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Article published In: Perception, Culture and Language
Edited by Judit Baranyiné Kóczy and Rita Brdar-Szabó
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies 10:2] 2023
► pp. 313–341

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Cultural conceptualizations of sight and cultural values

A contrastive analysis of Hungarian vision verbs

ORCiD logo with link | University of Pannonia
Published online: 17 November 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.00103.bar
Abstract
The relationship between visual experience and cognition manifested in the thinking/knowing/understanding is seeing metaphor, is claimed to be the primary vision metaphor in various languages. However, only a few studies considered its extension to less central domains such as cultural values. The paper seeks to understand how the figurative usages of Hungarian vision verbs refer to the cultural values of morality, respect, and hospitality. Three verbs of vision are invesitaged employing Cultural Linguistic and cognitive semantic analyses, namely, néz ‘look/watch’, lát ‘see’, and tekint ‘look/glance’. It is demonstrated that visual perception in Hungarian has a significant role in moral reasoning; however, there are substantial differences in the ways these vision verbs relate to them. To find a motivational explanation for these differences, the semantic properties of the verbs are identified through contrastive analysis and by observing their semantic profiles within the vision scenario. As a result, a cultural model of each verb is reconstructed. The study gives a refined view on the linkage of sight and cultural values in Hungarian, furthermore, the proposed methodology can be effectively applied to various areas of perception research in a cultural context.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Figurative extensions of perception verbs
  • 3.The concept and cultural models of cultural values
  • 4.Metaphors of cultural values in the domain of sight
  • 5.Hungarian vision verbs and their extensions to cultural values
    • 5.1Extensions of néz ‘look/watch’
    • 5.2Extensions of lát ‘see’
    • 5.3Extensions of tekint ‘look/glance’
  • 6.Semantic properties and cultural models of vision verbs
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (67)
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