Borders and Bridges in
Minds and Languages
Arto Mustajoki,
University of Helsinki
arto.mustajoki@helsinki.fi
Topics of the talk
 A Model of (mis)communication (with special
attention to mental world)
 Russian and Finnish as languages
 Stereotypes
 Bridges = similarities in Russian and Finnish
cultures
 Borders = differences between Russian and
Finnish cultures
 An example of communicative behaviour
 Concluding remarks
Different levels of understanding
o
John understands (doesn’t understand)
modern art / mathematics / his wife(’s
behaviour) // Russian / American politics.
o
John understood (didn’t understand) what
Paula said.
A model of (mis)communication
Mental world of the Speaker
Form
Meaning
Overt
interaction
Referential
world
Form
Meaning
Mental world of the Recipient
Ambiguity
An old Volvo and Toyota were standing in the
street.
John studies Chinese language and literature.
John studies Chinese language and biology.
John studies Chinese language and philosophy.
Where is Liza’s photograph?
Elements of the Mental World
The communicative (linguistic) ability
Cultural and intellectual background (mental set,
thought structure, scene, script; kartina mira, concepts,
kognitivnaya baza, kollektivnoe prostranstvo)
The cognitive system (patterns of thinking)
Relations between the interlocutors (motivation,
chemistry)
Emotional and physiological state
Contextual elements
Modes of communication
 Normal Mode = no special attention to the listener,
egocentric speech
 Adaptation Mode = regulation of speech by taking
into account the mental world of the recipient
Russian and Finnish as languages
o The only real (psychological) barrier and obstacle is
the Cyrillic alphabet
o A lot of similarities:
o U menya est’ -construction
o Rich morphology (several cases, endings in verb
o
o
o
o
conjugation)
Rich word formation (uchit’, uchitel’, uchenik, uchenie,
uchebnik etc.)
Relatively free word order
No articles
A lot of impersonal structures
Russian and Finnish as languages 2
o Differences cause no trouble because they are familiar
from other European languages (more consonants,
gender, he/she distinction, forgot where?)
o The only really Russian feature: a semi-passive
construction expressing something unexpected and
caused by an uncontrolled force:
o Veter unës lodku (Wind took the boat) = active voice
o Lodka byla unesena vetrom (The boat was taken by wind)
= passive voice
o Lodku uneslo vetrom (“It happened that the boat was taken
by wind”) = contamination of active and passive voice
Stereotypes: how big are the differences
Between the Russians and the Finns?
Between the ”Eastern Finns” and the ”Western Finns”?
Bridges = similarities in Russian and Finnish cultures
Basic features of a civilized Western type living:
living conditions, housing, food, clothing, means of
transport, rules of politeness, educational structure
(schools, universities), urban environment
Northern-like climate (clear differences between
seasons)
Bridges = similarities in Russian and Finnish cultures
Special features: Finnish–Russian connections:
• the fundamental elements of life: vodka (transparent
strong alcohol drink) and sauna / banya;
in addition: dacha
• Russian impact on Finnish culture and traditions;
• about 300 Russian loanwords in Finnish:
savotta ‘logging site’; lusikka ‘spoon’; raamattu ‘Bible’;
ikkuna ‘window’; also many slang words: mesta ‘place’;
cf. only 4-5 Finnish loanwords in Russian, mainly fish
names
Borders = differences in Russian and Finnish cultures
 What makes the Russians more alien than a
“normal” neighbour for whom people tend to have
hard feelings? (cf. Ireland, Portugal)
size: Russia is a huge country, a Great Power
language: Russian belongs to a totally different language
group; the Cyrillic alphabet emphasizes the strangeness
religion: Orthodox vs. Lutheran church
attitude to equal rights: desire for strong leaders vs.
Scandinavian type democracy
mentality
Special features of Russian mentality (Sternin)
o Collective consciousness and existence
(sobornost’)
o Warmth and cordiality in social relations
o Passive observer of what is going on
o Historical tolerance
o Impulsiveness in everyday behaviour
(not thinking too much of the future)
o Desire for extremism (avoidance of average)
o Need for ideals
Special features of Russian mentality 2 (Sternin)
o Disdain for laws and rules
o Aspiration for justice
o Priority of spiritual and intellectual life over the
material
o National self-criticism
o Passivity in gaining knowledge
o Hope of a centralized solving of problems
o Belief in a quick resolution of complex troubles
Communicative behaviour
Russia
USA
Finland
ACTIVITY IN CONTACTING
PEOPLE
high
moderate
low
TENDENCY TO EMOTIONAL
VIEWS
high
low
extremely low
SMILING IN EVERYDAY
LIFE
low
high
moderate
POSSIBILITY TO
INTERRUPT THE SPEAKER
high
very low
very low
very low
high
very low
low
high
moderate
ACCEPTANCE OF SELFPRAISE
POSITION OF SMALL TALK
Communicative behaviour
Russia
USA
Finland
POLITENESS TOWARDS
STRANGERS
rather low
high
moderate
POLITENESS TOWARDS
FRIENDS
high
high
high
POLITENESS TOWARDS
CHILDREN
not
necessary
necessary
necessary
POLITENESS TOWARDS
WOMEN
necessary
desirable
desirable
USE OF EUPHEMISMS IN
SPEECH
rare
frequent
not very
frequent
TENDENCY TO BE
SINCERE AND OPEN
high
low
low
Experiment on communicative behaviour
X is hurrying to a meeting. In the street (s)he meets a friend that (s)he
has not seen for a long time. What does X do?
Finns Russians
After a quick “Hello”, X says that (s)he
must hurry to a meeting
48,6
25,4
X tells about the meeting, but stops for a while
for an exchange of news
34,1
34,2
X tells about the meeting, but stops for 5-10
minutes to chat with his/her friend
10,5
26,3
X says nothing about the meeting and stays
for a longer time to chat with his/her friend
3,9
11,4
X acts in some other way
2,0
2,1
Concluding remarks
 There are differences in mental worlds between
Russians and Finns
 In background information (who is Pushkin, Leino? What is
the historical role of Napoleon, Mannerheim, Lenin)
 In values and ways of thinking (what do these things mean
for me? family, babushka, friends, president, state,
democracy, patriotism, law, justice, work, collective at work,
holidays, dacha, money, a book, underground)
 In communicative behaviour (how to act as a host, a tourist,
a student; what is the “average” attitude to policemen,
politicians, businessmen, immigrants, other ethnic groups)
 The differences may hinder “fluent” understanding
Concluding remarks 2
Two “howevers”
There are more bridges (similarities in these
cultures) to understanding than we (Finns)
usually admit
If we are motivated, use of the Adaptation Mode
helps to overcome possible causes of
misunderstanding