Akadeemilistelt tekstidelt eeldatakse sageli neutraalsust ja impersonaalsust. Samas leidub neis tekstides mitmeid autori subjektiivsele hinnangule viitavaid keelevahendeid, mille uurimine ka eestikeelsetes akadeemilistes tekstides on järjest enam tähelepanu saanud. Ühed sellised keelevahendid on pehmendajad, mille abil väljendavad autorid ebakindlust, muudavad väiteid ebamäärasemaks, lisavad propositsioonile oma arvamuse ja toovad esile teiste tõlgenduste võimalikkust. Artikkel põhineb mu magistritööl, milles uurisin, kuidas ja mis põhjustel bakalaureuseastme üliõpilased akadeemilistes tekstides pehmendajaid kasutavad. Analüüs põhineb kahel tekstikorpusel. Esimene korpus koosneb Tartu Ülikooli kursusel „Sissejuhatus keeleteadusesse“ aastatel 2019–2022 kirjutatud tekstidest „Minu keeleteaduslik elulugu“ ja teine on valim aastate 2013–2017 Tartu Ülikooli humanitaarvaldkonna bakalaureusetöödest. Artiklis kirjeldan, milliseid otsitud pehmendajatest, kui palju ja kuidas üliõpilased tekstides kasutavad. Lisaks analüüsin, kuidas on pehmendajate kasutuse erinevused seotud autori kogemuse, teksti eesmärgi ja tekstiga loodava suhtlusolukorraga.
Abstract. Nele Karolin Teiva: “Apparently, this may be the reason ...” How and why do bachelor’s students use hedges in texts? Academic texts are often expected to be neutral and impersonal. However, these texts contain various linguistic devices which indicate author’s subjective judgement. For example, authors use hedges to express uncertainty, make claims more vague, add their opinion to the proposition and highlight the possibility of other interpretations. The article is based on my master’s thesis, where I investigated how and why bachelor’s students use hedges in academic texts. I explore the use of hedges in “Linguistic Autobiographies“ (written at the “Introduction to Linguistics“ course, University of Tartu, Estonia) and in a collection of bachelor’s theses (written at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Tartu, Estonia). In the article I will give an overview of how and why hedges are used. Also, I will describe how the use of hedges is influenced by the writer’s experience, the purpose of the text, and the communicative situation created in the text.
Artikkel käsitleb eesti keele konstruktikoni kontseptsiooni – grammatika esitamist sõnastikulaadselt – ja esitleb esimest visiooni sellise ressursi ülesehitusest. Artikkel on sisuliseks jätkuks varasematele (Vainik jt 2024a,Vainik jt 2024b), milles kirjeldati konstruktsioonipõhist keelekäsitust ning rahvusvahelist konstruktikonide loomise kogemust ja väljakutseid. Siinses artiklis defineerime kõigepealt eesti konstruktikoni kontseptsiooni ja visiooni mõistmiseks vajalikud põhimõisted ning põhjendame ettevõtmist nii rakenduslikust kui ka teoreetilisest vaatepunktist. Käsitelu põhiosas esitame konstruktikoni makro- ja mikrostruktuuri kirjeldused ning juhtumianalüüsina pakume välja visandid kahe hulgafraasi konstruktikograafilisest kirjeldusest.
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"Towards the Estonian Constructicon" *** This article outlines the main approach for presenting grammatical information on Estonian in a dictionary-like resource known as a constructicon. We justified the need for such a resource from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Theoretically, the need for a constructicon arises from construction-based linguistic theory, which treats vocabulary and grammar as a continuum, making it reasonable to describe them in a unified format. This approach would allow for the systematic description and compilation of constructions that cannot be precisely captured in traditional grammar. From a practical standpoint, the constructicon would help standardize and enhance existing grammatical descriptions, offering a unified, web-based language resource that is easily accessible to learners, researchers, and language technology developers. It would improve access to linguistic information, as grammatical knowledge is often fragmented and available only in book form. The constructicon would have applications in language learning, helping users grasp word and phrase meanings more comprehensively. Additionally, it would support language technology needs, including natural language analysis, machine translation, and dialogue system development. We thus defined the primary target audience for the constructicon as L2 learners and teachers of Estonian, though we are designing the resource to also serve language experts and language technology applications. The diversity of the target audience influences the macro- and microstructure of the proposed resource. The plan is to cover a wide range of construction types and provide descriptions in multiple metalevels: general, linguistically precise, and machine-readable. We presented sketches for describing complex quantifier phrases as constructicon entries that pose challenges for language learners.
"First and second language teachers’ beliefs of teaching and learning reading strategies".
In this article, I examine how mother tongue teachers (Finnish, Swedish) and teachers of German as a foreign language in Finland perceive the teaching and learning of reading strategies. I investigate their theoretical and action beliefs and their beliefs on teachers’ roles. The aim was to explore mother tongue and German teachers’ beliefs of reading strategies and the methods they use to introduce their students to active reading. I investigated how teachers guide their students to read and use reading strategies. The article also examines the links that teachers perceive between reading in the mother tongue and reading in a foreign language.
