Par Šauļiem latviski: vietvārdi un objektu nosaukumi

ENGeographical names and urban object titles compile a lexical layer, items of which are found both in the press and tourist brochures. The place names and object titles related to the Šiauliai area and found in Latvian texts are discussed in this article from the linguistic point of view. The aim of the research is to investigate the prevalence of the names belonging to different semantic groups and to identify the tendencies of the usage of proper names as well as titles in the language-in-action. Descriptive and interpretation methods have been used to analyse the examples selected from the recently published texts written in Latvian and Lithuanian texts translated into Latvian. Analysis of the texts about the Šiauliai area has proved the fact that the number of place names such as Oikonyms, Hydronyms and Urbanonyms, is not big; nevertheless, they reveal the diversity of usage. Oikonyms and Hydronyms are usually used in the Latvian language-specific forms; however, this semantic group contains some rendering inaccuracies. It has been noticed that Urbanonyms are treated diffrerently, i.e. the names of streets, squares and the like are either written in the original form (this way they perform the address function best) or altered according to the Latvian grammar or even translated into Latvian literally (Prisikėlimo aikštė [Resurrection Square] - Atdzimšanas laukums). The composite names of the object group are used only in Latvian, but the symbolic names are most often used in Lithuanian with an equivalent name in Latvian added in brackets. It can be concluded that this approach is most appropriate as the name/title can be easily understood and identified in the urban area. It is not recommended to translate the symbolic names which have been formed on the basis of common words and to use them only in the Latvian language.