Research subject:
Finnish special language of music/musicology since the mid-19th century up to the present.
Hypothesis:
In the Finnish special language of music, specifically ‘Finnish’ linguistic characteristics and elements are mixed and/or interfere with ‘translated’ features and terminology (prominently of German origin). The resulting special language with its subdivisions (minilects) is not merely a technical language or LSP, but it reflects the cultural narratives related to the meaning of (classical) music as a core element of the Finnish national self-image.
Approach and theoretical framework:
Amongst others corpus linguistics, text linguistics, sociolinguistics, contrastive and applied linguistics (translation, language contact and language interference), language planning, semantics, (cultural) semiotics.
Empirical study:
Corpus-based qualitative analysis of Finnish texts on classical music (musicological writings, concert reviews, programme notes).
Objectives:
Reconstruction of the development of a specific special language both alongside the general development of the Finnish written language and the emerging music life in Finland; tracing the reflections of cultural autostereotypes, (cultural-)historical narratives and factual (or imagined) cultural events/turns in a special language.
The Finnish special language of music emerged largely parallel to the processes and events that marked the rise of Finland to a “music nation” with a reputation far beyond the Baltic Sea region. Finnish music terminology was one of the conditions for the art genre to develop the importance it has today for Finnish culture and the national self-image, and at the same time a corollary of this development. My research will outline the development of the Finnish special language of music and analyze its structures. Subsequently, the aim is to work out how the position of music as a cornerstone of Finnish cultural identity and as an element of the narratives associated therewith is reflected in its special language. The music and language history of Finland have been worked up in detail. There is also fundamental work in the specific area of Finnish special language research. The sub-area of Finnish musical terminology and special language, however, is to be regarded as largely unexplored. The approach of examining a specific special language against the background of the effects of historical peripetia and cultural narratives promises insights that may also be of interest for special language research beyond Fennistic Studies.
Publications from this project
- Finnische Musikfachsprache. Geschichte, Strukturen, Diskurse (= Diskursmuster / Discourse patterns 38). Berlin/Boston: DeGruyter, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111632261
- “Zum Problem der Übersetzung nichtterminologischer Lexik im fachsprachlichen Kontext: Ein Beitrag zur Fachtextpragmatikaus translatorischer Sicht,” in Kulturen, Konvergenzen und Kommunikation. Begegnungen zwischen Finnland und dem deutschsprachigen Raum. Beiträge der 3. Tagung des Forschungsnetzwerks FI-DACH vom 04.–05.03.2024 in Greifswald, ed. Marko Pantermöller, Marja Järventausta, Leena Kolehmainen and Pekka Kujamäki (= Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki Tome CXIV). Helsinki: Société Néophilologique, 2025, 167-204, https://doi.org/10.51814/71ny4959.
- “Kaija Saariaho in and between Finnish and European cultural spheres,” in Baltic Peripeties – The Power of Narration and the Making of Regions, ed. Eckhard Schumacher and Cordelia Heß. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2025, 257-276, https://doi.org/10.14220/9783737017008.257
- “Vom ‘Anti-Väinämöinen’ zum ‘neuen Sibelius’: Die Imago der Komponistin Kaija Saariaho als Musterbruch im finnischen Musikdiskurs,” in Discourses in/of Disruption (= Diskurs – interdisziplinär 12), ed. Simon Meier-Vieracker, Silvia Bonacchi, Hanna Acke, Mark Dang-Anh and Ingo H. Warnke. Mannheim: IDS-Verlag, 2025, 75-88, https://doi.org/10.21248/idsopen.9.2025.47.
- “Repetition and Variation in a Finnish Music-Related Discourse: A Case Study,” Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity in Language – Part II, ed. Külli Habicht, Tiit Hennoste, Helle Metslang and Renate Pajusalu, special issue of Open Linguistics 10,1 (2024): 20240007, https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/opli-2024-0007/html.