Marja-Liisa HelasvuoView profile
Professor
Marja-Liisa Helasvuo is a Professor of Finnish at the University of Turku, where she has served as Head of the Department of Finnish and Finno-Ugric Linguistics since 2015 and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Humanities since 2017. She also holds the title of Associate Professor at the University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on the syntax of spoken language, oral communication, and the development and use of grammar in interaction, particularly in Finnish and other Baltic-Finnic languages. She has made significant contributions to discourse-based syntax and corpus linguistics. Helasvuo has published nearly 100 scientific publications, edited prestigious journals such as Virittäjä and SKY Journal of Linguistics , and led the creation of the Arkisyn corpus of Finnish spoken syntax. She has supervised 24 doctoral dissertations and led numerous international research projects. She has maintained a long-standing and influential collaboration with linguists at the University of Tartu, contributing to joint seminars, research projects, and the advancement of Estonian linguistics, for which she was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2022. Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award (1998) Honorary Doctorate, University of Tartu (2022) Member, Finnish Academy of Sciences (2013) She has supervised 24 doctoral students and has been highly active in academic service, including peer review, grant evaluation, and editorial board membership. She has also led international research collaborations and contributed to the development of theoretical and methodological frameworks in linguistic research. Her work has significantly deepened mutual understanding between Finnish and Estonian linguists and increased the visibility of Baltic-Finnic language studies in international linguistics.







