Salli Kankaanpää, Research Institute for the Languages of Finland
I shall present some results of my doctoral thesis (Kankaanpää 2006), the aim of which was to answer the question of what the language of administrative press releases is like, and how and why it has changed over the past few decades. My data includes press releases written in Finnish by the City of Helsinki Public Works Department in 1979 – 80 and 1998 – 1999. The results show, among other things, that the language of press releases is a combination of professional and administrative registers. In addition, the features of the language of media and marketing are prominent especially in the new press releases, and there is some colloquial vocabulary in them. The changes in the language of press releases are connected with the changes in the communicative environment.
Kankaanpää, Salli 2006: Hallinnon lehdistötiedotteiden kieli. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. [English abstract: Language of administrative press releases.]