"What does it taste like? A comparative study of taste terms in Estonian and German".
This article compares and describes Estonian and German active taste vocabulary on the basis of the empirical data in respect of the salience. Two field experiments were undertaken by interviewing 43 native speakers of both languages. The aim of the study was to determine actively used taste terms, the range of active taste vocabulary and their naming strategies in two, genetically unrelated languages. The author hypothesised that the active vocabularies of the languages would feature many similarities.
The quantitative and qualitative results of the study demonstrate that the range of active taste vocabulary is very similar in both languages: the umbrella term in the taste domain is maitse/Geschmack, and, ahead of other words, the speakers recall basic taste words: magus/sü. ’sweet’, soolane/salzig ’salty’, hapu/sauer ’sour’ and kibe/bitter ’bitter’.
The word umami has no status as a basic term neither Estonian nor German, although its spread is growing, and regarding the salience it can be considered part of the active taste vocabulary of Estonian and German.
The results give a basis to infer that the Estonian taste words kibe ’bitter’ and mõru ’bitter’ may have similar basic term potential, and can be considered a cultural phenomenon of the language. To lend further credence to this observation, the subject is worth investigating in greater depth.
The list task results showed a surprising difference in the associative words linked to taste (armastus ’love’, rahulolu ’satisfaction’ in Estonian, Schmerz ’pain’, Ekel ’disgust’ in German). The salience of the positive emotional words in Estonian seems to confirm the link between taste experience and emotions as demonstrated by Vainik (2017).
Commonalities are reflected in the similarity of the naming strategies of the taste words, based on the subjective evaluation (hea/gut ’good’, etc.), the intensity of taste experiences (vürtsikas/würzig ’spicy’, etc.), physical qualities of food (temperature, texture, and consistency), expressed with adjectives of touch domain: soe/warm ’warm’, pehme/weich ’soft’, etc.) in both languages. Words referring to touch (konsistents/Konsistenz ’concistency’, tekstuur/Beschaffenheit ’texture’) and adjectives describing qualities of food (e.g., terav/scharf ’sharp’) reflect the sensory function of the tongue and mouth. Thus, the cognitive categorisation patterns of native speakers of Estonian and German are in large part similar in terms of naming strategies.
The active vocabulary of German includes the adjective fruchtig ’fruity’, which has made its way into everyday language from the wine vocabulary. Estonian equivalent puuviljane ’fruity’ was mentioned only once, by a single respondent. Presumably, the findings demonstrate a difference in the cultural customs of the two language communities.
As the results of this comparative study show, similar patterns exist in the listing and description of words linked to taste in both languages and both tasks. The similarity of the quantitative and qualitative results of research into active taste vocabulary in Estonian and German points to patterns of the German language that are deeply rooted in Estonian, while the cultural proximity of the two language communities is also reflected in their cognitive categorisation and naming strategy choices for taste words.
The changes over the last couple of decades that have come to light in the comparison of active taste vocabulary in Estonian and German, including the surprising differences revealed in this research, are presumably due first and foremost to cultural peculiarities, the rapid developments in food culture as a result of globalisation and the spread of multicultural norms in Europe’s western language communities.
The aim of this paper is twofold. First, to compare the comprehension of complex Lithuanian syntactic constructions (relative clauses, passive sentences, wh-questions) in typically developing (TD) children and children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Second, to display the characteristics of comprehension of these constructions that can be attributed to specific language features of Lithuanian. This study demonstrates that both TD children and children with DLD have problems in comprehending passive sentences and whquestions. TD children had fewer challenges in performing the relative clause comprehension task than the other tasks. However, children with DLD faced more difficulties in performing the relative clause task. The results show that children are more likely to make errors in interpreting object but not subject sentences. Even though in Lithuanian syntagmatic relations are marked by inflections, it is still difficult for children to grasp the syntactic relations between the subject and the object in complex constructions.
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Leedu keele keerukate süntaktiliste konstruktsioonide mõistmine: eakohase arenguga ja keelelise arengu häirega laste keelekasutuse uuring
Artiklil on kaks eesmärki. Esiteks võrrelda leedu keele keerukate süntaktiliste konstruktsioonide (relatiivlaused, passiivilaused, eriküsimused) mõistmist ea kohase arenguga ja keelelise arengu häirega lastel. Teine eesmärk on kirjeldada nende konstruktsioonide mõistmisega seotud omadusi, mis on seostavad leedu keele kindlate tunnusjoontega.
Keerukate süntaktiliste konstruktsioonide mõistmise analüüs näitas, et nii eakohase arenguga kui ka keelelise arengu häirega lastel on probleeme passiivilausetest ja eriküsimustest arusaamisega. Relatiivlause mõistmise ülesande täitmisel oli eakohase arenguga lastel vähem väljakutseid, kuid keelelise arengu häirega lastele valmistas ka nende mõistmine raskusi.
