A matter of degree? The domain of wetness in a typological perspective

Ch. 3. P. 57–78.

Reznikova T., Panina A., Kruglyakova V.

The article studies the domain of wetness in 20 languages. In many of them
the domain features two main words (e.g. German nass, feucht; Mongolian nojton,
čijgleg; Moksha načkə, l’et’kə) and the difference between them tends to
be described in terms of degree, i.e. ‘intensely’ versus ‘slightly wet’. Typological
analysis shows that in each case the degree of humidity receives a specific interpretation
depending on the noun that is being modified, so that the choice
of a particular synonym is based not simply on the quantity of the fluid, but on
the situation as a whole (including the source of moisture, intentional versus
non-intentional event, etc.). We also discuss the additional factors relevant to the
domain in the languages that have more than two words in it, that is, the additional
words with a positive or a negative connotation, or moisture from contact
with a liquid versus moisture absorbed from humid air.

Keywords: physical qualities, lexical typology, semantics of degree, wetness

In book

The Typology of Physical Qualities

Ekaterina Rakhilina, Reznikova T., Kyuseva M., Parina E., Ryzhova D., Panina A., Kruglyakova V., Kozlov A., Vinogradova O. I., Vyrenkova A. S., Orekhov B. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2022.