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In:Thinking and Speaking About Time: A cognitive linguistic approach
Edited by Rita Brdar-Szabó and Mario Brdar
[Human Cognitive Processing 81] 2026
► pp. 176–196

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Chapter 6
Drawing the direction of Estonian verbs

From temporality to emotion and beyond

 | University of Tartu
Published online: 27 January 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.81.06tra
Abstract
In this chapter, the findings of a free-form drawing task conducted with 21 native speakers of Estonian are presented. The subjects were asked to draw and simultaneously verbalize their schematic representations of 24 Estonian verbs. For each drawing, a set of features was manually annotated, including the direction. Cluster analysis was then used to analyse the data, using four possible directions as variables. The output revealed three distinct clusters for verbs with a dominant direction upwards, downwards or to the left, and a fourth cluster for verbs with several directions. The reasons for such division of verbs between those clusters is discussed, as well as the question why no cluster was formed for the direction to the right.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical framework
  • 3.Method and data
    • 3.1Experiment and stimuli
    • 3.2Procedure and subjects
    • 3.3Annotation
    • 3.4Data analysis methods
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Arrows on the drawings
    • 4.2Directions: Right, left, up and down
    • 4.3Dominant directions of verbs
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (26)
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