2.1.1. eső ‘rain’

How could the word eső have possibly emerged? It consists of the root es- and the suffix –ó (which comes in two variants, –ó and –ő, the choice of which being governed by vowel harmony). –Ó is a suffix that can be used in Hungarian in a variety of different ways: among others, to indicate (1) an actually occurring action, (2) a trait-like or typical action or event, (3) a property, (4) an agent, instrument, or location, and (5) complex events (Reference Tóth-CzifraTóth-Czifra, unpublished observations). Given this, on one interpretation we can suggest that the word eső is the result of a metonymy in which an actually occurring action or event stands for a complex physical event (eső as present participle Ò eső as noun). The metonymy can be spelled out as follows: AN ACTUALLY OCCURRING ACTION OR EVENT FOR THE COMPLEX EVENT INVOLVING IT.

What brings into existence the ‘actually occurring action or event’ sense of eső is the joining of the root es- with the suffix –Ó. It yields the present participial form eső. This is actually the development of the senses of eső as proposed by The historical-etymological dictionary of the Hungarian language (Benkő, Reference Benkő1984): first the ‘actually occurring’ sense is produced, which in turn metonymically yields the nominal sense of eső (i.e., ‘rain’).

One can ask whether the first step in the process of emergence is also metonymic. Probably it is not. However, there is a deeper sense in which we can think of the entire process of derivation (plus conversion) and its output as metonymic. In an encyclopedic view of meaning (see, e.g., Langacker, Reference Langacker1987), rain is a complex physical event that consists of a complex of processes, properties, and things: There are the clouds from which the raindrops fall. We can regard the raindrops as the things that are involved in the process of falling, and the raindrops and the falling as having such properties as being wet (consisting of water) and moving downward, respectively. The raindrops hit the ground and produce certain (beneficial and non-beneficial) effects, and many others. It is this entire complex of experiences that we take to be rain. Now, out of all these experiences it is the ‘falling’ (of the raindrops) that is relied on when Hungarians conceptualize rain, and, consequently, they linguistically code their complex experiences of it in terms of this single feature. This is metonymic thinking in which a single property of a complex of things, events, and properties is used to metonymically stand for the whole complex. In other words, we deal with the highly general PART FOR WHOLE metonymy here, where the part is RAINDROPS FALLING and the whole is the COMPLEX EVENT OF RAIN. I suggest that this is a metonymy that underlies the way Hungarians conceptualize and linguistically code the experience of rain.

2.1.2. eskü ‘oath’

The noun eskü ‘oath’ can be semantically motivated by another metonymy:

More generally, the metonymic principle is:

However, etymologically, the word eskü ‘oath’ did not emerge directly from the root es-. As The historical-etymological dictionary of the Hungarian language (Benkő, Reference Benkő1984) points out, it derives from the verb esküszik ‘take an oath’, which is morphologically composed of the root es-, the archaic verb-forming suffix –sz, and the punctual (semelfactive) verbal suffix –k. The noun eskü ‘oath’ acquired its final shape through reduction during the Hungarian language reform period toward the end of the eighteenth century. As etymological dictionaries agree, the verb lost its verb-forming suffix –sz and the –ik verb ending.

The conceptual frame of oath-taking includes the person taking the oath, the action of taking the oath, the gesture or posture performed in taking it, the person or thing on which the oath is taken, and so on. Of these elements of the frame, it is the gesture or posture that is required to account for the meaning of eskü ‘oath’. In the European cultural sphere, in the past oaths were conventionally taken by kneeling down. It is this change in relative height that explains the use of the word root es- ‘fall(ing)’. A more detailed explanation would of course also require taking into account a further metonymy according to which FALLING (DOWN BEFORE SOMEONE) stands for KNEELING (DOWN BEFORE SOMEONE). For the present purposes, it will suffice to assume the presence of the metonymy FALLING DOWN TO THE GROUND FOR OATH TAKING in the semantic motivation of the word eskü ‘oath’ in Hungarian. Importantly, Czuczor and Fogarasi (Reference Czuczor and Fogarasi1862) note that the word eskü ‘oath’ also existed in the form of es as a noun – a form that coincides with the root es-. In addition, they observe the presence of es- in the sense of eskü ‘oath’ in several contemporary dialects. Such observations, if valid, further reinforce the idea of the metonymic development of eskü ‘oath’ from the root es-.

