Many historians have asked themselves whether there was any direct contact between Catherine of Siena and Birgitta of Sweden. When speaking of Birgitta’s wisdom the preacher likens her to a wise architect who builds her house on a solid ground and foundation. Likewise, the preachers use two different strategies of demonstrati...

Luft och breda marginaler gör en text mer lättbegriplig. Men också korta meningar och rak ordföljd ökar läsbarheten. Viktigast av allt är dock att anpassa sin text till mottagaren.

The present study uses event-related potentials to investigate the role of prediction in the processing of information structure, a domain of language that belongs to the level of the discourse. Twenty-three native speakers of English read short contexts including three Noun Phrases (NPs) (e.g., Either an adviser or an agent ...

Personal training is a new form of institutional interaction that has not been considerably studied as regards language. Still, alongside embodied interaction, language is central in this activity. In this paper, phrasal utterances are studied as a resource for instructing in personal training. The data consist of 7 h 23 min ...

Kritiker som hävdar att Greta Thunbergs klimatprotest inte kan kallas strejk har fel. Hennes typ av protestyttring har genom historien ofta kallats just strejk.

När Nya Moderaterna säger ”utanförskap” istället för ”segregation” är det ett exempel på ramteorins innebörd. Den är användbar om man vill påverka samhället med språket som verktyg.

This chapter investigates preferred introduction routines in first encounters in the context of international academic conferences where English is used as the conference language. We focus on reported use of first and last names as well as titles in introductions in American, Australian and British English based on a large-s...

The UK is facing important changes in the near future, with Brexit, i.e. the UK leaving the European Union (EU), looming ever more closely on the horizon. These important political and economic changes will certainly have an influence on Europe as a whole, and have had linguistic consequences for the English language, such as...

In a bilingual school, the linguistic and semiotic resources of students who speak one, two or several languages can be used in classroom discourse in order to embrace and strengthen the multiplicity of voices and languages in teaching and learning. In this article, four English language lessons ? where the medium of instruct...

Language proficiency of dialogue interpreters, who typically work in the public service sector, is an under-researched area. Contrary to conference interpreters, for dialogue interpreters there is no generally accepted definition of proficiency levels of working languages. This article discusses language proficiency in dialog...

Tolkande och reflekterande läsning av skönlitteratur är en viktig del av ämnena svenska och svenska som andraspråk, inte minst i fostran av demokratiska medborgare (Svedner, 2012). Detta gör litteraturundervisningen till ett viktigt studieobjekt. 

Även om det genomförts många klassrumsstudier om litteraturundervisning (...

This chapter illustrates the outcomes of the first two semesters of university language instruction targeting the development of interactional competence (IC) in Chinese as a Foreign Language, with a specific focus on active listenership and topic management. IC is a crucial ability for both first language and second language...

This chapter focuses on current research on second language (L2) interactional competence (IC) and on its pedagogical implications. While research on L2 IC has been developing since the 1990s, the pedagogical implications of such research have hardly been discussed, and only a few attempts have been made to bridge the gap bet...

This volume features the latest research findings on L2 interactional competence to demonstrate the potential for developing and implementing research-based pedagogy that targets interactional competence (IC) in early instruction in a variety of L2 learning and teaching contexts. Incorporating contributions from both leading ...

This paper addresses the meaning and use of clefted wh-interrogatives (I-clefts) in Swedish. It is shown that I-clefts always relate immediately to the topic under discussion and serve to clarify a matter in relation to this topic. They are never used in out-of-the-blue contexts. I argue that I-clefts have the same informatio...

Over the past decade, the LLAMA language aptitude test battery has come to play an increasingly important role as an instrument in research on individual differences in language development. However, a potentially serious problem that has been pointed out by several scholars is that the LLAMA has not yet been carefully valida...

