JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN HUMANITIES 200 Samu Kytölä Multilingual Language Use and Q< JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN HUMANITIES 200 Samu Kytölä Multilingual Language Use and Metapragmatic Reflexivity in Finnish Internet Football Forums A Study in the Sociolinguistics of Globalization Esitetään Jyväskylän yliopiston humanistisen tiedekunnan suostumuksella julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston vanhassa juhlasalissa S212 maaliskuun 21. päivänä 2013 kello 12. Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by permission of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Jyväskylä, in Auditorium S212, on March 21, 2013 at 12 o’clock noon. UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ JYVÄSKYLÄ 2013 Multilingual Language Use and Metapragmatic Reflexivity in Finnish Internet Football Forums A Study in the Sociolinguistics of Globalization JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN HUMANITIES 200 Samu Kytölä Multilingual Language Use and Metapragmatic Reflexivity in Finnish Internet Football Forums A Study in the Sociolinguistics of Globalization UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ JYVÄSKYLÄ 2013 Editors Paula Kalaja Department of Languages, University of Jyväskylä Pekka Olsbo, Ville Korkiakangas Publishing Unit, University Library of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities Editorial Board Editor in Chief Heikki Hanka, Department of Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä Petri Karonen, Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä Paula Kalaja, Department of Languages, University of Jyväskylä Petri Toiviainen, Department of Music, University of Jyväskylä Tarja Nikula, Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä Raimo Salokangas, Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä Cover picture by Tero Wester. URN:ISBN:978-951-39-5132-0 ISBN 978-951-39-5132-0 (PDF) ISBN 978-951-39-5131-3 (nid.) ISSN 1459-4323 (nid.), 1459-4331 (PDF) Copyright © 2013, by University of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä University Printing House, Jyväskylä 2013 Human beings use linguistic features, words with meanings, morphology, syntactic restrictions and, as we have seen, values ascribed to them by speakers. Features which are similar in certain respects can be dissimilar in other respects among different languages users and in different contexts. This also pertains to the values ascribed to features or clusters of features which may be evaluated quite differently by different speakers or groups of speakers. - Jens Normann Jørgensen ABSTRACT Kytölä, Samu Multilingual language use and metapragmatic reflexivity in Finnish internet football forums. A study in the sociolinguistics of globalization. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2013, 221 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities ISSN 1459-4323 (nid), 1459-4331 (PDF); 200) ISBN 978-951-39-5131-3 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-5132-0 (PDF) Using two Finland-based internet football forums as main data sources, this thesis explores usages of multilingual communicative resources in multi-authored online football discourse. Furthermore, it discusses metapragmatic reflexivity, meta-level discussions on the acceptability and correctness of multilingual language uses in these Futisforums. This phenomenology of multilingualism and heteroglossia is discussed vis-à-vis the types of sociolinguistic indexicality that connect the forum discussions to larger societal patterns: domains of globalized and local football fandom, the sociolinguistic backdrop of the ostensibly monolingual Finnish participant framework, and the early 21st century technology of the interactive web forum. This is done in the framework of the ‘sociolinguistics of globalization’, with a reorientation towards mobile linguistic resources, drawn from a multiplicity of sources, organized in individuals’ repertoires, and employed in multilingual, multi-voiced discourse arenas. Ethnographically framed observation and data collection were conducted in order to integrate emic football enthusiasts’ perspectives with the descriptive sociolinguist’s etic vantage point. This dissertation comprises five research articles, each of which illuminates particular facets of the multilingualism in the Futisforums. Two of the articles have a methodological and theoretical main focus, while one of them is a quantitatively grounded exploration of multilingual ‘framing devices’ in processes of entextualization. Two articles contain detailed interactional-sociolinguistic analyses of the dynamics of multilingual language use in situ with local negotiations of multilingualism, particularly Finnish, Standard English, non-Standard English and Swedish. Two of the articles show how certain appropriated non-Standard language uses are linked to the aspects of mockery and