2.1.3. esedezik ‘beg’, ‘supplicate’, ‘implore’

The most commonly accepted conventional meaning of the verb esedezik in the Hungarian dictionaries consulted is ‘könyörög’ (‘beg’, ‘supplicate’, ‘implore’). The frame for esedezik involves the person who performs the action indicated by the verb, another person at whom the action is directed, the cause or reason of the action, and the manner in which the action is performed. Significantly, and similar to eskü above, the manner of performing the action consists, historically, of the gesture or posture of falling to the ground before the person from whom something is requested. This yields the general metonymy:

In this case, the gesture or posture is falling to the ground, while the action involving it is imploring someone. The corresponding more specific metonymy is: FALLING (TO THE GROUND BEFORE A PERSON) FOR BEGGING/ IMPLORING THAT PERSON. It is the application of this specific metonymy that may have given rise to the word esedezik ‘beg’, ‘supplicate’, ‘implore’.

Esedezik is composed of the root es-, the complex iterative suffix –dez (consisting of –d and –z as simple iterative suffixes), and the verbal ending –ik. The iterative suffix indicates that the act of imploring involves several repeated (speech) acts. This is combined with the essentially durative meaning of the root, specifying that the durative action is made up of several repeated (speech) acts.

We could further ask why the gesture/posture of falling (down before someone) is part of the conceptual frame of esedezik ‘beg’, ‘supplicate’, ‘implore’ to begin with. The reason might be that the person who performs this action has less power than the person from whom something is requested. The unequal distribution of power between the two persons can thus be captured by the conceptual metaphor POWER IS UP and LACK OF POWER IS DOWN (see Kövecses, Reference Kövecses2010; Lakoff & Johnson, Reference Lakoff and Johnson1980): the person with less power (conceptualized metaphorically as DOWN) implores the person with more power (conceptualized as UP). It is this metaphor-based idea that accounts for the presence of the element FALLING DOWN BEFORE SOMEONE in the frame. In other words, the frame contains a metaphor-based element that constitutes the manner component of imploring someone in the Hungarian word. The same holds, of course, for the word eskü ‘oath’ discussed above. In general, this kind of interplay between metaphors and metonymies occurs frequently in the way we conceptualize aspects of the world.

2.1.4. est(e) ‘evening’

As noted by The historical-etymological dictionary of the Hungarian language (Benkő, Reference Benkő1984), the word emerged from the root es- and the nominalizing suffix –t (with este being the result of a complex process of derivation from est, not relevant to the present discussion). Conceptually, the nominalizing suffix gives ‘thing’ status to the process of falling. The emergence of the word est and the more colloquial este ‘evening’ can be motivated by a metonymic principle that obtains between events and the time of the occurrence of events. The specific metonymy that applies to this case can be given as:

That is to say, est(e) ‘evening’ in Hungarian is conceptualized as the falling of the sun. This conceptualization is based on the perceptual experience of the sun ‘going down’. Given the perceptual experience, we may need an additional step in our account according to which ‘going down’ is seen as ‘falling’. It is not clear whether this is a metonymic or a metaphoric step (or, as a matter of fact, simply a shift based on literal similarity). However, the additional step and the uncertainty concerning the interpretation GOING DOWN as FALLING does not affect the argument that in Hungarian the word est(e) ‘evening’ seems to derive from the root es- (and the nominalizing suffix –t) through a metonymic process (i.e., THE FALLING OF THE SUN FOR THE TIME OF THE DAY WHEN THIS OCCURS).

The metonymy above is a specific-level case of a more general metonymic principle. The times when events occur can be conceptualized through the events themselves, provided that the events typically or characteristically occur at a regular time (of the day, season, etc.). Thus, the general metonymy can be stated as AN EVENT FOR THE TIME WHEN THE EVENT OCCURS.

