GENERAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE CONCEPT OF LANGUAGE: 50 FALSE FRIENDS IN SPANISH AND LITHUANIAN LANGUAGES

Abstract

http://dx.doi.org/10.7220/2335-2027.2.12

According to Raymond Williams (1983), language learning largely depends on personal confidence. In periods of change the necessary confidence and concern for clarity can fail especially if certain issues are not addressed. Although these issues do not directly relate to meaning, in most cases, they are relevant to the process of how meaning is generated and conveyed. When coming across a new word, people first of all intend to define it. For that purpose, dictionaries are produced and, with a show of authority, which is usually limited in place and time, the so-called proper meaning is attached to words. The present study aims at carrying out a comparative analysis of 50 Lithuanian and Spanish lexical items that could be regarded as ‘false friends’, i.e. a group of words that are written in the same way or a very similar way in different languages but have a different meaning. As a result, such words cause learners to make misleading decisions about their meaning on the basis of the learner’s previous linguistic experience. Methodologically, the study focuses on the principles of word formation and generating meaning in view of different sentences and texts. The analysis undertaken in the study is believed to be of use in teaching and learning of Lithuanian and Spanish as well as other languages given that the phenomenon of ‘false friends’ is not restricted to the two languages focused on in this study.