Leedu tulemused täiendavad teistes keeltes tehtud uuringuid, mis näitavad, et varases eas teevad lapsed tõenäolisemalt vigu lause objekti, kuid mitte subjekti tõlgendamisel. Seda kinnitavad kõik kolm, nii relatiiv-, passiivilause kui ka eriküsimusega seotud uuringuosa. Kuigi leedu keeles on lause süntagmaatilised suhted tähistatud käänetega, on lastel siiski raske mõista subjekti ja objekti suhteid keerukates konstruktsioonides. See osutab, et ka tugev flektiivsus, mis on omane leedu keelele, ei hõlbusta lastel hoomata keerulisi süntaktilisi nähtusi, nagu subjekti ja objekti suhted relatiivlausetes, passiivilausetes ja eriküsimustes.
Eakohase arenguga ja keelelise arengu häirega laste uuringu tulemusi kokku võttes võib väita, et mõne süntaktilise konstruktsiooni mõistmine tekitab probleeme isegi 6,5-aastastel eakohase arenguga lastel. Seetõttu ei tohiks standardiseeritud hindamistestidesse kaasata selliseid konstruktsioone nagu passiivilaused ja eriküsimused. Ainus selles artiklis kirjeldatud süntaktiline konstruktsioon, mis võiks sellistesse testidesse kaasatud olla, on relatiivlause.
Artiklis esitatud uurimus annab esimese ülevaate eestinorra laste nimisõnafraasi grammatilisest struktuurist nii eesti kui ka norra keeles võrreldes ükskeelsetega mõlemas keeles. Analüüsis on erilise tähelepanu all nähtused, mida võib selgitada teise keele mõjutustega. Uurimuse valimi moodustasid kaheksa kakskeelset last vanuses 5–8 aastat, ükskeelseteks võrdlusrühmadeks viis norra- ning viis eestikeelset last. Analüüsisime laste jutustusi pildiraamatu põhjal ning vaba jutustust igapäevaelust. Kvalitatiivne analüüs näitas mõlemas keeles keelekasutusnähtusi, mida võib selgitada keelte vastasmõju: eesti keeles rohke määratlejate üks ja see kasutamine artiklitena, norra keeles indefiniitse vormi ülekasutamine. Uuringu tulemused võivad saada lähtekohaks tulevastele uurimustele, mis vaatlevad lähemalt keelte vastasmõju ja sisendi rolli.
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The noun phrase as used by bilingual Estonian-Norwegian children
A prominent factor affecting the language use of bilinguals is cross-linguistic influence. This study presents a preliminary descriptive overview of the morphosyntax of the noun phrase as used by bilingual Estonian-Norwegian children. Participants in the study included eight bilingual children aged 5–8, five Estonian and five Norwegian monolingual children aged 5–7. The monolingual groups were included for comparison, in order to produce a more complete picture of what is specific to the bilingual children. A narrative elicitation paradigm was used in both languages: the children retold a story based on Mayer’s (1969) picture book, and a free narrative was elicited with questions about the children’s daily life. The qualitative analysis revealed characteristic patterns in the bilinguals’ narratives in both languages. Several of the patterns could be explained by cross-linguistic influence. In Estonian, several bilingual children used the determiners üks ‘one’ and see ‘this’ as articles, and in Norwegian, bilingual children tended to overuse indefinite forms. Some further patterns were also identified that can be explained by the structure of Estonian and Norwegian respectively, and that have been observed in the language use of monolingual children. The results of this study provide a starting point for future studies taking a closer look at the roles of cross-lingustic influence and language input.
Climate change is a challenge which is currently being faced by everyone. In this regard CCS could play a major role in mitigating the impact of climate change. To promote CCS requires collaborative efforts and momentum is currently being built in Baltic States to promote CCS. We will provide details of the findings from the Baltic states on the project CCS4CCE: Building momentum for the long-term CCS deployment in the CEE region. We will review actions that may be beneficial in developing the CCS value chain in the broader decarbonization context. The project, #CCS4CEE, focuses on the renewal of the discussion on the long-term deployment of CCS in the CEE region, leading to new policies and joint projects. Project also examines the socio-economic and socio-political aspects of CCS deployment in several European countries, including the Baltic States.
This article discusses areas observed on geolinguistic maps showing Finnic or Finnic-like features in Latvian subdialects possibly resulting from Finnic influence. The Latvian dialect material analysed for this study shows that several such areas can be identified based on their phonetics and morphology: the Livonic dialect, the Selonic subdialects, certain Selonic subdialects on both banks of the Daugava River, certain subdialects in the former Leivu territory in northeastern Latvia near Alūksne and Gulbene, and a few subdialects in Zemgale near Bauska and Vecsaule where the Krevin Votians were settled. The shortening of word endings and generalisation of third-person verb forms is also quite regularly encountered in the subdialects spoken around Preiļi in Latgale. The least amount of language material is available about the Ludza Estonians or Lutsis who lived in eastern Latgale where their influence is seen in the tone system of the local subdialects.
