Grammar and interaction: The linking of actions in speech and writing (FiDiPro)

The research project combines the research traditions of interactional linguistics, functional-typological linguistics, and cognitive linguistics. The project focuses on the syntax and pragmatics of clause combining in written and spoken language, and on the role prosody plays in spoken clause combinations. The goal is to better understand the linkages between the form of the clause and the actions which it performs in the situation of language use – in both conversation and in written text. One of the central questions in the project is the examination of the suitability of the concept of subordination for the description of clausal relations, and the possible differences between the actions performed by main clauses and subordinate clauses. The concept of subordination will be examined syntactically, semantically, rhetorically and interactionally. The project will also study the relationship between clause combining and turn transition, and the differences between clause types (adverbial, complement, and relative clauses) in terms of the types of actions they perform and what types of sequences they occur in.

The research project involves several language departments and research institutes in addition to the Department of Finnish Language and Literature; also involved are faculty from the Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literature, the Departments of English, the Department of Romance Languages, and the Department of General Linguistics from the Faculty of Humanities, and the Department of Speech Sciences and the Department of Applied Sciences of Education from the Faculty of Behavioral Sciences. The project also includes participants from the division of spoken language from the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland and from other universities within and outside of Finland.