While this does not seem to be a productive general metonymy, its reversal is. For example, the general metonymic principle THE TIME WHEN AN EVENT OCCURS FOR THE EVENT serves as the semantic basis of words like nyaral ‘be on (summer) vacation’, which derives in turn from nyár ‘summer’ in Hungarian. Clearly, the metonymy also works for English, as in the verb summer (e.g., summer in Paris). The idea in both cases is that the time when certain actions are typically or characteristically done can metonymically stand for the actions themselves.

More interestingly for Hungarian, it is the latter general metonymy that provides the semantic motivation for the word estély ‘(evening) reception (and dance)’. In this case, the word est ‘evening’, meaning a particular time or period of the day, can be used to indicate the activities performed during that time or period, given the general metonymy THE TIME WHEN AN EVENT OCCURS FOR THE EVENT. This is an example of how the root es- can produce new words by undergoing a series of metonymic processes.

2.2.1. esemény ‘event, occurrence, happening’

The word esemény consists of the root es- and the nominalizing suffix –mény/–mány (the use of which depending on rules of vowel harmony). The general meaning of the suffix is ‘thing’, while its more specific meaning is ‘the result or consequence of an action or process’ (i.e., in this case, the ‘result of falling’). However, the ‘falling’ part is to be understood metaphorically, and, as in all other cases in this section, the nominalizing suffix lends the conceptual status of ‘things’ to the process indicated by the verbal root. To put this in the terminology of conceptual metaphor theory, we suggest that the generic-level concept of ESEMÉNY (‘event’, ‘occurrence’, ‘happening’) is conceptualized in Hungarian as ESÉS ‘fall(ing)’. In other words, EVENT is the target domain and FALL(ING) is the source domain, which yields the conceptual metaphor EVENTS ARE FALLING. This conceptual metaphor is made manifest linguistically in a number of metaphorical expressions as evidenced by the dictionaries consulted. Here are some Hungarian examples (with the actual metaphorical expressions in italics) with a word-for-word translation followed by an approximate English equivalent:

The examples above are taken from the dictionaries that were consulted. They sound somewhat archaic to our contemporary ears, but they are still perfectly understandable to native speakers of Hungarian. However, other, more current examples can also be found in one of the more recent dictionaries employed in collecting the data (The (explanatory) dictionary of the Hungarian language), as in examples (3)–(6):

1. (3) Ahogy esik, úgy puffan.

   as fall-3rd pers-sing-pres, so thud-3rd pers-sing-pres

   ‘As it happens, so it thuds.’ / ‘It happens as it happens.’ / ‘Let the chips fall where they may.’

2. (4) Baja esik.

   trouble-pos-3rd pers fall-3rd pers-sing-pres

   ‘He/she/it is hurt.’

3. (5) Csoda esik.

   Miracle fall-3rd pers-sing-pres

   ‘Miracle happens.’

4. (6) Hogy esett a dolog?

   how fall-3rd pers-sing-past the thing

   ‘How did it happen?’

All of the examples above indicate the clear presence of the conceptualization of events in terms of falling in Hungarian.

But, as the dictionaries testify, in addition to FALLING, the concept of EVENTS can also be conceptualized metaphorically as (HORIZONTAL) MOVEMENT. We find the following examples, (7)–(10), for this conceptual metaphor in The (explanatory/interpretative) dictionary of the Hungarian language:

As can be seen, in the latter set of examples above it is not falling but horizontal movement that serves as the source domain of the metaphor for the conceptualization of events. The resulting conceptual metaphor can be stated as: EVENTS ARE HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT. (The metaphor EVENTS ARE MOVEMENTS was pointed out by Lakoff, Reference Lakoff and Ortony1993, as an essential part of the ‘Event Structure’ metaphor.)

The last example deserves special comment. As the word bekövetkező ‘upcoming’, ‘to follow’ indicates, on top of the metaphor EVENTS ARE MOVEMENT, future events are more specifically conceptualized as things that follow each other and that approach the observer. This metaphorical conceptualization relies on the metaphor for time according to which TIME IS MOTION, more specifically, motion toward the observer. (Another version of this metaphor is the case where the observer moves toward stationary time-objects. On time metaphors in general, see Evans, Reference Evans2013; Lakoff and Johnson, Reference Lakoff and Johnson1999.)

