Arja Nurmi

PhD, Academy of Finland Research Fellow
Room 357, Vironkatu 1
Phone +358 (0)9 191 23531
E-mail: arja.nurmi(at)helsinki.fi

Research Interests

My research is mainly carried out in the framework of historical sociolinguistics with corpuslinguistic methods. There are currently two research foci I am working on.

The social history of English modal auxiliaries is a project funded by the Academy of Finland in 2007-2012. It uses the Corpora of Early English Correspondence as material, and focuses on the nine core modals (can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will and would) in 1400-1800. There are two stages to be carried out. As the first step, the general development of the auxiliaries in the data is charted, and related to social variables such as gender, social status, education and register. This is continued with an analysis of the different senses of the auxiliaries, and tracing the patterns of variation with regard to their social embedding. Related publications include Nurmi (2003a), (2003b) and (2009c); see below.

My other current research interest is multilingualism in the historical stages of English. The bulk of this work is carried out in co-operation with Professor Päivi Pahta (University of Tampere). Our focus has been on charting the evidence of multilingual practices in electronic corpora of the history of English on the one hand, and on the identity work of specific individuals on the other. Related publications include Nurmi and Pahta (2004) and Pahta and Nurmi (2006, 2009); see below.

I have worked on the compilation of the Corpora of Early English Correspondence since 1993, and am currently also a member of the ARCHER corpus compilation team.

Recent publications

Nurmi, Arja

(2009a) "Kielikontaktien vaikutus englannin kieleen." [The influence of language contacts on English.] Jyrki Kalliokoski, Lari Kotilainen & Päivi Pahta (eds) Kielet kohtaavat [Languages encounter]. (Tietolipas 227). Helsinki: Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seura. 191-211.

(2009b) Review of Stefan Dollinger New Dialect Formation in Canada. Evidence from the English Modal Auxiliaries. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. 2009. ICAME Journal 33: 101-104.

(2009c) "May: The social history of an auxiliary." Andreas H. Jucker, Daniel Schreier & Marianne Hundt (eds) Corpora: Pragmatics and Discourse. Papers from the 29th International Conference on English Language Research on Computerized Corpora (ICAME 29). Ascona, Switzerland, 14-18 May 2008. (Language and Computers: Studies in Practical Linguistics 68). Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi. 321-342.

(2010) "The English language of the Early Modern Period." Michael Hattaway (ed.) A New Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture, vol. 1. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. 15-26.

Nurmi, Arja, Minna Nevala & Minna Palander-Collin

(2009) (eds) The Language of Daily Life in England (1400-1800) (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 183). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Nurmi, Arja & Minna Nevala

(2010) "The social space of an eighteenth-century governess: Modality and reference in the private letters and journals of Agnes Porter". Päivi Pahta, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi & Minna Palander-Collin (eds) Social Roles and Language Practices in Late Modern English. (Pragmatics and Beyond NS 195.) Amsterdam: Benjamins, 163-189.

Nurmi, Arja & Päivi Pahta

(2010) "Preacher, scholar, brother, friend: Code-switching and social roles in the writings of Thomas Twining". Päivi Pahta, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi & Minna Palander-Collin (eds) Social Roles and Language Practices in Late Modern English. (Pragmatics and Beyond NS 195.) Amsterdam: Benjamins, 135-162.

Pahta, Päivi, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi & Minna Palander-Collin

(eds) (2010) Social Roles and Language Practices in Late Modern English. (Pragmatics and Beyond NS 195.) Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Pahta, Päivi & Arja Nurmi

(2009) "Negotiating interpersonal identities in writing: Code-switching practices in Charles Burney's correspondence." Nurmi, Arja, Minna Nevala & Minna Palander-Collin (eds) The Language of Daily Life in England (1400-1800) (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 183). Amsterdam: Benjamins. 27-52.

Pahta, Päivi, Minna Palander-Collin, Minna Nevala & Arja Nurmi

(2010) "Language practices in the construction of social roles in Late Modern English." Päivi Pahta, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi & Minna Palander-Collin (eds) Social Roles and Language Practices in Late Modern English. (Pragmatics and Beyond NS 195.) Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1-27.

