Alden's Media 301, #1

[AldenG]

This is my first in a series of posts looking at Finnish in the media and how intermediate students of the language can learn from media reports.  

The 301 series is relatively advanced and dissects "live" reports or excerpts.  The 201 series takes a similar approach with relatively simpler reports or excerpts.  The 101 series looks at common words, constructs, and concepts, sometimes using short quotes from reports but focusing more on basics.

I'll write a separate detailed introduction later.  For now, I'll simply note that the best way to study a report is not just to cipher through it a single time but to revisit it numerous times over several days, reading it aloud or nearly aloud, pondering the uninflected individual building blocks of each sentence and how they are inflected to fit together.  If you find yourself muttering fragments of the Finnish from the article while doing other things at other times, that's a sign your brain is building the right connections.

In fact, if you're NOT returning to an article several times after you first work it out, you're wasting a lot of your time to read it in the first place (unless all you wanted was the news, not the learning).  Most of the actual learning occurs during the revisiting and rehearsing of the sentences and phrases.

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Helsingin Sanomat:
Uhria puukotettiin vakavasti kuukausi ennen surmaa
Minna Passi[/url]

1.

Jyväskylässä tapahtuneen niin sanotun kassisurman uhri joutui vakavan väkivallanteon kohteeksi myös joulukuussa.

The core of the first sentence is:

uhri joutui ______:n kohteeksi

uhri "victim"
jouduin, joutui "ended up"
joutui ______:n kohteeksi  
(kohde, kohtee- "object, target")
(kohtee+ksi "become the object, target")

A victim ended up being the target of _____.

väkivaltä/teko "violence act, act of violence"
väkivallanteon kohteeksi "object of an act of violence"
(väki "people" valta "power, force" väkivalta "personal force, i.e. violence")

Uhri joutui väkivallanteon kohteeksi.
A victim ended up being the target of an act of violence.

Uhri joutui väkivallanteon kohteeksi myös joulukuussa.
myös "also"
joulukuussa < joulukuu+ssa < "in December"
The victim was also the target of an act of violence (back) in December.

So what victim?  As often in news reporting, the subject stays in hiding until the middle of the sentence.

kassi/surma "bag death, bag slaying"
kassisurman uhri
"the victim of the bag-slaying"

Kassisurma is not a widely used word, so the writer expands it to

niin sanottu kassisurma "so-called bag slaying"
niin sanotun kassisurman uhri "so-called bag slaying victim"
"Niin sanotun kassisurman uhri joutui väkivallanteon kohteeksi myös joulukuussa."

Ah, but WHICH bag-slaying?
Jyväskylässä tapahtunut surma "the slaying that took place in Jyväskylä"
Jyväskylässä tapahtuneen surman uhri "victim of the slaying that took place in Jyväskylä"
tapahtuu "takes place, happens"
on tapahtunut "has taken place"

So the structure of the entire sentence is

A:ssa ______:n niin ____:n _____:n uhri joutui ______:n kohteeksi myös _______:ssa.
Jyväskylässä tapahtuneen niin sanotun kassisurman uhri joutui väkivallanteon kohteeksi myös joulukuussa.

When the subject does not appear at the start of a sentence, it is most often preceded by a bunch of _______:n _________:n _________:n describing it.

2.

"Poliisin mukaan häntä ja hänen aviomiestään puukotettiin Jyväskylän Kangaslammella sijaitsevassa kerrostaloasunnossa sunnuntaina 5.12.2010."

Poliisin mukaan < poliisi+n mukaan, "according to the police"
______:n mukaan, "according to ________"

häntä puukotettiin
______:ta puukotettiin  "was stabbed"
puukko, "knife"
puukotan, puukottaa "I knife, he knifes"
puukotetaan, "is stabbed"
ei puukoteta, "is not stabbed"
puukotettiin, "was stabbed"
ei puukotettu, "was not stabbed"

ja aviomies+ta
ja hänen ________+ta+an
häntä ja hänen aviomiestään puukotettiin "she and her partner were stabbed"

Poliisin mukaan häntä ja hänen aviomiestään puukotettiin _____ _____ _____ kerros/talo/asunnossa.
asunnossa < asunto+ssa
kerros "storey", talo "building", asunto "apartment"
kerostaloasunnossa, "in a high-rise apartment"

______:lla sijaitse+va+ssa
sijaitsee, "is situated"
sijaitse+va "being situated"
sijatse+va+ssa "being situated in"
Asuntotalo sijaitsee _______:lla (or _______:ssa, according to the name)
Asuntotalo sijaitsee Korkealampi+lla
Asuntotalo sijaitsee Korkealammella
Korkealammella sijaitseva kerrostaloasunto "a high-rise apartment situated in Korkealampi"
Korkealammella sijaitsevassa kerrostaloasunnossa, "in a high-rise apartment situated in Korkealampi"

But which Korkealampi?  The one in Jyväskylä.

