The main purpose of this C-essay is to answer the question: What have been the consequences and effects of the merit point system on language studies and the parties concerned (teachers, students and principals) during the school year of 2010/11? The merit point system is the result of a political decision and was implicated for the first time in the Swedish upper secondary school during the school year 2010/2011. Being a completely new phenomenon it is of great interest and importance to study its effects. The study in this essay also aims to verify, falsify or nullify two hypotheses very often referred to in the political discussions regarding the merit point system: The merit point system will replace affection and interest as main reasons for language studies in upper secondary school and cause a rectification amongst the students choices of additional courses. The merit point system will have a segregating effect upon society and make it harder for people to rise in society through education in the future. A verification of these hypotheses would imply the appearance of an increased rectification amongst students as well as an orientation towards an in the future more segregated society. The empiric material has been collected and examined with qualitative as well as quantitative methods (questionnaires and interviews) and belongs epistemologically to the phenomenological and hermeneutical traditions.

This dissertation is a qualitative study exploring the sociocultural influences on adult migrants’ second language learning and the communicative interaction through which they use the language. Guided by a theoretical perspective based on the concepts of life-world, habitus, social capital, symbolic honor, game, and the idea of the interrelatedness of learning and using a second language, this study aims to understand how migrants’ everyday life context, attachments to the home country, and ethnic affiliations affect the motivation for and attitude towards learning and using Swedish as a second language. Furthermore, the study explores in what way the context within which the language is taught and learned might affect the language development of adult migrants. The research questions of the study focus on both the institutional context, that is to say, what happened in a particular classroom where the study observations took place, and a migrant perspective based on the participants’ experiences of living in Sweden, learning the language and using it. Semi-structured interviews, informal conversational interviews, and classroom observations have been used as strategies to obtain qualitative data. The findings suggest that most of the participants experience feelings of non-belonging and otherness both in the classroom context and outside the classroom when they use the language. These feelings of non-belonging make the ties to other ethnic establishments stronger and lead to isolation from the majority society. The feelings of otherness, per se, are not only related to a pedagogical context that advocates monoculturalism but are also rooted in the migrants' life-world, embedded in dreams of going back to the home country, while forging a constant relation to ethnic networks, and in the practice of not using the Swedish language as frequently in the everyday life context as would be needed for their language development. / <p>ISBN 978-91-7104-591-1 (Malmö) ISBN:978-91-7519-271-0 (Linköping)</p>

The purpose of the present thesis is to examine the modes of enunciation (“mode d’énonciation”) and the use of text genres in relation to thematic and semantic aspects of Claude Cahun’s book, Aveux non avenus (Disavowals: or, Cancelled Confessions)(1930), which consists of text fragments. Claude Cahun, who is mostly known for her photographic self-portraits, was active on the margins of surrealism in Paris in the 1920s. The text fragments of Aveux non avenus can be compared to a collage technique that she also uses in the photomontages which open each chapter of the book. As an author, Claude Cahun clearly resisted traditional confessional literature (as the title of the book also suggests), and this study focuses on how she creates images of herself through characters borrowed from mythology, the Bible, and popular and literary texts, but also through reflections on specific themes in dialogues, essays and aphorisms. The thesis examines how Aveux non avenus differs from an actual autobiography, how the fragmented self-portrait is constructed, and how the book expresses a critique of contemporary society. The method of the thesis is based on textual analysis, with the support of the concepts of modes of enunciation (”mode d’énonciation”), text genres, and détournement (”détournement”). It also rests on the contextualisation of Claude Cahun’s practice of writing in relation to the history of literary genres, surrealist avant-garde movement, and in relation to sources within cultural history and the history of women. The thesis analyses how Claude Cahun, through the use of different genres and shifting modes of enunciation, creates a fragmented, diverse, and contradictory portrait of herself, in a way that also conveys a critical image of contemporary society. The text functions, simultaneously, as a collage of different text genres. The conclusion thereby underlines the idea that the text is not arbitrarily fragmentary, but constructed on the principles that the analysis of the work has demonstrated. In previous research on Claude Cahun, the indefinite genre of the book has been emphasised. Instead, this thesis wants to show that the diversity of text genres is deliberately explored to develop varying modes of enunciation that give Claude Cahun the opporturity to reflect and give nuance to representations of the self and to convey a radical critique of society.

