Alistus ja konteksti

The Contexts of Subordination project approaches linguistic subordination as a semantico-grammatical and pragmatic phenomenon. In other words, the project investigates subordination and the category of subordinated clause (and clause-like constructions) both grammatically, as parts of complex sentences, as well as from a discourse perspective, as rhetorical units contributing to textual coherence. The twofold role of subordinate clauses is approached from both a cognitivist-constructionist and a discourse perspective.

The project has three primary goals: 1) to present a synthesis of subordination in Finnish, 2) to reconsider the notion of subordination in the light of large corpora, and, most importantly, 3) to produce typologically relevant new information about subordination in different varieties and genres of Finnish. Empirically, the project is characterized by extensive use of electronic corpora and a wide concept of context. Subordination and its linguistic realizations are studied from the perspective of language in its actual contexts of use. The role of electronic corpora (oral and written, monologue and conversation, expert and non-expert, standard and non-standard) is an essential part of the project, as well as the development of innovative methods for the analysis of such a heterogeneous collection of linguistic corpora. Theoretically, the project aims at combining innovative use of various corpora with current research interests of cognitive linguistics as well as typological and discourse studies. Subordination is thus studied by using several theoretical frameworks (Cognitive Linguistics, Construction Grammar, functional-typological schools of linguistics, text linguistics, interactional grammar and literacy studies); a functional and usage-based approach serves as a common denominator.