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A new field has emerged alongside constructional linguistic theories and electronic lexicography, known as constructicography (Lyngfelt 2018: 11). Its goal is to compile a constructicon, a resource that organizes and presents linguistic constructions much like dictionaries present words. This concept stems from the theoretical framework of Construction Grammar (see Fillmore 2006; Goldberg 2003; Hoffmann, Trousdale 2013). The main purpose of this study is to outline the necessary theoretical concepts, map out existing solutions, and identify the main challenges in creating different types of constructicons. This aims to inform decisions when beginning to create a potential Estonian language constructicon., Published under the Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

An article about Estonian government patterns in the electronic Handbook of the Estonian language.

This study is a values-driven approach to figures of speech, depicting language and its standardisation. We explore a discourse about the modernisation of linguistic norms that took place in Estonian public media in 2020–2022 and reached the point of being labelled a crisis. The debate took place mostly in the form of opinion-writing texts, expressing the writers’ subjective perspectives. During the discussions, two parties with different outlooks on language and language planning issues emerged, representing the dichotomy of liberal and conservative value models. The focus of the study is on the interplay between values and patterns of figurative thought, as metaphors were extensively used to strengthen the arguments of both sides. The analysis, based on the theoretical-methodological means of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Figurative Framing, Metaphor Scenario Analysis, Systemic Functional Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis, revealed that the opposing parties favoured certain metaphors when depicting language. As a side issue, we also address the dynamics of power relations through the language crisis discourse.

By entering the base form of a word or a participle verb form, the calculator shows how adjectival its behavior is in the Estonian National Corpus 2021.

The transition zones between traditional word classes cause problems in lexicography. This research addresses the issue of estimating the level of adjectivization in Estonian by proposing a set of close-context indicators (“test patterns”) based on the existing literature and detectable in annotated corpus text. The profile of prototypical adjectives (the “reference profile”) is established by analyzing the normalized frequencies of the test patterns in a random sample of validated adjectives (N = 100). A scale of similarity to the reference profile is established by using the method of calculating Euclidean distances, which is considered a heuristic of the cumulative similarity vs. the difference. As a result, the scalar nature of the similarity to the reference profile is revealed, among both validated adjectives and the control group of yet underspecified lexicographic headword candidates (N = 100). The results are discussed in respect to improving the toolbox of the test patterns as well as in respect to future studies on some intriguing features of the actual corpus behavior of adjectives as compared to what would be expected by their morphosyntactic potential described in the literature., Sõnavara kategoriseerimisel sõnaliikidesse valmistavad leksikograafias probleemeennekõike üleminuekualad. Üks peamisi murekohti on raskus määratleda seejuuresverbi ja adjektiivi vahelist piiri (Paulsen jt 2019, Paulsen jt 2020). Siinses uurimuses vaatleme partitsiipide adjektiviseerumisprotsesse korpusstatistika andmeteletuginedes. Lähenemine põhineb teoreetilisel eeldusel, et mistahes nähtusi kategoriseerivad inimesed alateadlikult liikmete sarnasust n-ö prototüüpsele esindajaleehk kategooria keskmele hinnates. See toob kaasa, et kategooria liikmed võivadolla selle prototüübiga kas rohkem või vähem sarnased; kategooria perifeerses osasvõivad liikmed kuuluda juba ka mingisse naaberkategooriasse. Adjektiividele omaste joonte väljaselgitamiseks korpuses kasutame testmustritesarja, millest igaüks haarab potentsiaalse adjektiivi lähikonteksti. Kuus testmustritpõhinevad adjektiivide omadustel, mis on kirjanduses esile toodud ning ka eelmärgendatud korpusetekstides tuvastatavad. Kolm mustrit mõõdavad testsõna esinemist atribuudi rollis – eestäiendina üldiselt ning kahes kitsendatud positsioonis:ühilduvana põhisõnaga käändes ja arvus ning teiseks paiknevana lause alguses.Veel kätkesid mustrid esinemist keskvõrde vormis, laiendatavust vahetult eelnevaadverbiga ning esinemist öeldistäitena st olema verbi jätkuna. Prototüüpse adjektiivi korpuskäitumise profiil selgitati välja sajast sõnastkoosneva juhuvalimi põhjal „Eesti keele põhisõnavara sõnastiku” adjektiividest.Kontrollrühm (N = 100) moodustati Eesti Keele Instituudi sõnastikubaasis Ekilex(Hein jt 2020) leiduvast sõnaliigimärgendita partitsiibist samuti juhuvalimina,silmas pidades erinevate partitsiibivormide võrdset esindatust. Adjektiivi morfosüntaktilise käitumise prototüüpi valiti esindama katseteskasutatud testmustrite suhteliste sageduste mediaanväärtused adjektiivide rühmas.Sarnasusmõõdikuna kasutasime eukleidilise kauguse meetodit, mis lubab analüüsida kõrvutatavate nähtuste mitmeid parameetreid korraga. Analüüsi

