Lainasanatutkimus Virittäjässä ja muualla

Artikkelissa käsitellään suomen kielen lainasanakerrostumien tutkimushistoriaa Suomessa, erityisesti Virittäjän sivuilla, vuodesta 1869 (jolloin Vilhelm Thomse­nin Den gotiske sprogklasses indflydelse på den finske julkaistiin) nykypäivään. Kir­joituksessa keskitytään suomen vanhimpien (esihistoriallisten) lainasanojen käsit­telyyn. Lainasanatutkimus voidaan jakaa kolmeen aikakauteen: nuorgrammaattiseen klassiseen kauteen, pimeään keskiaikaan (äännelaittomuuksien aikaan) sekä strukturalistiseen renessanssiin (uuteen aikaan). Nuorgrammatiikan aika alkoi Thomsenin myötä, ja se oli Virittä­jässä produktiivisen ja korkeatasoisen lainasanatutkimuksen aikaa. Tämä päättyi vä­hitellen 1920- ja 1930-luvulle tultaessa, kun suomalaiset tutkijat ryhtyivät vieroksu­maan lainaetymologioita, joita pidettiin epäisänmaallisina osassa tutkijayhteisöä. Tänä ”omaperäisiä” etymologioita suosineena aikana julkaistiin kuitenkin yksittäisiä laadukkaita lainasanatutkimuksia myös Virittäjän sivuilla. Vuodesta 1970 alkaen Jorma Koivulehto ja seuraajansa veivät lainasanatutkimuksen uuteen aikaan, ja myös Virittäjässä esitettiin useita uusia germaanisia ja balttilaisia sekä joitakin arjalaisia ja muita indoeurooppalaisia lainaetymologioita. Tästä lähtien lainasanatutkimukselle on ollut ominaista strukturalistinen lähestymistapa ja jo Thomsenin painottamien äännesubstituutioiden merkityksen korostaminen. Kuitenkin 2000- ja erityisesti 2010-luvulla lainasanatutkimus on jäänyt Virittäjässä varsin vähäiseen asemaan, vaikka yksittäisiä hyviä lainaetymologioita lehden sivuilla on viime vuosikymmeninäkin julkaistu. Loanword research in Virittäjä and elsewhere The article discusses the history of Finnish loanword research in Finland, especially in the journal Virittäjä, from 1869 (the year when Vilhelm Thomsen’s Den gotiske sprogklasses indflydelse på den finske was published) to the present day, concentrating on the earliest (prehistoric) loanwords in Finnish. The history of loanword research can be split to three distinct periods: the neogrammarian classical age, the dark middle ages (the age of ‘sound lawlessness’) and the structuralist renaissance (the modern age). The classical age started with Thomsen, and in Virittäjä this was a fruitful period featuring many high-quality loan etymologies. This period gradually came to an end during the 1920s and 1930s, when Finnish researchers became more wary of loan etymologies, which were considered by some to be unpatriotic. However, during this period when ‘native’ etymologies were preferred, a number of accomplished loanword studies were published in Virittäjä. From 1970 onwards, Jorma Koivulehto and his colleagues began a revival of loanword research, and Virittäjä too saw the publication of many new Germanic and Baltic etymologies, in addition to several Indo-Iranian and other Indo-European studies. The structuralist approach and the emphasis on sound substitution (already explored by Thomsen) became characteristic of loanword research during this period. However, throughout the 2000s and notably the 2010s, loanword research has become a more peripheral part of Virittäjä’s content, though some good etymologies have been published in the journal during the last two decades.

Japanology as ‘Encompassing philology’ and its prospects for the 21st Century

The recent development of the academic field of Japanese studies towards interdisciplinary cultural studies paradigm has been causing certain downfalls of traditional philological orientations within this area of scholarship. The aim of the present paper is to reflect on the tradition of Prague school’s functional-structuralist approach to language and text and present its application on contemporary Japanese studies programs. The functional-structuralist approach presented in the paper is based on the unified dichotomy of system (of signs) and texts (as sign formations), the latter being defined by the features of genre classification, situational binding and discourse tradition. The framework of ‘Encompassing philology’ applied to the field of Japanese studies aspires to fulfill the basic needs of a modern interdisciplinary orientation and at the same time strengthen the role of the Japanese language beyond the “tool for communication”.

The Role of Binary Settings in John Updike’s Short Stories: A Structuralist Approach

John Updike’s use of setting in his fiction has elicited different and even conflicting reactions from critics, varying from symbolic interpretations of setting to a sense of confusion at his use of time and place in his stories. The present study is an attempt at examining John Updike’s treatment of binary settings in Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories (1962) to reveal theme, characters’ motives and conflicts. Analyzing Updike’s stories from a structuralist’s perspective reveals his employment of two different places and times in the individual stories as a means of reflecting the psychological state of the characters, as in “The Persistence of Desire”, or expressing conflicting views on social and political issues, as in “A&P” and “Home”, or commenting on religious issues as in “Pigeon Feathers.” The study also examines Updike’s use of setting as a structural device to provide unity to the diverse stories in the collection. The study concludes that binary settings provide structural unity to the stories in the collection and add a psychological dimension and depth to the characters.

Modal Structuralism with Theoretical Terms

In this paper, we aim to explore connections between a Carnapian semantics of theoretical terms and an eliminative structuralist approach in the philosophy of mathematics. Specifically, we will interpret the language of Peano arithmetic by applying the modal semantics of theoretical terms introduced in Andreas (Synthese 174(3):367–383, 2010). We will thereby show that the application to Peano arithmetic yields a formal semantics of universal structuralism, i.e., the view that ordinary mathematical statements in arithmetic express general claims about all admissible interpretations of the Peano axioms. Moreover, we compare this application with the modal structuralism by Hellman (Mathematics without numbers: towards a modal-structural interpretation. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1989), arguing that it provides us with an easier epistemology of statements in arithmetic.