Palander-Collin, Minna, Minna Nevala & Arja Nurmi

(2009) "The language of daily life in the history of English: Studying how macro meets micro." Nurmi, Arja, Minna Nevala & Minna Palander-Collin (eds) The Language of Daily Life in England (1400-1800) (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 183). Amsterdam: Benjamins. 1-23.

Complete list of publications

(Articles marked with an asterisk (*) are also included in my dissertation (1999b).)

Meurman-Solin, Anneli & Arja Nurmi

(2004) “Circumstantial adverbials and stylistic literacy in the evolution of epistolary discourse.” Gunnarsson, Britt-Luise, Lena Bergström, Gerd Eklund, Staffan Fridell, Lise H. Hansen, Angela Karstadt, Bengt Nordberg, Eva Sundgren & Mats Thelander (eds) Language Variation in Europe. Papers from the Second International Conference on Language Variation in Europe, ICLaVE 2 Uppsala University, Sweden, June 12–14, 2003. Uppsala: Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University. 302–314.

(2007) "Introduction." Meurman-Solin, Anneli & Arja Nurmi (eds) Annotating Variation and Change. (Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English 1). Helsinki: VARIENG.

(eds) (2007) Annotating Variation and Change. (Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English 1). Helsinki: VARIENG.

Nurmi, Arja

(1993) The periphrastic auxiliary do in four plays by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher: Statements and imperatives. Unpublished MA thesis. Department of English, University of Helsinki.

*(1996) “Periphrastic do and be + ing: Interconnected developments?” Nevalainen, Terttu & Helena Raumolin-Brunberg (eds) Sociolinguistics and Language History. Studies Based on The Corpus of Early English Correspondence. (Language and Computers 15.) Amsterdam & Atlanta: Rodopi. 151–165.

*(1998a) “Periphrastic do and the language of social aspirers: Evidence from the Corpus of Early English Correspondence.” Renouf, Antoinette (ed.) Explorations in Corpus Linguistics. (Language and Computers: Studies in Practical Linguistics 23). Amsterdam & Atlanta: Rodopi. 159–167.

(1998b) Review of Manfred Görlach, More Englishes. New Studies in Varieties of English 1988-1994. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 99/3: 346–347.

(ed.) (1998) Manual for the Corpus of Early English Correspondence Sampler CEECS. Department of English. University of Helsinki. Available at <http://khnt.hit.uib.no/icame/manuals/ceecs/INDEX.HTM>.

(1999a) “The Corpus of Early English Correspondence Sampler (CEECS)”. ICAME Journal 23: 53–64.

(1999b) A Social History of Periphrastic DO. (Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki 56). Helsinki: Société Néophilologique.

*(1999c) “Auxiliary do in fifteenth-century English: Dialectal variation and formulaic use.” Taavitsainen, Irma, Gunnel Melchers & Päivi Pahta (eds) Writing in Nonstandard English. (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 67). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 225–242.

(2000a) Review of Gerner, Untersuchungen zur Funktion des emphatischen do im Englischen. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 101/1: 111–113.

*(2000b) “The rise and fall of periphrastic do in Early Modern English, or ‘Howe the Scots will declare themselv’s’.” Bermúdez-Otero, Ricardo, David Denison, Richard M. Hogg & C. B. McCully (eds) Generative Theory and Corpus Studies: A Dialogue from 10 ICEHL. (Topics in English Linguistics 31). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 373–394.

*(2000c) “The rise and regulation of periphrastic do in negative declarative sentences: A sociolinguistic study.” Kastovsky, Dieter & Arthur Mettinger (eds) The History of English in a Social Context. A Contribution to Historical Socio-linguistics. (Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs 129). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 339–362.

(2001) “Recent advances in historical corpus linguistics.” Lectio praecursoria. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 102/1: 90–93.

(2002a) “Does size matter? The Corpus of Early English Correspondence and its sampler.” Raumolin-Brunberg, Helena, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi & Matti Rissanen (eds) Variation Past and Present. VARIENG Studies on English for Terttu Nevalainen. (Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki 61). Helsinki: Société Néophilologique. 173–184.

(2002b) “WILL/WOULD and SHALL/SHOULD in the sixteenth century: A sociolinguistic study.” Lima, Maria & David Hart (eds) Modality in Late Middle English and Early Modern English: Semantic Shifts and Pragmatic Interpretations. Napoli: Cuen. 31–43.