Kokkuvõte. Anna Stafecka: Läänemeresoome mõju võimalikud jäljed läti murrakute foneetikas ja morfoloogias. Artikkel käsitleb läänemeresoome ja läänemeresoomepäraste joonte maa-alalist levikut läti murretes. Läti murdeainestik, mida on selle uurimuse jaoks analüüsitud, näitab, et foneetilise ja morfoloogilise eripära põhjal on võimalik määratleda mitu sellist mõjuala: liivipärased murded, teatud seeli murrakud Daugava jõe mõlemal kaldal, teatud Kirde-Läti Alūksne ja Gulbene ümbruse murrakud ajaloolisel leivu alal ning mõned semgali murrakud Bauska ja Vecsaule lähistel, kus kunagi elasid kreevini vadjalased. Sõnalõppude lühenemist ja kolmanda isiku verbivormide üldistumist on üsna regulaarselt märgitud ka Latgales Preiļi ümbruse murrakutes. Vähem on selliseid andmeid Ida-Latgalest Ludza eestlaste ehk lutside kunagistelt asualadelt. Siiski on seal lutsi mõju nähtav kohalike murrakute toonisüsteemis.
Vadja toponüüme koguti süstemaatiliselt XX sajandi teisel poolel. Sellest ajast pärinevad Eesti Keele Instituudi ja Emakeele Seltsi kohanimekogud. Siinkirjutajal õnnestus aastatel 2001–2004 panna kirja kõigest 40 kohanime. Vadja toponüümikat on seni uurinud peamiselt Paul Ariste. Käesoleval sajandil on väheste toponüümide algupära käsitlenud üksnes Leningradi oblasti Kingissepa rajooni asjaarmastajad. Käesolevas kirjutises, mis lähtub peamiselt mainitud kogudest ning käsitleb loodusja viljelusnimesid, on põhitähelepanu pööratud kohanimede päritolule. See võimaldab paigutada nad atribuutide ehk täiendosade järgi tähendusrühmadesse. Uurimuses tehakse kindlaks samuti kohanimede determinandid ehk liigisõnad. Tähelepanuta ei jää ka nende morfoloogilised iseärasused. Vadja keeles leidub nii primaarseid kui ka sekundaarseid kohanimesid, sageli on kirja pandud ka determinandita toponüüme, samuti üksikuid terminnimesid. Loodus- ja viljelusnimed on päritolult üsna sarnased. Nad on arenenud looduskogumeid, loomi, taimi, omadusi, asendit jt aspekte tähistavatest apellatiividest, tulenedes mõnikord ka reaalsete isikute või pühakute nimedest. Toponüümide moodustamise printsiibid sarnanevad teiste läänemeresoome keelte kohanimede moodustamise põhimõtetega. Nimede atribuut esineb peamiselt ainsuse nimetavas ja omastavas, determinant aga tavaliselt ainsuse ja harva mitmuse nimetavas käändes. Üks ja sama toponüüm võib mõnikord tähistada heinamaad, sood, metsa ja põldu. See näitab nende kunagist vahelduvat kasutusala. Kohanimede päritolu uurimisel on selgunud hulk üldnimesid, mida pole registreeritud väljaspool toponüümikat.
Abstract. Enn Ernits: Votic names of natural and cultivation objects. A more systematical recording of Votic toponyms took place in the second half of the 20th century. Since then, the place name collections of the Institute of the Estonian Language and the Mother Tongue Society have been dated. The author managed to record only 40 toponyms between 2001 and 2004. Votic toponymy has so far been studied mainly by Paul Ariste (1964, 1965a, 1965b, 1967, 1968). In this century, only the amateurs of the Kingisepp district of the Leningrad region have dealt with the origin of some toponyms (see Demina 2009). This paper, which is mainly based on the previously mentioned collections and deals with the names of natural and cultivation objects, focuses on their origin. This allows us to classify place names by attributes into groups by their meaning. The study also identifies the generic terms of place names. The morphological features of toponyms are not neglected either. In Votic language, there are both primary and secondary place names, often toponyms without a generic term and sometimes term names. Names of natural and cultivation objects are quite similar in origin. They have evolved from the apellatives denoting nature, animals, plants, features, location and other aspects, sometimes deriving from the names of real persons or saints. The principles of toponym forming are similar to those in other Finnic languages (Ariste (1967: 83). The attribute of names occurs mainly in the nominative and genitive of singular, but the generic term is usually in the singular and rarely the plural. The same toponym can simultaneously refer to meadows, marshes, forests and fields. This indicates their former, alternative use. Examination of the origin of place names revealed a number of common names not recorded outside the toponymy.
Perceiving the category of number as the subject of grammar only is an oversimplification. Number forms of nouns are very lexicalized, and their dictionary interpretation (especially singularia and pluralia tantum) is sometimes inconsistent. The analysis of contemporary dictionaries (mostly defining and explanatory) compiled in Estonia and Russia is a study on the interpretation of grammar in typological lexicography. The research examines the interpreting of number paradigm in nouns, difficulties of reflecting the availability of number forms in different semantic classes as well as the change in number paradigms with the formation of complex words. The analysis of dictionary entries brings to light the dependence of this representation on the national lexicographic traditions and dictionary types. Resolving the aforementioned inconsistency may be important as many contemporary dictionaries become the foundation for numerous software and online resources.
