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Whence the name Sipsik for a favourite Estonian ragdoll character?
Keywords: Estonian language, lexical history, etymology
The article discusses the Estonian dialect word sipsik ‘kid, brat’, which has a rather narrow distribution area, and its possible loan etymology. The word sipsik has been introduced to wider public by the popular children’s book of the same name, written by Eno Raud. The article assumes that sipsik has a Latvian relative žipčiks ‘a quick, agile, playful (mostly) boy’. The Latvian žipčiks is widespread in Latvian dialects as well as colloquially, being recorded in Mīlenbachs-Endzelīns dictionary and its supplementary volume (ME 4: 811). The Latvian word derives from the Russian noun жи́вчик ‘live bait…
The article discusses the Estonian dialect word sipsik ‘kid, brat’, which has a rather narrow distribution area, and its possible loan etymology. The word sipsik has been introduced to wider public by the popular children’s book of the same name, written by Eno Raud. The article assumes that sipsik has a Latvian relative žipčiks ‘a quick, agile, playful (mostly) boy’. The Latvian žipčiks is widespread in Latvian dialects as well as colloquially, being recorded in Mīlenbachs-Endzelīns dictionary and its supplementary volume (ME 4: 811). The Latvian word derives from the Russian noun жи́вчик ‘live bait…
Adaptation of the neoclassical prefixes super-, hüper-, mega- and ultra- in Estonian
Keywords: neoclassical prefixes, corpus study, free listing task, synonymy
Neoclassical prefixes are bound morphemes that originate from Latin or Ancient Greek and have become building blocks of international vocabulary within the last few centuries. This paper provides a short overview of this phenomenon and an analysis of four semantically similar morphemes super-, hüper-, mega– and ultra– in contemporary Estonian. The study was synchronic and empirical and was focused principally on the frequency, meaning, usage, and intensity of the aforementioned prefixes.
The data for the inquiries was collected from etTenTen13 (Estonian corpus of webpages). The lemmas of words starting with super-, hüper-,…
Neoclassical prefixes are bound morphemes that originate from Latin or Ancient Greek and have become building blocks of international vocabulary within the last few centuries. This paper provides a short overview of this phenomenon and an analysis of four semantically similar morphemes super-, hüper-, mega– and ultra– in contemporary Estonian. The study was synchronic and empirical and was focused principally on the frequency, meaning, usage, and intensity of the aforementioned prefixes.
The data for the inquiries was collected from etTenTen13 (Estonian corpus of webpages). The lemmas of words starting with super-, hüper-,…
Contradictions in the depiction of Stalinist time in contemporary prose
Keywords: Estonian Soviet literature, socialist realism, democracy, authoritarity
Stalinist literature has not received much attention from the aesthetic viewpoint. True, this could not even be expected of the criticism of the time, but a certain inconsistency can hardly escape the eye of today’s reader. The reason probably lies in the internal contradiction of socialist realism – the incompatibility of realistic vs romantic or utopian modality. Things were required to be depicted at once as they were and as they should or would be in the future.
The article is focused on the depiction of meeting as one of the recurring motives…
Stalinist literature has not received much attention from the aesthetic viewpoint. True, this could not even be expected of the criticism of the time, but a certain inconsistency can hardly escape the eye of today’s reader. The reason probably lies in the internal contradiction of socialist realism – the incompatibility of realistic vs romantic or utopian modality. Things were required to be depicted at once as they were and as they should or would be in the future.
The article is focused on the depiction of meeting as one of the recurring motives…
Invisible Helsinki
Keywords: Helsinki, poetics of space, memory, physical landscape vs immanent spaces
Well-known Finnish writer Kjell Westö (b. 1961) has written several novels set in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Helsinki is usually situated in the foreground of Westö’s novels, as a part of the dynamics of the plot. Westö’s depictions of his hometown – certain poetics, which he is constantly using to describe the landscapes of Helsinki – have been heavily influential to the author of the article, who is trying to make some generalizations about Westö’s poetics of space. The first one would be the notion that beauty in Westö’s…
Well-known Finnish writer Kjell Westö (b. 1961) has written several novels set in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Helsinki is usually situated in the foreground of Westö’s novels, as a part of the dynamics of the plot. Westö’s depictions of his hometown – certain poetics, which he is constantly using to describe the landscapes of Helsinki – have been heavily influential to the author of the article, who is trying to make some generalizations about Westö’s poetics of space. The first one would be the notion that beauty in Westö’s…
Dialecticity in Harald Peep’s literary studies
Keywords: Harald-Heino Peep formerly Professor of Estonian Literary History and General Literary Studies at the university of Tartu, Socratic dialectic in literary studies, stilistics as a border area between traditional rhetoric, eloquence and poetics, topical problems in 20th-century Estonian lyrical poetry