Det talas smånga språk i Sverige idag, med de flesta av oss vet nästan ingenting om merparten av dem. Kan man se skillnad på arabiska och persiska? Åt vilket håll skrivs somaliska? Var talar man (ny)arameiska? Talas samma teckenspråk överallt i världen?

I den här boken presenteras fakta om drygt 40 av de språk som talas...

Although previous research on ethics demonstrates growing awareness that many agents or subjectivities besides translators and interpreters are involved in translation and interpreting processes, the consequences of this multiplicity for thinking about ethics in translation still lacks focused attention. In this introduction,...

This case study examines a Swedish TV interview with a Soviet pop singer in 1985 where the talk show host, who is both a trained interpreter and an experienced media journalist, acts as a dual-role mediator, interviewing and interpreting at the same time. The analysis is contextualized within the political and milita...

Sexdrömmar kan alla ha, men sällan minns någon hela sex drömmar från natten som har gått. Lena Lind Palicki reder ut det inte så entydiga regelverket kring sär- och hopskrivningar.

Visst var det roligt att Sverige tog en bronsmedalj i fotbolls-VM – men för oss språkvetare hamnade även en annan sak på prispallen: att fotboll numera enbart heter fotboll, oavsett om damer eller herrar spelar.

Elderspeak refers to adapting one’s language to a  perceived language decline of an older interlocutor. Earlier studies have explored different features of elderspeak; some of these studies attribute positive outcomes to using elderspeak that facilitates communication, but other studies consider elderspeak a negative way of c...

I denna studie undersöker vi vilka kognitionsverb sverigesvenska och finlandssvenska studenter och handledare använder i akademiska handledningssamtal och i vilken omfattning de olika verben används. Materialet består av svenskspråkiga ämnes- och språkhandledningssamtal som spelats in vid universitet och högskolor i Sverige o...

In this chapter, we study face-to-face meetings between students and supervisors, where the focus of the meeting is supervision of academic writing. The aim of the study is to examine how students and supervisors in Sweden and Finland collaborate in order to improve the students’ texts and to discuss academic writing. Using c...

This article discusses different aspects of research ethics, the researcher’s voice and discretionary power in interpreting studies. Research ethics is laid down in international conventions, which in turn are reflected in national regulations and ethical vetting. Discretionary power is understood as the leeway for making con...

Auskultation kolleger emellan beskrivs ofta i högskolepedagogisk litteratur som en lämplig metod för kollegial utveckling av lärarroll och undervisningspraktik. Formerna för auskultationerna varierar och själva genomförandet kan vara förknippat med vissa problem som t.ex. tidsåtgång, olika förväntningar och osäkerhet gällande...

This study examines possible crosslinguistic influence on basic word order processing in a second language (L2). Targeting Swedish V2 word order we investigate adult German learners (+V2 in the L1) and English learners (-V2 in the L1) of Swedish who are matched for proficiency. We report results from two offline behavioural t...

This study explores embodied word searching sequences in paired L2 speaking tests in a national test in basic Swedish for adult migrants in Sweden. A particular focus is given to sequences where the speaker invites the interlocutor to participate in the search and to extended word searches where co-participation is negotiated...

In this article, patient activity in 8 audio recorded specialist consultations on fetal cardiology is investigated in order to explore how, why and when patients tend to participate in encounters in which the doctor dominates the interaction. The overall question is: How can the participation of patients in the consultations ...

Swedish morphemes are classified as prosodically specified or prosodically unspecified, depending on lexical or phonological stress, respectively. Here, we investigate the allomorphy of the suffix -(i)sk, which indicates the distinction between lexical and phonological stress; if attached to a lexically stre...

I denna artikel redogör vi för några utmaningar som parterna ställs inför i kartläggningssamtal med nyanlända elever där flerspråkig skolpersonal fått i uppdrag att tolka. Analyser av transkriberade och översatta sekvenser ur fem videoinspelade samtal visar att den flerspråkiga skolpersonalens pedagogiska kompetens i mycket l...

