Den här uppsatsens främsta syfte är att undersöka hur en grupp användare av Scanias termdatabas Scania Lexicon ser på alternativt utformade terminologiska definitioner. Som en del i undersökningen berättar använd­arna hur de använder Scania Lexicon, om de har användning för definitionerna och om de tycker att definitioner­na är begripliga, lättlästa och användbara. De alternativa definitionerna består av en version skriven enligt klarspråksprinciper vad gäller meningsbyggnad och ordval, och en skriven enligt ett relativt nytt ordboksformat kallat cobuild. Användarna har fått läsa fem originaldefinitioner samt de två omskrivna versionerna. Resultatet visar att reaktionerna på cobuildformatet är negativa i nästan samtliga fall medan reaktionerna på klarspråksversionerna är blandade. Två användare tycker att klarspråksdefinitionerna är bättre i majoriteten av fallen medan de övriga fem oftast tycker bäst om originalet. Med utgångspunkt i dialogismen förklarar jag reakt­ionerna med genrekonventioner och vad som händer när dialogen med tidigare textnormer bryts. Med stöd i tid­igare forskning om klarspråk diskuterar jag attityder mot klarspråk. Hur kommer det sig att en substantivering som omformuleras till en verbfras kan ändra betydelse från professionell till något man sysslar med på fritiden?

<p>This essay is a corpus based study, aimed at determining which euphemisms for death American and British English have in common as well as which might be more specific for either of these two varieties of the English language. The study also shows the frequency in use for all of the chosen euphemisms and briefly mentions when they first were used. Six euphemisms concerning death and dying were selected out of numerous available expressions: deceased, pass away, perish, demise, the departed and fade away. In addition, the word die was also included in the investigation with the purpose of determining if euphemisms are more common.</p><p>Cobuild Direct Corpus serves as the main source of the investigation and comparisons are made between the National Public Radio broadcasts and US books corpora for the American variety of the English language and the BBC World Service radio broadcasts and the UK books corpora for the British counterpart. In addition, the British English transcribed informal speech corpus was included to display the frequency in use in British spoken English.</p><p>The analysis concludes that the use of euphemisms for death is not very common, which implies that people in our day of age are not as afraid of death as what is claimed to have been the case during earlier years.</p>

This essay is a corpus based study, aimed at determining which euphemisms for death American and British English have in common as well as which might be more specific for either of these two varieties of the English language. The study also shows the frequency in use for all of the chosen euphemisms and briefly mentions when they first were used. Six euphemisms concerning death and dying were selected out of numerous available expressions: deceased, pass away, perish, demise, the departed and fade away. In addition, the word die was also included in the investigation with the purpose of determining if euphemisms are more common. Cobuild Direct Corpus serves as the main source of the investigation and comparisons are made between the National Public Radio broadcasts and US books corpora for the American variety of the English language and the BBC World Service radio broadcasts and the UK books corpora for the British counterpart. In addition, the British English transcribed informal speech corpus was included to display the frequency in use in British spoken English. The analysis concludes that the use of euphemisms for death is not very common, which implies that people in our day of age are not as afraid of death as what is claimed to have been the case during earlier years.