Kirkko, Kekkonen ja kommunismi poliittisina kriisivuosina 1958-1962

This study explores the relationship of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland to communism and political power during the period of crises in Finnish foreign relations with the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1962. During this period the USSR repeatedly interfered in Finland´s domestic affairs and limited her foreign political freedom of action. The research subjects for this dissertation are the bishops of the Church of Finland and the newspaper Kotimaa, which can be regarded as the unofficial organ of the church at the time. A typical characteristic of the Church of Finland from the beginning of the twentieth century was patriotism. During the interwar years the church was strongly anti-communist and against the Soviet Union. This tendency was also evident during the Second World War. After the war the Finnish Church feared that the rise of the extreme left would jeopardize its position. The church, however, succeeded in maintaining its status as a state church throughout the critical years immediately following the war. This study indicates that, although the manner of expression altered, the political attitude of the church did not substantially change during the postwar period. In the late 1950s and early 1960s the church was still patriotic and fear of the extreme left was also evident among the leaders of the church. The victory of the Finnish People's Democratic League in the general election of 1958 was an unwelcome surprise to the church. This generated fear in the church that, with Soviet support, the Finnish communists might return to governmental power and the nation could become a people's democracy. Accordingly, the church tried to encourage other parties to set aside their disagreements and act together against the extreme left throughout the period under study. The main characteristics of the church´s political agenda during this period of crisis were to support the Finnish foreign policy led by the president of the republic, Urho Kekkonen, and to resist Finnish communism. The attitude of Finnish bishops and the newspaper Kotimaa to the Cold War in general was generally in agreement with the majority of western Christians. They feared communism, were afraid of the USSR, but supported peaceful co-existence because they did not want an open conflict with the Soviets. Because of uncertainties in Finland's international position the Finnish Church regarded it as necessary to support the Finnish policy of friendship towards the USSR. The Finnish Church considerer it unwise to openly criticize the Soviet Union, tried resist the spread of communism in Finnish domestic policy. This period of foreign policy crises was principally seen by the church as a time when there was a need to strengthen Finland's unstable national position.

Power and Authority. Birgitta of Sweden and her Revelations

In the High Middle Ages female saints were customarily noble virgins. Thus, as a wife and a mother of eight children, the Swedish noble lady Birgitta (1302/3 1373) was an atypical candidate for sanctity. However, in 1391 she was canonized only 18 years after her death and became a role model for many late medieval women, who were mothers and widows. The dissertation Power and Authority Birgitta of Sweden and Her Revelations investigates how Birgitta went about establishing her power and authority during the first ten years of her career as a living saint, in 1340 1349. It is written from the perspectives of gender, authority, and power. The sources consist of approximately seven hundred revelations, hagiographical texts and other medieval documents. This work concentrates on the interaction between Birgitta and her audience. During her lifetime Birgitta was already regarded as a holy woman, as a living saint. A living saint could be given no formal papal or other recognition, for one could never be certain about his or her future activities. Thus, the living saint needed an audience for whom to perform signs of sanctity. In this study particular attention is paid to situations within which the power relations between the living saint and her audience can be traced and are open to critical analysis. Situations of conflict that arose in Birgitta s life are especially fruitful for this purpose. During the Middle Ages, institutional power and authority were exclusively in the hands of secular male leaders and churchmen. In this work it is argued, however, that Birgitta used different kinds of power than men. It is evident that she exercized influence on lay people as well as on secular and clerical authorities. The second, third, and fourth chapter of this study examine the beginning of Birgitta s career as a visionary, what factors and influences lay behind it, and what kind of roles they played in establishing her religious authority. The fifth, sixth, and seventh chapter concentrate on Birgitta s exercising of power in specific situations during her time in Sweden until she left on a pilgrimage to Rome in 1349. The central question is how she exercised power with different people. As a result, this book will offer a narrative of Birgitta s social interactions in Sweden seen from the perspectives of power and authority. Along with the concept of power, authority is a key issue. By definition, one who has power also has authority but a person who does not have official power can, nevertheless, have authority. Authority in action is defined here as meaning that a person was listened to. Birgitta acted both in situations of open conflict and where no conflict was evident. Her strategies included, for example, inducement, encouragement and flattery. In order to make people do as she felt was right she also threatened them openly with divine wrath. Sometimes she even used both positive persuasion and threats. Birgitta s power seems very similar to that of priests and ascetics. Common to all of them was that their power demanded interaction with other people and audiences. Because Birgitta did not have power and authority ex officio she had to persuade people to believe in her powers. She did this because she was convinced of her mission and sought to make people change their lives. In so doing, she moved from the domestic field to the public fields of religion and politics.

