Article published in:
The Linguistics of Temperature
Edited by Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm
[Typological Studies in Language 107] 2015
► pp. 440–470

Facts, feelings and temperature expressions in the Hindukush

Indo-Aryan Palula (Pakistan) is spoken in a part of the mountainous Hindukush region characterised by sharp climatic and altitude contrasts. In this study, five central temperature terms are investigated and related to tactile temperature, ambient temperature and experiencer-based (i.e. personal-feeling) temperature: táatu ‘hot/warm’, šidáalu ‘cold’, húluk ‘heat’, šidaloó ‘coolness’, and šid ‘coldness’. A few salient correlations between particular expressions and the type of experience involved are identified: First, temperature adjectives are restricted to the domain of rational experience, whereas temperature nouns typically are associated with expressions that refer to thermal (and subjective) comfort or ambient temperature. Second, while temperature evaluated or measured directly by touching an entity tends to be grammatically encoded as noun modification, the subjective experience is expressed with the temperature noun as a stimulus acting upon a non-nominative experiencer. Finally we discuss a few semantic extensions into the human temperament/propensity domain, such as ‘affection is warmth’ and ‘anger is heat’.
Published online: 11 February 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.107.14lil
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