...puukotettiin Jyväskylän Korkealammella sijaitsevassa kerrostaloasunnossa, "in a high-rise apartment situationed in Korkealampi in Jyväskylä

3.
Esitutkinnassa kävi tuolloin ilmi, että 30-vuotias jyväskyläläinen mies oli mennyt selvittämään vanhoja kaunojaan lähinnä nyt surmatun 25-vuotiaan naisen kanssa.

Esitutkinnassa kävi tuolloin ilmi, että
käy ilmi, että "becomes apparent that"
kävi ilmi, että "became apparent that"
tutkinnassa < tutkinta+ssa, "in the investigation"
esi-, "preliminary"
esitutkinnassa, "in the preliminary investigation"
tuolloin, "at that time" (back in December)
esitutkinnassa kävi tuolloin ilmi, että "it became apparent during the investigation at that time that"

30-vuotias jyväskyläläinen mies oli mennyt selvittämään vanhoja kaunojaan
mies oli mennyt "the man had gone"
30-vuotias jyväskylä/läinen mies oli mennyt "the 30-year-old Jyväskylä-resident man had gone"
selvitän kauna+a, "I settle a quarrel"
selvittää kauna+a "he settles a quarrel"
meni selvittämä+ään kaunaa "went to settle a quarrel"
oli mennyt selvittämään vanhaa kaunaa "had gone to settle an old quarrel"
oli mennyt selvittämään vanhoja kaunoja "had gone to settle some quarrels"
oli mennyt selvittämään vanhoja kaunoja+an "had gone to settle some old quarrels of his"

selvittämään kaunojaan naisen kanssa "to settle his quarrels with a/the woman"
surmattu 25-vuotias nainen "slain 25-year-old woman"
surmatun 25-vuotiaan naisen kanssa "with the slain 25-year-old woman"

lähinnä "principally, foremost" (often occurs where it would not in English)

4.
Tilanne asunnossa oli edennyt nopeasti ja mies oli lyönyt naista useita kertoja teräaseella.

tilanne "situation"
etenee "progresses"
eteni "progressed"
oli edennyt "had progressed"
nopea+sti "fast+ly, quickly"

mies lyö nais+ta "man strikes woman"
mies löi naista "man struck woman"
mies oli lyönyt naista "the man had struck the woman"

yksi kerta "one time"
kerran "one time"
kaksi kertaa "two times"
monta kertaa "many a time, many times"
useita kertoja "multiple times"

terä "blade"
ase "weapon"
teräase "bladed weapon"
teräase+lla "with a bladed weapon"

mies oli lyönyt naista teräaseella "the man had struck the woman with a blade"


5.
Myös naisen aviomies sai iskuja teräaseesta.

isku "a blow"
iskuja "some blows"
sai iskuja teräaseesta "received blows from the weapon"

6.
Tekijä oli paennut paikalta ja hänet tavoitettiin vasta muutamien päivien kuluttua.

Tekijä oli paennut paikalta
Tekijä "the doer" fom teen "I do" hän tekee "he does" teki+jä "one who does/did"
pakenen paikalta "I flee the place"
pakenee paikalta "flees the place
pakeni paikalta "fled the place"
oli paennut paikalta "had fled the place"

hänet tavoitettiin vasta muutamien päivien kuluttua.

tavoitan, tavoitta "I encounter, reach, get through to, he encounters etc."
tavoitin, tavoitti "I encountered, located, he encountered, located"
tavoitetaan, tavoitettiin "is encountered, located; was encountered, located"

hänet tavoitettiin "he was located"

vasta "only, not until"

hetken kuluttua "after a moment"
muutaman päivän kuluttua "after a day or so"
muutamien päivien kuluttua "after several days"

7.

