Helle Metslang (born 29 July 1950 in Paide) is an

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

linguist.

Biography

Metslang studied Estonian philology at the University of Tartu, graduating in 1974. She subsequently worked at the Institute of the Estonian Language in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

. In 1978 she defended her

candidate A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * t ...

thesis on syntactic aspects of Estonian folk poetry. She received her doctoral degree at the

University of Oulu The University of Oulu ( fi, Oulun yliopisto) is one of the largest universities in Finland, located in the city of Oulu. It was founded on July 8, 1958. The university has around 13,000 students and 2,900 staff. 21 International Master's P ...

in 1994 for a comparative study of Estonian and Finnish. In 2000, Metslang became Professor of Estonian at

Tallinn University Tallinn University (TLU; et, Tallinna Ülikool, ''TLÜ'') is a public research university in Estonia. Located in the centre of Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, Tallinn University is one of the three largest institutions of higher education ...

, and she held the Chair of Contemporary Estonian at the University of Tartu from 2007 until her retirement in 2020. She has also worked as visiting professors at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

and the University of Oulu. Since 2006, she has been the chairperson of the

Mother Tongue Society Mother Tongue Society ( et, Emakeele Selts) is an Estonian organization that focuses on topics related to the Estonian language. The organization was established on 23 March 1920 at Tartu University. Nowadays, the organization is located in Tall ...

(''Emakeele Selts''). Metslang has been the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including the Wiedemann Language Award (2020), an honorary doctorate from the University of Tartu (2020), and the Grand Medal of the University of Tartu (2020). In 2016 she was elected as a member of the Academia Europaea.

Research

Metslang's research focuses on Estonian

syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...

, especially the syntax of the verb. She also works on typology and

contrastive linguistics Contrastive linguistics is a practice-oriented linguistic approach that seeks to describe the differences and similarities between a pair of languages (hence it is occasionally called "''differential'' linguistics"). History While traditional ...

, often with a focus on Estonian and Finnish. Along with Mati Erelt and Reet Kasik she is one of the lead authors of ''Eesti keele grammatika'', the main current descriptive grammar of the Estonian language.

Selected publications

* Erelt, Mati, Reet Kasik, Helle Metslang, et al. 1995. ''Eesti keele grammatika'' (Grammar of the Estonian language). Tallinn: Eesti Keele Instituut ( Institute of the Estonian Language). * Erelt, Mati, and Helle Metslang. 2006. Estonian clause patterns -- from Finno-Ugric to standard average European. ''Linguistica Uralica'' 42 (4), 254-266. * Metslang, Helle. 1981. ''Küsilause eesti keeles'' (The interrogative sentence in Estonian). Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia. * Metslang, Helle. 1994. ''Temporal relations in the predicate and the grammatical system of Estonian and Finnish''. Oulu: Oulun Yliopisto. . * Metslang, Helle. 1996. The development of the futures in the Finno-Ugric languages. In Mati Erelt (ed.), ''Estonian: Typological studies I'', 123-144. * Metslang, Helle. 2001. On the developments of the Estonian aspect: The verbal particle ''ära''. In Östen Dahl and

Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm is a Russian-born linguist and typologist who is Professor of General Linguistics at Stockholm University. Biography Originally from Moscow, Koptjevskaja-Tamm's interest in linguistics was stimulated when as a teenager s ...

(eds.), ''Circum-Baltic Languages: Volume 2: Grammar and Typology'', 443-479. * Metslang, Helle. 2009. Estonian grammar between Finnic and SAE: some comparisons. ''Language Typology and Universals'' 62 (1-2), 49-71.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Metslang, Helle 1950 births Living people Women linguists Estonian philologists Linguists from Estonia Academic staff of Tallinn University University of Tartu alumni Academic staff of the University of Tartu Estonian Finno-Ugrists People from Paide