Tiina Onikki-Rantajääskö is a linguist whose particular expertise lies in semantics. Terminology work is an extension of her research on Finnish grammar and morphology. Her project Suomen kielen kognitiivista kielioppia sukukielten kehyksessä is part of the international research network Cognitive Linguistic Perspectives on other Finno-Ugric Languages. In the project researchers compare Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian and other Finno-Ugric languages in terms of the functions of constructions, drawing upon functional linguistic theoretical models.

Language policy, the Finnish language and the status of Finland’s minority languages and scope for their usage in social life are also a research concern of Professor Onikki-Rantajääskö. The aim of the Bank of Finnish Terminology in Arts and Sciences is to develop Finnish as a scientific language.

“And we support multilingual scientific expression across languages in spoken and written domains. The importance of your first language (or languages) is such that it too requires methodological rigour if it is to be treated as an object of research,” says Onikki-Rantajääskö.