Minna Palander-Collin

PhD, University lecturer, Researcher, Domain Two Co-ordinator
Room C626, Metsätalo
Tel. +358 (0)9 191 21630
E-mail: minna.palander-collin(at)helsinki.fi

Homepage

Research Interests

Language change and social reality: Patterns of interaction in late medieval and early modern England

My research focuses on the history of English from the 15th century to the end of the 18th century; the central question is how the communicative function of language can be used to explain language variation and change. This is a question that has rarely if ever been asked in historical linguistics, and there are no answers based on systematic research. Since language is not merely used to convey information, but it is essentially used to build and maintain social relationships, we can assume that the interaction between individuals, constructing social reality, is a central factor influencing linguistic variation and, eventually, language change.

In interaction, language users communicate their social roles required by the situation and their identity in relation to the addressee. Language is, then, affected by the power relations and the level of intimacy between individuals. What kind of linguistic means are used to build social identity and social relationships between individuals, what are the features that change over time and why, what stays constant? What kind of a discourse grammar can we build on this basis? Special attention is focused on male and female language in different private roles as parents, children and spouses as well as in official roles.

I am also a founding member of the Socio-cultural reality and Language Practices in Late Modern England (SoReaL) project.

Publications

Monographs

Minna Palander-Collin, Grammaticalization and Social Embedding: I THINK and METHINKS in Middle and Early Modern English. [Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique 55.] Helsinki: Société Néophilologique. 1999. (DOCTORAL THESIS)

Articles

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

2009b. Minna Palander-Collin, 'Patterns of interaction: Self-mention and addressee inclusion in the letters of Nathaniel Bacon and his correspondents.' In: Nurmi, Arja, Minna Nevala and Minna Palander-Collin (eds.). The Language of Daily Life in England (1400-1800). (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 183.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 53-74.

2007. Minna Palander-Collin, 'What kind of corpus annotation is needed in sociopragmatic research?' In: Meurman-Solin, Anneli & Arja Nurmi (eds) Annotating Variation and Change. (Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English 1). Helsinki: VARIENG.

2002. Minna Palander-Collin, 'Tracing patterns of interaction in historical data.' In: Raumolin-Brunberg, Helena, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi & Matti Rissanen (eds.). 2002. Variation Past and Present. VARIENG Studies in English for Terttu Nevalainen (Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki LXI). Helsinki: Société Néophilologique. 117-134.

2000. Minna Palander-Collin, 'The language of husbands and wives in seventeenth-century correspondence.' In: Christian Mair & Marianne Hundt (eds.), Corpus linguistics and linguistic theory: Papers from the Twentieth International Conference on English Language Research on Computerized Corpora (ICAME 20), Freiburg im Breisgau 1999. Amsterdam & Atlanta: Rodopi. 2000. 289-300.

2000. Minna Palander-Collin, 'Historical sociolinguistics and letters.' Lectio praecursoria. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 2000, 101 (3): 465-469.

2000. Minna Palander-Collin, 'I THINK, METHINKS: Register variation, stratification, education and nonstandard language.' In: Gunnel Melchers, Irma Taavitsainen & Päivi Pahta (eds.). 2000. Writing in nonstandard English. [Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 67.] Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 243-262.

1999. Minna Palander-Collin, 'Male and female styles in seventeenth-century correspondence: I THINK.´ Language Variation and Change 1999, 11: 123-141.

1998. Minna Palander-Collin, 'Grammaticalization of I THINK and METHINKS in Late Middle and Early Modern English: A sociolinguistic perspective.' Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 1998, 99 (4): 419-442.

1997. Minna Palander-Collin, 'A medieval case of grammaticalization, METHINKS.' In: Matti Rissanen, Merja Kytö & Kirsi Heikkonen (eds.). 1997. Grammati-calization at work: Studies of long-term developments in English. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 371-403.

1996. Minna Palander-Collin, 'The rise and fall of METHINKS.' In: Terttu Nevalainen & Helena Raumolin-Brunberg (eds.). 1996. Sociolinguistics and language history: Studies based on the Corpus of Early English Correspondence. Amsterdam & Atlanta: Rodopi. 131-149.

1993. Minna Palander-Collin, 'Some remarks on the development of "impersonal" verbs in Middle English.' In: Julian Meldon D'Arcy (ed.). 1993. Proceedings of the Fifth Nordic Conference for English Studies. Publications of the Institute for Foreign Languages, Faculty of Arts, University of Iceland. Reykjavik: University of Iceland. 208-221.

1992. Minna Palander-Collin, 'A medieval miracle: "How Our Lady's Psalter was first found",' In: Päivi Pahta, Irma Taavitsainen & Leena Kahlas-Tarkka (eds.), "As Who Say" - Many Happy Returns. Essays in Honour of Saara Nevanlinna, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1992: 77-83.

Review articles

Minna Palander-Collin, Review of Leslie K. Arnovick. Diachronic pragmatics. Seven case studies in English illocutionary development. Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 68. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1999. English Language and Linguistics 2002, 6.2: 379-416.

Minna Palander-Collin, Review of Landmarks in English Grammar: The Eighteenth Century. Fully indexed electronic editions of five eighteenth-century English grammars. Edited by Gerald Nelson, Graphics and Design by Justin Buckley. Copyright 1998 Survey of English Usage, University College London. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 2000, 101 (1): 119-120.

Edited scientific works

Matti Rissanen, Merja Kytö & Minna Palander-Collin (eds.), Early English in the computer age: Explorations through the Helsinki Corpus, Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 1993.

Arja Nurmi, Minna Nevala and Minna Palander-Collin (eds.). The Language of Daily Life in England (1400-1800). (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 183.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 2009.

Nevala, Minna & Palander-Collin, Minna

(2005) 'Introduction: Letters and letter writing.' Thematic issue Letters and Letter Writing ed. by Minna Palander-Collin & Minna Nevala. European Journal of English Studies (EJES) 9/1: 1-7.

(forthcoming) 'O England! England! She says my Father my Sisters my friends! shall I ever see you more? Reporting in 18th-century correspondence.' In OID3 Conference Proceedings.

My Domains