Pets as family members: Conflicting practices in the use of third-person pronouns to refer to companion animals in written biographical stories in Finnish

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12697/jeful.2023.14.3.04

Keywords:

animacy hierarchy, human–animal relationship, Finnish, perspective taking, pronouns, standard language, elusushierahia, inimese ja looma suhe, soome keel, perspektiivi võtmine, pronoomenid, standardkeel

Abstract

In many languages, the category of ‘humans’ is linguistically separate from other animals. In Standard Finnish, for example, separate pronouns are used. Companion animals in modern societies, in a way, falls between humans and animals, since people often consider them as distinct persons and family members. The article examines how Finnish writers waver between these two pronouns in references to pets in biographical stories. Although the writers aim at following Standard Finnish norms in most other aspects, one out of three writers uses personal pronouns to refer to animals. Many writers humanize pets in other ways but do not deviate from the pronoun norm. For them, the idea of standard language seems to override the possibility of expressing attitudes towards animals with pronoun choice. Others adopt pronoun variation as a stylistic effect, or the colloquial system with perspective taking as the reason for pronoun variation conveyed to the texts.

Kokkuvõte. Katri Priiki: Lemmikloomad nagu pereliikmed: lemmikloomadele viitavate pronoomenite vastuoluline kasutamine soomekeelsetes elulugudes. Paljudes keeltes eristatakse inimesi ja loomi grammatiliselt. Soome standardkeeles kasutatakse inimeste ja loomade kohta erinevaid pronoomeneid. Artiklis uuritakse, kuidas mitteprofessionaalsed soome keeles kirjutajad vahetavad biograafilistes tekstides lemmikloomadele viitavaid pronoomeneid. Kaasaegses ühiskonnas jäävad lemmikloomad mõnes mõttes inimese ja teiste loomade vahele, sest inimesed peavad neid sageli omaette isikuks ja oma pere liikmeks. Kuigi kirjutajad järgivad üldiselt soome keele standardnorme, kasutab üks kolmest kirjutajast lemmikloomadele viitamiseks isikulist asesõna. Ülejäänud humaniseerivad lemmikloomi muul viisil ega kaldu pronoomenite kasutusnormidest kõrvale. Isikuliste asesõnade hän ’tema’ ja he ’nad’ kasutamine tekstides on mõjutatud mitmetest teguritest: soome kõnekeelest, võõrkeeltest, eriti inglise keelest, ja lemmikloomade muutuvast staatusest.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Downloads

Published

2023-11-26

How to Cite

Priiki, K. (2023). Pets as family members: Conflicting practices in the use of third-person pronouns to refer to companion animals in written biographical stories in Finnish. Eesti Ja Soome-Ugri Keeleteaduse Ajakiri. Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics, 14(3), 107–136. https://doi.org/10.12697/jeful.2023.14.3.04

Issue

Section

Articles