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"Nimisõna arvukategooriast eesti ja vene leksikograafias"
Nimisõna arvukategooria on laiem kui pelgalt grammatika nähtus. Nimisõna arvuvorme iseloomustab tugev leksikaliseerumine, mistõttu on sõnaraamatutes esitatav info selle sõnaliigi arvuvormide olemasolust ja moodustamise võimalustest sageli ebapiisav või ebajärjekindel. Eriti puudutab see plurale ja singulare tantum -sõnu. Autorid on analüüsinud tänapäeval Eestis ja Venemaal ilmunud (eelkõige seletavates) sõnaraamatutes esitatud grammatilisi andmeid tüpoloogilise leksikograafia aspektist. Käsitletakse nimisõna arvuparadigma interpreteerimise probleeme, eri tähendusrühmadesse kuuluvate nimisõnade arvuvormide esitamisraskusi märksõnaartiklis, arvuparadigma muutumist liitsõnade moodustamisel. Sõnaraamatute analüüsist ilmneb nii rahvusliku leksikograafia traditsiooni kui ka sõnaraamatu tüübi mõju nimisõna arvuvormide esitamisele. Samas läheb leksikograafiaallikate suurema ühtsuse saavutamine seoses digihumanitaaria arenguga järjest olulisemaks.
The Nordic states had an active radical right presence long before the economic and refugee crises that swept the shores of the European Union (EU) left in their wake a reinvigorated right-wing contingent. The radical right parties (RRPs) have not only registered various degrees of electoral success, but have also made inroads into the political mainstream. The three defining characteristics that set these parties apart from the more traditional far-right ones are: 1) the repudiation of hardcore extremism; 2) the search for political viability; and 3) the acquisition of mainstream recognition. The present article argues that as these parties compete for legitimacy, they are forced to alter their discriminatory rhetoric by switching tonal registers. One of the political strategies that enables them to put the outright “overt” in the “covert” is the recourse to dog whistle politics. How well can they overcome the stigma associated with their more extreme reflexes depends on a case by case basis. This article examines whether the four most prominent examples of Nordic radicalism (the Danish People’s Party, Finns Party, Sweden Democrats, and Norway’s Progress Party) have integrated dog whistles in their political messaging and tracks how these coded appeals change from one country to another. In analyzing the response to the 2015 refugee crisis, the study finds that to a certain extent, the rhetoric utilized falls into the coded register or at the very least purposefully attempts to veer away from the radical excesses which are marginalizing and self-exclusionary.
The regular meaning today of the word havoc is “confusion” and “disorder” (Oxford English Dictionary [Oxford English Dictionary [OED], s.v. havoc). Fixed phrases are “to wreck, play, make havoc.” This is seen as an attenuated use of an earlier havoc that meant “devastation, destruction.” In the Middle Ages havoc figured in even more closely defined circumstances. To cry havoc meant that an army was relieved by its commanders of its normal discipline and reserve, and was permitted to proceed with the plundering and destruction of a conquered town or encampment. As the OED states “the phrase cry havoc, originally to give to an army the order havoc!, as the signal for the seizure of spoil, and so of general spoliation or pillage.” We may imagine this as a customary right of men under arms, held in check by later codified ordinances for the battlefield. As is typical for the OED in the matter of loans from other languages, the etymological commentary goes no farther back in time and place than to Old French, where the phrase crier havot is found. This clearly vernacular word is also found in Latin texts of the period. Havot is seen as the normal form in continental French, havoc in the French of Britain, and havok in the later Middle English that supplanted Anglo-French. Just where this phrasing and the idea behind it may have originated remains beyond the scope and ambitions of the OED. This is not the case with all French lexicographical resources. Since the practice of crying havoc dies out after the late Middle Ages, the word has not survived into modern French and is then not discussed in such authoritative works as Le Trésor de la langue française (TLF, Imbs). There is, however, ample attestation of its medieval use, e.g., “le Roy ad proclamé havoke de tout Gales” (the king proclaimed havoc throughout Wales; 1385, “Ordin. War Rich.II,” Legge, 374.31) (see further Rothwell et al., s.v. havoke), Godefroy, 4,444 c havot 2, Tobler and Lommatzsch, 4, 1042 havot 2). A major lexicographical project now in the course of realization, Dictionnaire étymologique de l’ancien français (DEAF), offers a full treatment of the evidence for continental French havot (Baldinger et al., H307 havot 2 [havok]). Yet the discussion opens with the regrettable judgment “étymologie inconnue.” Scholars who have examined the matter propose that havot originated in Germanic words designating a hook-like device. Opinions differ as to which lexical root is involved. The figurative use of the hook would be consonant with the understanding of the cry Havot! as the authorization to seize goods. The editors of the DEAF subscribe to none of these derivations. The present inquiry is prompted by the resemblance between Anglo-French havoc and Old English heafoc (diPaulo-Healey et al., s.v), the antecedent of Modern English hawk, and by the less fortuitous coincidence between the hawk as bird of prey or raptor, and the military rapine loosed by crying havoc. The