Samu Kytölä | University of Jyväskylä (original) (raw)

Papers by Samu Kytölä

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This article examines Finnish online ... more <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This article examines Finnish online forum discussions where religion and discourses of 'homosexuality' are connected in various ways. Previous research (e.g. <jats:xref>Jantunen 2018a</jats:xref>) shows that in Finnish online discussions where sexual minorities are the topic, religion stands out as a significant feature – particularly in discourses on 'homosexuality'. Via corpus-assisted discourse analysis (CADS), the present study adds to previous knowledge on this subject by qualitatively analyzing the occurrences of certain keywords in the Finnish societal context – one in which immigration and the visibility of both Islam and sexual minorities are perceived to have increased. The analysis found four interrelated key discourses in these online discussions: (1) Islamization as an alleged threat to gay people (in the data: 'homosexuals'); (2) the alleged indifference/ignorance of people to Islam's stance against sexual minorities; (3) relativist discourse(s) claiming all fundamentalists to be similar; and (4) othering – including for instance, the verbal stylization of Muslims as being particularly hypersexual.</jats:p>

Entextualization and resemiotization as resources for (dis)identification in social media by

Language, Education and Technology, 2017

This chapter focuses on language, discourse, and literacy practices in contemporary informal digi... more This chapter focuses on language, discourse, and literacy practices in contemporary informal digital environments. We will discuss work in sociolinguistics, new literacies, and discourse studies that have investigated multilingual and multimodal aspects of digitally mediated practices. Moving from early key developments in the field via major contributions of the early 2000s to current work in progress, we review key studies that have explored the interconnections of multilingualism, multimodality, new literacies, and digital environments in different ways. Finally, we briefly discuss the implications of informal, interestdriven digital literacy practices to focal societal issues such as learning and challenges of compatibility and adaptability of informally acquired competences in formal education and everyday lifeas well as issues of equality and digital divide(s).

The Routledge Handbook of Language and Superdiversity, 2018

Samu Kytölä Race, ethnicity and 'African-ness' in football discourse-perspectives in the age of s... more Samu Kytölä Race, ethnicity and 'African-ness' in football discourse-perspectives in the age of superdiversity 1

This paper focuses on new forms of diversity shaped by mediation and globalization that have so f... more This paper focuses on new forms of diversity shaped by mediation and globalization that have so far remained largely unaddressed in research. The main goal in the paper is to show how entextualization and resemiotization work to discursively produce identification, commonality, connectedness and groupness as well as disidentification, separateness, and difference. Within a multidisciplinary framework combining insights and methods drawn from sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, discourse studies, ethnography and the study of multisemioticity, this paper analyses language uses, semiotic resources and discourse practices in and around a number of mostly Finland-based, informal social media settings. We show how entextualization and resemiotization are key means through which selfand other identification, disidentification, and orientation to commonality/separateness function in social media.

This paper examines the Finnish verbal expression called the colorative construction (CC). In the... more This paper examines the Finnish verbal expression called the colorative construction (CC). In the CC there are two verbs: a neutral infinitive verb and a finite verb which dramatizes or specifies the denotative meaning. The construction fulfils stylistic and aesthetic functions. Syntactically the CC is not fundamentally different from other infinitive clause types, but certain pragmatic restrictions regulate its usage. The difference between finite verbs in the CC and in other infinitive clauses is particularly important. While, to some extent, finite verbs in the CC fit into theories of descriptive words or ideophones in different languages, not all of them are indisputably ideophones. Nevertheless, they all have potential for expressivity, which is further emphasized by the syntactic construction. However, syntax alone cannot uphold that expressivity, since the CC cannot be formed with any verb. Rather, syntax and semantics are in close interaction, together reinforcing the expres...

Kytölä, Samu Multilingual language use and metapragmatic reflexivity in Finnish internet football... more Kytölä, Samu Multilingual language use and metapragmatic reflexivity in Finnish internet football forums. A study in the sociolinguistics of globalization. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2013, 221 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities ISSN 1459-4323 (nid), 1459-4331 (PDF); 200) ISBN 978-951-39-5131-3 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-5132-0 (PDF) Using two Finland-based internet football forums as main data sources, this thesis explores usages of multilingual communicative resources in multi-authored online football discourse. Furthermore, it discusses metapragmatic reflexivity, meta-level discussions on the acceptability and correctness of multilingual language uses in these Futisforums. This phenomenology of multilingualism and heteroglossia is discussed vis-à-vis the types of sociolinguistic indexicality that connect the forum discussions to larger societal patterns: domains of globalized and local football fandom, the sociolinguistic backdrop of the ostensibly monolingual Finnish partic...

