Unnecessary or meaningful -lt derivative?

Lydia Risberg; Maarja-Liisa Pilvik; Liina Lindström

doi:10.54013/kk826a2

Keywords: temporal adverbs, redundancy, corpus analysis, usage-based linguistics, language planning

This article presents a comparative analysis of the Estonian adverbs koheselt and kohe, bothexpressing immediacy, with particular attention to the long-standing prescriptive rejection of koheselt due to its perceived redundancy. Since the 1960 edition of the Dictionary of Standard Estonian, koheselt has been stigmatized without contextual consideration. Drawing on a usage-based corpus analysis, we show that koheselt gained prominence in the 1940s and 1950s, especially in Soviet-era bureaucratic and directive texts, a development that likely contributed to its subsequent stigmatization. Although its use declined following the prescriptive recommendation issued in the 1960 normative dictionary, it has gradually regained ground and now appears across a wide range of genres. The data indicates that koheselt often marks temporal immediacy more precisely than kohe and may also function as a manner adverb. Contrary to earlier claims, koheselt is not inherently unsuitable in neutral contexts. We argue that its markedness serves a communicative function and that “redundancy” can, in fact, enhance clarity and meaning in written Estonian.

Lydia Risberg (b. 1988), PhD, Estonian Language Institute, Researcher (Vanemuise 21, 51003 Tartu), University of Tartu, Research Fellow in Estonian Language, lydia.risberg@eki.ee

Maarja-Liisa Pilvik (b. 1989), PhD, University of Tartu, Research Fellow in Estonian Language (Jakobi 2, 51005 Tartu), maarja-liisa.pilvik@ut.ee

Liina Lindström (b. 1973), PhD, University of Tartu, Professor of Modern Estonian Language (Jakobi 2, 51005 Tartu), liina.lindstrom@ut.ee

Unnecessary or meaningful –lt derivative?

A comparison of the adverbs koheselt and kohe expressing immediacy

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