early English name for the hawk has cognates all over the Germanic world (Old Norse haukr German Habicht, Old Frisan havek), and was even loaned into Finnic languages (Finnish, Estonian, Veps), perhaps as a consequence of the international trade in birds of prey (de Vries; Köbler, Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch). The proposed Proto-Indo-European root behind the Germanic hawk forms is *kap-, *kəp“to grasp, seize” (Köbler, Indogermanisches Wörterbuch, Pokorny 527). The name is also present as havik in Old Low Franconian, the language carried by the Franks to the future France. Germanic did not, however, supply the standard French word for “hawk,” which was faucon, from Latin falco. How plausible is it that the image of the hawk should generate a term to designate the right/ permission of common soldiers to plunder? Animals are associated with human combat in multiple ways. The beasts of battle (wolf, eagle, and raven) feed on the bodies of the fallen. Odin’s ravens report ANQ: A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SHORT ARTICLES, NOTES AND REVIEWS 2022, VOL. 35, NO. 2, 98–101 https://doi.org/10.1080/0895769X.2020.1779644
A Probable Etymology for One of Our Nominal -ik Suffixes There are altogether six such suffixes in the Hungarian language that have an -ik phonological form; three of these are used in the nominal and three in the verb category. This paper examines the history of research and the circumstances for the emergence of the -ik element with a highlighting function. The most frequently occurring lexemes of the formations created with this morpheme are egyik ‘one of’, másik ‘another, other one’, mindenik ‘everyone’, melyik ‘which one’, and valamelyik ‘one of them’. A large part of those studying this issue in Hungarian and Finno-Ugric Studies have identified this element as the pl. 3rd person possessive suffix (dialectal -ik ~ -uk/-ük in literary language) in a way that this morpheme was perceived to have two components: -i was interpreted as the dialectal sg. 3rd person possessive suffix (e.g., ház-i ‘his house’, kez-i ‘his hand’), while -k was identified as the plural suffix (e.g., háza-k ‘houses’, keze-k ‘hands’). This paper studies the emergence of the -ik morpheme and the process of its formation starting out from the fact that the most frequent egyik and másik pronouns with a highlighting suffix (in which -ik was probably first used) appear in old language and dialects both in an accented position only with an -i suffix added and without any ending with a highlighting function. The Hungarian -i and -k have such equivalents in a large part of Finno-Ugric languages (Balto-Finnic, Sami, Votic, Komi, Khanty, Mansi) that also make the lexeme they are attached to accented; these turned into the -ik highlighting suffix in Proto-Hungarian in three steps, egy ~ “egy + i” > egy- ~ egyi- ~ “egyi + k” > egy- ~ egyi- ~ egyik. This -ik, however, did not become the pl. 3rd person possessive suffix, this wording appears as a conclusion in opposition to the overall view of experts studying this issue.
The article discusses a study examining the facilitating effect that analysability (i.e. the degree of transparency) and similarity between English and Estonian equivalents have on Estonian EFL learners’ idiom comprehension. A group of (pre)adolescent L1 Estonian learners of English performed an idiom comprehension test, which consisted of idioms categorised into five groups on the basis of the degree of transparency (i.e. the degree to which their idiomatic meaning is inferable from the literal meanings of their constituents or from their figurativeness) and the degree of similarity to their Estonian equivalents. The results revealed that both transparency (in the form of a constituent to be taken literally) and identical L1 idioms facilitate EFL idiom comprehension nearly to the same degree, while the effect of semi-transparency (that is, figurativeness) seems to be clearly lower. However, opaque idioms with partially similar L1 equivalents appear to be even somewhat more difficult than opaque idioms without any L1–L2 similarity.
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"Inglise keele kui võõrkeele idioomide mõistmist hõlbustavatest teguritest"
Artikkel analüüsib uurimust, mis võrdles kahte inglise keele kui võõrkeele idioomidest arusaamist hõlbustavat tegurit: esiteks sõnasõnalistel elementidel ja figuratiivsusel põhineva analüüsitavuse mõju ja teiseks inglise idioomidega sarnaste ja identsete eesti keele kui emakeele idioomide mõju. Rühm Eesti põhikooli kuuenda klassi õpilasi sooritas idioomidest arusaamise testi, milles idioomid olid liigitatud viide erinevasse kategooriasse: 1) läbipaistmatud idioomid, millel on identne eestikeelne vaste; 2) läbipaistmatud idioomid, millel on osaliselt sarnane eestikeelne vaste; 3) läbipaistmatud idioomid, millel pole eestikeelset vastet (või on see täiesti erineva sõnastusega); 4) läbipaistvad idioomid (milles on vähemalt üks sõnasõnaliselt võetav element) ilma eestikeelse vasteta ning 5) poolläbipaistvad idioomid (ilma sõnasõnalise elemendita, aga kergesti arusaadava kujundlikkusega) ilma eestikeelse vasteta. Ilmnes, et läbipaistvus ja identne eestikeelne vaste hõlbustavad arusaamist peaaegu samal määral. Samas näib poolläbipaistvuse (figuratiivsuse) hõlbustav mõju olevat selgelt madalam ja idioomid, millel on ainult osaliselt sarnane vaste eesti keeles, osutusid kõige keerulisemateks. Vastupidi identse vaste olemasolule, mõjub osaliselt sarnane eestikeelne vaste pigem segadust tekitavalt kui toetavalt ingliskeelsest idioomist arusaamisele.