Uhrit toimitettiin paikalla olleiden toimesta sairaalahoitoon, mistä he kotiutuivat muutamien päivien kuluessa.

toimitan "I deliver" hän toimittaa "he delivers"
toimitetaan "it is delivered" toimitettiin "it was delivered"
uhrit toimitettiin hoito+on "the victims were delivered into care"
uhrit toimitettiin sairaala/hoitoon "the victims were delivered into hospital care"

______:n toimesta "by the actions of" (generally a discouraged construction)
uhrit toimitettin miehen toimesta "the victims were delivered by the action of a/the man"
paikalla ollut "(a person) present (been) at the place, scene"
paikalla olleen toimesta "by the action of a person present (been) on the scene"
paikalla olleet "the people present (having been) at the scene"
paikalla olleiden toimesta "by the action of people present at the scene"

Uhrit toimitettin sairaalahoitoon paikalla olleiden toimesta
The victims were taken to the hospital by people present at the scene.

mistä he kotiutuivat muutamien päivien kuluessa

mistä "from where, whence"
kotiuduin, kotiutui "I returned home, (he) returned home"

kuluu "wears (out, up), passes"
kuluessa "after, within" -- "in the passing of"
päivän kuluessa "after about a day"
muutaman päivän kuluessa "after about a day or so"
muutamien päivien kuluessa "after about several days"
kuluttua would be more specifically after -- "after the passing of" versus "in the passing of"
In practice, both are used for after. "within" would be "muutaman päivän sisällä" or "muutamien päivien" sisällä"

kuluessa and kuluttua are forms of the verb kulua but have become established as independent constructs in their own right in

__:n kuluttua and less often ___:n kuluessa


8.
Naisen vammat olivat hengenvaaralliset
vamma "injury"
vammat "injuries"
vaarallinen "dangerous, threatening"
henki "life"
hengen < henki+n
hengenvaaralliset "life-threatening"  (note non-partitive usage)

9.
Keski-Suomen käräjäoikeus vangitsi joulukuussa puukotuksesta epäillyn jyväskyläläisen miehen todennäköisin syin tapon yrityksestä ja törkeästä pahoinpitelystä epäiltynä.

oikeus vangitsi miehen  "the court imprisoned the man"
vangitsen, vangitsin "I imprison, imprisoned"
vangitsee, vangitsi "(he) imprisons, imprisoned"

käräjäoikeus "district criminal court"

oikeus vangitisi joulukuussa miehen

epäillään "is suspected"
epäiltiin "was suspected"
epäilty "suspected"

epäilty jyväskyläläinen mies "suspected Jyväskylälite man"

puukotus "a/the stabbing"
puukotuksesta < puukotus+sta

A:sta epäilty "suspected of A"
puukotuksesta epäilty "suspected of a/the stabbing"

puukotuksesta epäilty Jyväskyläläinen mies "the Jyvaskylälite suspected of a/the stabbing"

Käräjäoikeus vangitsi joulukuussa puukotuksesta epäilyn Jyväskyläläisen miehen...

todennäköisin syin tapon yrityksestä ja törkeästä pahoinpitelystä epäiltynä

todennäköinen "probable" "true-looking"
syy "reason, cause"
todennäköinen syy "probable cause"
todennäköiset syyt "probable causes"
todennäköisin syin "for probable cause(s)" (with, by, for, instructive case,)

vangitsi miehen todennäköisin syin
vangitsi miehen todennäköisin syin ________:sta epäiltynä

epäiltynä < epäilty+na "as suspected"

________:sta epäiltynä "as suspected of _______"

the court imprisoned the man with probable cause as suspected of _____

tappo "a killing"
yritys "a try, attempt"
taponyritys "an attempted killing" < tappo+n
tapontyrityksestä < yritys+sta

pitelen, pitelin "I handle, I handled"
pitelee, piteli "(he) handles, handled"
pitely "handling, treatment"
paha "bad"
pahoin "badly"
pahoinpitely "mistreatment, assault"
törkeä "gross, course, aggravated"
törkeä pahoinpitely "aggravated assault"

(taponyrityksestä ja törkeästä pahoinpitelystä) epäiltynä
"as suspected of attempted killing and aggravated assault"

käräjäoikeus vangitsi joulukuussa puukotuksesta epäillyn jyväskyläläisen miehen todennäköisin syin tapon yrityksestä ja törkeästä pahoinpitelystä epäiltynä.

district court imprisoned the J. man in december for probable cause as suspected of attempted killing and aggravated assault

Here we see how if German frequently makes you wait and wait for the damned verb, Finnish makes you wait and wait for the damned noun.

