Article In: International Journal of Language and Culture: Online-First Articles
“Day” and “night” in the high north
The changing rhythms of light and life in Finland
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Abstract
In Nordic countries, the change of seasons strongly affects the ratio of light and dark per day. The effect is
greatest around the summer and winter solstices, when in the far northern latitudes the sun does not set at all in midsummer and
does not rise at all in midwinter. The changing hours of daylight have profound practical and psychological effects throughout the
year, creating disjuncts between the rhythm of natural light and the rhythms of human life. Using NSM semantic explications and
cultural scripts, this study examines the meanings and uses of Finnish words for ‘light’, ‘day’, ‘night’, and related expressions.
Our goals are three-fold: (i) to unpack some salient Finnish ways of thinking and speaking about light and life; (ii) to decide to
what extent Finnish semantic molecules in this domain differ in meaning from their counterparts in languages from other parts of
the world; (iii) to explore how maintaining the daily rhythms of life is aided by multiple kinds of scaffolding: lexical,
conceptual, social, and technological. Close examination of patterns of lexical polysemy and phraseology is required. We draw on
Finnish lexical resources (Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish/Kielitoimiston
sanakirja. (2006). E. Grönros (Ed.), Institute
for the Languages of Finland., Finnish Language Text
Bank) and research literature, and dialogical discussions between the authors, who are native speakers of Finnish (Vanhatalo) and
English (Goddard).
Article outline
- 1.Orientation, assumptions, and scope
- 2.Finnish cultural scripts and cultural key words connected with sunlight
- 3.Lexical semantics of ‘light’ and ‘sun’ (valo, aurinko): How much is universal?
- 4.Words for ‘day’ and ‘night’ in time-focussed meanings
- 4.1‘During the day-1’ (päivällä), ‘at night-1’ (yöllä)
- 4.2‘Night-2’ and ‘day-2’ linked with human activity
- 5.Countable ‘day/s’ and ‘night/s’ (Finnish päivät, yöt) and associated phraseology
- 5.1Countable ‘day/s-1’ (päivät)
- 5.2Days of the week
- 5.3‘Day/s-2’: ‘24-hour day’
- 6.Concluding remarks
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
References
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