Photo: Veikko Somerpuro
Kielipankki – The Language Bank of Finland offers a comprehensive set of resources, tools and services in a high-performance environment. Simo Määttä tells us about his research that is based on sociological translation studies, critical sociolinguistics and critical discourse studies.
I am Simo Määttä, Assistant Professor of Translation Studies at the Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki. I am Head of the Translation Studies Research Community TRAST and hold a title of docent in French Studies. I teach in the Master’s programme in Translation and Interpreting at the University of Helsinki. I am Chair of the Board of the Register of Legal Interpreters.
I received my PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004 and have since worked at several universities in Finland, and since 2014 at the University of Helsinki.
My research is based on sociological translation studies, critical sociolinguistics and critical discourse studies. I am interested in how language use and other interactions are represented and what meanings are given to linguistic interactions – especially multilingual communication and linguistic variation.
One of my main research interests is public service (or community) and legal interpreting. In this field, I examine language ideologies, accuracy of interpreting, multimodality, the agency of participants in the interpreter-mediated encounter, the expression of empathy and the realisation of linguistic rights. In particular, I have studied lingua franca interpreting, where both the interpreter and the client speaking a foreign language communicate in a language that is not their first language. This is common, for example, when an asylum seeker, migrant or foreign national suspected of or victim of a crime communicates with an interpreter in French or English.
I lead the Translation, Immigration and Democracy project (2022-2025) funded by the Kone Foundation, where our research team analyses translation policies and practices in multilingual communication targeted to migrant populations. The research focuses on organisations (e.g. municipalities, organisations, companies, universities, media) operating in the Helsinki metropolitan area (Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa) and in Tallinn. The project combines theories and methods of functionalist and sociological translation studies and critical linguistics.
The project is founded on the idea that multilingualism constitutes not only an opportunity for democracy, but also a challenge: the language barrier prevents migrants from participating in social, cultural and political life and from becoming full members of their local community and society. Translation aims to promote migrants’ access to information and participation, but it does not reach all migrants. The project approaches translation as a practice of governmentality, through which power is exercised and produced. One of the objectives is to propose new solutions, together with different actors, to improve the quality of translation policies and practices.
I am also involved in the EU Horizon-funded project ARENAS (Analysis of and Responses to Extremist Narratives), coordinated by Professor Julien Longhi (Cergy Paris Université), in which our international, multidisciplinary consortium analyses the extremist narratives affecting and threatening European political and social life. We explore the nature of extremist narratives and seek to understand them, in particular those concerning science, gender and the Nation. By understanding how these narratives work, we aim to find ways to counter extremist narratives and thus contribute to the harmonious development of Europe.
Within the ARENAS project, I am involved in a work package related to the circulation of extremist narratives, coordinated by historian Steven Forti from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. The ARENAS team in Helsinki is led by Dr. Katalin Miklóssy, Jean Monet Professor and Associate Professor of Political History. I am responsible for a task of qualitative research on how extremist narratives circulate between political discourse, traditional media and new media. The qualitative data for the study is selected on the basis of the quantitative data produced and analysed in the other tasks of the work package.
I also analyse the theory of discourse, ideology (especially language ideology), performativity, and hate speech. My previous research has focused on the translation of sociolinguistic variation in literature and language policies related to regional and minority languages.
In the part of the ARENAS project that I am responsible for, we use the corpora available in the Language Bank on speeches made in the Finnish Parliament, especially in plenary sessions. These data have allowed us to see exactly how the topics discussed in traditional and new media correspond to the political debate in Parliament. In addition, our research has made use of the ParlaMint corpus and a corpus compiled for the ARENAS project, which consists of social media posts by politicians in different countries.
I also used the Suomi24 corpus from the Language Bank in a study co-authored with Yrjö Lauranto to examine how online discussants express dissenting and sympathetic opinions about gender and sexual minorities. We also used Suomi24 data in articles written with Ulla Tuomarla and Karita Suomalainen in Finnish and English, analysing discussions on immigration.
Määttä, S. & Kinnunen, T. 2024. The Interplay between Linguistic and Non-verbal Communication in an Interpreter-mediated Main Hearing of a Victim’s Testimony. Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication 43(3), 299–330. DOI: 10.1515/multi-2023-0153
Määttä, S., Kinnunen, T., Kuusi, P. & Probirskaja, S. 2024. Kohderyhmätietous monikielisen kriisiviestinnän asiantuntijatyössä koronapandemian aikana. Työelämän tutkimus 22(4), 555–587. https://journal.fi/tyoelamantutkimus/article/view/142675
Määttä, S. 2023. Linguistic and Discursive Properties of Hate Speech and Speech Facilitating the Expression of Hatred: Evidence from Finnish and French Online Discussion Boards. Internet Pragmatics 6(2), 156–172. DOI: 10.1075/ip.00094.maa
Määttä, S. & Wiklund, M. 2023. Resolving Comprehension Problems in a Telephone-interpreted Screening Interview. Teoksessa: E. de Boe, J. Vranjes & H. Salaets (toim.) Interactional Dynamics in Remote Interpreting: Micro-analytical Approaches. New York: Routledge, 42–65. https://www.routledge.com/Interactional-Dynamics-in-Remote-Interpreting-Micro-analytical-Approaches/Boe-Vranjes-Salaets/p/book/9781032213286
Määttä, S. & Hall, M. 2022. Ideology and Discourse: Convergent and Divergent Developments. Teoksessa: S. Määttä & M. Hall (toim.) Mapping Ideology in Discourse Studies. Boston & Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 1–20. DOI: 10.1515/9781501513602-001
Määttä, S. & Lauranto, Y. 2022. Eriävän ja myötämielisen mielipiteen esittäminen sukupuoli- ja seksuaalivähemmistöjä koskevissa Suomi24-keskusteluissa. Virittäjä 126(2), 205–230. https://journal.fi/virittaja/article/view/100240
Määttä, S., Puumala, E. & Ylikomi, R. 2021. Linguistic, Psychological, and Epistemic Vulnerability in Asylum Procedures: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Discourse Studies 23(1), 46–66. DOI: 10.1177%2F1461445620942909
Määttä, S., Suomalainen, K. & Tuomarla, U. 2021. Everyday Discourse as a Space of Citizenship: The Linguistic Construction of In-groups and Out-groups in Online Discussion Boards. Citizenship Studies 25(6), 773–790. DOI: 10.1080/13621025.2021.1968715
Vernet, S. & Määttä, S. 2021. Modalités syntaxiques et argumentatives du discours homophobe en ligne : chroniques de la haine ordinaire. Mots – Les langages du politique 125, 35–51. https://journals.openedition.org/mots/27943
Määttä, S., Suomalainen, K. & Tuomarla, U. 2020. Maahanmuuttovastaisen ideologian ja ryhmäidentiteetin rakentuminen Suomi24-keskustelussa. Virittäjä 124(2), 190–216. https://journal.fi/virittaja/article/view/81931
The FIN-CLARIN consortium consists of a group of Finnish universities along with CSC – IT Center for Science and the Institute for the Languages of Finland (Kotus). FIN-CLARIN helps the researchers of Social Sciences and Humanities to use, refine, preserve and share their language resources. The Language Bank of Finland is the collection of services that provides the language materials and tools for the research community.
All previously published Language Bank researcher interviews are stored in the Researcher of the Month archive. This article is also published on the website of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Helsinki.