10.
Poliisi pyrkii murhatutkinnan ja puukotuksen tutkinnan yhteydessä löytämään selitystä sille, miksi 25-vuotias nainen on toistuvasti joutunut vakavien väkivallantekojen uhriksi.

Poliisi pyrkii löytämään selitystä sille, miksi

selitys "explanation, clarification"
selitys sille, miksi "explanation for why"

löydän, löysin "I find, found"
hän löytää, löysi "he finds, found"

pyrin, pyrin "I try, I tried" with A:han
hän pyrkii, pyrki "he tries, tried" with A:han

pyrkii löytämään selitystä "attempts, is attempting to find an explanation"

pyrkii ______:n yhteydessä löytämään selitystä "is attempting in connection with ___ to find"

murhatutkinta "murder investigation"

puukotuksen tutkinta "investigation of the stabbing"

murhatutkinnan ja puukotuksen tutkinnan yhteydessä "in connection with the murder investigation and investigation of the stabbing"

miksi 25-vuotias nainen on toistuvasti joutunut vakavien väkivallantekojen uhriksi.


toistuu "repeats (itself)
toistu+va "repeating"
toistu+va+sti "repeatedly"

vakava "serious"
vakava teko "serious act"
vakavan teon "of a serious act"
vakavien tekojen "of serious acts"

joutunut ____:n uhriksi "become a victim of" (as above)

selitys(tä) sille, miksi nainen on toistuvast joutunut vakavien väkivallantekojen uhri+ksi.

an explanation of why the woman has repeatedly fallen victim to serious acts of violence.


11.

Poliisi ei ole kuitenkaan vielä löytänyt selkeää syytä siihen, miksi nainen on joutunut epäsuosioon tuttaviensa keskuudessa.


kuitenkaan "however"
vielä "yet"
selkeä "clear"

suosio "favor"
epäsuosio "disfavor"

tuttava "acquaintance"
tuttavat "acquaintances"
tuttavien "acquintances' "

keskus "center"
_____:n keskuudessa "among _____"

Poliisi ei ole kuitenkaan vielä löytänyt selkeää syytä siihen
The police have not however yet found a clear reason to it,

miksi nainen on joutunut epäsuosioon tuttaviensa keskuudessa.
why the woman has fallen into disfavor among her acquaintances.

However the police have not yet found a clear explanation for why the woman has fallen from favor with her acquaintances.

[Rob A.]

Thanks Alden....I'm slowly working my way through this..... It's very helpful.....

I've also noticed that frequent proliferation of genitive case adjectives..??..maybe the expression is "adjectival nouns"..??...I'll have to check into that. I suppose it would be similar if English had a strings of possessive case nouns and nominal phrases starting with "of" at the beginning of a sentence, before the main noun....

[AldenG]

Fixed a few little things.

Was the article an appropriate level? Is it limited more by vocabulary or sentence structure?

It's really frustrating that there isn't a simple way to draw underlines or boxes with arrows. Arcing arrows would be the key, but what can you do? I mean besides marking it up by hand and scanning it -- which I might try some time.

Meanwhile, would the following approach be of any additional help?

Poliisi pyrkii [(murhatutkinnan) ja (puukotuksen tutkinnan) yhteydessä] löytämään selitystä sille, miksi 25-vuotias nainen on (toistuvasti) joutunut ((vakavien) väkivallantekojen) uhriksi.

Or there is this:

Poliisi pyrkii myrhatutkinnan ja puukotuksen tutkinnan yhteydessä löytämään selitystä sille, miksi...

(One supposes from that sentence that puukotustutkinta isn't quite a word yet, though the same process that created murhatutkinta should eventually create puukotustutkinta.

Are there alternative bracketings or other forms of typographical markup or breaking into pieces you think would be of further help?

I want to make more use of ______:sta epäilty, _____:n mukaan, _____:n kuluessa, and so on.