This paper explores, first, the use of stylized English in short Twitter messages (tweets) by Mik... more This paper explores, first, the use of stylized English in short Twitter messages (tweets) by Mikael Forssell, a Finnish football professional, and second, normatively oriented metapragmatic commentaries by Finnish football followers on such stylized language use. We focus on the contested category of ‘gangsta’ English and its perceived inauthenticity (Coupland 2003) vis-à-vis aspects of Forssell’s career, allegedly middle-class life-history characterized by mobility and translocality. His tweets show orientation to multiple centers and audiences, containing recurring linguistic features that can be associated with African American Vernacular English and the emically emerging register of ‘gangsta’ talk, emphasized by Forssell’s cultural references to US hip hop culture as well as an overdriven sense of jocularity and performance. We follow the digital mediation chain to a prolific web forum of a community of Finnish football fans (Kytölä 2012, 2013), who initiate and maintain metapr...

Processes of (dis)identification on social media take place in an environment generally described... more Processes of (dis)identification on social media take place in an environment generally described in terms of ‘context collapse’, whereby various offline audiences (e.g. family members, work colleagues, friends) are brought together into one online space. Linguists working in this area have explored the complex audience design strategies that users of social network sites adopt in targeting their posts at certain users and excluding others, and the diverse array of online resources they exploit in doing so. In this chapter, we extend this research through informant-based data which reveals the extent of people’s awareness regarding the likely trajectories and potential accessibility of their postings, and the ways in which this awareness shapes identity constructions and expressions of commonality and/or exclusion. The sociolinguistics research presented in the chapter draws upon questionnaire data from Facebook users combined with textual analysis of their status updates. It shows ...

Sky Journal of Linguistics, 2007

This paper examines the Finnish verbal expression called the colorative construction (CC). In the... more This paper examines the Finnish verbal expression called the colorative construction (CC). In the CC there are two verbs: a neutral infinitive verb and a finite verb which dramatizes or specifies the denotative meaning. The construction fulfils stylistic and aesthetic functions. Syntactically the CC is not fundamentally different from other infinitive clause types, but certain pragmatic restrictions regulate its usage. The difference between finite verbs in the CC and in other infinitive clauses is particularly important. While, to some extent, finite verbs in the CC fit into theories of descriptive words or ideophones in different languages, not all of them are indisputably ideophones. Nevertheless, they all have potential for expressivity, which is further emphasized by the syntactic construction. However, syntax alone cannot uphold that expressivity, since the CC cannot be formed with any verb. Rather, syntax and semantics are in close interaction, together reinforcing the expressivity of the construction.

Studies in Variation Contacts and Change in English, Dec 15, 2014

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This article examines Finnish online ... more <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This article examines Finnish online forum discussions where religion and discourses of 'homosexuality' are connected in various ways. Previous research (e.g. <jats:xref>Jantunen 2018a</jats:xref>) shows that in Finnish online discussions where sexual minorities are the topic, religion stands out as a significant feature – particularly in discourses on 'homosexuality'. Via corpus-assisted discourse analysis (CADS), the present study adds to previous knowledge on this subject by qualitatively analyzing the occurrences of certain keywords in the Finnish societal context – one in which immigration and the visibility of both Islam and sexual minorities are perceived to have increased. The analysis found four interrelated key discourses in these online discussions: (1) Islamization as an alleged threat to gay people (in the data: 'homosexuals'); (2) the alleged indifference/ignorance of people to Islam's stance against sexual minorities; (3) relativist discourse(s) claiming all fundamentalists to be similar; and (4) othering – including for instance, the verbal stylization of Muslims as being particularly hypersexual.</jats:p>

Entextualization and resemiotization as resources for (dis)identification in social media by

Language, Education and Technology, 2017

This chapter focuses on language, discourse, and literacy practices in contemporary informal digi... more This chapter focuses on language, discourse, and literacy practices in contemporary informal digital environments. We will discuss work in sociolinguistics, new literacies, and discourse studies that have investigated multilingual and multimodal aspects of digitally mediated practices. Moving from early key developments in the field via major contributions of the early 2000s to current work in progress, we review key studies that have explored the interconnections of multilingualism, multimodality, new literacies, and digital environments in different ways. Finally, we briefly discuss the implications of informal, interestdriven digital literacy practices to focal societal issues such as learning and challenges of compatibility and adaptability of informally acquired competences in formal education and everyday lifeas well as issues of equality and digital divide(s).

The Routledge Handbook of Language and Superdiversity, 2018

Samu Kytölä Race, ethnicity and 'African-ness' in football discourse-perspectives in the age of s... more Samu Kytölä Race, ethnicity and 'African-ness' in football discourse-perspectives in the age of superdiversity 1

This paper focuses on new forms of diversity shaped by mediation and globalization that have so f... more This paper focuses on new forms of diversity shaped by mediation and globalization that have so far remained largely unaddressed in research. The main goal in the paper is to show how entextualization and resemiotization work to discursively produce identification, commonality, connectedness and groupness as well as disidentification, separateness, and difference. Within a multidisciplinary framework combining insights and methods drawn from sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, discourse studies, ethnography and the study of multisemioticity, this paper analyses language uses, semiotic resources and discourse practices in and around a number of mostly Finland-based, informal social media settings. We show how entextualization and resemiotization are key means through which selfand other identification, disidentification, and orientation to commonality/separateness function in social media.