This study explores the exchange of cultural information that takes place in the meeting between immigrant and non-immigrant characters in a selection of Australian novels focusing on the theme of migration: Heartland (1989) by Angelika Fremd, A Change of Skies (1991) by Yasmine Gooneratne, Stella’s Place (1998) by Jim Sakkas, Hiam (1998) by Eva Sallis and Love and Vertigo (2000) by Hsu-Ming Teo. The concept cultural translation functions as a theoretical tool in the analyses. The translation model is particularly useful for this purpose since it parallels the migration process and emphasises the power relations involved in cultural encounters. Within the framework of the study, cultural translation is defined as making an unfamiliar cultural phenomenon familiar to someone. On the intratextual level of the text, the characters take on roles as translators and interpreters and make use of certain tools such as storytelling and food to effect translation. On the extratextual level, Fremd, Gooneratne, Sakkas, Sallis and Teo represent cultural translation in the four thematic areas the immigrant child, storytelling, food and life crisis. The first theme, the immigrant child, examined in chapter one, explores the effects of using the immigrant child as translator in communication situations between immigrants and representatives of Australian public institutions. In these situations, the child becomes the adult’s interpreter of the Australian target culture. The role as translator entails other roles such as a link to and a shield against the Australian society and, as a result, traditional power relations are reversed. Chapter two analyses how the second theme, storytelling, is presented as an instrument for cultural education and cultural translation in the texts. Storytelling functions to transfer power relations and resistance from one generation to the next. Through storytelling, the immigrant’s hybrid identity is maintained because the connection to the source culture is strengthened, both for the storyteller and the listener. The third theme, food as a symbol of cultural identity and as representation of the source and target cultures, is explored in chapter three. Source and target food cultures are polarised in the novels, and through an acceptance or a rejection of food from the source or target cultures, the characters symbolically accept or reject a belonging to that particular cultural environment. A fusion between the source and target food cultures emphasises the immigrant characters’ cultural hybridity and functions as a strategic marketing of culturally specific elements during which a specific source culture is translated to a target consumer. Finally, the fourth theme, life crisis, is analysed in chapter four where it is a necessary means through which the characters experience a second encounter with Australia and Australians. While their first encounter with Australia traps the characters in a liminal space/phase that is signified by cultural distancing, the second encounter offers a desire and ability for cultural translation, an acceptance of cultural hybridity and the possibility to become translated beings – a state where the characters are able to translate back and forth between the source and target cultures.

This dissertation constitutes an illustration of how writing instruction in elementary school, year three, is conducted. At this stage of schooling, most pupils are assumed to have acquired basic reading and writing skills, and from now on, and increasingly over the years that follow, they are expected to read and write longer texts within different genres and subjects. The aim of this thesis is to study writing lessons that were conducted under the framework of four writing projects in a classroom, and the student-written texts that that resulted thereof. The writing pro-jects are characterised by focus on similar text types, which in my mate-rial includes "the fairy tale", "a letter to the editor", "instructions" and a "factual text". The focus of the study is on the relationship between the learning support offered to the pupils in the classroom and the na-ture of texts that the pupils then write. The research is inspired by ethnographic methodology, and is based on material consisting of field notes, video recordings and student texts. The theoretical framework assumes a socio-cultural view of learning and a dialogical view of text and writing. The teaching practices are studied on the basis of how they are built up by different chains of activities (reading, conversation and writing). Particular attention is paid to which text dimensions are addressed in classroom conversations: content, form or function. The pupils’ texts are analysed on the basis of their macro structure, and the analysis builds on the concept of "text activity". On an overall level, the results point to writing being a social activity, which is also closely interconnected to reading, and above all dialogue and conversation. The writing instruction offered to the students is also characterized by a broad view of what literacy is about. The study points out the value of versatile learning support, where the function, form and content of texts, in relation to the learning goals, are made explicit in the teaching. An important result is that the functional dimension of writing, in particular, favours writing development. On a more general level, the study raises the question of which literacy skills can and should be pro-moted by writing education in the early primary school years.