The basic (minimal or skeletal) structure of the EVENTS ARE FALLING and EVENTS ARE HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT metaphors can be given as follows:

The arrows connect corresponding elements in the source and target domains, going from the source to the target. Such conceptual structures are called ‘correspondences’, or ‘mappings’ in conceptual metaphor theory. Jointly, they define a particular conceptual metaphor.

Both source domains above, that is, vertical movement (i.e., falling) and horizontal movement, belong to the broader category of MOVEMENT. In both metaphors, it is MOVEMENT that corresponds to EVENTS (HAPPENINGS, OCCURRENCES). What distinguishes the metaphors is the quality of movement. In light of the examples, the definitions, and the descriptions of usage provided by the dictionaries we get a sense of the qualitative differences between the two types of movement (vertical and horizontal).

Falling (vertical movement) is characterized by the property of having a downward orientation, the property of being generally non-volitional or unintentional or accidental, the property of being sudden or unexpected in many cases, the property of being typically fast, the property of often being short-lived, and the property of being a negative or unpleasant experience in a set of representative cases (such as humans falling down to the ground). Two observations need to be made in connection with this characterization of falling. One is that these features are not present in each and every form of falling, but they are representative of several different paradigmatic forms of it. Second, the features of falling are not intended as objective and inherent features of falling but merely as pragmatically implied ones (like unpleasant and unintentional). As will be seen later in this section, the properties of falling above are taken advantage of in the course of the metaphorical conceptualization of various events.

By contrast, given the examples and the various definitions and descriptions in the dictionaries, horizontal movement is primarily characterized by a different set of properties, including the following: the property of being typically extended in space and time (as opposed to the short-lived nature of many cases of falling), the property of often involving multiple entities at the same time, the property of the multiple entities moving in one direction and hence in an organized fashion, and the property of the unified movement displaying force (or simply, being forceful). The features that characterize horizontal movement as a metaphorical source domain often involve multiple entities, as revealed, for example, by the frequent use of the word esemény ‘event’ in the plural (események ‘events’); the feature of the organized nature of the horizontal movement is demonstrated by the word menet ‘going’, ‘march’ that reflects the orderly movement of multiple entities, such as army columns (unlike the ‘disorderliness’ of falling); and the feature of the continued or persistent forcefulness of horizontal motion is shown by the word sodrás ‘current’, as used in the metaphor (unlike the lack of the persistence of the force in falling). Again, such features are not necessary and sufficient conditions of horizontal movement in general, but they characterize many cases of horizontal movement, as the linguistic data show.

In light of these characterizations, a more complete and detailed structure of the two conceptual metaphors can be offered with the help of the mappings, or correspondences, below:

By contrast, in light of the characterization of the source domain of falling above, the following correspondences, or mappings, of the EVENTS ARE FALLING conceptual metaphor suggest themselves:

As will be seen below, these properties of falling as a source domain are commonly utilized in the metaphors where falling serves as a source domain for events.

2.2.2. esés ‘fall(ing)’ and esik ‘fall’

The noun esés ‘fall(ing)’ and the verb esik ‘fall’ are naturally listed as headwords in the dictionaries. They appear both in a literal sense and as metaphorical source concepts. We saw above that the concept of falling is one of the metaphorical source domains of events. Here we examine two specific subcases where falling is employed as a source concept in metaphorical conceptualization within the larger category of events.

2.2.5. eset ‘case, occasion, situation’ or ‘event, happening, occurrence’

The word eset is composed of the root es- and the deverbal nominalizing suffix –at/–et. As in other cases, the suffix gives ‘entity, thing’ status to the process of falling. The word has two clearly identifiable senses in Hungarian as testified by the dictionaries consulted. The first is defined by the dictionaries as ‘that which happened’, that is, as ‘event, happening, occurrence’, similar to esemény. Since, as we saw, events are metaphorically conceived as falling, this sense of the word can be straightforwardly motivated by the metaphor EVENTS ARE FALLING in Hungarian.

