Areas of expertise
Research field: Finnish language
- Linguistic animal studies
- Ecolinguistics
- Construction grammar
- Cognitive linguistics
- Sound symbolism
- Particle-like words
- Academic writing
- Editing and grammar
I hold the title of docent in Finnish linguistics at the University of Helsinki, where I work in the Finno-Ugric and Nordic Department and at the Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS). Currently, I am studying multi-species language in a 4-year study funded by Kone Foundation, “The Underdogs of the Fair Transition: A Multivoiced Study of Silent Sustainability Actors” (2024–2027, see https://altavastaajat.net/).
My part of the project deals with production animals and interspecies communication: I study how different production animals are talked to today. At this point of my research, I study how humans communicate with cows.
Humans belong to a species that speaks; speaking is a species trait for us. We talk to other people and animals. Some of us also talk to plants and, say, to information technology, some of us even to other inanimate objects or to inanimate nature. Pets are special in this sense, and talking to pets is an obvious everyday activity for us. Consequently, there has been some research on pet-directed talk. Much less research has been done on the language used with farmed animals. My purpose is to find out what kind of linguistic activity farm animals are involved in. In the past, cows, pigs and sheep were talked to and even chatted with. How is it now when the keeping of farm animals has altered dramatically? I also study how language is changed when it is used with other species. In the past, I have worked as a researcher and editor in the project Linguistic views on multi-species interaction and as a post-doctoral researcher in the research group Temporal movement and manner of motion. I am also interested in embodied language, the relationship between language and music as well as language guidance.
Selected publications:
Jääskeläinen, Anni, accepted for publication: “But for calves we were sweeter”. Cattle calls as trans-species pidgin and calling different animals in traditional Finnish cattle calling. – Language & Communication.
Jääskeläinen, Anni 2024. Ajallisen toistuvuuden tiheyden kuvaukset ja niiden motivaatio. – Virittäjä 128/2, 182–210. https://doi.org/10.23982/vir.127014
Jääskeläinen, Anni 2023. Adjektiivien polysemiaa konstruktioissa: miten tiheyden adjektiivien merkitykset ilmenevät? – Virittäjä 127/3, 364–392. https://doi.org/10.23982/vir.84893
Jääskeläinen, Anni 2023. The Finnish -sti: case ending or derivational suffix? In Jaakola, Minna & Tiina Onikki-Rantajääskö (eds) The Finnish Case System: Cognitive Linguistics perspectives. Studia Fennica Linguistica 23. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 353–381. https://oa.finlit.fi/site/books/e/10.21435/sflin.23/
Jääskeläinen, Anni 2021. Eläinten omat sanat: Eläimille suunnatut interjektiot ihmisen ja eläimen vuorovaikutuksen osina. In Kieli ja eläin: Vuorovaikutusta ja kielioppia monilajisissa yhteisöissä. Peltola, R., Jääskeläinen, A. & Harjunpää, K. (eds). Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 133–184. 10.21435/skst.1474
Peltola, Rea, Anni Jääskeläinen & Katariina Harjunpää (eds) 2021: Kieli ja eläin: Vuorovaikutusta ja kielioppia monilajisissa yhteisöissä. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran toimituksia 1474. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. 10.21435/skst.1474
Jääskeläinen, Anni 2016: Mimetic schemas and shared perception through imitatives. Nordic journal of linguistics 39/2, 159–183. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0332586516000147
Jääskeläinen, Anni 2016: Leikki-, laulu- ja rallatussanat: mitä, mistä, missä ja miksi? – Puhe ja Kieli 2016/2, 97–122. https://journal.fi/pk/article/view/58284
Jääskeläinen, Anni 2015: Suomen äännesymboliikkaa imitatiivien kautta tarkasteltuna. – Virittäjä 119/4, 464–497. https://journal.fi/virittaja/article
