Kohdedomeenit

Kohdedomeenit is a concept found in Estonian linguistics and lexicography used to describe the organization of vocabulary into semantic domains, or kohdedomeenid, according to the kind of referent a word denotes. The exact definitions and boundaries of kohdedomeenid vary among authors, and the term is more common in certain linguistic traditions and Estonian-language research than in broad international usage.

Etymology and conceptually, the term combines kohde, meaning object or referent, with domeen, meaning domain. This signals a grouping of words by the type of things they name rather than by grammatical class alone. In practice, researchers may propose several kohdedomeenid such as physical objects, places, living beings, events or actions, and abstract concepts, though not all works recognize the same divisions.

Definition and scope: A kohdedomeen is a semantic domain that classifies words by the nature of their referents. Some frameworks include broad categories like tangible objects, spatial places, and animate beings, while others use finer subdivisions. The model is often used as a heuristic to describe how vocabulary relates to human experience and cognition.

Applications: Kohdedomeenit is used in lexicography to organize dictionaries, in semantic analysis to study word relationships, in ontology design for natural language processing, and in educational contexts to teach vocabulary through semantic grouping.

Examples: Physical objects might include raamat (book) and laua (table); places might include linn (city) and tänav (street); living beings might include koer (dog); abstract concepts might include armastus (love) or vabadus (freedom).

See also: semantic field, lexical semantics, taxonomy, ontology.