The word eset meaning ‘event, happening, occurrence’ can be found in a large number of compounds, such as baleset ‘accident’, bűneset ‘a case of crime’, gyászeset ‘a case of mourning/death’, haláleset ‘a case of death’, káreset ‘a case of damage’, kóreset ‘disease case’, ‘pathology’, tűzeset ‘a case of fire’, and so on. These compounds build on some of the features of falling identified above. On the one hand, they involve the element of involuntariness or unintentionality, and, on the other, they have strong negative connotations. Both of these are in line with some of the prototypical characteristics of falling as an event.

But it seems that the most common or productive use of the word involves the case where it denotes the occasion or situation in which an event or occurrence takes place or can take place. The (explanatory) dictionary of the Hungarian language supplies the examples in (25) below:

1. (25) abban az esetben is … ‘even in the case when …’, vmilyen esetben ‘in some/a case’, adott esetben ‘in the given case’, ellenkező esetben ‘otherwise, or else’, a jelen esetben ‘in the present case’, a legjobb/legrosszabb esetben ‘in the best/worst case’, végső esetben ‘if the worst comes to the worst’ or ‘as a last resort’, vmi(nek) esetén ‘in case of something’, betegség esetén ‘in case of illness’, háború esetén ‘in case of war’, szükség esetén ‘if necessary/required’, tűz esetén ‘in case of fire’, esetenként ‘in some cases’, esetről esetre ‘from case to case’

The meaning of the examples seems to be based on, or motivated by, a metonymy that can be stated as follows:

The metonymy assumes a set of metaphors according to which EVENTS/HAPPENINGS ARE OBJECTS and OCCASIONS/SITUATIONS ARE CONTAINERS, which, together, constitute the complex metaphor EVENTS/HAPPENINGS ARE OBJECTS IN A CONTAINER. The meaning of the word eset as ‘case, occasion, situation’ in the latter list of examples can only be conceptualized as such on the basis of this set of metaphors.

2.3.1. esik ‘fall’

Esik derives from the root es- and the third person verbal ending, –ik, of a category of Hungarian verbs. (The form with –ik is used as the dictionary form for this set of verbs.) Let us take one of the relevant definitions offered by The (explanatory) dictionary of the Hungarian language regarding the word esik ‘fall’: “<Of a thing in space> to continue abruptly or gradually at a lower level; slope.” The example provided by the dictionary for this sense of the word is in (26):

1. (26) Itt esik a hegy oldala.

   Here fall-3rd pers-sing-pres the mountain side-pos

   ‘The side of the mountain falls/drops here.’

In this case, it is clear that there is no movement of any kind involved and that the side of the mountain cannot fall, and yet it can be construed and presented as if it did – that is, dynamically, with the help of a motion verb, such as esik ‘fall’.

2.3.2. esés ‘fall(ing)’

Esés is the nominal form of esik, composed of the root es- and the deverbal noun-forming suffix –és. In a similar fashion to esik, the static position of objects can be dynamically represented via the noun esés ‘fall(ing)’, when, for example, talking about the ‘falling’ of a curtain or skirt (a függöny ‘the curtain’, szoknya ‘the skirt’ esése ’). There is no real, dynamic motion here; the static ‘position’ or ‘positioning’ of the curtain or skirt is portrayed by means of fictive motion, as in example (27):

1. (27) Szép esése van a függönynek.

   pretty falling-pos is the curtain-pos

   ‘The curtain hangs nicely.’

Fictive motion is a way of dynamically (re)conceptualizing and (re)presenting aspects of the world that are static. By this cognitive mechanism, we can develop new senses for motion words, such as esik ‘fall’ and esés ‘fall(ing)’.

2.4.1. eset ‘case, opportunity, situation’

The word eset in the sense of ‘case, opportunity, situation’ analyzed above can be thought of as describing a mental space, in which an event can occur. The when and where at and in which something occurs or can occur is an ‘opportunity’ mental space (cf. the opportunity to do something). Often, this mental space is of a hypothetical character, as indicated by many of the examples provided by the dictionary. In such cases, many of the expressions (such as abban az esetben ‘in that case’, tűz esetén ‘in case of fire’) can take the space builder ha ‘if’ for hypotheticality in Hungarian (abban az esetben, ha … , ha tűz van …). It may also be possible that the theory of mental spaces can or should be combined with the metonymy suggested above in: THE EVENT/HAPPENING FOR THE OCCASION/SITUATION IN WHICH IT OCCURS OR CAN OCCUR. It seems reasonable to assume that the creation of the hypothetical occasion-space is accomplished by means of this metonymy.