Professor Harald-Heino Peep (1931–1998) was a long-time professor of the latest history of Estonian Literature at the university of Tartu. The main emphasis of his studies was on the literary process as shared creativity. Gradually, he also delved into the methods of studying literature, seeing their common part in following the fate of words applied figuratively in the works of…
Professor Harald-Heino Peep (1931–1998) was a long-time professor of the latest history of Estonian Literature at the university of Tartu. The main emphasis of his studies was on the literary process as shared creativity. Gradually, he also delved into the methods of studying literature, seeing their common part in following the fate of words applied figuratively in the works of…
Motion verbs along the horizontal and vertical axes
Keywords: verb meaning, motion verbs, classification, experimental semantics
In this paper, the meaning of motion verbs is analysed by means of a sorting task. The aim of the study was to identify the degree to which motion verbs in Estonian express horizontal and/or vertical motion. For that, 95 frequent motion verbs of Estonian were presented one by one to 39 native-speaking participants. Their task was to classify the verbs into one of the four pre-defined categories: ‘upward motion’, ‘horizontal motion’, ‘downward motion’, ‘don’t know’. Multidimensional scaling and a clustering technique were then used for statistical data analysis. The results show four…
In this paper, the meaning of motion verbs is analysed by means of a sorting task. The aim of the study was to identify the degree to which motion verbs in Estonian express horizontal and/or vertical motion. For that, 95 frequent motion verbs of Estonian were presented one by one to 39 native-speaking participants. Their task was to classify the verbs into one of the four pre-defined categories: ‘upward motion’, ‘horizontal motion’, ‘downward motion’, ‘don’t know’. Multidimensional scaling and a clustering technique were then used for statistical data analysis. The results show four…
Analysis is tenderness
Keywords: literary criticism, cultural journalism, modern literature, meta-criticism, reception
The article is focused on literary criticism published in Estonian press from 2019 to 2020. The aim of the article is to capture some general tendencies observed in modern Estonian literary criticism and to highlight certain aspects which have hitherto received less attention. One of such aspects is the underestimation of editor influence on the field of criticism. Another observation reveals that critics often fail to find fruitful angles to analyse such literature where the borderlines between fiction and document as well as between speakerʼs and authorʼs egos get blurred. Yet these…
The article is focused on literary criticism published in Estonian press from 2019 to 2020. The aim of the article is to capture some general tendencies observed in modern Estonian literary criticism and to highlight certain aspects which have hitherto received less attention. One of such aspects is the underestimation of editor influence on the field of criticism. Another observation reveals that critics often fail to find fruitful angles to analyse such literature where the borderlines between fiction and document as well as between speakerʼs and authorʼs egos get blurred. Yet these…
Rural prostitutes as reflected in folklore and court materials
Keywords: folk songs, rural prostitution, sexual culture, peasants, court materials
By juxtaposing runo songs as well as newer folk songs with court and police materials, an attempt is made to find out whether prostitution, or paid sex, occurred in 19th-century Estonian rural settlements. The research question is whether the typical venue for the activity was the tavern, which has usually been associated with immoral sexual behaviour, or whether the practice was also carried on, e.g., by female farm servants, herd girls of the manor, cottagers, soldier’s wives etc. The terminology used for such women is also discussed. It turns out…
By juxtaposing runo songs as well as newer folk songs with court and police materials, an attempt is made to find out whether prostitution, or paid sex, occurred in 19th-century Estonian rural settlements. The research question is whether the typical venue for the activity was the tavern, which has usually been associated with immoral sexual behaviour, or whether the practice was also carried on, e.g., by female farm servants, herd girls of the manor, cottagers, soldier’s wives etc. The terminology used for such women is also discussed. It turns out…
The poetics of ambivalence
Keywords: poetics, ambivalence, game, performativity, Theatre NO99
The article investigates the double nature of arts and the related poetics of ambivalence. Similarly to other forms of play, arts are simultaneously operating at two levels: at the symbolic level of play and the non-symbolic level of reality. The intentional strategy of playing at these levels simultaneously causes ambivalence of meanings and affects and has a strong transgressive potential.
The article is divided into three parts. First, different approaches (Barthes, Alter, Burns, Epner) to the double nature of arts are introduced. In the second part, the term ”ambivalence” and poetics based on the notion…
The article investigates the double nature of arts and the related poetics of ambivalence. Similarly to other forms of play, arts are simultaneously operating at two levels: at the symbolic level of play and the non-symbolic level of reality. The intentional strategy of playing at these levels simultaneously causes ambivalence of meanings and affects and has a strong transgressive potential.
