Category
Topic
Year
Repeating repetitions: Rendering figures of repetition in Estonian translations of Greek novels
Keywords: Greek novels, rhetorical figures, figures of repetition, Estonian translation
The aim of this paper is to explore the possibilities of transferring the rhetorical figures, specifically the figures of repetition which occur in the Greek novels, into Estonian translation. The use and function of sound-repetitions, word- and stem-repetitions and structural repetitions in two Greek novels (Leucippe and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius from the 2nd century AD and Hysmine and Hysminias by Eustathius Macrembolites from the 12th century AD) are shortly described, examining which figures can be rendered into Estonian in exactly the same form, in which cases some minor changes have…
The aim of this paper is to explore the possibilities of transferring the rhetorical figures, specifically the figures of repetition which occur in the Greek novels, into Estonian translation. The use and function of sound-repetitions, word- and stem-repetitions and structural repetitions in two Greek novels (Leucippe and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius from the 2nd century AD and Hysmine and Hysminias by Eustathius Macrembolites from the 12th century AD) are shortly described, examining which figures can be rendered into Estonian in exactly the same form, in which cases some minor changes have…
A pair of fading disciplines – the art of phrasing based on the art of thinking: The emergence of rhetoric and the poetics of philosophy in Greece and their lingering in other places
Keywords: Plato, Gorgias, Aristotle, Dionysius from Halicarnassos, Cicero, Horace, Morgenstern
The article discusses the emergence and development of poetics and rhetoric as a complementary pair of disciplines bound to the arts of speech, with a particular focus on antiquity and on the theory defining poetry and prose and their relationship. It emphasizes the often unrecognized role of Gorgias’ “Encomium of Helen” in the formation of Plato’s and Aristotle’s views on “poiesis” and their studies of the effect of words used artistically. Ever since Gorgias, arts theories keep emphasizing the same moments – change of opinions, incitement and alleviation of passions –when…
The article discusses the emergence and development of poetics and rhetoric as a complementary pair of disciplines bound to the arts of speech, with a particular focus on antiquity and on the theory defining poetry and prose and their relationship. It emphasizes the often unrecognized role of Gorgias’ “Encomium of Helen” in the formation of Plato’s and Aristotle’s views on “poiesis” and their studies of the effect of words used artistically. Ever since Gorgias, arts theories keep emphasizing the same moments – change of opinions, incitement and alleviation of passions –when…
Poetics is in genes: A manifesto
Keywords: poetics, pragmapoetics, genetics, self-reflexivity, CRISPR, biosemiotics, biolinguistics
The article reveals the commonality between poetics and genetics for the first time. Thus far, outside of cellular biology, attempts have been made from both (text)linguistics and semiotics to describe the genome and its interactions similarly to language. However, the approach in this manifesto relies particularly on the poetic function of language and its underlying self-referentiality as its starting point. Poetic relevance reveals itself explicitly in its relation to the cutting-edge concept of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), which thematizes abundant metrical and figurative phenomena and terms on several levels: accumulation, regularity, interval, different repetitions, rhythm; equivalency, substitution, connotation;…
The article reveals the commonality between poetics and genetics for the first time. Thus far, outside of cellular biology, attempts have been made from both (text)linguistics and semiotics to describe the genome and its interactions similarly to language. However, the approach in this manifesto relies particularly on the poetic function of language and its underlying self-referentiality as its starting point. Poetic relevance reveals itself explicitly in its relation to the cutting-edge concept of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), which thematizes abundant metrical and figurative phenomena and terms on several levels: accumulation, regularity, interval, different repetitions, rhythm; equivalency, substitution, connotation;…
The Estonian liisuma and its attendants
Keywords: Estonian, lexical history, etymology, Baltic loanwords
The Estonian verb liisuma ’grow stale, become vapid’ is provided with a Baltic etymology: Blt. *līsV-, whose descendants in modern Baltic languages are, e.g. Lith. lýsti (lýsta, lýso) ’grow thin or lean, become emaciated (of a sick person or animal); become lean, barren (of a field or soil)’. For example the Lith. líesti (líesta, líeso) ’become emaciated (of an animal), become barren (of land)’, líesas ’meagre, emaciated (person or animal), lean (meat), lean, poor, hungry, barren (soil); shriveled (ear of grain)’, Latv. liẽst (liẽst, liẽsa) ’become lean’, liẽss ’thin, meagre (person), lean (meat), lean,…
The Estonian verb liisuma ’grow stale, become vapid’ is provided with a Baltic etymology: Blt. *līsV-, whose descendants in modern Baltic languages are, e.g. Lith. lýsti (lýsta, lýso) ’grow thin or lean, become emaciated (of a sick person or animal); become lean, barren (of a field or soil)’. For example the Lith. líesti (líesta, líeso) ’become emaciated (of an animal), become barren (of land)’, líesas ’meagre, emaciated (person or animal), lean (meat), lean, poor, hungry, barren (soil); shriveled (ear of grain)’, Latv. liẽst (liẽst, liẽsa) ’become lean’, liẽss ’thin, meagre (person), lean (meat), lean,…
From Foreign Literature to World Literature
Keywords: world literature, literatures of western Europe, Hispanic studies, continuity in teaching world literature
The article deals with the transition from the Soviet-era concept of foreign literature (väliskirjandus) to the historically justified concept world literature (maailmakirjandus) in Estonian literary studies and the role of Professor Jüri Talvet (b. 1945) of the University of Tartu in this process. Although the concept of world literature was not taboo in the Soviet Union, its content was hardly found taught in institutions of higher education. Instead, there was a subject called Foreign Literature, which mainly included literatures of western Europe since early Middle Ages. In…
The article deals with the transition from the Soviet-era concept of foreign literature (väliskirjandus) to the historically justified concept world literature (maailmakirjandus) in Estonian literary studies and the role of Professor Jüri Talvet (b. 1945) of the University of Tartu in this process. Although the concept of world literature was not taboo in the Soviet Union, its content was hardly found taught in institutions of higher education. Instead, there was a subject called Foreign Literature, which mainly included literatures of western Europe since early Middle Ages. In…
On professional correspondence between Julius Mägiste and Andrus Saareste when in exile
Keywords: exile, correspondence, linguistics, dialectology, informants
The article describes the correspondence between two language professors of the University of Tartu before the Second World War, Julius Mägiste (1900–1978) and Andrus Saareste (1892–1964), which lasted for nearly two decades in exile from 1944 to 1964. There are 68 letters from the former Finnic professor Mägiste and 80 from the Estonian professor Saareste. The letters are kept at the Cultural History Archives of the Estonian Literary Museum (EKM EKLA, f 254, m 22:22; EKM EKLA, f 340, m 30:23).
