Aim. To show and describe the current situation in Latvian language as a case study of the problem about the place of a national language and its existence in sciences in modern globalised times, when the dominance of English as the lingua franca of science grows. Methods. A descriptive method, including literature review of language of science used globally. Empirical discourse content analysis was conducted; it examined various documents, including Latvian legal texts that governs the rights and rules of Latvian language use, as well as a wide array of mainly online media. Results. During the study, 21 different sources and 304 online comments under articles relating to the issue were analysed. The material revealed that there is a breadth of opinions, ranging from the Ministry stance to organisations and the general public. It could be said that the main trend in the opinions can be described as follows: there is a variety of language options – a dissertation written only in Latvian; a dissertation written in English; a choice of language that is up to the doctoral student. This would ensure that the language choice fits the doctoral students’ goals and field of research and making English mandatory would not likely lead to guaranteed scientific excellence as what matters is the research itself, not the language. Conclusions. National language of science is a current issue in Latvia, as there is a need for state language use in the scientific register. The discussed Ministry document is still a draft report and it is not yet known what final decisions on the PhD process and dissertation language will be taken. Latvian is a scientific language and it should be recognised as one of the languages used in science within the international scientific discourse.

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科学中的国家语言：拉脱维亚的情况

目标。展示和描述拉脱维亚语言的现状，以案例作为研究，在当今全球化的英语时代，英语作为一种通用语言在全球范围内发展时，有关一种民族语言的地位及其在科学中的存在问题。方法。一种描述性方法，包括全球使用的科学语言的文献综述。进行了经验话语内容分析；它审查了各种文件，包括管理拉脱维亚语言使用权利和规则的拉脱维亚法律文本，以及各种主要的在线媒体。结果。在研究过程中，分析了与该问题相关的文章下的21种不同来源和304条在线评论。资料显示，从该部的立场到组织和公众，有广泛的意见。可以说，意见的主要趋势可以描述如下：语言选择多种多样–一篇仅以拉脱维亚语撰写的论文；用英文撰写的论文；取决于博士生的语言选择。这将确保语言选择符合博士生的目标和研究领域，并且使英语具有强制性不太可能导致保证科学卓越，因为重要的是研究本身而不是语言。结论。国家科学语言是拉脱维亚的当前问题，因为在科学注册簿中需要使用国家语言。讨论中的部文件仍然是报告草稿，尚不知道将对博士过程和论文语言做出何种最终决定。