Uskon lyhyt oppimäärä : Suomen keskiaikaisten kivikirkkojen kalkkimaalausten välittämä raamattukuva

Tämä tutkielma on kokoava tutkimus Raamatusta nousevista kuva-aiheista, joita esiintyy 1400-luvun lopun ja 1510-luvun henkilömaalauksissa Suomen keskiaikaisissa kivikirkoissa. Aikaisempi Suomen keskiaikaista kirkkotaidetta koskeva tutkimus on ollut pääosin taidehistoriallista. Tutkielma pyrkii vastaamaan kysymykseen, millaisena Raamattu näyttäytyy suomalaisissa keskiaikaisissa kirkkomaalauksissa. Tutkimuskohteena ovat 1470–1490 –luvuilla Suomessa työskennelleen Taivassalon maalariryhmän maalaamat kirkot sekä 1500-luvun alussa maalatut kuvasarjat Länsi-Uudellamaalla, Hattulassa, Raumalla ja Pyhtäällä. Vanhasta testamentista peräisin olevia kuva-aiheita on vain 1510-luvulla tehdyissä maalaussarjoissa, joissa ne toimivat Kristukseen liittyvänä vertauskuvina ja hänen toimintansa selittäjinä. Vanhasta testamentista Suomen keskiaikaisten kirkkojen seinille on päässyt vanhan liiton keskeisiä henkilöitä, kuten Mooses, Daniel, Iisak ja Simson. Pelastushistoriaan kiinteästi liittyvät luominen ja syntiinlankeemus esiintyvät maalaussarjoissa kirkkosalin seinällä. Sen sijaan Kristuksen esikuvat löytyvät kirkkojen kattoholveista. Neitsyt Mariaan liittyvistä kuva-aiheista valtaosa on peräisin muualta kuin Raamatusta. Maalauksissa, jotka pohjaavat Raamattuun, Maria liittyy kiinteästi poikaansa Jeesukseen. Maria on yhdistetty Jeesuksen elämän loppuun ja alkuun; syntymäkertomuksiin ja kärsimykseen, kuolemaan ja ylösnousemukseen. Maria-aiheita esiintyy sekä Taivassalon ryhmän maalauksissa että 1500-luvun maalaussarjoissa. Jeesuksen elämä on havainnollistettu kalkkimaalauksissa yksityiskohtaisesti, etenkin Jeesuksen kärsimyshistorian osalta. Vain harvassa kirkossa Jeesus ei ole päässyt lainkaan osaksi maalauskokonaisuutta. Maalauksista välittyy kuva Jeesuksesta, joka etsii aikuisen ihmisen uskoa. Niin ikään maalausten Jeesus on pikemminkin ihmiskuntaa pelastamaan tullut taivaallinen Kristus kuin mies Jeesus Nasaretilainen. Viimeistä tuomiota esittävät maalauskokonaisuudet sekä evankelistasymbolit poikkeavat hyvin vähän eri kirkoissa. Molempien aiheiden kuvaamistavat olivat siinä määrin vakiintuneet, että erot kirkkojen välillä selittyvät käytetyillä mallikirjoilla ja maalareiden taidoilla. Viimeinen tuomio ja evankelista-symbolit kuuluvat suosituimpien kuva-aiheiden joukkoon. Jeesuksen opetuslapset on useassa kirkossa esitetty niin sanottuna credo-sarjana sekä osana kirkon pyhimysjoukkoa. Käsitellyn aineiston pohjalta nousee kuva Raamatusta, joka on lyhennetty ja tiivistetty. Keskiaikaisiin kuvaraamattuihin ja hartauskirjoihin verrattuna suomalaisissa kalkkimaalauksissa pitäydytään pitkälle olennaisessa kertomuksessa, eikä Jeesuksen elämää turhan tähden lähdetä selostamaan vaikeaselkoisin typologioin. Kuvakertomukset ovat ajan hengen mukaisesti vahvasti Kristus-keskeisiä. Kuitenkin kokonaisuutena Vanha testamentti pääsee maalauksissa paremmin esille kuin Uusi testamentti, josta huomio kiinnittyy lähes yksinomaan evankeliumeihin.

