Arto Mustajoki

Arto Samuel Mustajoki
Born, December 20, 1948, Tampere
Four children, 11 grandchildren

Master of Arts 1970 (German Philology), PhD 1981 (Russian language), University of Helsinki

Professor of Russian Language and Literature 1982–2016, University of Helsinki
Vice-Rector 1992–1998, University of Helsinki
Dean 1988–1992 and 2014–2016, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki
Member of the Board of the Academy of Finland 2001–2006, 2014-
Chair of the Research Council for Culture and Society (Academy of Finland) 2001–2006
Chair of the Board of the Academy of Finland 2010–2014
Vice-President of Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 2006-2008, President 2008-2010
Member of the Finnish Research and Innovation Council 2011-2015
International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (MAPRYAL), Member of Board 1981–, Secretary General 1991–2003, Vice-President 2003–

Research Student, Leningrad State University 1971–1973
Visiting Fellow, Cambridge University 1990–1991
Invited guest lectures abroad: Moscow, Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Saratov, Simferopol, Almaty, Ulan-Bataar, Bishkek, Tartu, Tallinn, Budapest, Warsaw, Sofia, Basel, Oxford, Gothenburg

Publications:
Recent publications

Full list of publications as of 2008

Publications in PDF-format

The most cited publication

Curriculum Vitae

Honours and awards
“Orden Druzhby Narodov,” President Gorbatshov 1990
Member of Finnish Academy of Science and Letters 1991
Commander's Cross of the Order of the Lion of Finland 1992
Honorary Doctor, Russian Academy of Science 1995
Honorary Professor, Moscow State University 1999
“Orden Druzhby,” President Medvedev 2010
Commander of the Order of the White Rose of Finland 2013

Photo: Veikko Somerpuro
Written by Arto Mustajoki
Revised by Matthew Billington

Linguistic theory and methodology

The essential question of linguistics, “What is language?”, has puzzled me from the beginning of my research carrier up until this day. A further problem is the inconsistency of the research methods used. If we think that langue (or competence) and parole (or performance) are different things, why are texts used in studies on langue? In reflecting on this discrepancy I have turned, besides Ferdinand de Saussure and Noam Chomsky, to the ideas of Louis Hjelmslev and Eugenio Coșeriu. In approaching this problem, one can use the idea of direct and indirect methods proposed by Martina Penke and Anette Rosenbach.

I have elaborated my own views on linguistic methodology in various journal articles:

О предмете и цели лингвистических исследований [The objectives and purposes of linguistic studies] // Язык: система и функционирование / Ю.Н. Караулов. Москва 1988, 170-181.
О лингвистических экспериментах [On linguistic experiments]. Язык – система, язык – текст, язык – способность (К 60-летию члена-корреспондента Российской академии наук Юрия Николаевича Караулова). Москва 1995, 155-160.
Разновидности русского языка: анализ и классификация [Varieties of the Russian language: analysis and classification]. Вопросы языкознания, 2013: 5, 3-17.

The following article is dedicated to the why-question in linguistic studies:

"Признаки", "причины" и "объяснения", или разные подходы к истолкованию языковых фактов ["Signs", "reasons" and "explanations", or different ways of interpreting language facts] // Russian Linguistics 14, 1990, 147-170.

The works mentioned above are in Russian. However, something is also coming in English: I have been asked to write a chapter on linguistic methodology for the handbook Language and Dialogue which will be edited by Edda Weigand.

By Written by Arto Mustajoki. Revised by Matthew Billington.