Emeritus professor of Scandinavian languages
at Nordica in the discipline of
Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies
University of Helsinki
P.O.Box 24 (Unioninkatu 40 / Fabianinkatu 39)
FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
e-mail: jan-ola.ostman[e-mail_at]helsinki.fi
janola.ostman[e-mail_at]gmail.com
ORCID 0000-0002-2658-9314
Present academic positions/tasks
Education and degrees
Languages
Prominent research areas and areas of interest
Pragmatics, discourse and media
Construction grammar and construction discourse
Minorities, (North-Germanic and other) dialects, signed languages, language contact, identity and variability
Language policy, sociology of language, ideology, responsibility, and applied linguistics
Research-related administrative positions and projects – a selection
(for Research projects generally, see separate folder; for other administrative duties, see separate folder)
Appointments and job history
Distinctions, honors and prizes
Academic promotion and evaluation of theses and degrees
Theses supervision
I have supervised some 35 doctoral dissertations, four M.Phil. theses, and over 280 M.A. theses.
See below for a list of successful PhDs under my supervision.
Supervision in graduate schools, doctoral programs, and research seminars
In addition to having had official theses advisory tasks, I have been an active supervisor of doctoral dissertation in the departments where I have had professorial duties, and in the following national graduate schools in Finland,
and in the Doctoral Program for Language Studies at the University of Helsinki 2013-(2016)
Member of Editorial Boards for journals
For main (co-)editor of journals and book series, see separate folder.
PhD theses and dissertations supervised
[The abbreviation "(m)" stands for 'main supervisor', i.e. what is also known as Dissertation director/adviser, Chair of PhD committee, or Promoter of dissertation; "(c)" stands for 'co-supervisor', and is followed by a specification of the nature of this supervision.]
2024
Jenny Sylvin. Svenskan vid Helsingfors universitet. Språkpolicy, attityder och realiteter ['Swedish at the University of Helsinki. Language policy, attitudes and realities']
(c)
(co-supervisors: Jan Lindström (m), Tom Moring)
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[Published as such as Nordica Helsingiensia vol. 64.]
Marion Kwiatkowski. Finding your place among different languages and cultures. Linguistic expressions of social identity by transcultural youth in rural Finland.
(c) / (m until my retirement)
(co-supervisor together with Lieselott Nordman and Therese Lindström Tiedemann
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[[Summary introduction plus four separate studies published as Nordica Helsingiensia vol. 63.], University of Helsinki
2023
Saija Tamminen-Parre. Attityder till engelskan och till svenskan ur ett finskspråkigt perspektiv
['On Finnish attitudes towards English and Swedish']
(m)
(co-supervisors: Hanna Lappalainen, Hanna Lehti-Eklund)
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[Summary introduction plus three separate studies published as Nordica Helsingiensia vol. 62, University of Helsinki; the monograph Livsstilar och individer. En undersökning om språkattityder bland finskspråkiga finländare ['Life styles and individuals'] published as a separate monograph by Novus forlag, Oslo.]
Satu Siltaloppi. List construction in Finland-Swedish Sign language.
(c) / (m until my retirement)
(co-supervisor together with Lieselott Nordman, Sherman Wilcox and Jaakko Leino)
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
Published by University of Helsinki, Faculty of Arts (Unigrafia).
