Kirjoittava minä suhteessa toiseen. Kerrontateknisiä huomioita Juha Siltalan kirjasta Miehen kunnia

• Ulla Tuomarla

Avainsanat: referointi, tekstintutkimus

Abstrakti

Free indirect speech in reporting research; observations on the narrative technique used in Juha Siltala's Miehen kunnia (englanti)

1/1997 (101)

Ulla Tuomarla (Department of Romance Languages (University of Helsinki); fi)

FREE INDIRECT SPEECH IN REPORTING RESEARCH; OBSERVATIONS ON THE NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE USED IN JUHA SILTALA'S MIEHEN KUNNIA

The article examines the use of free indirect speech in the work entitled Miehen kunnia by Juha Siltala. A stylistic device untypical of non-fiction, free indirect speech blurs the borders between the experiential worlds of the researcher and the subject of the research. This is the case especially in the parts of the text where Siltala, on the basis of the autobiographical text he is analysing, attempts to summarize and/or interpret the consciousness of the person being described. The linguistic manifestations of this include the "infectious" transfer of stylistic features and vocabulary from the subject of the research to the researcher. At a more general level, it is a question of the way in which the research approach (the "empathetic" researcher) is reflected in the method of reporting the research, and also the way in which the research material is represented in the researcher's text. The use of free indirect speech in this kind of work is problematic from the point of view of argumentation; in some places the steps in the researcher's reasoning disappear beyond the reach of the reader. Expressively effective but dubious in terms of argumentation, the work's narrative forces the reader to trust the conclusions made by the researcher, which are offered without justifying intermediate stages and lack distance from the text being studied. In the text passages discussed, which vacillate in their semantic approach, the reader no longer has any chance of differentiating the researcher's interpretation from the text being studied. In the examples analysed in the article, the different forms of free indirect speech are examined more closely.

Using this work by Siltala as an example, the general aim of the writer is to shed light on present phenomena in scientific language. In addition to textual examples, the article also discusses the creation and definition of the concept of free indirect speech. Besides Siltala's work, Marja Kaskisaari's Lesbokirja is also mentioned for the purposes of comparison. It offers the reader the same type of autobiographical material and analysis, but in a sharply different way to Siltala. In Kaskisaari's work, the researcher addresses the subjects of the research by the personal pronoun sin (2nd person singular), and she conveys each life story to the reader in her own words. The different facets of subjectivity in scientific research are a matter which researchers give expression to in their texts in different ways. The choices of narrative technique made in the works by Siltala and Kaskisaari provide food for thought, as much for the philosopher of science as for the linguist.