Mikael Agricolan teosten päin-partikkeli

Summary: The particle päin in the works of Mikael Agricola

Uusi elämäkerta Mikael Agricolasta

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Mikael Agricolan teosten kielen ala-, ylä-, ja -pää-vartaloiset adpositiot

Adpositions with the stems ala, ylä and pää in the language of Mikael Agricola’s writings The language of Mikael Agricola’s (c 1510–1557) writings represents an interesting phase in the development of the Finnish system for adpositions. In the Finnish language, the older Uralic system of postpositions has undergone expansion and a new system of prepositions has been adopted. On the other hand, the adposition system found in Agricola’s writings has also been strongly affected by foreign models, because Agricola’s texts are mainly translations of religious texts, which by and large use a word-for-word translation strategy. In the thesis, I explore Agricola’s use of adpositions; more specifically, which adpositions carry the meaning of ‘being under’ or ‘being over’ something, and in what other functions these adpositions are used. My main focus is on the semantics of the adpositions. I also study the syntactic features of adpositions and adposition structures; these are intertwined with semantics, since the meaning of adpositions is established in the adposition clause. Finally, I compare Agricola’s use of adpositions to the corresponding adpositions of present-day Finnish. Adpositions with stems ala, ylä and pää form an interesting subject for research. Their frequency in the data, however, is highly uneven. The overwhelming majority of the adpositions studied in the thesis are päälle; there are only two occurrences of adpositions with the stem ylä. Adpositions typically denote a location ‘under’ or ‘above’ something. Almost half of the adpositions, however, can be classified as semantically unmotivated and as representing a foreign model in terms of the Finnish language; they do not occur in present-day Finnish. In Agricola’s texts they act in more grammatical roles than the corresponding adpositions of present-day Finnish. In the thesis, the corresponding adpositions in the source languages are carefully analysed. All other uses of the adpositions are marginal in relation to spatial ones and those based on foreign models. The original meanings of the adpositions have not changed much since Agricola, but adpositions considered to originate from foreign models have been intentionally eliminated in presentday standard Finnish. It is also noteworthy that the system of adpositions with the stems ala, ylä and pää has changed since Agricola. His texts include the adposition ala, which corresponds to the modern adposition alle. Likewise the adposition yllä is absent in Agricola, as are the internal locative cases of the adposition pää.

Tekijännimet Mikael Agricolan teosten kielessä. Henkilötarkoitteisten johdosten merkitykset, funktiot ja rakenteet

My research deals with agent nouns in the language of the works of Mikael Agricola (ca. 1510–1557). The main tasks addressed in my thesis have been to describe individual agent noun types, to provide a comprehensive picture of the category of agent nouns and to clarify the relations between different types of agent nouns. My research material consists of all the agent nouns referring to persons in the language of Agricola’s works, together with their context. The language studied is for the most part translated language. Agent nouns play an important role both in the vocabulary of natural language and in broader sentence structures, since in a text it is constantly necessary to refer to actors re-ferring to persons in the text. As a concept and a phenomenon, the agent noun is widely known in languages. It is a word formed with a certain derivational affixes, which typical-ly refers to a person. In my research the agent noun category includes both deverbal and denominal derivatives referring to persons, e.g. kirjoittaa > kirjoittaja (to write > writer), asua > asuva (to inhabit > inhabitant), imeä > imeväinen (to suck > suckling), juopua > juopunut (to drink > drunkard), pelätä > pelkuri (to fear > one who fears ‘a coward’), apu > apulainen (help/to help > helper); lammas > lampuri (sheep > shepherd). Besides original Finnish expressions, agent noun derivatives taken as such from foreign languages form a word group of central importance for the research (e.g. nikkari, porvari, ryöväri, based on the German/Swedish for carpenter, burgher, robber). Especially important for the formation of agent nouns in Finnish are the models offered by foreign languages. The starting point for my work is predominantly semantic, as both the criteria for collecting the material and the categorisation underlying the analysis of the material are based on semantic criteria. When examining derivatives, aspects relating to structure are also inevitably of central importance, as form and meaning are closely associated with each other in this type of vocabulary. The alliance of structure and meaning can be described in an illustrative manner with the help of structural schemata. The examination of agent nouns comprises on the one hand analysis of syntactic elements and on the other, study of cultural words in their most typical form. The latter aspect offers a research object in which language and the extralinguistic world, referents, their designations and cultural-historical reality are in concrete terms one and the same. Thus both the agent noun types that follow the word formation principles of the Finn-ish language and those of foreign origin borrowed as a whole into Finnish illustrate very well how an expression of a certain origin and formed according to a certain structural model is inseparably bound up with the background of its referent and in general with semantic factors. This becomes evident both on the level of the connection between cer-tain linguistic features and text genre and in relation to cultural words referring to per-sons. For example, the model for the designations of God based on agent nouns goes back thousands of years and is still closely linked in 16th century literature with certain text genres. This brings out the link between the linguistic feature and the genre in a very con-crete manner. A good example of the connection between language and the extralinguistic world is provided by the cultural vocabulary referring to persons. Originally Finnish agent noun derivatives are associated with an agrarian society, while the vocabulary relat-ing to mediaeval urbanisation, the Hansa trade and specialisation by trade or profession is borrowed and originates in its entirety from vocabulary that was originally German.

Franzén, Frans Mikael

Franz Michael Franzén f. 9.2.1772 i Uleåborg d. 14.8.1847 i Säbrå, Härnösand, Sverige Frans Michael Franzén är den första utpräglade förromantikern i den finländska litteraturen och har gått till historien även som begåvad akademiker, biskop och tidningsman.

Lybeck, Mikael

f. 18.3.1864 i Nykarleby, d. 11.10.1925 i Grankulla. Mikael Lybeck syns i litteraturhistorien främst som litterärt medveten och skicklig lyriker och prosaist, men skrev även dramatik. Lybeck var litterärt aktiv decennierna kring sekelskiftet 1900. Ett återkommande tema i hans produktion är den förfinade själens ensamhet och en tillbakahållen livslust. Också kritiken mot religiöst hyckleri är typisk för hans verk. Produktionen karakteriseras därtill av ett ironiskt betraktande utifrån, detaljskärpa, språklig noggrannhet, en allvarsam intellektuell och analytisk stil samt psykologisk insikt, men även skämtsamma drag. Till hans mest betydande verk hör romanerna Den starkare (1900), Tomas Indal (1911) och Breven till Cecilia (1920). Lybeck byggde med stor litterär ambition ställningen som sin tids främsta finlandssvenska författare och infriade därmed samtidens höga förväntningar på honom.

Mikael Agricola on jälleen veistoksena Viipurissa - miten paluu tapahtui?

Kirjallisuusarvostelu