ERR Kultuur (Culture section of the Estonian Public Broadcasting portal)

The paper analyses the patterns of figurative language and thought addressing the abstract domain of “language”, which emerged in the discourse about the language norms and standardisation in Estonian public media in 2020–2022. The situation was perceived as critical by the language practitioners (editors, proof-readers, translators, teachers, etc) because of confusion and ambiguity in respect of when and in what form would the new edition of ÕS (the traditional prescriptive dictionary of Standard Estonian), appear. The ambiguous feelings were accompanied by the sense of threat to fundamental values, and the sense of urgency to act – all the substantial features of a crisis were met. The corpus of texts contained 62 texts by practitioners, journalists, professional linguists (institutional scientists), and state officials. The corpus of texts was analyzed qualitatively from the viewpoint of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Figurative Framing, Systemic Functional Linguistics, and Critical Discourse Analysis. The critical situation stimulated figurative thinking by all the “voices” in discussion: language practitioners framed the Estonian language as a ‘needy’ – an image, which was amplified into an image of ‘protegee’ and further so into ‘victim’. Linguists tended to think and speak of language as a ‘living being’, borrowing vocabulary from evolutionary biology. Both practitioners and researchers also used the image of ‘building’ while highlighting different aspects: linguists talked more about language reconstruction and repair, while the other disputants referred to demolition, breaking down, and decay. Personification was also used, i.e. attributing human qualities and desires to language. The practitioners showed empathy to the language as a sufferer, while the linguists talked about well-being and health. One of the most disputable images was that of language as a social subject that could enjoy freedom. This image, originally proposed by the progressively minde

In this study, we discuss the process of developing a multi-parameter application – the adjective similarity calculator (ASC) – that determines the relative adjectivity of a word or a word form.The tool relates the statistical summary of a word (form)’s corpus behaviour to the most typical and central aspects of the Estonian adjective: the adjectival corpus profile. To establish this profile, we use close-context patterns characterising adjectives and detectable in the corpus (see the experiments in Tuulik et al. 2022, Paulsen et al. 2022, and Vainik et al., 2023). The first prototype of the ASC will be evaluated based on clear cases of adjectives and PoS representatives overlapping with adjectival properties, but also based on words representing more distant classes. The main purpose of the application is to improve lexicographic work in categorisation procedures of the partly overlapping lexical categories to the adjective, particularly in such ambiguous cases as adjectivised participles, nouns and adverbs.

Maailm rappub kriisides: kliimakriis, koroonapandeemia, sõda jne. Kriisi iseloomustab olukorra segasus ja mitmetitõlgendatavus, põhiväärtuste ohustatus ning tunne, et tegutsemisega on kiire, kuna väljapääsu leidmise "ajaaken" võib sulguda, selgitasid "Keeleminutites" EKI juhtivteadur Ene Vainik ning Uppsala ülikooli eesti keele lektor ja EKI vanemteadur Geda Paulsen., ERR Kultuur (Culture section of the Estonian Public Broadcasting portal)

