Teksti- ja käyttäjänäkökulmia selkokielen sanastoon

Easy Finnish, or selkokieli, has been defined as a language form that has been adapted in terms of content, vocabulary, and structures to make it easier to read and understand than standard Finnish. The target group of easy Finnish includes people who find standard Finnish too difficult to read and understand. The target group of basic-level easy Finnish includes people who are likely to read independently. This dissertation focuses on the so called main lexical criteria of basic-level easy Finnish that are frequency, familiarity, word length, concreteness, and repeating a word, referring to the same referent in multiple ways and using synonyms. The first aim of the study is to further define these criteria. The second aim is to increase knowledge about the lexical knowledge of adults with intellectual disabilities who read texts written in basic-level easy Finnish (i.e., easy Finnish readers), and use the research results to propose approaches to easy language adaptation.

The research was conducted using multiple methods, and data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The lexical criteria were studied in four substudies from text perspective by comparing easy and standard Finnish text corpora, and from user perspective by conducting surveys and empirical tests. The corpora were compared to study the meanings and use of the word ihminen (‘human, person’) and the objective frequency of synonymous loanwords and native words. Surveys were conducted to collect language experts’ (N = 25) subjective frequency estimates for the loan words and the native words, and higher education students’ (N = 23) familiarity estimates for nouns. The nouns were used in a Word Associates Format that was used to test the lexical knowledge of easy Finnish readers (N = 24) and higher education students (N = 24). A timed picture naming test was used to study the speed and accuracy of object and action naming in easy Finnish readers (N = 24) and higher education students (N = 26 and N = 28). An easy-to-read survey was conducted to collect information about the reading habits of the easy Finnish readers who participated in the tests.

The first substudy indicated that the word ihminen was used to add concreteness to easy Finnish texts. It was used as a subject to express indefinite personal reference. It was also used to express, that attributive adjectives and pronouns referred to people (köyhät ihmiset, kaikki ihmiset; ‘poor people, all people’). It was especially used in bias-free expressions that acknowledged people’s humanity (e.g., kehitysvammaiset ihmiset, ‘persons with intellectual disabilities’ cf. kehitysvammaiset, ‘the intellectually disabled’). The second substudy indicated that word frequency could be defined with frequency of occurrence (i.e., objective frequency) and frequency of encounters (i.e., subjective frequency). Objective and subjective frequency concurred especially in high objective frequency words. The language experts preferred to use short words that had simple structures. The third substudy indicated that easy Finnish readers had more partial lexical knowledge than higher education students. Easy Finnish readers especially knew concrete words that were rated as very familiar. The fourth substudy indicated that easy Finnish readers and higher education students named objects faster and more accurately than actions, i.e., nouns were produced more easily than verbs. Easy Finnish readers produced more name variants and needed more time for naming than higher education students. The summary chapter of this dissertation includes a description of how the results of the substudies intertwine. Based on that, suggestions are made on how the lexical criteria could be further defined and how texts could be adapted into easy language.

This dissertation presents a new kind of view that describes written easy language through a text and a target reader, who is the intended reader of the text. According to the view, a text is in easy language if its contents, vocabulary, structures and design 1) are overall less complex than in a plain language text and 2) help the target reader to find, understand and use the information that they need or get esthetic experiences. The view is not language-specific, so written easy language could be described with the view in any language and not only in Finnish. The view highlights inclusiveness, because the target reader can be anyone and not only a person who finds standard language too difficult to read and understand. Ideas about the target reader’s language skills guide the text producer’s choices regarding the difficulty level and style of the text. The dissertation includes practical suggestions for guidelines for assessing the easiness of words during text production. It is also discussed, how barriers to access can be reduced, when the target reader is an adult with an intellectual disability. Cognitive barriers to access may be related to abstract words and slow language processing, to name but a few. Attitudinal barriers to access may be, for example, related to biased expressions. A new initiative related to Finnish language planning is made about bias-free language and its person-first expressions (persons with disabilities, in Finnish, ’vammaiset ihmiset’), identity-first expressions (disabled persons, in Finnish, ‘vammaiset ihmiset’) and expressions that downplay people’s humanity (the disabled, in Finnish, vammaiset). Multidisciplinarity is emphasized in this dissertation, because research topics are examined from the perspectives of linguistics, psycholinguistic experimental studies and translation studies.