(ed.) (2002) Corpora in Today’s English Studies. Special issue on Corpus Linguistics. Helsinki English Studies 2. <http://www.eng.helsinki.fi/hes/>.

(2003a) “ Youe shall see I will conclude in it: Sociolinguistic variation of will/ would and shall/ should in the sixteenth century.” Hart, David (ed.) English Modality in Context. Diachronic Perspectives. (Linguistic Insights, Studies in Language and Communication 11). Bern: Peter Lang. 89–107.

(2003b) “The role of gender in the use of must in Early Modern English.” Granger, Sylviane & Stepahnie Petch-Tyson (eds) Extending the Scope of Corpus-based Research: New Applications, New Challenges. (Language and Computers: Studies in Practical Linguistics). Amsterdam & Atlanta: Rodopi. 111–120.

(2005a) Review of Barbara A. Fennell, A History of English. A Sociolinguistic Approach. (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics 17). Oxford & Malden, MA: Blackwell. 2001. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 6/1: 169–172.

(2005b) “A jolly kind of letter. The Documents in the Case and Dorothy L. Sayers’s correspondence on trial.” European Journal of English Studies (EJES) 9/1: 53–59 .

(2006) Review of Roberta Facchinetti, Manfred Krug and Frank Palmer (eds) Modality in Contemporary English. (Topics in English Linguistics 44). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 2003. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 107/2: 251–253.

(2007) "Employing and elaborating annotation for the study of modality." Meurman-Solin, Anneli & Arja Nurmi (eds) Annotating Variation and Change. (Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English 1). Helsinki: VARIENG.

(2009b) Review of Stefan Dollinger New Dialect Formation in Canada. Evidence from the English Modal Auxiliaries. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. 2009. ICAME Journal 33: 101-104.

(2010) "The English language of the Early Modern Period." Michael Hattaway (ed.) A New Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture, vol. 1. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. 15-26.

Nurmi, Arja & Minna Nevala

Nurmi, Arja, Minna Nevala & Minna Palander-Collin

(2009) (eds) The Language of Daily Life in England (1400-1800) (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 183). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Nurmi, Arja & Päivi Pahta

(2004) “Social stratification and patterns of code-switching in early English letters.” Multilingua 23: 417–456.

Nurmi, Arja & Minna Palander-Collin

(2008) "Letters as a text type: Interaction in writing." Dossena, Marina & Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade (eds) Studies in Late Modern English Correspondence. Bern: Peter Lang. 21-49.

Pahta, Päivi, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi & Minna Palander-Collin

(eds) (2010) Social Roles and Language Practices in Late Modern English. (Pragmatics and Beyond NS 195.) Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Pahta, Päivi & Arja Nurmi

(2006) “Code-switching in the Helsinki Corpus: A thousand years of multilingual practices.” Ritt, Nikolaus, Herbert Schendl, Christiane Dalton-Puffer & Dieter Kastovsky (eds) Medieval English and its Heritage: Structure, Meaning and Mechanisms of Change. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. 203–220.

(2007) “ ‘What we do cón amore’: Structures of code-switching in eighteenth-century letters.” Pérez-Guerra, Javier, Dolores González-Álvarez, Jorge L. Bueno-Alonso & Esperanza Rama-Martínez (eds) 'Of Varying Language and Opposing Creed': New Insights into Late Modern English. Bern: Peter Lang. 401-420.

Pahta, Päivi, Minna Palander-Collin, Minna Nevala & Arja Nurmi

Palander-Collin, Minna, Minna Nevala & Arja Nurmi

Raumolin-Brunberg, Helena, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi & Matti Rissanen (eds)

(2002) Variation Past and Present. VARIENG Studies on English for Terttu Nevalainen. (Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki 61). Helsinki: Société Néophilologique.

Raumolin-Brunberg, Helena & Arja Nurmi

*(1997) “Dummies on the move: Prop- one and affirmative do in the 17th Century”. Nevalainen, Terttu & Leena Kahlas-Tarkka (eds) To Explain the Present: Studies in the Changing English Language in Honour of Matti Rissanen (Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki 52). Helsinki: Gummerus. 395–417.