This paper presents an analysis of an assumed contact-induced change in the Livonian modes of expressing perfective aspect: the adoption of Latvian-origin verbal prefixes expressing perfective aspect. The main objective of this article is to determine whether long-standing contact between Livonian and Latvian has led to the introduction of verbal prefixes as both pure lexical elements and, in parallel, as markers of grammatical functions that distinguish Livonian from its closest cognate languages. The current study is based on the data derived from unpublished recordings and published written material representing spoken Livonian, already extinct as a first language in the traditional speech area. There are a total of eleven Latvian-origin verbal prefixes in Livonian, a language which usually does not display this category. The prefixes are as follows: aiz-, ap-, at-, ie-, iz-, nuo-, pa-, pie-, pōr-, sa-, and uz-. In Latvian, most of these items can be used as bound verbal prefixes and also prepositions marking adverbial functions. In Livonian, these prefixes can be combined with both Livonian and Latvian verbs but, as a rule – except for pa- – they do not occur as prepositions. The frequency of their occurrence in the data varies considerably and, presumably, corresponds to the degree that a given prefix may derive perfective verbs. In fact, verbal prefixation can be considered, to some extent, a means for expressing perfective aspect in Livonian, thereby adding a secondary strategy to the inherent Finnic way of expressing aspectual oppositions, namely the object case alternation and verbal particles.
Tama korpuspohjainen kielikontaktitutkimus kasittelee venajan kielen mallin mukaisten ainesten (Lars Johansonin termilla: “kopioiden”) taajuutta ja fonologisia piirteita Suomessa puhutuissa rajakarjalaismurteissa, jotka jakautuvat kuuteen pitajanmurteeseen. Tutkimuksen aineistona on 1960- ja 1970-lukujen murrehaastatteluista koostuva synkroninen Raja-Karjalan korpus. Raja-Karjalan etela- ja livvinkarjalaiset murteet ovat muusta karjalasta poiketen olleet intensiivisessa kontaktissa suomen kieleen osin jo 1600-luvulta alkaen ja viimeistaan vuonna 1944 alkaneena siirtokarjalaisaikana. Suomen kielen oletetaan vaikuttaneen karjalalle tyypillisen venalaisperaisen sanaston kayttoon. Tutkimuskohteena ovatkin sellaiset venalaiskopiot, jollaisia ei esiinny suomen kielessa. Tilastolliset testit osoittivat, etta erot venalaiskopioiden taajuuksissa pitajanmurteissa ovat tilastollisesti merkitsevat: eniten venalaiskopioita on itaisimmassa ja vahiten lantisimmassa pitajanmurteessa, vaikka informantit eivat ole asuneet alkuperaisilla puhuma-alueilla yli 20 vuoteen. Tulos vahvistaa leksikon osalta yleisitamerensuomalaisen hypoteesin, jonka mukaan venajan vaikutuksen voimakkuus on jatkumon kaltaista lannesta itaan. Myos fonologisen analyysin tulokset noudattelevat tallaista jatkumoa: suomen kielen fonotaksiin kuulumattomia konsonantteja esiintyi eniten itaisimmassa ja vahiten lantisimmassa pitajanmurteessa. Sen sijaan vokaaleissa ei esiintynyt tallaista jatkumoa, mutta niiden laadussa on jalkia kontaktista seka venajan pohjoismurteisiin etta yleiskieleen. *** Language contacts of Border Karelian dialects in the light of frequency and phonology of Russian copies This article presents a corpus- and usage-based study on the contacts of Border Karelian dialects from the point of view of Russian-origin words ( copies , in Lars Johanson’s terminology) and their phonological features. The aim of the study is to describe the contacts between Border Karelian, i.e. partly mixed Southern and Olonets Karelian dialects, Finnish and Russian by comparing the dialects of six parishes as reflected in the synchronic spoken-language corpus of Border Karelian. The dialects of Border Karelia were spoken until World War II in the easternmost part of Finland. They are distinguished from other varieties of Karelian by the strong influence of Finnish; this began already in the 17th century, and strengthened after 1944, when Border Karelia was ceded to the Soviet Union and its inhabitants were resettled in other parts of Finland. The material of the corpus of Border Karelian has been recorded after the resettlement, from informants who no longer lived in their original home regions. The study focuses on Russian copies that are a conventionalized part of Karelian and do not occur in Finnish. The statistical tests indicated that differences in the frequencies of these words are statistically significant between the original parish dialects; the easternmost dialect has the most Russian copies, and the number of copies decreases from east to west with each successive parish. The results confirm the general hypothesis of Finnic language varieties as a continuum, on which the effect of Russian gradually grows as one moves east. The continuum is geographical, and thus Olonets Karelian dialects do not have more Russian copies than Southern Karelian dialects, opposite to the assumptions. Accordingly, the results of the phonological analysis show that features which deviate from the phonotactics of Finnish are most frequent in the easternmost dialects and rarer in the west. The features of vowels indicate that all Border Karelian dialects have had intense contact with both North Russian dialects and Standard Russian. In conclusion, the lexical and phonological impact of Russian on Border Karelian, increasing gradually from west to east, can be detected in the speech of Border Karelian informants even two decades after their resettlement to a Finnish-speaking environment.
