Abstract
Perspectivisation is fundamental to construal and is connected to cultural, situational and discourse contexts. In many folksongs, where nature images have an initial position, they can often be interpreted from two perspectives. More precisely, the way they are construed allows for more than one interpretation from different perspectives of the same linguistic expression. This underlying feature is manifested in the dynamic view of construal, namely, the speaker’s vantage point in the first part of the text can be understood as implicit and off-stage, while later on it becomes explicit and on-stage. Meanwhile, what is viewed from a collective perspective (based on folk cultural cognition) in a more objective form at the beginning is taken over by an overwhelming individual perspective and subjective construal at the next stage. In this process, numerous linguistic items are taken into account, such as scalar adjectives implying multiple reference points, definite noun phrases having the potential to be cognized in two ways or adverbs of space and time with undefined reference points. In this way nature images can be cognized from both perspectives asserting collective and individual perspectives simultaneously.
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Notes
- 1.
“Human symbols [are] inherently social, intersubjective and perspectival” (Tomasello 1999: 131).
- 2.
It may be interpreted as a recommendation for girls to look for a partner but it is not expressed in the song explicitly.
- 3.
The name of the lad.
- 4.
This song is also used as a coupling song.
- 5.
“Round” implies closeness and privacy.
- 6.
River water becomes troubled when the river drift is stirred up at the time of flooding.
- 7.
A conventional metaphor of a sexual act in folksongs.
- 8.
In folk conceptualization the 24-hour day is divided into three basic periods, so afternoon never shows up in folksongs.
- 9.
It may well refer to the folk observation that in the old times the snow in Hungary normally fell at the end of November and lasted until February or even March when it gradually melted.
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Baranyiné Kóczy, J. (2018). Perspectivisation. In: Nature, Metaphor, Culture. Cultural Linguistics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5753-3_11
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