Corpora

Corpus of Early English Correspondence Sampler (CEECS) . Compiled by Terttu Nevalainen, Helena Raumolin-Brunberg, Jukka Keränen, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi & Minna Palander-Collin. 1998. Distributed through ICAME and the Oxford Text Archive.

Parsed Corpus of Early English Correspondence (PCEEC) . Compiled by Terttu Nevalainen, Helena Raumolin-Brunberg, Jukka Keränen, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi and Minna Palander-Collin. Annotated by Ann Taylor, Arja Nurmi, Anthony Warner, Susan Pintzuk, and Terttu Nevalainen . 2006. Distributed through ICAME and the Oxford Text Archive.

Other publications

Bush, Laurel, Arja Nurmi & Nely Keinänen (eds)

(2001) Guidelines. Revised version. Department of English, University of Helsinki. Available at < http://www.eng.helsinki.fi/studies/guidelines.htm>.

Nevalainen, Terttu, Helena Raumolin-Brunberg & Arja Nurmi

(1995) “Kirjeissä kieli ja elämä.” [In letters life and language.] Tiede 2000 [Science 2000] 6/95: 54–60.

Nurmi, Arja (ed.)

(2000). Research and Teaching at the Department of English, University of Helsinki. Department of English, University of Helsinki.

(2000). Research Unit for Variation and Change in English (VARIENG), Department of English, University of Helsinki. Annual Report 2000. Department of English, University of Helsinki.

(2001). Research Unit for Variation and Change in English (VARIENG), Department of English, University of Helsinki. Annual Report 2000. 2nd edition. Department of English, University of Helsinki.

(2002). Research Unit for Variation and Change in English (VARIENG), Department of English, University of Helsinki. Annual Report 2001. Department of English, University of Helsinki.

(2003). Research Unit for Variation and Change in English (VARIENG), Department of English, University of Helsinki. Annual Report 2002. Department of English, University of Helsinki.

Pahta, Päivi & Arja Nurmi

(2004a) “ Vaihdetaan koodia.” [Let’s switch code.] Nevalainen Terttu, Matti Rissanen & Irma Taavitsainen (eds) Englannin aika. Elävän kielen kartoitusta. [The time of English. Charting a living language.] Helsinki: Werner Söderström. 126–135.

(2004b) “Ei mitään uutta auringon alla.” [Nothing new under the sun.] Nevalainen Terttu, Matti Rissanen & Irma Taavitsainen (eds) Englannin aika. Elävän kielen kartoitusta. [The time of English. Charting a living language.] Helsinki: Werner Söderström. 136–137.

Palander-Collin, Minna & Arja Nurmi

(1999) “Englantilaiset kirjeet”. [English letters.] Yliopisto (Acta Universitatis Helsingiensis) 17/99: 28–29.

My Domains

Arja Nurmi

Research Interests

Recent publications

Nurmi, Arja

Nurmi, Arja, Minna Nevala & Minna Palander-Collin

Nurmi, Arja & Minna Nevala

Nurmi, Arja & Päivi Pahta

Pahta, Päivi, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi & Minna Palander-Collin

Pahta, Päivi & Arja Nurmi

Pahta, Päivi, Minna Palander-Collin, Minna Nevala & Arja Nurmi

Palander-Collin, Minna, Minna Nevala & Arja Nurmi

Complete list of publications

Meurman-Solin, Anneli & Arja Nurmi

Nurmi, Arja

Nurmi, Arja & Minna Nevala

Nurmi, Arja, Minna Nevala & Minna Palander-Collin

Nurmi, Arja & Päivi Pahta

Nurmi, Arja & Minna Palander-Collin

Pahta, Päivi, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi & Minna Palander-Collin

Pahta, Päivi & Arja Nurmi

Pahta, Päivi, Minna Palander-Collin, Minna Nevala & Arja Nurmi

Palander-Collin, Minna, Minna Nevala & Arja Nurmi

Raumolin-Brunberg, Helena, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi & Matti Rissanen (eds)

Raumolin-Brunberg, Helena & Arja Nurmi

Corpora

Other publications

Bush, Laurel, Arja Nurmi & Nely Keinänen (eds)

Nevalainen, Terttu, Helena Raumolin-Brunberg & Arja Nurmi

Nurmi, Arja (ed.)

Pahta, Päivi & Arja Nurmi

Palander-Collin, Minna & Arja Nurmi