Esa Itkonen (born January 3, 1944) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and language theorist. He is professor emeritus of

general linguistics Theoretical linguistics is a term in linguistics which, like the related term general linguistics, can be understood in different ways. Both can be taken as a reference to theory of language, or the branch of linguistics which inquires into the n ...

at the

University of Turku sv, Åbo universitet , latin_name = Universitas Aboensis , image_name = University of Turku.svg , motto = ''Vapaan kansan lahja vapaalle tieteelle'' , established = 1920 , type ...

. Itkonen has authored several publications on linguistic

methodology In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...

philosophy of linguistics The philosophy of linguistics is the philosophy of science applied to linguistics. It is concerned with topics including what the subject matter and theoretical goals of linguistics are, what forms linguistic theories should take, and what counts ...

history of linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language, involving analysis of language form, language meaning, and language in context. Language use was first systematically documented in Mesopotamia, with extant lexical lists of the 3rd to the 2nd M ...

, and

linguistic typology Linguistic typology (or language typology) is a field of linguistics that studies and classifies languages according to their structural features to allow their comparison. Its aim is to describe and explain the structural diversity and the co ...

. He has defended a humanist approach to linguistics, criticising

sociobiology Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to examine and explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics. Within t ...

generative grammar Generative grammar, or generativism , is a linguistic theory that regards linguistics as the study of a hypothesised innate grammatical structure. It is a biological or biologistic modification of earlier structuralist theories of linguistic ...

, and

Cognitive Linguistics Cognitive linguistics is an interdisciplinary branch of linguistics, combining knowledge and research from cognitive science, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and linguistics. Models and theoretical accounts of cognitive linguistics are con ...

Career

Esa Itkonen earned his PhD at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

in 1974. He was Professor of general linguistics at the University of Turku from 1982 to 2012 and Docent of

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

at the

University of Jyväskylä The University of Jyväskylä ( fi, Jyväskylän yliopisto) is a research university in Jyväskylä, Finland. It has its origins in the first Finnish-speaking Teacher Training College (the so-called Teacher Seminary), founded in 1863. Ar ...

from 1988 to 2012.

Linguistic theory

In his 2005 book ''Analogy as Structure and Process'', Itkonen argues that

analogy Analogy (from Greek ''analogia'', "proportion", from ''ana-'' "upon, according to" lso "against", "anew"+ ''logos'' "ratio" lso "word, speech, reckoning" is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject ( ...

is the most central concept in language formation. He proposes a distinction between ''analogy as structure'', referring to a static relation between different systems; and ''analogy as process'', or a dynamism which produces analogical structures. According to Itkonen, various forms of analogical reasoning are hidden behind other terminology in the study of language and other cognitive domains.

Books in English

* (1975) Concerning the Relationship between Linguistics and Logic. University of Helsinki. * (1976) Linguistics and Empiricalness : Answers to Criticisms. University of Helsinki. * (1978) Grammatical Theory and Metascience : A Critical Investigation into the Methodological and Philosophical Foundations of "Autonomous" Linguistics. John Benjamins. * (1983) Causality in Linguistic Theory : A Critical Investigation into the Philosophical and Methodological Foundations of 'Non-Autonomous Linguistics'. Indiana University Press. * (1991) Universal History of Linguistics : India, China, Arabia, Europe. John Benjamins. * (2003) Methods of Formalization beside and inside Both Autonomous and Non-autonomous Linguistics. University of Turku. * (2003) What Is Language? : A Study in the Philosophy of Linguistics. University of Turku. * (2005) Analogy as Structure and Process : Approaches in Linguistic, Cognitive Psychology, and Philosophy of Science. John Benjamins. * (2005) Ten Non-European Languages : An Aid to the Typologist. University of Turku.

References

External links

Personal home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Itkonen, Esa Linguists from Finland 1944 births Syntacticians Living people Philosophers of linguistics Academic staff of the University of Turku