Artiklis uurime adjektiivi morfosüntaktilisi tunnuseid jaselgitame, kuivõrd on prototüüpsele adjektiivile omistatavad tunnused(nt ühildumine, võrrete moodustamine) adjektiiviklassile eriomased.Loome neile tunnustele tuginedes parameetrid, mille abil eristamekorpuse andmete põhjal adjektiive teistest sõnaliikidest. Tüüpiliseadjektiivi korpusprofiili tuvastamise kaugem eesmärk on rakenduseloomine, mis võimaldaks leksikograafidel ebaselgete juhtumite puhulkontrollida sõna adjektiviseerumise astet. Tutvustame kuue parameetritestimise tulemust 12 sõnarühma peal, millest igaühte kuulub 10 sõna.Sõnavalikul arvestame adjektiiviklassi piiripealseid juhtumeid ja leksikograafilisi kitsaskohti. Analüüsime, mil määral hälbivad erinevadtestrühmad testitud parameetrite põhjal prototüüpsest adjektiiviklassi esindajast ning vaatleme ka variatsiooni adjektiiviklassi sees.Kõrvale kaldeanalüüs võimaldab välja selgitada parima eristusvõimegaparameetrid. Eukleidilise kauguse mõõtmine eristab hästi adjektiivisarnased sõnad ja rühmad nendest, mis sarnanevad prototüüpseleadjektiivile vähem., In the article, we examine the morphosyntactic features characteristic of the adjective class and test different parameters in the corpora to differentiate adjectives from other word classes. We provide an overview of the test results of six parameters. In the study, we analysed 12 groups of 10 words each. The test groups and test words were chosen manually, with consideration given to the problematic cases outlined by the lexicographers (Paulsen, Vainik, and Tuulik 2019). We compared different types of adjectives or near to adjectives (the test groups) as well as different word classes (the control groups). To analyse the parameters’ capability to set adjectives apart, a deviation study was conducted. The groups of particular focus (regular verb participles vs. adjectives) were best differentiated by three parameters. Among all groups, the comparative form parameter was the most accurate in the deviation study at setting prototypical adjectives apart from other test groups. A Euclidean distance analysis was able to differentiate adjective-like test words and test groups from others that do not behave similarly to prototypical adjectives. As all tested parameters produced meaningful results and were able to differentiate some word classes from adjectives, they can be input for a new digital tool that would show a word’s deviation from prototypical word class representatives to help lexicographers with word-class-related decisions.

This study addresses categorization issues related to adjective candidates in Estonian, focusing on the category of participles. The aim of the analysis was to assess the ranges of the prototypical adjective and to determine its degree of deviation on the prototypicality scale. The investigation was based on a group of validated adjectives – selected adjectives included in the Basic Estonian Dictionary – and two control groups of more and less lexicalized participles. We tested seven morphosyntactic corpus patterns characteristic of adjectives. The test patterns were based on the prototypical features of the adjective, as well as on observations made in the actual lexicographic analysis. To assess the sample words and determine the significance of the test patterns from the point of view of defining adjectivity, we used deviation analysis. The results of this study can be applied to establish a measure of adjectivity for lexicographic judgments when distinguishing, for instance, lexicalized participles from regular ones., Članek obravnava vprašanja kategorizacije, povezana s pridevniškimi kandidati v estonščini, s poudarkom na deležnikih. Cilj analize je bil oceniti razpon prototipskega pridevnika in določiti stopnjo njegovega odstopanja na lestvici prototipskosti. Raziskava je temeljila na skupini potrjenih pridevnikov – izbranih pridevnikov, vključenih v Osnovni slovar estonščine– in dveh kontrolnih skupinah bolj in manj leksikaliziranih deležnikov. Preverili smo sedem morfosintaktičnih korpusnih vzorcev, značilnih za pridevnike. Testni vzorci so temeljili na prototipskih značilnostih pridevnika in na opažanjih pri konkretni leksikografski analizi. Za oceno vzorčnih besed in določitev pomena testnih vzorcev z vidika opredelitve pridevnika smo uporabili analizo odklona. Rezultate študije je mogoče uporabiti za določitev merila pridevniške ustreznosti pri leksikografskih presojah, na primer za določanje leksikaliziranih deležnikov.

The purpose of this study is to identify and examine maximum-size polysemy clusters in semantic hierarchies of eleven wordnets that are included in Open Multilingual Wordnet. The clusters are extracted from both the super-subordinate hierarchies of the noun(IS-A) and the hierarchies of the verb (MANNER-OF). We focus on the substructures of semantic hierarchies that display vertical polysemy relationships (i.e. clusters containing words with the same spelling in their vertices). Besides the maximum-size polysemy clusters, the number of vertical polysemy relationships and the PoS distribution in these relations are examined. The findings of this study suggest that large polysemy clusters may indicate potential problems like inaccurate identification of a word’s meaning in an NLP task. The algorithm detecting maximal clusters of polysemy has the potential to be applied to other wordnets than those focused on in this study. The analysis in this article is the first step in large-size polysemy clusters studies. We expect that polysemy clusters will help to evaluate the state of the wordnets’ semantic hierarchies and to assess the suitability of these structures as background knowledge for solving NLP tasks.