This paper examines the Finnish verbal expression called the colorative construction (CC). In the... more This paper examines the Finnish verbal expression called the colorative construction (CC). In the CC there are two verbs: a neutral infinitive verb and a finite verb which dramatizes or specifies the denotative meaning. The construction fulfils stylistic and aesthetic functions. Syntactically the CC is not fundamentally different from other infinitive clause types, but certain pragmatic restrictions regulate its usage. The difference between finite verbs in the CC and in other infinitive clauses is particularly important. While, to some extent, finite verbs in the CC fit into theories of descriptive words or ideophones in different languages, not all of them are indisputably ideophones. Nevertheless, they all have potential for expressivity, which is further emphasized by the syntactic construction. However, syntax alone cannot uphold that expressivity, since the CC cannot be formed with any verb. Rather, syntax and semantics are in close interaction, together reinforcing the expres...

Kytölä, Samu Multilingual language use and metapragmatic reflexivity in Finnish internet football... more Kytölä, Samu Multilingual language use and metapragmatic reflexivity in Finnish internet football forums. A study in the sociolinguistics of globalization. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2013, 221 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities ISSN 1459-4323 (nid), 1459-4331 (PDF); 200) ISBN 978-951-39-5131-3 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-5132-0 (PDF) Using two Finland-based internet football forums as main data sources, this thesis explores usages of multilingual communicative resources in multi-authored online football discourse. Furthermore, it discusses metapragmatic reflexivity, meta-level discussions on the acceptability and correctness of multilingual language uses in these Futisforums. This phenomenology of multilingualism and heteroglossia is discussed vis-à-vis the types of sociolinguistic indexicality that connect the forum discussions to larger societal patterns: domains of globalized and local football fandom, the sociolinguistic backdrop of the ostensibly monolingual Finnish partic...

This paper explores, first, the use of stylized English in short Twitter messages (tweets) by Mik... more This paper explores, first, the use of stylized English in short Twitter messages (tweets) by Mikael Forssell, a Finnish football professional, and second, normatively oriented metapragmatic commentaries by Finnish football followers on such stylized language use. We focus on the contested category of ‘gangsta’ English and its perceived inauthenticity (Coupland 2003) vis-à-vis aspects of Forssell’s career, allegedly middle-class life-history characterized by mobility and translocality. His tweets show orientation to multiple centers and audiences, containing recurring linguistic features that can be associated with African American Vernacular English and the emically emerging register of ‘gangsta’ talk, emphasized by Forssell’s cultural references to US hip hop culture as well as an overdriven sense of jocularity and performance. We follow the digital mediation chain to a prolific web forum of a community of Finnish football fans (Kytölä 2012, 2013), who initiate and maintain metapr...

Processes of (dis)identification on social media take place in an environment generally described... more Processes of (dis)identification on social media take place in an environment generally described in terms of ‘context collapse’, whereby various offline audiences (e.g. family members, work colleagues, friends) are brought together into one online space. Linguists working in this area have explored the complex audience design strategies that users of social network sites adopt in targeting their posts at certain users and excluding others, and the diverse array of online resources they exploit in doing so. In this chapter, we extend this research through informant-based data which reveals the extent of people’s awareness regarding the likely trajectories and potential accessibility of their postings, and the ways in which this awareness shapes identity constructions and expressions of commonality and/or exclusion. The sociolinguistics research presented in the chapter draws upon questionnaire data from Facebook users combined with textual analysis of their status updates. It shows ...

Sky Journal of Linguistics, 2007

This paper examines the Finnish verbal expression called the colorative construction (CC). In the... more This paper examines the Finnish verbal expression called the colorative construction (CC). In the CC there are two verbs: a neutral infinitive verb and a finite verb which dramatizes or specifies the denotative meaning. The construction fulfils stylistic and aesthetic functions. Syntactically the CC is not fundamentally different from other infinitive clause types, but certain pragmatic restrictions regulate its usage. The difference between finite verbs in the CC and in other infinitive clauses is particularly important. While, to some extent, finite verbs in the CC fit into theories of descriptive words or ideophones in different languages, not all of them are indisputably ideophones. Nevertheless, they all have potential for expressivity, which is further emphasized by the syntactic construction. However, syntax alone cannot uphold that expressivity, since the CC cannot be formed with any verb. Rather, syntax and semantics are in close interaction, together reinforcing the expressivity of the construction.

Studies in Variation Contacts and Change in English, Dec 15, 2014