Ruumilise keele mehhanismid ja võimalused mõiste KÄSI väljendamisel
Mechanisms and possibilities of spatial language to express the concept of HAND in Estonian

Summary/Abstract: The present paper will focus on the variation in Estonian expressions containing käsi 'hand; arm' in the Estonian cultural space. The aim is to study Estonian idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs where käsi occurs as the main word in order to set out the represented spatial relations and to show how the metaphorical projection has been effected and which local cases are represented. The paper falls within the theoretical framework of Levinson's approach (cf. Levinson 2000, 2001), Sinha's treatment of the human capacity for symbolization, his cultural-cognitive schematization, and human biological and cultural development (Sinha, Jensen de López 2000) as well as Lakoff and Johnson's theory of metaphors (1980). The paper will also look at the grammaticalization of meaning in connection with locative expressions that include the word käsi. The article provides an overview of previous research on somatic vocabulary and points out the link between the contemporary and earlier views. Linguistic expressions reveal a dynamic and flexible development. The article deals with the following principles in semantic change: spatial relations, anthropomorphism, grammaticalization, and metaphorization as part of a broader trend from the physical to the mental. Thus, the Estonian expressions containing the word käsi enable us to monitor a certain process of sociocultural stratification evidenced by the various fields of use of the hand that have, with the passage of time, been reified as layers in language. Käsi is also an actor in the grammaticalization process. Such a change in its turn reveals the dynamism of meaning.

• Details
• Contents