Let me try this experiment:

Code: Select all

           +----------------------------------------------------------+
           |                                                          |
Poliisi pyrkii murhatutkinnan ja puukotuksen tutkinnan yhteydessä löytämään selitystä
                   |                   |       |           |
                   |                   +-------+           |
                   |                       |               |
                   |                       +---------------+
                   |                                       |
                   +---------------------------------------+

Then again, as I think about it now, I think it may be better just to practice a few "__:n ___:n mukaan" and "___:n ja ___:n ____:n yhteydessä". The unconscious brain is probably better at learning to interpret these by example and practice than the analytical brain is at teaching the ear to process them without thinking.

That's more in line with my philosophy about practicing a little thing until it is automatic and then incrementally expanding the little thing and practicing differentiating it from other little things it might be confused with.

[Jukka Aho]

Let me try this experiment:

You could use Unicode box-drawing characters:

Code: Select all

           ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
       ╭───┴──╮                                                  ╭────┴────╮
Poliisi│pyrkii│murhatutkinnan ja puukotuksen tutkinnan yhteydessä│löytämään│selitystä
       ╰──────╯      │                 │       │           │     ╰─────────╯
                     │                 └───┬───┘           │
                     │                     │               │
                     │                     └───────────────┤
                     │                                     │
                     └─────────────────────────────────────┘

And you could even use an “old-school” box-drawing “ANSI” editor, such as TheDraw, for designing such diagrams, then copy-paste the finished diagram into your messages. It’s going to be a bit cumbersome, though. Alas, the “code” blocks do not allow using color markup.

[AldenG]

Yes, the Unicode box-drawing characters have the potential to look better and create a more intuitive visual representation.

I'm not sure about my thoughts on the visual-auditory link and thus the value of diagramming versus talking (or writing as though talking).

Something strange I've noticed in the last couple of years is how my ears effortlessly process Finnish sentences that my eyes have to "think about." I think it's because my eyes have to read the words (unlike English or Swedish, where my eyes just recognize them -- the difference being a source of huge educational controversy in the U.S.) and it slows the process just enough to put the focus on individual words rather than their rhythm and how they hang together. Plus I guess what little intonation there is in Finnish is still enough to be a big help in decoding. And that aural fluency is strange, because we don't speak much Finnish at home any more, nor am I often listening to webcasts. Yet when we visited, the radio and TV were much easier than I had remembered from years back. I don't think I missed or puzzled over one word or sentence in radio Finnish or Swedish during the entire visit. It can be quite different with real people sometimes, though. Either I am out of practice enough or never quite had enough fluency to "fill in the gaps" when people mumble or mutter or elide past a certain threshold of tolerance. It's the same thing with songs -- sentences that I'd have no trouble with in ordinary radio speech can be opaque to me when sung.

So although reading is certainly a critical skill worth developing, and perhaps the only one very relevant to people learning Finnish who don't intend to be in Finland, I'm ambivalent about the overall pedagogic wisdom of focusing on a visual approach to Finnish as a whole. I suppose that as a transient phase of learning it is OK. But then I think about other things considered transient phases, such as writing out or reciting extended verb conjugations, and I'm really not sure that activity is EVER among the more productive ways of learning about verbs.

[Jukka Aho]

It's the same thing with songs -- sentences that I'd have no trouble with in ordinary radio speech can be opaque to me when sung.

That’s not too odd considering songwriters sometimes come up with a bit contrived phrasing for their lyrics and may use rather uncommon word orders to make it rhyme. In some songs, this leads to awkward, split sentences which would initially appear to end in a strange way or be missing some important word, but the sentence then unexpectedly continues in the next bar. Of course, this only really happens in some individual songs, by some artists.

I was thinking about this when I last heard Kun olet poissa by Eppu Normaali (the video includes superimposed lyrics... the song itself is fine but the lyrics are quite awkward and forced... should I say naïve):

[Rob A.]

A couple more quick points while I'm thinking of them....I think it's a good idea, as you have more or less done, to give the "dictionary entry" ....the nominative form of the word , ....and then also the genitive stem, (....and perhaps any other unusual stem formation if it seems relevant)...along with the English definition.

I think having the basic English definition for the nominal word relieves the tedium of looking up unfamiliar words and keeps the focus of the exercise on learning the grammatical constructions.....