Quantifying loanwords: A study of borrowability in the Finnish lexicon
(2018) SPVR01 20181General Linguistics
Master's Programme: Language and Linguistics
- Abstract
- The current study set out to investigate patterns of loanwords in a sample of 1,460 lexical meanings in the Finnish lexicon by means of quantitative methods. The methodology used was borrowed from the Loanword Typology project (Haspelmath & Tadmor 2009a), and consisted of a template including various fields, where information about each lexical item was coded. The fields included measures such as Borrowed status, Age and Donor language, and the data was collected from etymological dictionaries. The values coded for the lexical meanings were analysed to answer the research questions, which had to do with e.g. loanword patterns in relation to semantic domains, immediate donor languages and loanword age. The loanword patterns found in Finnish... (More)
- The current study set out to investigate patterns of loanwords in a sample of 1,460 lexical meanings in the Finnish lexicon by means of quantitative methods. The methodology used was borrowed from the Loanword Typology project (Haspelmath & Tadmor 2009a), and consisted of a template including various fields, where information about each lexical item was coded. The fields included measures such as Borrowed status, Age and Donor language, and the data was collected from etymological dictionaries. The values coded for the lexical meanings were analysed to answer the research questions, which had to do with e.g. loanword patterns in relation to semantic domains, immediate donor languages and loanword age. The loanword patterns found in Finnish were also compared to the cross-linguistic averages found by the Loanword Typology project. It was found that, in general, Finnish is a fairly typical language from a loanword typological point of view. It was also corroborated that the overwhelming majority of loanwords in Finnish come from Indo-European, especially from Germanic languages. Support was also found for correlations between loanword age and donor language branch, in that the loanwords from different language branches layered themselves timewise. Although the findings of this study are largely in line with the previous research on loanwords in Finnish, the most important contribution of this thesis is the restructuring of the previous research into a format which makes it comparable to corresponding data in a relatively large sample of languages cross-linguistically. (Less)
- Abstract (Finnish)
- Käsillä olevan tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tutkia suomen kielen sanastossa esiintyviä lainasanoja. Tutkimus on toteutettu kvantifioimalla 1460 leksikaalisen merkityksen etymologiaa lainaamalla projektissa Loanword Typology project (Haspelmath & Tadmor 2009a) käytettyä metodia, jossa sovelletun mallin mukaan etymologista tietoa jokaisesta lekseemistä on kerätty etymologisista sanakirjoista ja kvantifioitu. Analyysi keskittyy löytämään vastauksia kysymyksiin esimerkiksi lekseemien lainautumistilasta, iästä, sekä lainanantajakielestä ja -kieliperheestä. Kerättyä aineistoa analysoimalla tämä tutkimus pyrkii vastaamaan tutkimuskysymyksiin, joiden aiheena on muun muassa tutkia lainasanojen suhteita esimerkiksi semanttisiin luokkiin,... (More)
- Käsillä olevan tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tutkia suomen kielen sanastossa esiintyviä lainasanoja. Tutkimus on toteutettu kvantifioimalla 1460 leksikaalisen merkityksen etymologiaa lainaamalla projektissa Loanword Typology project (Haspelmath & Tadmor 2009a) käytettyä metodia, jossa sovelletun mallin mukaan etymologista tietoa jokaisesta lekseemistä on kerätty etymologisista sanakirjoista ja kvantifioitu. Analyysi keskittyy löytämään vastauksia kysymyksiin esimerkiksi lekseemien lainautumistilasta, iästä, sekä lainanantajakielestä ja -kieliperheestä. Kerättyä aineistoa analysoimalla tämä tutkimus pyrkii vastaamaan tutkimuskysymyksiin, joiden aiheena on muun muassa tutkia lainasanojen suhteita esimerkiksi semanttisiin luokkiin, lainanantajakieliin sekä lainasanojen ikään. Lainasanatutkimuksen tuloksia verrataan myös vastaaviin, kielirajat ylittäviin tuloksiin, jotka löytyivät edellisessä tutkimuksessa Loanword Typology project. Tulokset osoittavat suomen kielen lainasanojen seuranneen pääsääntöisesti typologisesta perspektiivistä melko tyypillisiä taipumuksia. Tulokset vahvistavat myös valtaosan suomen kielen lainasanoista olevan indoeurooppalaisperäisiä, joista puolestaan valtaosa on germaanisperäisiä lainoja. Tutkimustulokset vahvistavat myös lainanantajakieliryhmien välistä korrelaatiota siten, että indoeurooppalaisista kielihaaroista peräisin olevat lainasanat ryhmittyvät selkeästi toisistaan erottuviin ikäkerrostumiin. Vaikka tutkimuksen tulokset ovatkin pääasiassa odotuksenmukaisia edellisen tutkimuksen valossa, tämän tutkimuksen tärkein myötävaikutus onkin edellisen etymologisen tutkimuksen uudelleenjärjestely sellaiseen muotoon, että tuloksia voi helposti verrata muiden kielten osalta tehtyjen, samankaltaisten tutkimusten tuloksiin. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8936130
- author
- Cronhamn, Sandra LU
- supervisor
-
- Gerd Carling LU
- Niklas Johansson LU
- organization
- course
- SPVR01 20181
- year
- 2018
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- loanwords, Finnish, Uralic languages, language contact, borrowing
- language
- English
- id
- 8936130
- date added to LUP
- 2018-02-19 11:09:23
- date last changed
- 2018-02-19 11:09:23
@misc{8936130,
abstract = {{The current study set out to investigate patterns of loanwords in a sample of 1,460 lexical meanings in the Finnish lexicon by means of quantitative methods. The methodology used was borrowed from the Loanword Typology project (Haspelmath & Tadmor 2009a), and consisted of a template including various fields, where information about each lexical item was coded. The fields included measures such as Borrowed status, Age and Donor language, and the data was collected from etymological dictionaries. The values coded for the lexical meanings were analysed to answer the research questions, which had to do with e.g. loanword patterns in relation to semantic domains, immediate donor languages and loanword age. The loanword patterns found in Finnish were also compared to the cross-linguistic averages found by the Loanword Typology project. It was found that, in general, Finnish is a fairly typical language from a loanword typological point of view. It was also corroborated that the overwhelming majority of loanwords in Finnish come from Indo-European, especially from Germanic languages. Support was also found for correlations between loanword age and donor language branch, in that the loanwords from different language branches layered themselves timewise. Although the findings of this study are largely in line with the previous research on loanwords in Finnish, the most important contribution of this thesis is the restructuring of the previous research into a format which makes it comparable to corresponding data in a relatively large sample of languages cross-linguistically.}},
author = {{Cronhamn, Sandra}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Quantifying loanwords: A study of borrowability in the Finnish lexicon}},
year = {{2018}},
}