Borders under Negotiation

The University of Vaasa Research Group for Translation, LSP and Multilingualism held the 35th annual VAKKI Symposium on February 12–13, 2015 in Vaasa, Finland. The theme of the Symposium was Borders under Negotiation. According to the VAKKI tradition, papers were presented in Finnish, Swedish, English and German, and this year also in Danish. The invited plenary speakers were Professor Jaakko Husa (University of Lapland), Professor Helge Jordheim (University of Oslo) and Professor Jens E. Olesen (University of Greifswald). The Humanist of the Year prize 2015 was awarded to the literary author Marko Hautala. The motivation is included in the present publication.

Professor Jaakko Husa’s plenary lecture dealt with the challenges that the complexity of legal language presents to its interpretation. Husa’s speech was based on the familiar parable of the elephant and blind men: he compared the language of law to the elephant, and the researchers examining it to the blind men who observe the same phenomenon, yet from different perspectives and arriving at different interpretations. Husa’s apt examples showed how the dialogue between researchers is negatively affected by the artificial borders deriving from different definitions. These borders may lead to a situation in which each discipline falsely sees its own definition as the only correct one. Professor Helge Jordheim also approached borders from the point of view of the dialogue between disciplines. Focussing on the concept of philological paradigm, Jordheim asked whether the increasingly fragmenting field of humanities is unified by the philological tradition, and if so, in what form, by whom and why. Jordheim dealt with different paradigm shifts associated with language-related research which seem to have led researchers away from the philological tradition. At the same time he argued that the borders between disciplines are wavering at best and that all of them can be seen unified by a common denominator, the philological paradigm.

Professor Jens E. Olesen discussed more concrete borders. He concentrated on the borders and border areas between states and highlighted the challenges and problems related to them and their definition. As an example, Olesen referred to the Danish-German border, which he examined from historical, cultural, political and linguistic perspectives, among others. Above all, Olesen approached borders and border areas as processes in which all the factors mentioned above have an important role to play.

This year’s extensive Symposium theme attracted an abundant audience who examined borders from different fields of language-related research. This publication contains 27 articles that are based on the Symposium’s section, poster and workshop presentations. The articles have been selected for publication through a double blind review procedure

VAKKI Symposium XXXV. Vaasa 12.-13.2.2015

Vaasa 2015

Edited by Daniel RELLSTAB & Nestori SIPONKOSKI

Editorial assistant: Jenni RIIPPA

ISBN: 978-952-67887-6-0 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-952-67887-7-7 (PDF)

ISSN-L: 2242-6841
ISSN: 2242-6841 (paperback)
ISSN: 2242-685X (PDF)

Opening

Literature and culture

Linguistics and communication

Translation and interpreting

VAKKI Symposium XXXV. Vaasa 12.-13.2.2015