Project description
In this project, we study linguistically asymmetric, multicultural interactions involving migrants and native Finnish speakers. Migrants’ possibilities to use their native languages are limited in Finnish society, which leads to linguistic asymmetries in their everyday interactions. Combining different linguistic and bodily resources may help strengthen one’s involvement in everyday face-to-face interactions, which, in turn, form the basis of society at large. We conduct interactional linguistic and conversation analytic studies of video recorded social encounters to find out how people’s use of different languages (multilingualism) intertwines with touch, gaze and other bodily means (multimodality). We bring this together with a discourse analytic study of group interviews; the ideologies and concurrent ways of speaking that influence migrants’ social involvement. By using two methodologies we can examine both how people interact in real life situations and on what their thoughts and underlying ideologies are regarding those interactions.
Project members: Maria Frick (PI), Liisa-Maria Lehto, Ivana Leinonen, Kaarina Mononen (2020-), Katriina Rantala, Heidi Spets
More information: https://www.oulu.fi/finnishlanguage/node/63559