Kirkon vai valtion kirjat? : Uskontokuntasidonnaisuuden ongelma Suomen väestökirjanpidossa 1839-1904

The Population Register – run by the Church or the state? The problem posed by the obligation to belong to a religious community in the registration of births and deaths in Finland between 1839 and 1904 The Lutheran Church of Finland is the nation’s largest church; approximately 82 per cent of Finns were members in 2007. The Church ran an official register of its members until 1999, when the state then undertook this task. The registration of births and deaths by the Church has a long history dating back to the 17th century, when Bishop Johannes Gezelius Sr. decreed that all parish members would have to be recorded in parish registers. These registers were used to control how well parish members knew the Christian doctrine and, gradually, also if they were literate. Additionally, the Church attempted to ensure by means of the parish registers that parish members went to Holy Communion annually. Since everyone was a member of the Lutheran Church, the state also took advantage of the parish registers and used them for the purposes of tax collection and conscription. The main research theme of “The Population Register – run by the Church or the state?” goes back to these times. The actual research period covers the years of 1839–1904. At that time Finland was under Russian rule, although autonomous. In the late 19th century the press and different associations in Finland began to engage in public debate, and the country started moving from a submissive society to a civic one. The identity of the Lutheran Church also became more prominent when the Church Act and the General Synod were realised in 1869. A few years earlier, municipal and parish administrations had been separated, but the general registration of births and deaths was left to the Church to see to. In compliance with the constitution of the country, all the inhabitants in principle still had to be Lutheran. In practice, the situation was different. The religious and ideological realms diversified, and the Lutheran concept of religion was no longer acceptable to everyone. The conflict was reflected in the registration of births and deaths, which was linked to the Lutheran Church and its parish registers. Nobody was allowed to leave the Church, there was no civil register, and the Lutheran Church did not consent to record unbaptized children in the parish registers. Therefore such children were left without civil rights. Thus the obligation to belong to a religious community had become a problem in the registration of births and deaths. The Lutheran clergy also appealed to the 1723 privileges, according to which they had been exempted from the drawing up of additional population registers. In 1889 Finland passed the Dissenters Act. By virtue of this act the Baptists and the Methodists left the state Church, but this was not the case with the members of the free churches. The freethinkers had to retain their church membership, as the law did not apply to them. This meant that the unbaptized children of the members of the free churches or those of freethinkers were still not entered in any registers. The children were not able to go to school, work for the state or legally marry. Neither were they able to inherit property, as they did not legally exist. The system of parish registers was created when everyone was required to be a member of the Lutheran Church, but it did not work when liberal attitudes eventually penetrated the sphere of religion, too. The government´s measures to solve the problem were slow and cautious, partly because Finland was part of Russia, partly because there were only about 100 unbaptized children. As the problem group was small and the state´s resources were limited, no general civil register was established. The state accepted the fact that in spite of the problems, the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the congregations of dissenters were the only official establishments to run populations registers in the country, and for social purposes, too. In 1900 the Diet of Finland finally approved a limited civil register, which unbaptized children and unregistered foreigners would be recorded in. Due to political reasons the civil register did not come into existence until 1917, after the actual research period.