This study focuses on a comparison of two sister languages, Estonian and Finnish. The purpose is to compare the idiomatic expressions which describe the emotion of anger in order to find out the similarities and differences in its conceptualisation and lexicalisation. The findings are interpreted by using the framework of cognitive metaphor theory. The idioms of both languages fit onto the five-stage scenario like folk model of anger (the offense and beginning of anger; the (physiological) effects of anger on Self; the attempt to control the emotion; losing the control; retribution i.e. aggressive behaviour). The cognitive model represents these aspects of the anger event which are conceptualised by using figurative expressions., Tässä artikkelissa vertailemme vihan emootiota välittäviä viron- ja suomenkielisiä kuvaannollisia ilmauksia. Selitämme niiden erikoislaatua idiomien merkityspiirteillä ja analysoimme ilmauksia metaforateorian viitekehystä käyttäen. Sekä suomen että viron vihaidiomien kielikuvat perustuvat laajalti ruumiilliseen metonymiaan; lisäksi näissä kielissä on käytössä kansainvälisesti levinneitä käsitemetaforia kuten viha on kuuma neste astiassa, vihan intensiivisyys on kuumuutta, viha on tulta. Molemmissa kielissä ilmenee vihatilanteen käsitteistämisen vaiheittaisuus (vihan synty, sen vaikutus kokijaan, pyrkimys kontrolloida vihaa, kontrollin menetys, vihainen käyttäytyminen). Suomen kielessä vihaa käsitteistetään aivoihin ja päähän liittyvän toiminnan kautta, kun taas virossa kokija kuvaillaan astiana ja viha nesteenä. Molemmissa kielissä esiintyy hyperbolista kuvaannollisuutta. Virossa vihaista ihmistä karrikoidaan eläinten ruumiinosiin viittaamalla, suomessa korostuu autoaggressiivinen käyttäytymismalli.

This study is motivated by the need for a statistical benchmark that would help the lexicographer to judge a morphological form for its grammaticalization stage to the degree of an independent lexeme. The focus of this article is on Estonian substantives and in particular their forms in the 11 semantic cases. The main research question of this study is: is there a statistical sign indicating that a case form of a noun is emerging as a potentially independent lexeme? Based on the normal distribution of nominal case form frequencies, we established a statistic that determines a case form’s elicitation in a corpus – the distribution index (D-index). The D-index can be used as an indicator of the correspondence of a particular form’s actual frequency with the predicted elicitation degree., Artikkel tegeleb nimisõnavormide iseseisvumise küsimusega leksikograafia vajadustest lähtudes. Eeldusel, et abstraktseid käändevorme iseloomustab korpuses üldine püsiv esiletuleku proportsioon, pakume välja statistilise mõõdiku – distributsiooniindeksi, mille abil otsustada, kas sõnavormi kasutussagedus on piisav selleks, et lugeda teda paradigmast emantsipeerunuks ning seega iseseisva märksõna kandidaadiks. Indeks arvestab vormi suhtelist sagedust korpuses, võrreldes tegelikku ja normi põhjal oodatavat kasutussagedust, ning laseb samale skaalale paigutada väga erineva absoluutsagedusega juhtumeid. Artiklis illustreerime distributsiooniindeksi toimivust tavaliste rikkaliku vormistikuga nimisõnade ning ambivorme andvate sõnade vormistike võrdlusena. Seame provisoorse indeksi lävendväärtuse, millest suurema väärtusega vormi võib pidada iseseisvaks lekseemiks. Indeksit ning lävendväärtust testitakse erinevate korpuste (EtTenTen13, ÜK 2019) andmete peal.

This article focuses on the notion of order in language from three different perspectives: the order of causation, clause order, and word order. Based on the micro-modular Tiernet model (Nikanne1990, 1995, 1997a–b, 2008, 2018a; Paulsen 2011a–b; Petrova 2011; Paulsen & Nikanne 2019) I analyze the Estonian proadverb seeläbi ‘through that’ and its functions as a connective adverb, correlative adverb, and correlative conjunction. The examination shows that seeläbi encodes both types of subordinate causation (BECAUSE OF, LEAD TO); it has properties of both subordinate and coordinate clausal types; it can be placed to initial, medium, or final positions in the clause and link to all three information tier functions (FOCUS1, TOPIC, and FOCUS2). The study reveals a linking rule: the causative subordination type BECAUSE OF (the reason behind the matrix clause situation) is related to the subordinate and the LEAD TO-causation (the effect or result of the matrix clause situation) to the cosubordinate clausal type.