This thesis investigates the system of compounding attested in the earliest written Latvian texts of the 16th and 17th centuries. The philological analysis presented in this work is the first systematic attempt to extensively treat compounds in Old Latvian. The purpose of this thesis is to thoroughly describe the system of compounding of the earliest period of written Latvian. One of the main aims of the analysis provided in this work is to determine whether the Old Latvian compounds were distinguished in terms of their meaning and form. This is why another important aim of this study is to discern the most characteristic formal properties of each category of compounds in Old Latvian. This study also addresses the morphological variation of the components of compounds and seeks to explain why one finds different tendencies of compounding in the texts of this period.    Firstly, it is shown in this thesis that compounds in Old Latvian were clearly distinguished in terms of their meaning. The main semantic types of Old Latvian compounds, which were analyzed in this study, are the determinative compounds, the possessive compounds, the verbal governing compounds, and the copulative compounds. Secondly, it is argued that the aforementioned types of compounds were clearly differentiated in terms of the formal properties of their components. A large number of possessive compounds and verbal governing compounds had the compositional suffix -is (m.)/-e (f.). By contrast, only a handful of determinative compounds had this suffix. In view of the distribution of the suffix found in the Old Latvian compounds, it is suggested that the suffix was originally restricted to adjectival compounds. Furthermore, the different types of compounds in Old Latvian were also distinguished in terms of the first component. In the majority of cases, both the possessive compounds and the verbal governing compounds were coined without linking elements, while the determinative compounds had linking elements to a larger extent. Thirdly, it is proposed in this thesis that a part of linking elements used in the determinative compounds in Old Latvian originated from the original stem vowels of the first components. Thus, it is argued that stem compounds were still attested in the Old Latvian texts, although this Baltic model of coining compounds is no longer visible in Modern Latvian. Lastly, it is suggested that the tendencies of compounding found in the texts under discussion represent dialectal differences. Another contribution of this study is that the Old Latvian compounds are not treated in isolation, but analyzed in drawing parallels with compounds in the other Baltic languages, Lithuanian in particular. Hence, by analyzing common features and similarities between the compounding systems, the Old Latvian compounds are positioned within the context of the Baltic system of compounding.

This study describes the verse design of Old English poetry in terms of modern phonological theory, developing an analysis which allows all OE verse lines to be described in terms of single metrical design. Old English poetry is typified by a single type of line of variable length, characterised by four metrical peaks. The variation evident in the lengths of OE metrical units has caused previous models to overgenerate acceptable verse forms or to develop complex typologies of dozens of acceptable forms. In this study, Metrical phonology and Optimality theory are used to highlight some aspects of the relationship between syntax, phonology and verse metrics in determining how sentences and phrases interact with the verse structure to create variation. The main part of the study is a metrical model based on the results of a corpus analysis. The corpus is centred on the OE poems Genesis and Andreas, complemented by selected shorter poems. A template of a prototypical line is described based on a verse foot which contains three vocalic moras, and which can vary between 2 and 4 vocalic moras distributed across 1 to 4 syllables. Each standard line is shown to consist of four of these verse feet, leading to a line length which can vary between 8 and 16 vocalic moras. It is shown that the limited variation within the length of the verse foot causes the greater variation in the length of lines. The rare, longer ‘hypermetric’ line is also accounted for with a modified analysis. The study disentangles the verse foot, which is an abstract metrical structure, from the prosodic word, which is a phonological object upon which the verse foot is based, and with which it is often congruent. Separate sets of constraints are elaborated for creating prosodic words in OE, and for fitting them into verse feet and lines. The metrical model developed as a result of this analysis is supported by three smaller focused studies. The constraints for creating prosodic words are defended with reference to compounds and derivational nouns, and are supported by a smaller study focusing on the metrical realisation of non-Germanic personal names in OE verse. Names of biblical origin are often longer than the OE prosodic word can accommodate. The supporting study on non-Germanic names demonstrates how long words with no obvious internal morphology in OE are adapted first to OE prosody and then to the verse structure. The solution for the metrical realisation of these names is shown to be patterned on derivational nouns. The supporting study on compound numerals describes how phrases longer than a verse are accommodated by the verse design. It is shown that compound numerals, which consist of two or more numeral words (e.g. 777 – seofonhund and seofon and hundseofontig) are habitually rearranged within the text to meet the requirements of verse length and alliteration. A further supporting study discusses the difference between the line length constraints controlling OE verse design and those for Old Norse and Old Saxon verse. Previous studies have often conflated these three closely related traditions into a single system. It is shown that despite their common characteristics, the verse design described in this study applies to all OE verse, but not to ON or OS.