Yleinen liikennekartta 1921-1922 Allmän kommunikationskarta 1921-1922

1 kartta kahdessa osassa :, vär. ;, 130 x 80 cm, Mittakaavaa ei määritelty

Yleinen liikennekartta 1938-1939 Allmän kommunikationskarta 1938-1939

1 kartta kahdessa osassa :, vär. ;, 134 x 90 cm, Mittakaavaa ei määritelty

Yleinen katsaus Suomen ulkomaiseen merenkulkuun ja kauppaan.

Called "Kolmas jakso."

”Mä en oo kässää”. Yleinen kouluviihtyvyys ja käsityöviihtyvyys peruskoulun neljännen, kuudennen ja kahdeksannen luokan oppilailla

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää miten neljännen, kuudennen ja kahdeksannen luokan oppilaat viihtyvät yleisesti koulussa, eri oppitunneilla ja erityisesti käsityön oppiaineessa. Tarkoituksena oli myös selvittää käsityön oppitunnilla viihtymisen yhteyttä yleiseen kouluviihtyvyyteen. Vertailimme eri luokka-asteen eroja sekä eroa tyttöjen ja poikien välillä. Tutkimuksen aineisto kerättiin yhdestä satakuntalaisesta yhtenäiskoulusta syyslukukaudella 2015. Tutkimukseen osallistui 110 oppilasta, 53 poikaa ja 57 tyttöä. Tutkimustulosten analysoinnissa käytettiin tilastollisia ja laadullisia menetelmiä. Tilastolliseen analyysiin käytettiin SPSS- ja Professional statistics -tilasto-ohjelmia. Tiedonkeruumenetelmänä käytettiin oppilaskyselyä, joka toteutettiin verkkoympäristössä tehtävällä Webropol-lomakkeella. Oppilaskysely toteutettiin oppilaiden koulupäivän aikana heidän käytössään olevilla tablettitietokoneilla. Tämän tutkimuksen tulosten mukaan alakoululaiset viihtyivät koulussa paremmin kuin yläkoululaiset. Aiemmista tutkimuksista poiketen yläkoulun tytöt viihtyivät koulussa poikia huonommin. Alakoulussa erot tyttöjen ja poikien välillä olivat pienemmät. Tulosten mukaan tutkitut oppilaat viihtyivät valtakunnallisesti ja maakunnallisesti keskivertoa paremmin koulussa. Käsityön oppiaineessa viihtymisen kokeminen ei ollut tulosten mukaan suoraan yhteydessä oppilaiden kokemaan yleiseen kouluviihtyvyyteen. Huolimatta oppilaan yleisen kouluviihtyvyyden alhaisuudesta, saattoi käsityön oppiaineen tuoma mielekkyys olla korkea. Taito- ja taideaineissa koettu mielekkyys oli korkeampaa verrattuna reaaliaineisiin sekä käsityön oppiaineeseen. Oppilaiden erot kouluviihtyvyydessä selittyvät luokka-asteen muuttuessa korkeammaksi. Haasteena opettajille ja opetussuunnitelman laatijoille on kehittää opetusta siten, että oppilaiden kokema kouluviihtyvyys saataisiin pidettyä korkealla tasolla läpi koko peruskoulun. Kouluviihtyvyys on tärkeä tekijä oppilaiden kouluvalintojen, tulevan koulutuspolkujen ja ammattiuran kannalta.