2.4.2. esély ‘chance’

The word esély is formed by the root es- and the archaic noun-forming suffix –ly. As in the previous cases, the nominalizing suffix turns the process into a noun, giving it a ‘thing-like’ character. The (explanatory/interpretative) dictionary of the Hungarian language distinguishes two closely related senses of the word esély ‘chance’. The first involves (sports) competitions in which a person has the possibility to achieve something. Examples for this sense include the cases in (28):

1. (28) győzelmi esély ‘chance to win’; kevés esély van ‘slim chance for something’; minden esélye megvan a győzelemre ‘has every chance to win’; nincs sok esélye arra, hogy elnyerje az állást ‘has not a lot of chance to get the job’; mérlegeli a mérkőzés esélyeit ‘weigh the chances of the game’; milyen eséllyel indul? ‘what are his/her chances?’

The second meaning is given as “a critical situation, condition in which something may happen, come to pass, in which something may occur in several ways; the possibility of something taking place, happening.” Examples include the cases in (29):

1. (29) a háború esélye ‘the chance of war’; megjátssza vminek az esélyét ‘take one’s chances’; kevés esély van a gyógyulására ‘have a slim chance for recovery’

What is shared by the two senses is that there is a possibility that something will happen. Following the same reasoning as for the word eset ‘case, opportunity, situation’ above (namely, that it can be thought of as a hypothetical mental space brought into existence by a metonymy), it is also conceivable to think of the meaning of esély ‘chance’ as a ‘possibility’ mental space brought into existence by another metonymy: THE EVENT/HAPPENING FOR THE SITUATION IN WHICH IT IS POSSIBLE THAT IT WILL HAPPEN. The meaning of esély can then be expressed as: ‘possibility that an event will happen.’ However, it should be noticed that for this meaning to develop, the metaphor EVENTS ARE FALLING is also required. This is the metaphor that serves as the basis for the metonymy above.

2.4.3. esedékes ‘due’

The adjective esedékes derives from the root es-, the verb-forming suffix –ed, the noun-forming suffix –ék, and the adjectivizing suffix –es. It is the final suffix –es that turns the word into an adjective, lending it the conceptual character of a property. The (explanatory) dictionary of the Hungarian language distinguishes two senses of the word esedékes ‘due’. The first is described as some kind of service with an approaching deadline or that needs to be acted on or paid in the near future. One of the examples offered for this sense is (30):

1. (30) A hátralék kifizetése esedékessé válik.

   the remainder payment-pos due-as becoming

   ‘The payment of the remainder (of the sum owed) is becoming due.’

This sense of the word involves an obligation (to pay).

The second sense is described by the dictionary as an event that is to occur in the near future or that can be expected to occur in the near future, as in (31):

1. (31) Már nagyon esedékes a látogatása.

   Already very due the visit-his/her

   ‘His/her visit is due / very likely / very much expected to happen.’

The description of this sense implies either that something will necessarily be the case or that it is very much expected to be the case, as in the example above. In other words, we may have to do with the mental spaces of ‘necessity’ and ‘expectation’.

In both of the senses (‘obligation’ and ‘necessity’ or ‘strong expectation’), the same cognitive mechanisms seem to be at work. That is, in the first we have the metonymy FALLING FOR THE EVENT THAT HAS TO HAPPEN, while in the second FALLING FOR THE EVENT THAT IS STRONGLY EXPECTED TO HAPPEN. In addition, the metaphor EVENTS ARE FALLING is also involved, and it makes the application of the metonymy possible, which in turn creates the respective mental spaces.