degradation, while two of them emphasize the inclusive and benevolent facets of multilingual language use in football fandom. In the concrete realities of these online discourse events, these contrasting aspects are intertwined rather than separate, and both aspects are further intertwined with appropriation, stylization, playfulness, humour and a high sense of performance. Keywords: appropriation, computer-mediated communication, crossing, English, entextualization, fandom, Finland, Finnish, football, globalization, metapragmatic reflexivity, mobility, multilingualism, non-Standard, online ethnography, sociolinguistics, Standard, web forums Author’s address Samu Kytölä Department of Languages University of Jyväskylä [email protected] Supervisor Prof. Sirpa Leppänen Department of Languages University of Jyväskylä Reviewers Prof. Alexandra Georgakopoulou-Nunes School of Arts & Humanities / Hellenic Studies King’s College London Steven L. Thorne, PhD Department of World Languages and Literatures Portland State University & Department of Applied Linguistics University of Groningen Opponent Prof. Alexandra Georgakopoulou-Nunes School of Arts & Humanities / Hellenic Studies King’s College London ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS – ESIPUHE A doctoral dissertation always takes some time to ripen, mature and materialize. This one has taken, together with other concurrent academic and non-academic projects, seven years and a couple of months in total since I embarked on it. What an enormous effort this has been! Notwithstanding, it will finally reach a conclusion one of these days. To freely adapt from the Biblical parable, if seven years of famine will be followed by seven years of plenty and vice versa, let me hope that these indeed were the famine years. For it has been a long, tough and tiring journey. But at the end of the day, also a rewarding one; and I have been fortunate to draw inspiration and encouragement from many good people. It makes me humble to think how privileged I have actually been, to have engaged with some of the best people in the field, and with ample support from others. Let me begin by thanking the most important single person behind this career choice. Without Professor Sirpa Leppänen I doubt if I would be writing these words at all. I might well be a postgraduate student somewhere, in some field of academic inquiry, but the one person who gently encouraged me to pursue just this path is Sirpa. Words are inadequate to thank you, Sirpa, for your inextinguishable faith, encouragement and support! Over these years, you have been a wise director in our joint research projects and a generous supervisor to me and other postgraduate students. This thesis would be a somewhat more modest effort without your selfless mentorship. I was desperate at times, my drafts were often terribly fragmented, but you helped me carry on, never reproachfully, never in a dispiriting way. Without compromising any of the previously listed virtues, at the same time you have written up research that has been an inspiration to us students and set the standard for the upcoming years. If ever in my lifetime I grow up to be even half as wise, half as knowledgeable, and half as virtuous a mentor, my students, subordinates and colleagues will be blessed. I am deeply grateful to my Honoured Opponent, Professor Alexandra Georgakopoulou-Nunes (King’s College London) for accepting our invitation to be my opponent and examiner, for carefully reading my preliminary draft and patiently indicating points where it could be seriously improved. Needless to say, this thesis would be considerably weaker without your helpful and constructive critique. Thank you for trying to make sense of the preliminary draft and guiding its parts on the right track. I am also grateful to my second examiner, PhD Steven L. Thorne (Portland, Groningen, Pennsylvania). Where Alexandra’s critique in the last stage was rightly aimed at helping the raw manuscript to mature into a real sociolinguistic thesis, you, Steve, were miraculously able to see all the tiny diamonds through the mud and knick- knacks! Your words of praise and encouragement, when they finally entered my inbox, really made my day. In retrospect, I had the best of fortune to have two examiners who complemented each other perfectly: they simultaneously helped me polish the flimsy parts of the manuscript and made me feel confident and welcome to take the final step into the world of professional scholarship. I engaged with your feedback with much attention, attempting to embed your insights and alternative formulations into the thesis as best I could. The remaining gaps and shortcomings are, of course, all mine. Thank you so much, Alexandra and Steve. I owe special thanks to Professor Jan Blommaert, who was a visiting FiDiPro (‘Finland Distinguished Professor’) at Jyväskylä between 2007 and 2010. Oh boy, what Distinguished Professor you were! I trust that