Neuro- and immunotoxic effects of fumonisin B1 in cells

Fumonisin B1 (FB1) is a mycotoxin produced by the fungus Fusarium verticillioides, which commonly infects corn and other agricultural products. Fusarium species can also be found in moisture-damaged buildings, and therefore there may also be human exposure to Fusarium mycotoxins, including FB1. FB1 affects the metabolism of sphingolipids by inhibiting the enzyme ceramide synthase. It is neuro-, hepato- and nephrotoxic, and it is classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans. This study aimed to clarify the mechanisms behind FB1-induced neuro- and immunotoxicity. Four neural and glial cell lines of human, rat and mouse origin were exposed to graded doses of FB1 and the effects on the production of reactive oxygen species, lipid peroxidation, intracellular glutathione levels, cell viability and apoptosis were investigated. Furthermore, the effects of FB1, alone or together with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), on the mRNA and protein expression levels of different cytokines and chemokines were studied in human dendritic cells (DC). FB1 induced oxidative stress and cell death in all cell lines studied. Generally, the effects were only seen after prolonged exposure at 10 and 100 µM of FB1. Signs of apoptosis were also seen in all four cell lines. The sensitivities of the cell lines used in this study towards FB1 may be classified as human U-118MG glioblastoma > mouse GT1-7 hypothalamic > rat C6 glioblastoma > human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. When comparing cell lines of human origin, it can be concluded that glial cells seem to be more sensitive towards FB1 toxicity than those of neural origin. After exposure to FB1, significantly increased levels of the cytokine interferon-γ (IFNγ) were detected in human DC. This observation was further confirmed by FB1-induced levels of the chemokine CXCL9, which is known to be regulated by IFNγ. During co-exposure of DC to both LPS and FB1, significant inhibitions of the LPS-induced levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-1β, and their regulatory chemokines CCL3 and CCL5 were observed. FB1 can thus affect immune responses in DC, and therefore, it is rather likely that it also affects other types of cells participating in the immune defence system. When evaluating the toxicity potential of FB1, it is important to consider the effects on different cell types and cell-cell interactions. The results of this study represent new information, especially about the mechanisms behind FB1-induced oxidative stress, apoptosis and immunotoxicity, as well as the varying sensitivities of different cell types towards FB1.

Structure informationnelle et constructions du kabyle : Etude de trois types de phrase dans le cadre de la grammaire constructionnelle

Information structure and Kabyle constructions Three sentence types in the Construction Grammar framework The study examines three Kabyle sentence types and their variants. These sentence types have been chosen because they code the same state of affairs but have different syntactic structures. The sentence types are Dislocated sentence, Cleft sentence, and Canonical sentence. I argue first that a proper description of these sentence types should include information structure and, second, that a description which takes into account information structure is possible in the Construction Grammar framework. The study thus constitutes a testing ground for Construction Grammar for its applicability to a less known language. It constitutes a testing ground notably because the differentiation between the three types of sentences cannot be done without information structure categories and, consequently, these categories must be integrated also in the grammatical description. The information structure analysis is based on the model outlined by Knud Lambrecht. In that model, information structure is considered as a component of sentence grammar that assures the pragmatically correct sentence forms. The work starts by an examination of the three sentence types and the analyses that have been done in André Martinet s functional grammar framework. This introduces the sentence types chosen as the object of study and discusses the difficulties related to their analysis. After a presentation of the state of the art, including earlier and more recent models, the principles and notions of Construction Grammar and of Lambrecht s model are introduced and explicated. The information structure analysis is presented in three chapters, each treating one of the three sentence types. The analyses are based on spoken language data and elicitation. Prosody is included in the study when a syntactic structure seems to code two different focus structures. In such cases, it is pertinent to investigate whether these are coded by prosody. The final chapter presents the constructions that have been established and the problems encountered in analysing them. It also discusses the impact of the study on the theories used and on the theory of syntax in general.

Spontaanin puheen prosodinen jaksottelu

The common focus of the studies brought together in this work is the prosodic segmentation of spontaneous speech. The theoretically most central aspect is the introduction and further development of the IJ-model of intonational chunking. The study consists of a general introduction and five detailed studies that approach prosodic chunking from different perspectives. The data consist of recordings of face-to-face interaction in several spoken varieties of Finnish and Finland Swedish; the methodology is usage-based and qualitative. The term “speech prosody” refers primarily to the melodic and rhythmic characteristics of speech. Both speaking and understanding speech require the ability to segment the flow of speech into suitably sized prosodic chunks. In order to be usage-based, a study of spontaneous speech consequently needs to be based on material that is segmented into prosodic chunks of various sizes. The segmentation is seen to form a hierarchy of chunking. The prosodic models that have so far been developed and employed in Finland have been based on sentences read aloud, which has made it difficult to apply these models in the analysis of spontaneous speech. The prosodic segmentation of spontaneous speech has not previously been studied in detail in Finland. This research focuses mainly on the following three questions: (1) What are the factors that need to be considered when developing a model of prosodic segmentation of speech, so that the model can be employed regardless of the language or dialect under analysis? (2) What are the characteristics of a prosodic chunk, and what are the similarities in the ways chunks of different languages and varieties manifest themselves that will make it possible to analyze different data according to the same criteria? (3) How does the IJ-model of intonational chunking introduced as a solution to question (1) function in practice in the study of different varieties of Finnish and Finland Swedish? The boundaries of the prosodic chunks were manually marked in the material according to context-specific acoustic and auditory criteria. On the basis of the data analyzed, the IJ-model was further elaborated and implemented, thus allowing comparisons between different language varieties. On the basis of the empirical comparisons, a prosodic typology is presented for the dialects of Swedish in Finland. The general contention is that the principles of the IJ-model can readily be used as a methodological tool for prosodic analysis irrespective of language varieties.