After staying in refugee camps both professors found jobs in Swedish universities: Mägiste as…
The article describes the correspondence between two language professors of the University of Tartu before the Second World War, Julius Mägiste (1900–1978) and Andrus Saareste (1892–1964), which lasted for nearly two decades in exile from 1944 to 1964. There are 68 letters from the former Finnic professor Mägiste and 80 from the Estonian professor Saareste. The letters are kept at the Cultural History Archives of the Estonian Literary Museum (EKM EKLA, f 254, m 22:22; EKM EKLA, f 340, m 30:23).
After staying in refugee camps both professors found jobs in Swedish universities: Mägiste as…
Folk expressions of the corona crisis in Estonia: Reuse of folklore as a way of coping
Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic tradition, folkloristics, folklore reuse, memes, narratives, proverbs
The aim of the article is to provide an overview of the reuse of folklore as a way of coping, based on the narratives related to COVID-19 pandemic collected from written, oral and online sources from March to June 2020. By giving examples of thematic religious and belief tradition, memes and proverbs, we point out how each new epidemic revives certain core motifs and root texts, some of which are exceptionally productive. We conclude that such a creative reuse of certain well-known and tested motifs in the interpretation of the disease…
The aim of the article is to provide an overview of the reuse of folklore as a way of coping, based on the narratives related to COVID-19 pandemic collected from written, oral and online sources from March to June 2020. By giving examples of thematic religious and belief tradition, memes and proverbs, we point out how each new epidemic revives certain core motifs and root texts, some of which are exceptionally productive. We conclude that such a creative reuse of certain well-known and tested motifs in the interpretation of the disease…
The various aspects of home
Keywords: exile, Estonian exile literature, Estonian diaspora, correspondence, home
Writer Valev Uibopuu (1913–1997) lived in exile from 1943 until his death. During the whole exile period he held an active correspondence, especially with Estonians living in Estonia and with members of the Estonian diaspora, as well as with his first wife Tuuli Reijonen, who lived in Finland. These letters lay the foundation to this article, which is focused on his changing experience of home in exile. Thus I tried to find out what home meant to Uibopuu, how his concept of home developed in exile and how Uibopuu began to feel…
Writer Valev Uibopuu (1913–1997) lived in exile from 1943 until his death. During the whole exile period he held an active correspondence, especially with Estonians living in Estonia and with members of the Estonian diaspora, as well as with his first wife Tuuli Reijonen, who lived in Finland. These letters lay the foundation to this article, which is focused on his changing experience of home in exile. Thus I tried to find out what home meant to Uibopuu, how his concept of home developed in exile and how Uibopuu began to feel…
Analysis of quantity degrees by synthesis
Keywords: quantity degrees, analysis by synthesis, speech synthesis, machine learning
The article is the first attempt to provide a fresh view of the quantity degree as a phonological category by using synthesis and machine learning. The results of the analysis are compared with recorded natural speech and with synthetic speech achieved by different methods of synthesis. Self-training speech synthesizers based on hidden Markov models (HMM), on deep neural netrworks (DNN) and on recurrent neural networks (RNN) were used. The input for machine learning consisted of written Estonian texts (ca 1000 sentences) and audio texts recorded from different informants who used the…
The article is the first attempt to provide a fresh view of the quantity degree as a phonological category by using synthesis and machine learning. The results of the analysis are compared with recorded natural speech and with synthetic speech achieved by different methods of synthesis. Self-training speech synthesizers based on hidden Markov models (HMM), on deep neural netrworks (DNN) and on recurrent neural networks (RNN) were used. The input for machine learning consisted of written Estonian texts (ca 1000 sentences) and audio texts recorded from different informants who used the…
Language change vs. sociolinguistic change
Keywords: language change, sociolinguistic change, periodization, mediatization, big data, small data, English, Estonian
In this article, we discuss the meaning of language change and sociolinguistic change, review some periodizations which describe changes in and around Estonian, and suggest new directions for future research. We approach the issue from the perspective of the 2014 volume edited by Jannis Androutsopoulos, who invites researchers to overcome the dualism of structuralist and post-structuralist paradigms in studying language change and to bring the study of language and society closer together. Sociolinguistic change is not limited to a single sound, lexical or syntactic element in a language,…
In this article, we discuss the meaning of language change and sociolinguistic change, review some periodizations which describe changes in and around Estonian, and suggest new directions for future research. We approach the issue from the perspective of the 2014 volume edited by Jannis Androutsopoulos, who invites researchers to overcome the dualism of structuralist and post-structuralist paradigms in studying language change and to bring the study of language and society closer together. Sociolinguistic change is not limited to a single sound, lexical or syntactic element in a language,…