This study examines positive low- and high-grade assessments in service encounters between customers and salespersons conducted in Swedish and recorded in Sweden and Finland. The assessments occur in a regular sequential pattern as third-turn moves that complete request-delivery sequences, longer coherent requesting sections,...

Den offentliga debatten om svenska som andraspråk handlar mest om krav på språktest. Därför är det glädjande att språkforskare ägnar sig åt det praktiska arbetet med språkundervisning. Förhoppningsvis når deras rön med tiden fram till tyckare och beslutsfattare.

Bikinier, bikinis eller kanske bikinisar? Vad heter det där plagget som kvinnor brukar ha på sig på stranden? Pluralformen med -sar är faktiskt ingen anpassning till engelskan, utan används för att den stämmer överens med svenskans uttalsmönster.

Background: Healthcare personnel are responsible for providing patient-centered care regardless of their patients' language skills, but language barriers is identified as the main hindrances providing effective, equitable and safe care to patients with limited proficiency in a country's majority language. This study is a nati...

Sexdrömmar kan alla ha, men sällan minns någon hela sex drömmar från natten som har gått. Lena Lind Palicki reder ut det inte så entydiga regelverket kring sär- och hopskrivningar.

Corpus planning has attracted attention ever since Deborah Cameron's seminal Verbal Hygiene (1995). However, evaluations of corpus planning aimed at addressing linguistic discrimination have been surprisingly scarce. Because corpus planning costs energy, time and money, evaluations are important for future actions. This study...

Kan politiska direktiv styra språkbruket? Ja, en studie visar att det oönskade ordet ”handikappad” numera undviks. Däremot har krångliga ersättningar som ”person med funktionsnedsättning” betydligt svårare att få fäste i språket.

In this article, the switch-reference system of Ngarla (Ngayarta, Pama-Nyungan) is described in detail. Switch-reference is shown exclusively to occur in non-restrictive relative clauses. There are three sets of suffixes marking switch-reference, tense being distinguished with same subject marking. The so-called 'naturalness ...

Få företag vill framstå som tekniska och kalla, men gärna empatiska och varma. I kommunikationsbranschen kallas det att ha rätt tonalitet. Men vad innebär det egentligen?

Objectives: The objective of this study was to explore interpreters' perceived strategies in the interaction in interpreter-mediated consultations between healthcare personnel and patients/families with limited Swedish proficiency in pediatric oncology care. Methods: This study had an inductive approach using an exploratory q...

Den systemisk-funktionella grammatiken (SFG) har på senare år blivit alltmer populär i Sverige. Skrivdidaktiker och textforskare tilltalas av modellen och använder de grammatiska kategorierna i analyser och undervisning. Kanske kan detta förklaras av den starka förankringen i kontexten - SFG fungerar helt enkelt bra för att b...

Hösten 2015 och våren 2016 utformade och distribuerade Stockholms läns landsting (SLL) ett informationsmaterial för asylsökande om vården i Stockholm på flera olika språk. Artikeln berör den specifika informationssatsning som SLL genomförde. Efter satsningen har SLL i ett samarbete med Stockholms universitet velat undersöka h...

Vid teaterkassor och bokningscentraler utspelar sig dagligen en mängd korta möten mellan kund och personal. Kunden kommer för att hämta eller köpa biljetter och det är personalens uppgift att försöka uppfylla önskemålen. Dessa institutionella samtal är målinriktade, effektiva och förs vanligen mellan personer som inte känner ...

The present study uses event‑related potentials to examine subject‑verb person agreement in Spanish, with a focus on how markedness with respect to the speech participant status of the subject modulates processing. Morphological theory proposes a markedness distinction between first and second person, on the one hand, and thi...

I denna artikel försöker jag besvara frågan vad det är för kompetenser och intellektuella redskap som jag har tillägnat mig under mina år inom akademin. Sådana färdigheter är inte alltid generella utan i regel kopplade till någon form av diskursgemenskap. Därför kastar jag först en blick tillbaka på min akademiska karriär med...