Coordinated Verb Pairs in Texts

This dissertation discusses the relation between lexis, grammar and textual organisation. The major premise adopted here is that grammatical structures are motivated both by semantic potential of words and by text-pragmatic demands. In other words, it is argued that grammatical structures form the interface between lexis and textual organisation, and that linguistic analysis should not concentrate on analysing grammatical structures in isolation, independent of context. From this point of view, grammatical structures are said to be 'well-formed' only in relation to the context they occur in. This study is based on a corpus of three million words of recent Finnish fiction from which all the occurrences of the coordinated verb pairs ([V ja V] -pairs]) containing one of the intransitive motion verbs 'lähteä' (to go), 'mennä' (to go), 'päästä' (to get into), 'nousta' (to get up), and 'laskea' (to go down), were extracted. This set of verbs was established using methods described in earlier work by Lagus & Airola (2001, and 2005). The quantitative analysis of the [V ja V] -pairs was used to carry out a qualitative analysis of individual texts. In analysing the texts, an analogy was made between musical and textual structure. The results show among others that individual verbs specialise in different functions when occurring in coordinated verb pairs. One aspect was that those verb pairs including the verb 'nousta' tend to function as markers of textual boundaries and thus reflect the organisation of narrative substance. The verb 'mennä' has weakened literal meanings, but strengthened modal meanings when occurring in [V ja V] -pairs, and, in many cases, the verb 'lähteä' in [V ja V] -pairs function as an aspectual marker rather than a pure verb of motion. That there is a gradient from the concrete sense of motion into more differentiated senses of a verb in [V ja V] -pairs alongside the structure-creating potential of the [V ja V] -pairs themselves suggest an ongoing grammaticalisation process of the patterns discussed.

The Art of Sympathy : Forms of Moral and Emotional Persuasion in Fiction

"The Art of Sympathy: Forms of Moral and Emotional Persuasion" in Fiction is an interdisciplinary study that looks closely at the ways that stories evoke sympathy, and the significance of this emotion for the development of moral attitudes and awareness. By linking readers' emotional responses to fiction with the potential impact of such responses on "the moral imagination," the study builds on empirical research conducted by literary scholars and psychologists into the emotional effects of reading fiction, as well as social psychological research into the connections between empathy/sympathy and moral development. I first investigate the dynamics of readers beliefs regarding characters in fictional narratives, and the nature of the emotions that they may experience as a result of those beliefs. The analysis demonstrates that there are important similarities between real emotions and emotions generated by fiction. Recognizing these similarities, I claim, can help us to conceptualize the nature of sympathetic responses to fictional characters. Building on these assertions, I then draw on research from social psychology and philosophy to develop a comprehensive definition of sympathy and to clarify the ways in which sympathy operates, both in people s daily lives and in readers sympathetic responses to fictional characters. Having established this definition and delineated its practical implications, I then examine how particular stories, through a variety of narrative techniques, persuade readers to feel sympathy for characters who are unsympathetic in certain ways. In order to verify my claims about the impact of these stories on readers emotions, I also review the results of tests that I conducted with nearly 200 adolescent readers. Through these tests, which were constructed and scored according to methods prevalent in social psychological research, it was determined that a majority of readers felt sympathy for the protagonists in two of the stories included in the study. These results were combined with data from an additional test, a standard measure of empathy and sympathy in the field of social psychology. The cross-tabulation of these results suggests that there was not a strong connection between readers responses and their general tendencies to feel sympathy for others. This finding would appear to support my hypotheses regarding the sympathetic persuasiveness of the stories in question. In light of these results, finally, I consider the potential contribution that fiction can make to adolescent emotional and moral development and the implications of that potential for future language arts curricula in the schools. In particular, I suggest the pedagogical importance of providing adolescents with opportunities to engage with the lives of fictional characters, and especially to experience feelings of sympathy for individuals towards whom they ordinarily might feel aversion.