2022
Malin Löfström. Språklig stil och stajling bland finlandssvenskar i Stockholm – ett mobilitetsdialektologiskt perspektiv ['Style and styling among FinlandSwedes in Stockholm from the viewpoint of a dialectology of mobility']
(m/c) together with Margareta Svahn
[Uppsala University, Scandinavian languages]
[Published as Studia Philologiae Scandinavicae Upsaliensia vol.22, Uppsala University]
2020
Niini Vartia-Paukku.Public Speaking in International Fora. Rhetorical strategies, coherenceand responsibility in political discourse
(m)
(co-supervisor: Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen)
[University of Helsinki, English]
[Published as PIC Monograph vol. 8, University of Helsinki]
2018
Maria Fremer,Tilltal i reklamfilm. Du-reformen i ett historiskt perspektiv ['Forms of address in advertising films. The informalization of Swedish address practices in an historical perspective']
(m)
(co-supervisor: Beatrice Silén)
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[Published as is, in the publication series Nordica Helsingiensia, vol. 55]
Jenny Stenberg-Sirén, Språk och språkideologier i radio och tv. Standardspråk och språkstandarder i finlandssvenska radio- och tv-nyheter ['Language and language ideologies in radio and on tv. Standard language and language standards in Finland-Swedish radio and tv news']
(m)
(co-supervisors: Tom Moring, Hanna Lehti-Eklund)
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[Published as is, in the publication series Nordica Helsingiensia, vol. 50b]
Väinö Syrjälä, Namn – Språk – Ställe. Språkbrukarna i Svenskfinlands offentliga rum ['Names – Languages – Places. Language users in the public spaces of bilingual Finland']
(m)
(co-supervisor: Terhi Ainiala)
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[Published as is, in the publication series Nordica Helsingiensia, vol. 52]
2016
Mila Engelberg,Yleispätevä mies. Suomen kielen geneerinen, piilevä ja kieliopillistuva maskuliinisuus ['The omnipotent man. The generic, latent and nascent grammaticization of masculinity in Finnish']
(m)
[University of Helsinki, Gender studies]
[Published as is, as Nordica Helsingiensia, vol. 44]
Maria Vidberg, Ortnamn i kontakt i Helsingfors. Finska inslag i bruket av gatunamn i svenska kontexter ['Place names in contact in Helsinki. Finnish elements in the use of street names in Swedish-language contexts']
(m)
(co-supervisor: Terhi Ainiala)
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[Published as is, as Nordica Helsingiensia, vol. 45]
2014
Helena Palmén, Identitet i samspråk. Kodväxling till standardvarietet som risk och resurs i östnyländska samtal på dialekt ['Identity in interaction. Code-switching from dialect to the standard as risk and resource in eastern Nyland']
(m)
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[Published as is, as Nordica Helsingiensia, vol. 34]
2012
Florian Hiss, Encountering Complexity. Hybrid discourse and individual management of multilingualism and social meaning
(m)
[University of Tromsø, Scandinavian languages]
[Published as is (Summary introduction plus six case studies republished) by the University of Tromsø]
Karin Hoyer, Dokumentation och beskrivning som språkplanering - perspektiv från arbete med tre tecknade minoritetsspråk ['Language documentation and description as language planning - Working with three signed minority languages']
(m)
[University of Helsinki, General linguistics]
[Summary introduction published as monograph, Nordica Helsingiensia, vol. 29; four studies published separately, plus lengthy study published by Ishara Press, Language vitalization through language documentation and description in the Kosovar Sign Language community, and downloadable from Open Access Publishing in European Networks]
Charlotta af Hällström-Reijonen, Finlandismer och språkvård från 1800-talet till i dag ['Finlandisms and corpus planning from the 19th c, until today']
(m)
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[Published as is (Summary introduction plus four studies republished), as Nordica Helsingiensia, vol. 28, University of Helsinki]
Tomás Lehecka, Interrelaterade lexikala egenskaper - Engelska adjektivimporter i en svensk tidningskorpus ['Interrelated lexical properties. English adjective imports in a Swedish newspaper corpus']
(m)
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[Summary introduction published as monograph, as Nordica Helsingiensia, vol. 32; other parts published as journal articles]
Taija Townsend, Women as leaders in public discourse: Communication, gender and leadership
(c) - Main supervisor at the University of Helsinki, English until 2007; thereafter co-supervisor with Mirjaliisa Charles of the Aalto university as (m).
[Aalto University, International communication]
[Published as is (Summary introduction plus five studies republished) in Aalto University Doctoral Dissertations series, 2/2012]
2011
Annika Hultén, Neural correlates of language learning in adults
(c) - Member of Hultén's follow-up group in The Finnish Graduate School of Neuroscience; (m) = Matti Laine & Riitta Salmelin
[Åbo Akademi university, psychology; and Aalto university, Brain research unit Low temperature laboratory]
[Summary introduction plus five journal articles (re)published as a book by the Åbo Akademi University]
Leila Mattfolk, Finlandssvenska åsikter om och attityder till modern språkpåverkan ['The attitudes and opinions by Swedish-language Finns on modern-day linguistic influence']
(m) 2002-2006; (m) 2007-2011: Hanna Lehti-Eklund