Sõnaliik on traditsiooniliselt keele kirjelduse osa, mis hõlmab sõna morfoloogilist ja süntaktilist käitumist, aga ka tähendust ning pragmaatilist funktsiooni. Vaatamata sellele, et sõnaliigid on tinglike piiridega ning keeleteaduslikult kaugel ühtsest või selgest nähtusest, on see kategooriana leksikograafias vajalik kui kompaktne viis andmaks ülevaadet sõna käitumisest kasutuses. Ka e-leksikograafias vältimatud automaatsed protseduurid nagu morfoloogiline ja süntaktiline märgendamine ning tähenduste ühestamine eeldavad kas konkreetselt või vaikimisi leksikaalsete üksuste eristamist. Käesolevas artiklis anname sissevaate sõnaliikide rolli leksikograafi töös. Vahendame tulemusi aastal 2019 tehtud uuringust, mille eesmärk oli välja selgitada eesti keelt kirjeldavate leksikograafide probleeme ning vajadusi seoses sõnaliikidega, aga ka ootusi keeletehnoloogilistele lahendustele sõnaliigi määramise hõlbustamiseks., This study examines the role of word classes in the contemporary lexicographic work. The analysis is based on a metalexicographic semi-structured interview carried out among 23 Estonian lexicographers. We focus on three main research questions: i) How necessary are word classes in lexicopraphers’ work? ii) What kinds of problems they do experience related to the word classes? iii) How do lexicographers solve these problems and how could digital tools facilitate the word class judgement processes? The results indicate that in lexicography, word classes provide an (implicit or explicit) frame for organisation of data, even if word-class tagging does not directly belong among the tasks of the lexicographer. The word class determination process in unclear cases is a complicated one. In addition to the usage of a word and the expected needs of the user, the lexicographer must consider the structural requirements of the particular dictionary (s)he is working with. Along with the development of digital resources, the demands of the data model behind the electronic database have to be considered; not to mention the theoretical linguistic insights. Linguistically, the most problematic issues appear in the grammaticalisation and lexicalisation processes related to inflectional suffixes (mainly adverbs and adpositions) or conversional transposition (adjectives). The typical word-class altering devices in Estonian such as suffixal derivation (see, e.g. Vare 2006: 199) do not emerge as particularly problematic. The interviewed lexicographers would welcome a digital application that would facilitate and quickened the word class determination process. The application would have an improved morphological tagger compared to the present tools and it would be more efficient in extracting statistical information from corpora. Lexicographers wish to acquire information about the prevailing word-class function together with the data this assessment is based on. Yet, the lexicographer mak

The present study aims to elaborate an overall outline of the areas that give rise to PoS ambiguity in Estonian. The analysis is based on a database consisting of ca 3500 ambiguous units. Our goal is to map the problematic areas, analyse the processes behind the lexical versatility, and provide a typology of ambiguous forms (the ambiforms) for the lexicographic use. The proposed typology is based on bi- and unidirectional PoS combinations. As a result of the analysis, we show how the lexical confluence relations exhibit a network-like interaction of the traditional PoS categories. The typology of ambiforms is expected to have both theoretical and practical implications – from the perspective of the former, the topic of lexical ambiguity will be set in the modern linguistic and lexicographic frame, and from the angle of applicability, the results will support the lexicographers as the creators of lexicographic (root) databases and the developers of language technology systems analysing corpus data.

The present study examines the role of word classes in contemporary lexicography using examples from Estonian. Since Estonian is a morphologically rich language, the results may be extendable to other languages with abundant morphology. Two research questions are examined: i) What are the problems and practices of lexicographers when determining word classes? and ii) What are the needs and expectations of lexicographers for a possible digital tool that would facilitate word class identification? The results of a metalexicographic survey carried out among 23 Estonian lexicographers show the relevance of word classes as a categorial frame in their lexicographic work. There is a need to improve or reconsider the (theoretical and technical)factors influencing the process of PoS tagging. A reliable software application (provisionally aPoS evaluator) easing the decision making process would be welcome. According to the ideas suggested by the respondents, the solution would be an improved morphological and syntactic parsing system with respect to the present solutions, and a corpus-driven application presenting statistics with regard to the morphosyntactic distribution of an ambiguous word with access to the data source.

