The labelling of the adversary in the propaganda war is a process of two steps. To exchange a personal name for a befitting nickname you have, first, to introduce and inculcate a – mostly implicit, covert – by-name which is apposite thanks to not only external features of the adversary or his actual behaviour (NN ‹ caligula; in Estonian the personal character name is spelled with a minuscule). A surficial nickname will not stick in the face of a possible change of appearance or occupation. Secondly, you have to generalize the character name to a type name (caligula ‹ Tyrant;…

Jan Kaus’s approach to Tallinn in his prose is analysed. Using mapping, description, history, memory and memories of the place Kaus depicts the town through the views of different characters, while the motifs are often the same. The article examines whether the author prefers to describe the town or rather concentrates on the feelings and sense of identity of its inhabitants and on how it manifests in their interpretation of their town. As to the ways used to bring Tallinn home to the reader Kaus often chooses to convey a subtle cognitive milieu or atmosphere, connecting peoples’ fates with the…

This study proves, more than ever, that in addition to Joosep Freimann’s and Gustav Malts’ manuscripts as well as articles critical of Maltsevism, which appeared in the newspaper „Perno Postimees”, important material for constructing Maltsevism was acquired by borrowing the term „re-born” from Free Church and Baptist spirituality. Eduard Vilde investigated the spirituality of the Free and Baptist congregations born in Estonia in the 1880s, trying to discover the basic pattern of spirituality of the Maltsevians formed in the late 1850s. However, the construction of a picture of Maltsevism with „re-birth”, practice of rebaptism and an independent practice of the…

A. H. Tammsaare was drawn to the musical tonality of prose. Importantly though, he did not wholeheartedly embrace sound patterning as a mode of writing. Rather, he preferred a semantic widening of ordinary language within a comprehensively holistic „spherical music”. Still, in his novels, we can detect a deliberate use of rhythmic motion also in sentences. This is evident primarily in the wealth of lexical and syntactic repetitions resulting in a parallelism of patterns. An obvious, although discreet rhythmic design emerges in the thesis-antithesis-synthesis parataxis whose core words are the adversative and coordinating conjunction aga (‘but’) and the integrative ometi…

The article explores and analyses the musical development of an infant from birth to the beginning of her third year of life. Detailed analysis addresses the months 20–25. The object of analysis is Marie, daughter of the first author, whose development has been recorded by her parents in the form of diary entries as well as video and sound recordings used in the analysis. Marie began to speak at 19 months and to sing at 20 months. The development of singing skills is illustrated by an analysis of her presentations of children’s song („The big old deer”) and two improvised…

The article surveys the recent acoustic and perceptual studies of Estonian phonetic quantity and introduces some new phonological interpretations of the ternary opposition of the Estonian quantity degrees. Answering to Mati Hint’s (2015) criticism, which is based on a theory of syllable quantity, the Estonian opposition of three quantity degrees is explained as a property of minimally disyllabic metrical feet.  Acoustically as well as perceptually, Estonian quantity degrees are a complex phenomenon depending on durational differences, pitch contour, intensity, sound quality, and the way of binding of the first and second syllables (cf. Lippus et al. 2013). The article points…

The article addresses the available definitions and interpretations of translation, mainly in view of translator education. The constantly changing market as well as the modern information society requires that a translator should be flexible and ready to act in a constructive manner whatever the situation. Knowing just a few basics is hardly enough if a translator’s ambition is higher than the lowest market segment, let alone job satisfaction. Therefore, I would argue that it is crucial for translators to reach their own definition of translation and to be able to analyse the translation process.
Translation is a field of many well-established…

The article discusses the literary criticism published in the Estonian printed press during 2013–2014 and in the available collections of criticism by classics as well as by modern critics. The focus is on the government supported cultural journals Looming, Vikerkaar and Keel ja Kirjandus, and the newspaper Sirp, which all publish criticism of a satisfactory standard. Compared to Soviet times, when part of the cultural press was censored less strictly, thus enabling hidden reference to social problems, the literary criticism cultivated in independent Estonia is more self-sufficient, mainly dealing with aesthetic problems. An approach to literature as an art in…

Mati Unt’s image as a writer is closely related to existentialism, which is evidenced by his portrayal of home. Many of Unt’s characters live in temporary rooms, without really feeling at home anywhere, and their relations with other people are complicated and often violent. And yet, Unt’s existentialism is not absolute. His alienation is often conditioned by the public sphere, the (Soviet) system and its influence on human relations. Rather, the characters created by the young Unt are trying to bridge the crevice of alienation, to catch „a signal of help”, to make contact with other levels or spheres. This…