Temperature domain in West Greenlandic

The following chapter deals with temperature terms in West Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) that is spoken in Greenland, which is characterised by cold Arctic climate with long winters and cool summers (EF, ET). In line with cross-linguistic research on the interaction between temperature domain and bodily experience as well as climatic and cultural factors (Koptjevskaja-Tamm & Rakhilina 1999; Plank 2003), I focus on West Greenlandic temperature terms in the way, in which they divide up temperature values and speakers’ experience of temperature. Eight verbal bases and one derivational affix represent the concepts of extreme cold, cold, hot and extreme hot. The chapter focuses on predicative as well as attributive use of temperature terms that exemplify a concrete distinction with regards to experiential and perceptual parameters.