Sånt vi bara gör handlar om olika kulturellt och socialt betingade vardagshandlingar. Volymen bjuder på 91 korta, koncentrerade texter skrivna av forskare inom humaniora. Utifrån egen och andras forskning berättar de engagerat och lättillgängligt om sånt vi bara gör. Varje text kompletteras med en faktaruta med lästi...

Att ett språktest skulle kunna leda till frihet, självbestämmande och makt över sitt eget liv är en myt som saknar vetenskaplig grund. Det skriver språkforskare i en slutreplik om språktest och medborgarskap.

Hur definierar man vilka språkliga kunskaper som behövs för att vara medborgare? Vi menar att detta inte går. Istället verkar språktest för medborgarskap handla om det symboliska värdet av att ställa krav på en viss grupp i samhället, skriver språkforskarna Maria Rydell och Tommaso Milani.

Fansubs (subtitles made by fans for fans) have become a global practice, and it is by now a fairly well-described phenomenon, particularly for fansubs of Japanese anime. However, for Sweden, which has a long and strong tradition of prosubs (commissioned professional subtitles), there have hardly been any studies of t...

Karl XII kallade sin far för ”pappa”, men när de lägre samhällsskikten började göra samma sak bytte aristokratin tillbaka till ”far”. I dag kallas föräldrar oftast ”mamma” och ”pappa”, men i södra Sverige är ”mor” och ”far” fortfarande vanliga.

Adults as well both can and do read children's literature, either together with children or without them, just like children and young adults can read diverse literary materials targeting adults. The origins of children's literature are often traced back to early modern educational books for boys and girls that taught religio...

This chapter focuses on a few selected translations of Borges literary prose, showing that Borges translators have chosen different paths, and that these are not always reconcilable one with the other. In the story, a Chinese agent working for the Germans in World War I is about to kill a random British citizen named Albert. ...

In this article, we explore the organization of assistance in multilingual interaction in Swedish residential care. The data that form the basis for the study cover care encounters involving three residents with a language background other than Swedish, totalling 13 hours and 14 minutes of video documentation. The empirical d...

Diskrimineras människor vars uttal associeras med "något utländskt"? Ja, en ny studie visar att rekryterare och arbetsförmedlare till exempel associerar förortssvenska med yrken som kräver kort utbildning.

The theatrical rehearsal is to date a scarcely investigated institutional setting. This longitudinal, video-ethnographic study follows two actors' work with eight lines in a quarrel scene, from the first day of rehearsals to opening night. The rehearsal is regarded as a transformation process in which the production team lami...

This study investigates if participation in mother tongue instruction (henceforth MTI) impacts the biliteracy proficiency of young bilinguals, drawing on examples from Somali–Swedish bilinguals and Somali MTI in a Swedish school context. In the study, biliteracy was operationalized as reading proficiency and vocabulary knowle...

Modern work life includes many digital tools, of which the shared digital calendar has attracted little attention in applied linguistics. The framework for this study is mediated discourse analysis applied to ethnographic data from one workplace and eight contextual interviews from eight other workplaces. The data were analyz...

En ny avhandling visar att duandet var utbrett långt innan Bror Rexed la bort titlarna med de anställda på Medicinalverket 1967. Den så kallade du-reformen var snarare ett uttryck för att den borgerliga offentligheten hade accepterat arbetarklassens tilltalssätt.

This article explores language use and investment among Somali-speaking children and adolescents in Sweden, through group interviews and survey data. Our findings indicate that there are incentives to invest in Somali language learning considering the reported language use patterns and the expressed positive attitudes towards...

Whereas the cognitive advantages brought about by bilingualism have recently been called into question, the socalled‘lexical deficit’ in bilinguals is still largely taken for granted. Here, we argue that, in analogy with cognitiveadvantages, the lexical deficit does not apply across the board of bilinguals, but varies as a fu...