian Philology. Giedrė Širvytė, Markas Zingeris, Dovilė Zelčiūtė, Gediminas Jankus, Enrika Striogaitė, Eurika Masytė, Vaiva Kuodytė, Neringa Radžiuvienė, Asta Šimulynaitė spoke to muses in the mysterious, breathing past Kaunas Faculty of Humanities buildings.

The first graduate students of the new Lithuanian Philology and Advertisement bachelor study programme are working in the fields of public communication and advertising. They are not only the true spreaders of word power and the creators of forceful advertising projects but also demonstrate the value of philological competence in the modern society. Their succesful careers show the relevance and need of the study programme in Lithuania. For example, Agnė Počepovič works as a director of Lithuanian Union of Public Relations Specialists; Gerda Mockevičiūtė as a public relations specialist for „Medialogas“; Dovilė Šimkutė as a public relations specialist for „East West Consulting“; Vaiva Lešinskaitė as a publishing project director for „Eugrimas“ Press; Viktorija Griškutė as a project director of the second advertising studio „2RA“; Vilma Balčiauskaitė as a project director of the public relations agency „Promo Service“; Inga Tarėlaitė as a selling manageress for the company „Apranga“; Eglė Žvirblytė as a director of the marketing department in UAB „Filipopolis“; Vaidotas Cucėnas as a director of department of communication in „Nordea Bank Lietuva“.

 

The Department of Lithuanian Philology is proud of many scholars who worked or are working at the Faculty. Literaturologists prof. habil. dr.. Algimantas Radzevičius, prof. habil. dr. doc. dr. Juozas Jasaitis, assoc. prof. Ramutis Karmalavičius, assoc. prof. Irena Slavinskaitė; linguists prof. habil. dr. Vladas Žulys, prof. habil. dr. Kazimieras Romualdas Župerka, prof. habil. dr. Olegas Poliakovas, assoc. prof. Juozas Karaciejus, assoc. prof. Albertas Ružė, assoc. prof. Alvydas Butkus, assoc. prof. Jonas Šukys, assoc. prof. Stasys Keinys, assoc. prof. Virginija Vasiliauskienė, lect. Albina Pribušauskaitė, assoc. prof. Adomas Šoblinskas, assoc. prof. Juozas Abaravičius  shared or are sharing their scientific experience, developed or are developing literaturological and linguistic competence of a word, discourse and linguistic research in general. Their scientific results are published in academic books on grammar, dictionaries, monographs, textbooks, scientific and popular papers.

The scholars of the Department of Lithuanian Philology present the most important research in scientific monographs, studies, educational publications and reviewed selections of scientific articles:

Poliakovas, O. The World and the Lithuanian language, Vilnius, 2008.
Bankauskaitė-Sereikienė, G. The Art of Oratory, Vilnius, 2008.
Ružė, A. The morphology of the Lithuanian language, 1 dalis, Vilnius, 2008.
Bankauskaitė-Sereikienė, G. Balys Sruoga — between tradition and modernism, Vilnius, 2007.
Radzevičius, A. Mysteries of Classic‘s Oeuvre, Kaunas, 2005.
Abaravičius, J. What about the live spread of style phenomena?, Vilnius, 2004.
Keturakis, S. Lithuanian Avant-garde poetry  in the 20th century, Vilnius, 2003.
Šarkauskienė, S. Latin epithalamia of the 16-17th centuries LDK, Kaunas, 2003.
Abaravičius, J. Stylistics of punctuation, Vilnius, 2002.
Balsevičiūtė-Šlekienė, V.  Visions of Vytautas Mačernis (Semantic aspect), Kaunas,  1999.
Slavinskaitė, I. Lithuanian poetry in the late 20th century,  Kaunas, 1998.
Slavinskaitė, I. Forms of harmony,  Kaunas, 1998.  
Radzevičius, A. The views on ancient Lithuanian literature and culture,  Kaunas, 1997.
Jasaitis, J. The winners of Nobel Prize are speaking [anthology]. Vilnius, 1997.

Text and context: the formation of meaning. Kaunas, 2004.
Texts and contexts: the movement of language. Kaunas, 2005.
The linguistic consciousness in fiction and nonfiction, Vilnius,  2007.
Texts and  contexts: the spread of transformations, 1 vol. Vilnius, 2007.
Texts and  contexts: the spread of transformations, 2 vol. Vilnius, 2008.
The rhetoric and linguistics of public discourse. Vilnius, 2008.
Texts and contexts: interactive perspectives. Vilnius, 2009. (in print)

From 2005 till 2007 scholars of the Department of Lithuanian Philology with their partners from Latvia, Estonia and Great Britain carried out a language learning project “Languages on Your Screen: Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian”. The project coordinated by assoc. prof. dr. Saulė Juzelėnienė and assoc. prof. dr.  Rita Baranauskienė aims at getting tourists interested in language and culture of the Baltic region in the hope that they will develop an intrinsic motivation to learn more about these three unique nations. In 2007 scholars of the Department of Lithuanian Philology and their colleagues from Šiauliai University, Faculty of Humanities and Kaunas University of Technology, Faculty of Humanities carried out the project “Rhetoric and Linguistics of Public Discourse”, which was supported by the Lithuanian State Science and Studies Foundation. The result of the project is a collection of reviewed scientific articles entitled “Rhetoric and Linguistics of Public Discourse”, which represents medium and advertising philological research strategies and mechanisms, and reflects the extent and direction of public discourse genres in the formation of national identity. It also deals with the question of established and forgotten values, stereotypes of social behaviour and psychological reaction been formed, and the extent and direction of the new information technologies in the modification of a system of Lithuanian language.

In 2009 scholars of the Department prepared the project “An Atlas of Mental Maps of Lithuanian Dialects”. The aim of the project was to prepare the first atlas of mental maps of Lithuanian dialects with the application of the methodology of perceptive dialectology.

The Department of Lithuanian Philology aims at nurturance of philological thought and its spread in Kaunas.

The Department of Lithuanian Philology is concerned not only with students’ academic work but also with their creative work. The Department encourages students to join a coterie of young authors who either create or tend to start creating. The coterie is headed by the PhD of the Department of Lithuanian Philology Mindaugas Grigaitis. Furthermore, Lithuanian language students’ linguistic expeditions gave start to the rise of a folklore ensemble “Uosinta”. In the seventies and eighties litterateurs worked especially actively. Their creative almanacs “Ember” and “Shimmering” were popular both in the Faculty and outside the Faculty.

The Faculty organises meetings with famous writers, linguists and artists in splendid lodgments that savour of historical past and traditions. New books, the current numbers of literary and cultural journals are presented in the “Whipsnake Hall” (Lith. Žalčio menė).

OUR PUBLICATIONS ON THE INTERNET:
http://www.kamane.lt/lt/titulinio_blokai/e_redakcijos_balsai/tekstas219