The article is divided into three parts. First, different approaches (Barthes, Alter, Burns, Epner) to the double nature of arts are introduced. In the second part, the term ”ambivalence” and poetics based on the notion…
Text and performance in sound poetry: Eesti by Jaan Malin
Keywords: sound poetry, music, text, performance, form, Jaan Malin
There exist no well-established methods for discussing sound poetry. Sound poetry can be associated with music through a specific relationship between text and performance. According to modern understanding, in music, performance is seen not only as a realization of the structure of a work, i.e. of its content, but also as its essential component, and this can also be said about sound poetry. At the same time, sound poetry contains a semantic aspect, due to which it, unlike music, also operates with specific meanings. Consequently, the form of a work of sound…
There exist no well-established methods for discussing sound poetry. Sound poetry can be associated with music through a specific relationship between text and performance. According to modern understanding, in music, performance is seen not only as a realization of the structure of a work, i.e. of its content, but also as its essential component, and this can also be said about sound poetry. At the same time, sound poetry contains a semantic aspect, due to which it, unlike music, also operates with specific meanings. Consequently, the form of a work of sound…
The conflict between lyric and autobiographical
Keywords: lyric time, immersion, performativity, hyperbole, apostrophe, fictionality
Several features of lyric poetry – e.g. subjectivity, vague deixis, monologic structure, low mediation, and weak narrativity – provide a good ground for reading lyric texts as a priori reliable and autobiographical. The metatheoretical discussion here takes a lyricological approach to the relationship of referentiality and self-referentiality in lyric poetry with a view to illuminating the general field of tension between the lyric and the autobiographical. The focus of the discussion is on the following five prototypical features of lyric poetry: temporality, immersion, performativity, hyperbole, and apostrophe.
As is proved by case studies, lyric…
Several features of lyric poetry – e.g. subjectivity, vague deixis, monologic structure, low mediation, and weak narrativity – provide a good ground for reading lyric texts as a priori reliable and autobiographical. The metatheoretical discussion here takes a lyricological approach to the relationship of referentiality and self-referentiality in lyric poetry with a view to illuminating the general field of tension between the lyric and the autobiographical. The focus of the discussion is on the following five prototypical features of lyric poetry: temporality, immersion, performativity, hyperbole, and apostrophe.
As is proved by case studies, lyric…
Poetics of the Estonian novell (classic short story)
Keywords: short story, novell, poetics, structure, composition, punchline, subtext, criticism
Although the Estonian novell is highly regarded in Estonian literature, the term’s implicit meaning has gradually grown less distinguishable from broader definitions associated with short stories overall. Some recent critics tend to consider the novell to be any narrative short prose, placing less emphasis on traditional genre conventions – such as punchlines, subtext, the transformative function and retroactive reading, or flashlight technique. This article uses Toomas Liiv’s theory of the classic novell to illustrate structuralist schemes of narrative counterpoint (subtext), plot dynamics, and retroactive reader phenomenology as well as to highlight the two different levels and…
Although the Estonian novell is highly regarded in Estonian literature, the term’s implicit meaning has gradually grown less distinguishable from broader definitions associated with short stories overall. Some recent critics tend to consider the novell to be any narrative short prose, placing less emphasis on traditional genre conventions – such as punchlines, subtext, the transformative function and retroactive reading, or flashlight technique. This article uses Toomas Liiv’s theory of the classic novell to illustrate structuralist schemes of narrative counterpoint (subtext), plot dynamics, and retroactive reader phenomenology as well as to highlight the two different levels and…
The poetics of young Jaan Bergmann: Poetic art as pleasure and instruction
Keywords: Jaan Bergmann, poetics, Estonian poetry, runo verse, strophe-forms, classical translations, poetic reform
Jaan Bergmann (1856–1916) can be considered one of the founding figures of Estonian poetics: He authored the first Estonian survey of poetics, he also introduced various canonical forms of poetry in his native original poetry, broadened Estonian poetry by genres and enriched it by translations, being the first Estonian translator of several ancient authors. Bergmann’s efforts to diversify Estonian poetic culture mainly belong to his student years, age 18–22. Thus the focus of the present article lies on Bergmann’s contribution to the development of Estonian poetics and versification…
Jaan Bergmann (1856–1916) can be considered one of the founding figures of Estonian poetics: He authored the first Estonian survey of poetics, he also introduced various canonical forms of poetry in his native original poetry, broadened Estonian poetry by genres and enriched it by translations, being the first Estonian translator of several ancient authors. Bergmann’s efforts to diversify Estonian poetic culture mainly belong to his student years, age 18–22. Thus the focus of the present article lies on Bergmann’s contribution to the development of Estonian poetics and versification…
The strophic structure of ancient Hebrew affective and reflective distress poetry, on the example of the speeches of Job
Keywords: Old Testament, Hebrew Bible, poetry, biblical poetry, strophe, verse
The paper suggests that there is enough reason to maintain the genre of distress poetry in Ancient Hebrew poetry. It helps to overcome the limits of the poetical corpora of psalms, prophets and wisdom overestimated so far in research history, and to see connections between texts that seem different at first glance. Even though in ancient times there seem to have been nobody to consider the category of distress poetry, it still has a functional role nowadays. The present small study requires a multilayered, redaction-critical look at the Book of Job…
The paper suggests that there is enough reason to maintain the genre of distress poetry in Ancient Hebrew poetry. It helps to overcome the limits of the poetical corpora of psalms, prophets and wisdom overestimated so far in research history, and to see connections between texts that seem different at first glance. Even though in ancient times there seem to have been nobody to consider the category of distress poetry, it still has a functional role nowadays. The present small study requires a multilayered, redaction-critical look at the Book of Job…