It is a well-known fact that natural languages do not correspond to the linguistic categories without trouble. Regarding the category of word classes, one of the most challenging groups in Estonian is the adverb, characterized by continuing supplementation by case forms of nouns. This article explores the notion of nominal adverb from the perspective of another prototype-based category, manner. The analysis of manner expressions follows Virtanen’s (2008) ‘manner plus’ idea, assuming semantic blends of manner and some other category. This study is induced by work with the Estonian collocations dictionary and the data the compilation is based on. The analysis explicates the col-locational behaviour and the types of semantic blends of the selected nominal adverbs in the inner local cases illative, inessive and elative, focusing on adverb-verb combinations.

The examination of causative adjuncts is based on the causative expressions in Estonian. The analysis reveals that causal and temporal relationships do not display a 1:1 relationships in the sense that the causing event always precedes the caused event chronologically. The Jackendovian (1990) causa-temporal types entrainment and launching are represented in the case of reason-adjuncts; in connection with purpose-adjuncts the hunch-causation proposed by Pörn (2004) occurs beside launching; the incremental causation or partial entrainment type, introduced in this paper, occurs in connection with result-adjuncts. The purpose-adjuncts show a particularly complex causa-temporal relationship: the desired event (the temporally latter event) is the reason behind the activity denoted by the core verb and the activity denoted by the matrix sentence causes the intended event. The present study also points to the tendency that the illative case is used in connection with intransitive verbs and comitative in connection with transitive verbs conveying causation in Estonian; elative is a „universal” causative case in the sense that it combines both with transitive and intransitive verbs. The preliminary examination suggests that a comprehensive account of the subordinate structures is needed in order to explain the „causative content” of different types of adjuncts like e.g. causative, manner, instrumental, purpose, conditional, and temporal adjuncts. Regarding the research of Estonian, an investigation of causative adjuncts would contribute to the elaboration of the semantico-syntactic behaviour of synthetic vs. analytic linguistic forms.

Color is regarded as one of the four basic types of adjectives (Dixon 2004, 3–4). Property concepts can, however, also be encoded in verbs. In Estonian, Finnish and Hungarian, color adjectives can be derived into verbs that form a tripartite lexical system based on eventive properties. Color verbs are thus semantically complex lexemes combining both verbal and adjectival qualities. The aim of this study is to examine the verbal expressions of COLOR in Estonian, Finnish and Hungarian, all belonging to the Uralic language family. We analyze the lexical conceptual structure of the color verb types and compare the lexical systems in these languages.

This volume represents a unique collection of chapters on how color is categorized and named in several languages. Although color research has been a focus topic for researchers for decades, the contributions here show that many aspects of color language and categorization are unexplored, and current theories and methodologies that investigate color language are still evolving. Some core questions addressed here include: How is color conceptualized through language? What kind of linguistic tools do languages use to describe color? Which factors tend to bias color language? What methodologies could be used to understand human color categorization and language better? How do color vocabularies evolve? How does context impact color cognition? The chapters collected here adopt different theoretical and methodological approaches in describing new empirical research on how the concept of color is represented in various languages. Researchers in linguistics, psychology, and cognitive science present a set of new explorations and challenges in color language. The book promotes several methodological and disciplinary dimensions to color studies. The color category is given an in-depth and broad-based examination, so a reader interested in color conceptualization will be able to form a solid vision of the subject.

