Matti Juhani Rissanen (23 June 1937 in Viipuri – 24 January 2018 in Vantaa) was a Finnish professor emeritus and researcher in English linguistics.[1][2] Rissanen worked at the University of Helsinki as a docent of English philology 1969–1970, an assistant professor 1970–1977 and as a professor 1977–2001.[3] He was also chair of the university's language centre.
1991 saw the publication of the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts, a seminal English-language corpus of historical texts, of which Rissanen was editor-in-chief.[4] He has been characterised accordingly as 'a pioneer in English historical corpus linguistics'.[5]
In 1995, Rissanen founded, and became the first director of, the English linguistics research unit Varieng at the University of Helsinki,[6] and in 1998 was president of the Societas Linguistica Europaea.[7]
He received a range of honours and awards. He became an honorary doctor at the University of Uppsala, Sweden (2001); was elected to the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters; and he became an honorary member of the Modern Language Society (2005), the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, and the Japan Association for English Corpus Studies (2006).[8] In 2012, Rissanen received the Alfred Kordelin Prize, comprising a €30,000 research grant.[9]
In the recollection of his former student and colleague Matti Kilpiö, Rissanen's 'optimism [...] was infectious, his energy unfailing'.[10]
Major works
edit- The uses of one in Old and Early Middle English, PhD thesis. 1967
- Problems in the translation of Shakespeare's imagery into Finnish : with special reference to Macbeth. Mémoires de la Société néophilologique de Helsinki 36. Helsinki 1971
- Corpus-based studies of diachronic English, ed. by Roberta Facchinetti and Matti Rissanen. Lang, Bern - New York 2006
References
edit- ^ http://dbgw.finlit.fi/matr/tiedot.php?id=9045. Archived 2014-12-05 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Archived copy". www.helsinki.fi. Archived from the original on 16 June 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Helsingin yliopiston opettaja- ja virkamiesluettelo 1918-2000, englantilainen filologia.
- ^ Jukka Tyrkkö, 'Helsinki Corpus of English Texts', in Corpus Resource Database (14 October 2011).
- ^ 'In memoriam: Matti Rissanen' (24 January 2018).
- ^ 'In memoriam: Matti Rissanen' (24 January 2018).
- ^ "Presidents and Annual Meetings of the Societas Linguistica Europaea". Retrieved 28 July 2012.
- ^ 'In memoriam: Matti Rissanen' (24 January 2018); https://tuhat.helsinki.fi/portal/en/persons/matti-rissanen(7a2f33ca-9a3a-4d2e-a570-edfc1168d61f)/prizes.html.
- ^ Matti Rissaselle Kordelinin tunnustuspalkinto, Nykykielten laitos 6.11.2012
- ^ Varieng (2023-06-08). "In memoriam: Matti Kilpiö". Kielen kannoilla (in Finnish). Retrieved 2023-06-17.