Z dějin litevské stylistiky

This article deals with the history of Lithuanian stylistics. In the first part, old Lithuanian literature is presented from the stylistic point of view. Three main styles from the period prior to the 19th century can be identified: the ecclesiastic, the official and the belles-lettres style. The ecclesiastic style holds the dominant position and includes the oldest Lithuanian texts from the 16th century; the official style and belles-lettres where influenced by German and Polish and did not recover their independent stylistic features until the end of the 18th century. The full stylistic scale of Lithuanian literature developed at the beginning of 20th century. The second part of the article analyses the rise and development of Lithuanian stylistic theory in the 20th and 21st centuries. Stylistics became a separate area of study in Lithuania in the 1930s and its development was closely connected to the functional theory of language, represented by the work of the Prague Linguistic Circle. In 'Lietuviu kalbos stilistika' (1971b), Juozas Pikcilingis laid the foundation for contemporary Lithuanian stylistic theory, which has been continued and extended by a new generation of scientists such as Kazimieras Zuperka (theory of the competition of linguistic means), Audrone Bitiniene (statistical research on style) or Juozas Abaravicius (stylistics of punctuation).