A cross-linguistic study of lexical iconicity and its manifestation in bird names

Abstract This dissertation is a cross-linguistic study of lexical iconicity. The study is based on a genealogically stratified sample of 237 languages. The aim is to contribute with an empirical study to the growing dialogue focusing on different forms of lexical iconicity. The conceptual framework of the present study is based on an analysis of types and means of lexical iconicity in the sample languages. Archaeological and cultural evidence are used to tie lexical iconicity to its context. Phenomena related to lexical iconicity are studied both cross-linguistically and language-specifically. The cognitive difference between imitation and symbolism is essential. Lexical iconicity is not only about the iconic relationship between form and referents, but also about how certain iconic properties may become conventional, means used to create sound symbolism. All the sample languages show some evidence of lexical iconicity, demonstrating that it is a universal feature. Nine comparisons of onomatopoeic verbs and nouns, with samples varying between six and 141 languages, show that typologically highly different languages use similar means for creating words based on sound imitation. Two cross-linguistic comparisons of bird names demonstrate that a vast majority of the Eurasian names of the common cuckoo and the world-wide names of crow and raven of the 141 genera are onomatopoeic.

Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate methods in corpus-based lexicography : A study of synonymy

In this dissertation, I present an overall methodological framework for studying linguistic alternations, focusing specifically on lexical variation in denoting a single meaning, that is, synonymy. As the practical example, I employ the synonymous set of the four most common Finnish verbs denoting THINK, namely ajatella, miettiä, pohtia and harkita ‘think, reflect, ponder, consider’. As a continuation to previous work, I describe in considerable detail the extension of statistical methods from dichotomous linguistic settings (e.g., Gries 2003; Bresnan et al. 2007) to polytomous ones, that is, concerning more than two possible alternative outcomes. The applied statistical methods are arranged into a succession of stages with increasing complexity, proceeding from univariate via bivariate to multivariate techniques in the end. As the central multivariate method, I argue for the use of polytomous logistic regression and demonstrate its practical implementation to the studied phenomenon, thus extending the work by Bresnan et al. (2007), who applied simple (binary) logistic regression to a dichotomous structural alternation in English. The results of the various statistical analyses confirm that a wide range of contextual features across different categories are indeed associated with the use and selection of the selected think lexemes; however, a substantial part of these features are not exemplified in current Finnish lexicographical descriptions. The multivariate analysis results indicate that the semantic classifications of syntactic argument types are on the average the most distinctive feature category, followed by overall semantic characterizations of the verb chains, and then syntactic argument types alone, with morphological features pertaining to the verb chain and extra-linguistic features relegated to the last position. In terms of overall performance of the multivariate analysis and modeling, the prediction accuracy seems to reach a ceiling at a Recall rate of roughly two-thirds of the sentences in the research corpus. The analysis of these results suggests a limit to what can be explained and determined within the immediate sentential context and applying the conventional descriptive and analytical apparatus based on currently available linguistic theories and models. The results also support Bresnan’s (2007) and others’ (e.g., Bod et al. 2003) probabilistic view of the relationship between linguistic usage and the underlying linguistic system, in which only a minority of linguistic choices are categorical, given the known context – represented as a feature cluster – that can be analytically grasped and identified. Instead, most contexts exhibit degrees of variation as to their outcomes, resulting in proportionate choices over longer stretches of usage in texts or speech.