NAMAS ‘house’ and NAMAI ‘home’ in the Lithuanian Language and Culture
Articles
Kristina Rutkovska
Vilnius University, Lithuania
Published 2016-12-15
https://doi.org/10.15388/LK.2016.22594
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Keywords

house
concept
world view and language
cognitive linguistics

How to Cite

Rutkovska, K. (2016) “NAMAS ‘house’ and NAMAI ‘home’ in the Lithuanian Language and Culture”, Lietuvių kalba, (10), pp. 1–30. doi:10.15388/LK.2016.22594.

Abstract

  The Lithuanian picture of house/home is deeply rooted in folk tradition – the ideal home is the rural home of a person’s childhood. In Lithuanian, there are two expressions that are used to designate the concept, the singular namas – which dictionaries tersely define as a building – and the plural namai, which stands for a broader space and a family staying together. The author discusses synonyms (and quasi-synonyms), antonyms (accenting the opposition between familiarity and strangeness), derivatives and collocations of these words. She reports the results of a questionnarie, which show that namas/namai is often mythicised as a paradise on earth, with the important motif of returning home. Proverbs keep guard over patriarchal relations in the family and portray home as a stronghold. Journalistic texts introduce the concept of a cosmopolitan home, open to the world. The features of the Lithuanian base picture of namas/namai are discussed according to the basic semantic aspects: social, psychosocial (sacralisation of home), mental, physical and functional (home as a shelter protecting individuals from the strange world they fear). Two profiles of the Lithuanian home are identified in the study: a romantic rustic profile grounded in the lasting relationship with the family, and a European, intelligentsia profile located wherever there are (any) people.

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