Meaning and usage of Estonian experience perception verbs
Date
2021-02-17
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Abstract
Füüsiline võime tajuda meid ümbritsevat on midagi, mis ühendab kõiki inimesi. Samas on erinev see, kuidas me neid tajudega saadud kogemusi mõtestame. Keelest ja kultuurist tulenevalt kasutatakse maailma keeltes mitmeid erinevaid strateegiaid tajukogemuse väljendamiseks. Üks vahendeid, mille kaudu tajukogemust on võimalik edasi anda, on tajuverbid nagu nägema, kuulma või tundma. Tajuverbidel on tihti palju üksteisega seotud tähendusi – näiteks võime näha kassi, aga võime ka vaeva näha. Esimesel juhul on tegemist verbi nägema füüsilise tähendusega, teisel juhul aga abstraktse tähendusega. Doktoritöö peamisi eesmärke ongi anda ülevaade erinevatest tähendustest, mis on viiel eesti keele tajuverbil: nägema, kuulma, tundma, maitset tundma ja lõhna tundma. Verbide tähendusi ja nende kasutusvõimalusi vaadeldakse töös teiste maailma keelte kontekstis. Eesmärkide täitmiseks kasutatakse töös nii katselisi kui ka korpuspõhiseid meetodeid. Tulemused näitavad, et tajuverbide semantikas on jälgiavad nii eesti keele spetsiifilised kui ka maailma keelte kontekstis universaalsed mustrid. Nii näiteks on leitud, et väga paljudes keeltes kasutatakse tajuverbe väljendamaks mingit tüüpi teadmist või arusaamist, samas erineb keeliti see, milliseid tajuverbe selleks kasutatakse. Näiteks eesti keeles on verbil tundma ka kognitsioonitähendust, nt saab eesti keeles naabrit tunda või ka tunda vene kirjandust. Taktiilse tajuverbi sellised tähendused on maailma keelte kontekstis haruldased ning neid on leitud vaid mõnes Läänemere-äärses keeles nagu soome ja rootsi keel. Teisalt näitavad tulemused, et eesti keel sobitub kokku teiste lääne keelte ja kultuuridega, nii näiteks ei ole verbidel maitset tundma ja lõhna tundma eriti palju tähendusi, mis omakorda viitab ka nende tajude väikesele tähtsusele lääne kultuuriruumis.
The way we experience the world that surrounds us every day is inevitably tied to our sensory capabilities. The way we talk about perception experiences and the way we conceptualise them is, however, more dependent on the culture we live in and the language we use. One specific means of expressing perception experiences is perception verbs like to see or to hear in English. This dissertation looks at five Estonian perception verbs: nägema ‘to see’, kuulma ‘to hear’, tundma ‘to feel’, maitset tundma ‘to taste’ and lõhna tundma ‘to smell’. Perception verbs tend to have many, related meanings in world’s languages, both physical and abstract. For example, in English, one can see a cat in the street but one can also see a problem – the former is a physical use of the verb to see, while the latter is an abstract usage. One of the main goals of this dissertation is to look at the different meanings Estonian perception verbs have, and how they are used in the context of world’s languages. To reach this goal, a combination of both experimental and corpus-based methods is used. The results confirm both universal and language-specific trends of perception verb meanings. It has been previously shown that there seems to be a universal link between perception and cognition in that perception verbs are often used to express other experiences tied to understanding or knowing. However, which types of cognition is expressed through which perception verb can be very different across languages. For example, Estonian uses the tactile perception verb tundma ‘to feel’ to express thorough knowledge of something or someone – this pattern is cross-linguistically uncommon, and is observed only for some languages in the Circum-Baltic area. On the other hand, results show that Estonian falls in line with other Western languages: verbs of tasting and smelling only have a few different meanings, reflecting the low importance of these senses in Western culture.
The way we experience the world that surrounds us every day is inevitably tied to our sensory capabilities. The way we talk about perception experiences and the way we conceptualise them is, however, more dependent on the culture we live in and the language we use. One specific means of expressing perception experiences is perception verbs like to see or to hear in English. This dissertation looks at five Estonian perception verbs: nägema ‘to see’, kuulma ‘to hear’, tundma ‘to feel’, maitset tundma ‘to taste’ and lõhna tundma ‘to smell’. Perception verbs tend to have many, related meanings in world’s languages, both physical and abstract. For example, in English, one can see a cat in the street but one can also see a problem – the former is a physical use of the verb to see, while the latter is an abstract usage. One of the main goals of this dissertation is to look at the different meanings Estonian perception verbs have, and how they are used in the context of world’s languages. To reach this goal, a combination of both experimental and corpus-based methods is used. The results confirm both universal and language-specific trends of perception verb meanings. It has been previously shown that there seems to be a universal link between perception and cognition in that perception verbs are often used to express other experiences tied to understanding or knowing. However, which types of cognition is expressed through which perception verb can be very different across languages. For example, Estonian uses the tactile perception verb tundma ‘to feel’ to express thorough knowledge of something or someone – this pattern is cross-linguistically uncommon, and is observed only for some languages in the Circum-Baltic area. On the other hand, results show that Estonian falls in line with other Western languages: verbs of tasting and smelling only have a few different meanings, reflecting the low importance of these senses in Western culture.
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Keywords
Estonian language, cognitive semantics, perception verbs