4.1.1. eső ‘rain’

The English word rain seems to come from Germanic cognates meaning ‘rain’, as either noun or verb. There is no indication that the word was created metonymically. This means that its emergence is literal, as shown, for example, by the Online Etymology Dictionary :

If, however, rain does indeed derive from the PIE root meaning ‘moist, wet’, it could be considered a metonymic development: A PROPERTY OF A THING (i.e., moist, wet) FOR THE PROCESS (i.e., rain) INVOLVING THE THING.

4.1.2. eskü ‘oath’

The emergence of oath is also literal. This is indicated by the same dictionary:

4.1.3. esedezik ‘beg, supplicate, implore’

A number of words in English have roughly similar meanings to esedezik. The word beg has uncertain etymology according to the dictionary. It may either come from Old English bedecian (meaning ‘beg’) or from Anglo-French begart (originally a member of the Beghards).

As can be seen, the Latin word supplicare means, among other things, ‘kneel down’. This displays some similarity to the origin of the Hungarian word, in that both involve ‘kneeling down’, a component also present in esedezik. Thus, supplicare and, indirectly, supplicate may emerge metonymically: THE GESTURE/POSTURE FOR THE ACTION INVOLVING IT.

According to this etymology, the word implore may be based on metonymy: weeping and crying out are actions that can accompany imploring. Thus, the metonymy would be: THE ACTION OF WEEPING/CRYING OUT THAT ACCOMPANY IMPLORING FOR IMPLORING.

Pray is also a close counterpart of esedezik, in that they both involve the idea of an earnest request. However, the Hungarian word does not have the meaning component ‘to a God’. If the earliest meaning of the form from which pray derived was ‘to ask, request, entreat’, then pray simply evolved by way of meaning specification. This can be conceived of as a very general type of metonymy of the form: A MORE GENERAL CONCEPT FOR A MORE SPECIFIC CONCEPT THAT CONTAINS THE MORE GENERAL ONE.

4.1.4. este ‘evening’

The Online Etymology Dictionary explains the emergence of evening as follows:

This is not very helpful because evening is derived from ‘become evening, grow toward evening’ that comes from Old English aefen ‘evening.’ Eve is in turn given as:

In other words, the origin of the word evening is lost in history. However, we find interesting information about it in the etymologies of two other words: vesper and west.

Given these two etymologies, it may be that the word evening is also based on a metonymic comprehension of the world, in which THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN FOR THE TIME OF THE DAY WHEN IT OCCURS and, more generally, AN EVENT FOR THE TIME WHEN THE EVENT OCCURS, as we saw for Hungarian above.

In sum, the etymologies of the English counterparts of the four Hungarian words seem to indicate that none of the English words involve the counterpart of the es- root. This is not surprising. However, just like Hungarian, English also uses metonymies to create the words. At the same time, none of the metonymies were found to be equivalent to the Hungarian ones. There was only one case, evening, where the content of the metonymies in Hungarian and English came very close to each other. But even here the Hungarian metonymy involved the notion of falling and the English one that of going down.

4.2.1. esemény ‘event, occurrence, happening’

The most general word in English that serves as a counterpart of Hungarian esemény is event. This is what the Online Etymology Dictionary writes about it:

On this etymology, events in general are metaphorically conceptualized as substances (objects?) in a container that become manifest when they come out of the container. Thus, POTENTIAL EVENTS ARE SUBSTANCES IN A CONTAINER and ACTUAL EVENTS ARE SUBSTANCES COMING OUT OF THE CONTAINER. The actual occurrence of the event is the (horizontal) motion of the substance (cf. EVENTS ARE (HORIZONTAL) MOTION).

Occurrence and happening are given in the etymology dictionary as follows:

As can be seen, all of these words have to do with some chance occurrence. This is especially visible in the etymology of hap:

The only indication of the presence of the notion of falling as a metaphorical source domain is given in the word befall, where it is stated that “[i]n Middle English fel it hap meant ‘it happened’.” Thus, the English words that are equivalent or comparable to esemény do not or only minimally contain this semantic component.