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[Summary introduction plus five separate studies published as Nordica Helsingiensia vol. 26, University of Helsinki; the monograph Attityder till det globala i det lokala. Finlandssvenskar om importord ['Attitudes towards the global in the local. Finland Swedes' views on imports'] published as a separate monograph by Novus forlag, Oslo: Cover. Novus order and Abstract]
Sinikka Segerståhl, Vaggvisor i Kvevlax. Språkliga strukturer och konstruktioner ['Lullabies in Kvevlax. linguistic structures and constructions']
(m)
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[Published as is, as Nordica Helsingiensia vol. 24, University of Helsinki]
Maija Stenvall, Captured by conventions. On objectivity and factuality in international news agency discourse
(m)
[University of Helsinki, English]
[Published as is (Summary introduction plus six studies) as PIC Monograph vol. 7, University of Helsinki]
2010
Eija Aho, Spontaanin puheen prosodinen jaksottelu ['Prosodic chunking of spontaneous speech']
(m)
[University of Helsinki, General linguistics]
[Published as is (Summary introduction+ five studies) as PIC Monograph vol. 6, University of Helsinki]
Åsa Mickwitz, Anpassning i språkkontakt. Morfologisk och ortografisk anpassning av engelska lånord i svenskan ['Integration in language contact. Morphological and orthographical integration of English loanwords in Swedish']
(m)
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[Published as is, as Nordica Helsingiensia vol. 21, University of Helsinki]
Caroline Sandström, Genus i östra Nyland - från dialektutjämning till dialektmarkör ['Gender in eastern Nyland - from dialect levelling to identity marking']
(m)
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[Published as is, as Nordica Helsingiensia vol. 20, University of Helsinki]
2007
Lari Kotilainen, Konstruktioiden dynamiikkaa ['Dynamic constructions']
(c), with Pentti Leino as (m)
[University of Helsinki, Finnish]
[Summary introduction + three book chapters and a booklet (re)published as pdf by the Department of Finnish language and literature at the University of Helsinki]
Johanna Kuningas, Structure informationelle et constructions du kabyle: étude de trois types de phrase dans le cadre de la grammaire constructionelle ['Information structure and constructions in Kabyle: A study of three types of phrases in the context of Construction Grammar']
(m)
[University of Helsinki, General linguistics]
[Published as is, as Department of General linguistics Publications vol. 42, University of Helsinki]
Nina Martola, Konstruktioner och valens: verbfraser med åt i ett jämförande perspektiv ['Constructions and valency. The preposition åt in Swedish']
(m)
[University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages]
[Published as is, as Nordica Helsingiensia vol. 9, University of Helsinki]
Minna Paananen-Porkka, Speech rhythm in an interlanguage perspective. Finnish adolescents speaking English
(m)
[University of Helsinki, English]
[Published as is as PIC Monograph vol. 5, University of Helsinki]
2005
Diana ben-Aaron, Given and news. Media discourse and the construction of community on national days
(m)
[University of Helsinki, English]
[Published as is as PIC Monograph vol. 4, University of Helsinki]
2004
Elizabeth Peterson, Social appropriateness and language variation: A study of Finnish requests
(c) - member of PhD committee
[University of Indiana, Bloomington, IL, U.S.A., Linguistics]
2003
Jaakko Leino, Antaa sen muuttua. Suomen kielen permissiivirakenne ja sen kehitys ['Let it change: the Finnish permissive construction and its history]
(m)
[University of Helsinki, Finnish]
[Published as is by Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura (SKS), Helsinki]
2001
Anna Solin, Intertextuality in pollution discourse. A study of textual relations in the public domain
(c) - (m) in Lancaster: Norman Fairclough; Solin was part of Östman's project on Pragmatics, Ideology, and Contacts at the University of Helsinki
[University of Lancaster, UK, English linguistics]
[Revised version published as PIC Monograph vol. 2, University of Helsinki, with the title Tracing texts. Intertextuality in environmental discourse]
2000
Heli Harrikari, Segmental length in Finnish - Studies within a Constraint-Based approach
(m)
[University of Helsinki, General linguistics]
[Published as is, as Department of General linguistics Publications vol. 33, University of Helsinki]
Pekka Kuusisto, Ethnicity in print. Implicit linguistic manifestations of the construction of ethnicity in British and Finnish newspapers
(m)
[University of Helsinki, English]
[Published as is as PIC Monograph vol. 1, University of Helsinki]
Aino Kärnä, Die Kategorie ‘Partikel’ gestern und heute. Ein Überblick über griechische, lateinische und deutsche Grammatiken [The category "particle" yesterday and today. An overview of Greek, Latin and German grammars']
(m)
[University of Helsinki, General linguistics]
[Published as is, as Department of General linguistics Prepublications and Internal Communications vol. 4, University of Helsinki]
Kari Valkama, Grammatical relations in Cebuano
(m/c) together with Fred Karlsson
[University of Helsinki, General linguistics]
[Published as is, as Department of General linguistics Publications vol. 32, University of Helsinki]
1999
Anneli Sarhimaa, Syntactic transfer, contact-induced change, and the evolution of bilingual mixed codes: Focus on Karelian-Russian language alternation
(m)
[University of Helsinki, General linguistics]
[Published as is by Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura (SKS), Helsinki]
© Jan-Ola Östman 2024