Welcome to Estonia! From the Folk Theory of Emotions and Character Traits to Brand Estonia

Abstract

The article aims to (re)construct the possible correlation of two folk theories of the Estonians -the theories of character traits and emotions. The case study is based on two separately conducted experiments: Heili Orav collected Estonian lexis on characteristic personality traits and Ene Vainik collected emotion lexicon. The authors attempt to determine the relationship between töökas 'diligent' or 'hard-working' as the most prototypical personality trait and viha 'anger' as the most typical emotion of the Estonians.In the following article we will not discuss the folk theory deliberately construed by Brand Estonia creators, instead we will focus on the popular theory about being an Estonian, which exists and is reconstructed in language and through that in the collective mind of the Estonians. The Estonian proverb mis keelel, see meelel (lit. what is on your tongue is also in your mind -'what you say is what you think') is a popular belief that will serve as the initial theoretical premise of the empirical studies that the following article is based on: the active vocabulary that is readily used by languagespeakers (i.e. what you say, lit. what is on your tongue) contains