This dissertation investigates linguistic and metalinguistic practices in everyday Twitter discourse in relation to aspects of speech and writing. The overarching aim is to investigate how the spoken–written interface is reconfigured in the digital writing spaces of social media. The dissertation comprises four empirical case studies and six chapters. The first study investigates communicative functions of hashtags in a speech act pragmatic framework, focalizing tagging practices that not only mark topics or organize hypertextual interaction, but rather have more specific locally meaningful functions. Two studies investigate reported speech in tweets, focusing on quotatives typically associated with informal conversational interaction (e.g., BE like). The studies identify strategies by which Twitter users animate (Tannen, 2007) speech reports. Further, one of the studies explores how such animating practices are afforded (Hutchby, 2001). Lexically, orthographically, and with images, but primarily through typography, users make voice, gesture, and stance present in their tweets, digitally re-embodying the rich nonverbal expressivity of animation in talk. Finally, a study investigates notions of talk-like tweeting from an emic perspective, showing users' negotiations of how tweets can and should correspond to speech in relation to social identity, linguistic competence, and personal authenticity. Six chapters situate and synthesize the case studies in an expanded theoretical framework. Together, the studies show how Twitter's speech–writing hybridity extends beyond a mix of linguistic features, and challenges a traditional idea of writing as a mere representation of speech. Talk-like tweeting remediates (Bolter &amp; Grusin, 2000) presence and embodiment, forgoing the abstraction of phonetic print literacy for nonverbal expressivity and an embodied written surface. Twitter talk is shown not simply to substitute literacy norms for oral norms, but to complicate and reconfigure these norms. Talk-like tweeting makes manifest an ongoing cultural renegotiation of the meanings of speech and writing in the era of digital social media. / What does it mean to tweet like one talks? To pose this question is really to ask what happens to the relation between spoken and written language, and to cultural values tied to orality and literacy, in the digital writing spaces of social media. This dissertation investigates particular features of Twitter discourse in relation to questions concerning the technological mediation of language-in-interaction, with an emphasis on themes traditionally linked with ideas of speech and writing. Based on the findings of four empirical case studies, the dissertation argues that Twitter writing remediates speech, hybridizing spoken and written language in ways that extend beyond a mere mix of linguistic features. The everyday digital texts of social media revive and reconfigure ideas about how, or whether, writing represents speech, about textual authenticity, about the conditions of possibility for personal presence and voice in virtual spaces, and about the educational norms of traditional literacy. What is at stake is not merely a substitution of literacy norms for conversational norms, but rather a complication of their relationship. In its linguistic and reflexive practices, Twitter talk makes manifest a cultural renegotiation of the meanings of spoken and written language today.