4.2.2. esik ‘fall’ and esés ‘fall(ing)’

This does not mean, however, that in English the notion of falling is unutilized or entirely marginal in the conceptualization of events. While it is true that the word fall in English does not specifically and directly denote ‘happen’, as is the case in Hungarian and as was the case in Middle English (see previous paragraph), the conceptual metaphor EVENTS ARE FALLING also exists in English. Below are some examples to illustrate it (from the Merriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary ) in (32):

1. (32) Christmas falls on a Wednesday this year.

   The stress falls on the first syllable.

   He fell among a band of thieves.

   It was just a thought that fell into her mind.

   I will do my best, then let the chips fall where they may.

As predicted by the properties of ‘falling’ pointed out in a previous section (Section 2.2.1), these are all unintentional, involuntary, or chance events. Interestingly, the metaphor was ignored or simply not found worth discussing by Lakoff in his extensive study of the Event Structure metaphor in English (Lakoff, Reference Lakoff and Ortony1993), where he focused his attention on the notion of (horizontal) motion as a source domain.

The conceptual metaphor A CHANGE OF STATE IS FALLING is also present in English. Below are some examples from the Merriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary in (33):

1. (33) She fell ill/sick.

   He fell asleep.

   The crowd fell silent.

   This word has fallen [= ‘gone’] out of use.

   This word has fallen into disuse. [= ‘this word is no longer used’]

   His theories have now fallen into disrepute/disfavor.

   The machinery has fallen into disrepair.

The examples are all manifestations of the CHANGE OF STATE IS FALLING metaphor. Just as in Hungarian, the changes of state are unfavorable, negative changes.

The ‘reduction’ sense of ‘falling’, which is based on the BECOMING LESS IS FALLING metaphor, is also well known in English. Some examples follow from the same dictionary as above in (34):

1. (34) The temperature fell after dark.

   His heart rate fell (off) dramatically.

   The value of the stock has fallen drastically.

   Participation in the group has fallen. [= ‘declined’]

   Factory production has fallen off.

   Stocks fell several points in early trading today.

   The market is continuing to fall.

   His voice fell (to a whisper).

   The music rose and fell.

In this case, too, the reduction is often sharp, sudden, or forceful – in line with the predictable features of falling as a source domain.

4.2.3. eset ‘case’

The English word case, unlike its Hungarian counterpart, does not reveal anything to present-day speakers of English about where it might come from. However, the Online Etymology Dictionary has this to say about it:

As can be readily seen, the etymology identifies in a straightforward manner the EVENTS ARE FALLING conceptual metaphor.

4.3.1. esik ‘fall’ and esés ‘fall(ing)’

We saw how the verb esik ‘fall’ and the deverbal noun esés ‘fall(ing)’ can be used in Hungarian to conceptualize a static scene dynamically, that is, as if there was motion involved. The verb fall in English can be used in the same way. Consider the sentences (taken from the Merriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary online and the Free Online Dictionary ) in (35) and (36):

Fictive motion in these examples seems to work in the same way in English and Hungarian.

4.4.1. esély ‘chance’

The development of the word’s counterpart in English, chance, is given as follows in the Online Etymology Dictionary :

Here again, while the etymology is hidden to most native speakers of English, it clearly shows that the emergence of the word is based on the metaphor (INVOLUNTARY/ACCIDENTAL) EVENTS ARE FALLING.

In examining the Hungarian word esély in a previous section, in addition to chance I also made reference to some further notions: opportunity and situation in English. While the etymology of situation (‘place, position, or location’ from Middle French or Medieval Latin) appears to be irrelevant to the argument here, that of opportunity and the closely related term occasion is highly interesting:

According to the dictionary, the meaning of opportunity is closely connected to that of occasion, which again involves the notion of falling:

In other words, the metaphor EVENTS ARE FALLING must have played some role in the emergence of the meanings associated with these words.

4.4.2. esedékes ‘due’

The etymology of due is given by the dictionary as follows:

It is clear here that the English word does not derive from the notion of falling. At the same time, the current sense of ‘payable’ can be conceptualized by means of the EVENTS ARE FALLING metaphor, as in The bills fell due. As we will see in the section below, the case of due is symptomatic for the difference (and similarity) between Hungarian and English as regards language and conceptualization (cognition).