Estonian ethnographers in southern Vepsian villages, 1965–1969 Estonian ethnographers have taken an interest in Finno-Ugric peoples since the dawn of ethnography, and to the extent possible, they have made trips to the regions in question to study their culture. Starting in the 1960s, the State Ethnography Museum of the Estonian SSR in Tartu (the past and present Estonian National Museum) became the hub of Finno-Ugric ethnography under its director, Aleksei Peterson. Expeditions to the linguistic relatives in the east began at the initiative and with the support of linguists (chiefly, Paul Ariste) and continued in later years independently. The article looks at five expeditions made by Estonian ethnographers to southern Vepsian villages in the years 1965–1969. The central source is the fieldwork diaries maintained on the expeditions. In addition, the article examines the photographs, film footage and drawings from these expeditions, along with collected items and ethnographic descriptions. The scholarly and popular science-oriented texts based on the material acquired on the expeditions and coverage of the expeditions in the Estonian media of that era are analysed. Interviews were conducted with a few of the people who took part in the trips. The southern Veps region was poorly connected with the rest of the world in the 1960s, and the people there led quite an isolated existence. For this reason, the villages in the region had an abundance of extant or only recently defunct aspects (such as slash and burn agriculture, dugout canoe construction or use of twigs to heat the stove), which captivated the ethnologists. The southern Veps region was a unique window to the past for Estonian researchers, who in that period dealt with questions of ethnogenesis. The material culture had received little study and Peterson saw this as his calling and an opportunity. Modernisation was already under way and everything old was at risk of fading. Ethnographers interested in these matters had to hurry to save for science what could be salvaged. The traditional peasant culture of the Vepsians was documented using still cameras and film cameras, ethnographic interviews were conducted, ethnographic drawings prepared, and artefacts were collected with great verve. Quantity was important, and the field work was generally a collective pursuit – many people could after all accomplish more than just one. The material recorded in the course of fieldwork reached academic circulation quite rapidly – presentations were delivered at international conferences, and journal articles were published. The coverage of the expeditions in the Estonian media was quite lively as well. Newspapers published accounts of various lengths and on at least once occasion the ethnographers’ activities in the Vepsian region was discussed on television. Estonian scholars perceived and conveyed the southern Veps villages as some kind of Baltic-Finnic fairy tale land. In general, researchers relished the opportunity to go on an expedition. It was felt that this was a noble thing, which in some sense also tied in with the Estonian national cause. Research into the linguistic relatives was positively received by Estonian society for this reason – i.e. it was linked to the national identity. Local authorities in the destination regions generally took a positive attitude toward the ethnographers. The zeitgeist favoured science and expeditions. The Veps people – especially those in more remote and isolated villages – frequently greeted the Estonian ethnographers with initial scepticism. The Estonians had to explain their objectives and use documents to prove their bona fides. Later the alienation dissipated and once the close kinship of the Vepsian and Estonian languages was revealed, the newcomers received a rapturous reception as if they were long-lost relatives. At Sodjärv Lake, which served on multiple occasions as the ethnographers’ base camp, Estonian researchers became accepted by the Vepsians as their own people. It is difficult to gauge precisely the influence that those and later expeditions had on the Vepsian peoples. The Estonians’ visits probably helped to bolster the generally weak self-identity of the Veps people. While the Russians in the region all too often took a supercilious view of the Veps and their language, the ethnographers from Estonia had come to study them precisely because of their identity and held in high regard everything from old peasant culture to the language. Some local people still speak positively about Estonians. The five expeditions to the villages of the southern Vepsian region discussed in this article, their outcome and resonance make up a key part of a cultural current that sprang from Finno-Ugric studies in Soviet Estonia, the best-known examples of which are Lennart Meri’s ethnographic documentary films, the choral music of Veljo Tormis and the graphic art of Kaljo Põllu. Emphasising their Finno-Ugric roots was for Estonians an additional way to express their Estonian identity independent of Soviet rule and ethnographers made a significant contribution to this trend.
At one Estonian university, we have designed a course to support the writing skills of doctorate students who need to write scientific articles for publication in their L2 English. We provide this support by placing these students into small discipline-specific writing groups where they periodically give and receive written feedback on their draft articles. Knowing what may constitute an effective feedback comment will enable us to improve upon current pedagogical practices. In this study, we develop a coding scheme to measure the impact of both affective and non-affective feedback comments on the peer feedback process. We use this scheme in tandem with questionnaires to assess the effectiveness of postgraduate peer feedback comments as perceived by both L1 Estonian doctoral students and expert writing assessors. Within this context, the results suggest that cover letters and the tone of feedback comments have a noticeable impact on the peer feedback process.