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Temporal aspect of Baltic lexemes derived from root *dūs-/*dūz- or *daus-

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2021

Abstract

Although there have been several explanations on lexemes derived from root *dūs-/*dūz- or *daus- in terms of its origin (whether it is or it is not a loan word from Slavic languages), these lexemes are attained both in Prussian sources and in modern Baltic languages in connection with soul, spirit. Being so, they play their part within a broader area of Baltic denotations for soul.

For some of various lexemes meaning soul, the critical moment for defining their traits seems to be a moment of death when the substances, according to how they are perceived, head to a different directions or vanish. Paper tracked semantic paths of the certain lexemes in Baltic languages and offered a comparison with other Baltic denotations for soul based on their unique decisive temporal moment.