Kontseptuaalne semantika on kognitiivse suunitlusega keeleteaduse haru, mille eesmärgiks on välja töötada teooria keele toimimisest tajusüsteemi osana. Kontseptuaalset semantikat iseloomustab pürgimus erinevate keelega seotud kognitiivsete alasüsteemide ja nendevaheliste seoste võimalikult täpse formaalse analüüsi suunas. Käesolev artikkel annab ülevaate kontseptuaalse semantika peamistest teoreetilistest seisukohtadest ning nende metodoloogilisest väljendusviisist, asetades teooria üldisemasse keeleteaduslikku konteksti. Tutvustan lähemalt soome keeleteadlase Urpo Nikanne kontseptuaalse semantika tierneti mudeli metodoloogiat, mille abil analüüsin eesti ja soome keele neutraalsete liikumisverbide minema ja mennä/lähteä leksikaalset kontseptuaalset struktuuri ning nn sujumiskonstruktsioonide (X läheb hästi/lörri) semantikat., This paper discusses the framework of conceptual semantics and its methodological solutions for semantic analysis. The conceptual semantics theory, based on the ideas of Ray Jackendoff, strives for an integration of the psychological reality of linguistic information with other linguistic faculties. The article discusses the central theoretical assumptions and aims of this theory, and gives a brief presentation of the basic methodology of Urpo Nikanne’s tiernet model of conceptual semantics. The tiernet technology is the basis for the analysis of the lexical conceptual structure of the Finnish neutral motion verbs mennä ‘go’ and lähteä ‘go from a place’ as well as of the Estonian counterpart minema ‘go’. Two “(un)success-constructions” in connection with these verbs are also discussed

The aim of this study is to account for stative situations through the example of structurally different but semantically close colour expressions: the Estonian stative verbs derived from colour adjectives and colour adjectives appearing as the predicative. Stative verbs are assumed to be similar to copula constructions, with the aspectual distinction of temporary/permanent property. In this article, the stative colour expressions are analysed using the linguistic diagnostics developed for the determination of ontological properties of different types of states – the sc. Davidsonian and Kimian states (see e.g. Maienborn 2003). Analysis reveals that the copula construction with colour adjective as predicative is ambiguous, inclining to the Kimian states but also assigning properties characteristic to the Davidsonian states; the stative colour verbs, in turn, are true examples of Davidsonian states. In addition to the examination of the stative properties, the conceptual structure analysis of the colour expressions instantiating stative and dynamic states is given. The observer’s evaluation of the coloured object as a mental image is treated as part of the lexical information of the colour statives. Also, sentential and contextual phenomena of the colour statives are discussed.

The present paper proposes an alternative approach to the aspect of word formation and lexical processes by the example of the Finnish causative verbs derived with the suffix (U)ttA. The causative verb behaviour is argued to be affected by a relational network of both prototypical and construction-specific structures. The prototype structures defined by the derivatives’ salient features in form of the conceptual structure and linking regularities are used to describe the general behaviour of the causative derivatives and to contrast to the idiosyncratic patterns occurring in connection with these verbs. The constructions discussed in this paper are the emotive causative construction and the middle construction.

Our aim is to discuss language strategies of a trilingual child, who uses Estonian, Finnish and Norwegian on a daily basis. Especially, we focus on the influence of the Finnish language on the Estonian language used by our informant. Estonian and Finnish are closely related languages, and they both have rich morphological systems. We argue that code combining is a typical process in closely related, inflectionally similar languages, such as Finnish and Estonian. The code combining is applied in the phonological, morphological, and syntactic levels of our informant’s language.

In The red ball is flying through the air in front of the blue ball the red ball’s location is described in relation to a blue ball, which acquired a ‘front’ through motion direction. We for the first time investigated the relative contribution of three motion parameters (in isolation and combination) for generating front-back axes when talking about object location during motion: translational motion (co-ordinate changes of objects in space), intrinsic motion (object part motion, for example, turning car wheels), and motion control (externally imposed co-ordinate changes). 28 native English speakers indicated the acceptability of the adpositions in front of and behind, and the verbs leading and following, while watching two moving objects through a virtual reality headset. Acceptability ratings showed that axis strength decreased according to our hypotheses: translational motion combined with intrinsic motion, with agreement in direction > translational motion > translational motion combined with intrinsic motion, with conflict in direction > intrinsic motion. Also, according to predictions, the front-back axis was stronger for adpositions than verbs if motion control applied. Over and above previous studies we not only show that translational motion can generate front-back axes, but that also intrinsic motion can do that, and that the translational motion parameter needs refinement into motion due to an external force or due to self-motion. We explained a weaker axis for intrinsic motion as being due to inferencing motion direction (as in, for example, the wheels are turning right, and therefore the object must be going right), whereas axes generated during translational movement are generated directly by visual input. We also introduced a new method in calculating axis strength.