I det ryska litterära språket under upplysningstiden blandades kyrkslaviska och ryska, samtidigt som det bland annat influerades av franskan. En av denna tids mest välkända ryska dramaturger var Denis Ivanovič Fonvizin, men trots hans utmärkelse har det endast forskats sparsamt om honom och hans verk.  Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka förekomsten av franska och kyrkslaviska element i Fonvizins två pjäser Brigadir och Nedorosl’ med upplysningstiden i Ryssland som bakgrund. Avsikten är således dels att ta reda på hur språkbruket såg ut, dels att utröna om språkliga skillnader mellan Brigadir och Nedorosl’ kan kopplas samman med förändringar i det ryska samhället under upplysningstiden. En närstudie av de två pjäserna har genomförts. Analysen av bruket av franska visar att användningen har koncentrerats till ett fåtal rollfigurers tal i både Brigadir och Nedorosl’. I Brigadir förekommer franska i repliker till samtliga av pjäsens övriga rollfigurer, medan bruket i Nedorosl’ främst sker mellan några få aktörer. I Brigadir består bruket av franska av rena franska ord eller russifierad franska, medan det Nedorosl’ endast sker genom gallicismer. Analysen av användningen av kyrkslaviska visar att den är tydligast och mest frekvent hos en rollfigur i respektive pjäs. I Brigadir påträffas vissa kyrkslaviska former av ord som inte existerar i Nedorosl’; där finns i stället fler substantiv som härstammar från kyrkslaviskan. / Русский литературный язык эпохи Просвещения отличался лексическим разнообразием: он представлял собой причудливое смешение просторечия и церковнославянизмов, находясь при этом под сильным влиянием французского. Одним из самых известных российских драматургов той эпохи был Денис Иванович Фонвизин. Несмотря на широкую известность, его жизнь и его труды остаются малоисследованными.  Цель этой работы – изучить проявление французского и церковнославянского языка в пьесах «Бригадир» и «Недоросль» на фоне эпохи Просвещения в Россиийской Империи. Таким образом цель работы двойная. Я намерена в частности изучить как были примены французский и церковнославянский языки, и в частности расследовать если лингвистические различия между двумя пьесами могут быть связаны с изменениями в российском обществе в эпоху Просвещения.  Анализ использования французского языка показывает, что употребление было сосредоточено в речи несколько действующих лиц и в «Бригадире», и в «Недоросле». Герои пьесы «Бригадир» обращаются по-французски ко всем другим персонажам пьесы, но в «Недоросле» по-французски говорят лишь немногие. В «Бригадире» использование французского языка состоит из чисто французких слов или их обрусевших вариантов, в то время как в «Недоросле» используются только галлицизмы. Анализ употребления церковнославянского языка показывает, что использование проявляется наиболее ярко и часто в речи только одного из героев в каждой из пьес. В «Бригадире» есть некоторые церковнославянские формы слов, не встречающиеся в пьесе «Недоросль». В последней, однако, намного больше существительных, происходящих от церковнославянского языка.

This thesis contains an edition of the Swedish Hebraist Andreas Norrelius’ (1679-1749) Latin translation, Illuminatio oculorum (1749), of the converted rabbi Johan Kemper’s (1670-1716) Hebrew commentary on Matthew, Me’irat ‘Enayim (1703). The dissertation is divided into three parts. The focus lies on the introduction, which concentrates on issues of language and style. Andreas Norrelius’ Latin usage is elucidated on its orthographical, morphological, syntactic, lexical and stylistic levels. The features are demonstrated to be typical of scholarly Neo-Latin: Through a broad comparative synchronic approach, conspicuous linguistic phenomena are taken as points of departure for the exploration of scholarly Latin prose in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially the vocabulary and phraseology of philological, theological, and exegetical discourse. An intellectual historical background is outlined that places the ambitions and the achievements of the author and the translator as well as the texts used for comparison in their scholarly and cultural setting against a general European and specific Swedish background. Furthermore, the introduction deals with various questions relating to translation techniques and strategies. In particular, the method for the translation of biblical passages is analysed and put in relation to the humanistic Latin Bible translations. Moreover, the life and work of Johan Kemper is described in the light of all historical sources available. The life of Andreas Norrelius is also portrayed, and the questions about the date and authorship of the Latin translation are thoroughly addressed. The second part contains the editio princeps of the Latin translation. Andreas Norrelius’ own prolegomena about Kemper’s early life has been made accessible as well. The third part provides a philological commentary focused on the explanation of specific linguistic and exegetical questions in the text edited.