Terttu Nevalainen (born 31 May 1952,

Vuolijoki Vuolijoki is a former municipality in Finland. The municipality was consolidated with the city of Kajaani in the beginning of year 2007. Vuolijoki was located in the province of Oulu on the shores of Lake Oulujärvi, and was part of the Kainuu ...

) 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. Lingui ...

and the current Chair of English Philology 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 ...

. She has been a member of the

Finnish Academy of Sciences The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters ( Finnish ''Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia''; Latin ''Academia Scientiarum Fennica'') is a Finnish learned society. It was founded in 1908 and is thus the second oldest academy in Finland. The oldest is the ...

since 2001 and was inducted as a First Class Knight of the Order of the White Rose of Finland in 2015. Nevalainen works on

corpus linguistics Corpus linguistics is the study of a language as that language is expressed in its text corpus (plural ''corpora''), its body of "real world" text. Corpus linguistics proposes that a reliable analysis of a language is more feasible with corpora ...

, the

history of English English is a West Germanic language that originated from Ingvaeonic languages brought to Britain in the mid-5th to 7th centuries AD by Anglo-Saxon migrants from what is now northwest Germany, southern Denmark and the Netherlands. The Anglo-Sax ...

and

historical sociolinguistics Sociohistorical linguistics, or historical sociolinguistics, is the study of the relationship between language and society in its historical dimension. A typical question in this field would, for instance, be: "How were the verb endings ''-s'' and - ...

Background and career

Nevalainen received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four ye ...

in English philology and general linguistics at the University of Helsinki in 1977, before going to

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

for postgraduate studies from 1980 to 1981. She then completed her Ph.L (1986) and Ph.D. (1991) at the University of Helsinki. She has since been a visiting scholar at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Firth C ...

. Nevalainen is currently editor-in-chief of the monograph series ''Oxford Studies in the History of English'' and co-editor of the ''Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics''

journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: * Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

. She is also currently building an open-access Language Change Database to facilitate statistical modelling and comparative sociolinguistic typologies. Since 1993, she has been leading the compilation of the Corpora of Early English Correspondence, which currently comprises 5.1 million words of Late Middle and

Early Modern English Early Modern English or Early New English (sometimes abbreviated EModE, EMnE, or ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middl ...

from 1400 to 1800. In 2002, a ''

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the ...

'' entitled ''Variation Past and Present (Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique LXI)'', was complied in her honor by Raumolin-Brunberg, H. et al.

Notable publications

* Nevalainen, T. (2006) ''An Introduction to Early Modern English.'' Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. * Nevalainen, T. (ed.) & Traugott, E. (ed.) (2012) ''The Oxford Handbook of the History of English''. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. (Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics) * Nevalainen, T. & Raumolin-Brunberg, H. (2017) ''Historical sociolinguistics: Language change in Tudor and Stuart England''. January 2017 (2nd rev. ed.) London: Routledge - Taylor & Francis Group.

References

External links

Terttu Nevalainen
University of Helsinki
Language Change Database

Corpora of Early English Correspondence (CEEC)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nevalainen, Terttu 1952 births Living people Linguists from Finland Academic staff of the University of Helsinki University of Helsinki alumni Women linguists Academics of the University of Sheffield