The understanding of the concept LANGUAGE among young people in Lithuania and Lithuanians living abroad

Abstract

This article applies the methodology developed by the Ethnolinguistic School of Lublin to analyse how the concept LANGUAGE (Lith. KALBA) is understood by young people in Lithuania and how its understanding changes when a person lives far away from their homeland. A comparison of replies from the two groups indicates that the social aspect has the most weight in both of them, as the difference in the percentage of mentions of this aspect was quite small. Lithuanians living abroad tend to stress the cultural and the psychosocial aspects much more; they find the connection with other Lithuanians very important. The survey of young people in Lithuania reveals a more distinct ideological aspect of LANGUAGE, and the historical and political aspects, even though they occur rarely, are still present, while the replies from the respondents living abroad lack the latter two. However, the survey of Lithuanian emigrants has uncovered a locative aspect, which is not present among the respondents living in the country. Young people in Lithuania have a somewhat broader understanding of the concept: when they think about language, they are already beginning to look for other possibilities of linguistic expression, noting that language is more than just sounds or words, but also includes gestures; they also mention programming languages.