This dissertation is a study of the work of Michel de Nostredame (Nostradamus). Born in Provence, France in 1503, this true "Renaissance man” (astrologer, doctor of medicine and translator) achieved fame with the publication of his Centuries or “Prophecies”. This work presents 10 centuries of quatrains – almost a thousand short poems of only four rhymed lines each. The first third was published in 1555, another third in 1557 and finally the ten Centuries all together, posthumously, in 1568. The present study concentrates on the first edition, consisting of the first 353 quatrains. The main purpose of this thesis is to explore and analyse the language, the style and the genre of the Centuries, aspects rather neglected by the critics hitherto. The large number of quatrains analysed in detail provides a solid basis for accurately characterizing the distinctive features of the text. The methods applied are mainly quantitative and comparative. Initially, a short presentation of Nostradamus’ life and work sketches in the background for the creation of the Centuries. The analysis of the poetic form illustrates the stylistic as well as linguistic consequences of the use of the quatrain: it is argued that the poetical structure of the text influences its language as well as its oracular genre. The language of the Centuries is quantitatively examined, first at the sentence level and then at the phrase level. In order to define its specific nature, comparisons are made with the language of other texts from the same period, i.e. the Délie by Maurice Scève and the Pantagrueline Pronostication by François Rabelais. The results demonstrate that the most prominent differences concern what may be referred to as Nostradamus’ strategy of omission, where the restrictive metrical form of the quatrain demands that he be sparing of words. Thereafter, the dissertation concludes that the number of textual themes and motives of the Centuries is quite limited (war, catastrophe, government), the prodigy being identified as the general poetic topic that contributes to the coherence of the text. A subsequent section thoroughly investigates stylistic elements such as enumeration, repetition and onomastics. The objective of the final section is to define the genre of the Centuries. The close connection between the concepts of poetry and prophecy during the French Renaissance is well documented. It is thus suggested that the enigmatic, dark oeuvre of Nostradamus inspired several of the Pléiade poets, whose group that in many ways explored the oracular genre in the 1550s and 1560s. It is furthermore demonstrated that the concept of oracular poetry is appropriate for defining the style and the genre of the Centuries. Together, the different results of our survey lead to a discussion of the poetic qualities of the Centuries. The present study promotes the conclusion that Nostradamus is to be considered much less a prophet than an author of oracular poetry.

Att mäkla på Franska Rivieran som svensk till svenska kunder skiljer sig från att mäkla i Sverige. Exempel på det är att man använder sig av ett juridiskt ombud, en notarie vid kontraktsskrivning i Frankrike. Där förekommer heller inte budgivning då detta är olagligt. Istället förekommer ofta prutning mellan köpare och säljare. Mäklaren arbetar även ofta närmare köparen än i Sverige, då man hjälper denne med kringtjänster som t.ex. att förmedla bankkontakter, hantverkare osv. Förmedling förekommer med fransk mäklarregistrering, med svensk mäklarregistrering och utan någon registrering eller utbildning alls. Detta har skapat irritation hos mäklarna på marknaden, då var och en försvarar sitt sätt att mäkla och betraktar sig som seriös. / To operate as an estate agent on the French Riviera as a Swede to Swedish customers, is quite different from dealing in real estate in Sweden. An example of this is that an articled clerk is required to establish the final contracts in France. Biddings on estates do not exist, as this is not allowed. Instead of this bargaining to bring down the price is often used between the buyer and seller. The estate agent is also working in closer contact with the buyer than In Sweden, as you help with other services as creating bank contacts, recommending craftsmen etc. Estate agents operate with French registration, with Swedish registration and without any registration or education at all. This has created irritation between the real estate agents on this market, as each one of them defends his way to operate, and consider himself serious.

The intention of this study is to give a qualitative and quantitative description of the usage of connectors, especially mais, parce que and donc, and of some epistemic modifiers in the spoken French of Swedish advanced learners. The study includes eight advanced learners, six highly advanced learners and eight native speakers from the French learner corpus InterFra, all interviewed by the same native speaker. In total, 22 interviews of learners (39,000 words) and eight interviews of native speakers (23,000 words) were examined. One of the goals was to find typical advanced learner features (interlanguage features) in connector and modifier usage, and also to describe individual variation in the group. We highlight the importance of comparative studies and of taking into account recent studies of spoken French to establish advanced interlanguage features, as normative French grammar fails to account for some spoken usage of connectors. The aim in studying interlanguage features that involve connectors and modifiers is twofold: first, we try to understand the function of certain connectors/modifiers at the semantic, discourse organizing, interactional and speech act levels. Second, we look at the syntactic dependence and integration of discourse sequences introduced by parce que and modifiers like je crois (que). The study of mais (chapters 2 and 3) showed that learners used turn-introducing mais more often than native speakers. Mais was also found to be an important reformulation marker in the learner group. In the study of parce que (chapter 4), we found that the macro-syntactic (paratactic) parce que was frequent in both speaker groupes, but that a function like introducing ”specifications” was more frequent in the learner group, while parce que introducing parenthetic remarks (incises) – commonly used by native speakers of French – was found in only a few cases in the learner corpus. We suggest that this latter usage is a property of the highly advanced user. The study of epistemic phrases like je crois/ je pense/ je trouve (que) (chapter 5) revealed a small quantitative difference in syntactic dependence between the two groupes of speakers: the learners more frequently used independent expressions. From a qualitative point of view, the difference was partly due to the high number of isolated phrases (like je crois oui) and post-positioned phrases in the learner material. Both groups of speakers used modifiers as discourse-structuring devices and as fillers, but their use as fillers was more frequent in the learner group. Finally (chapter 6), by carrying out a prosodic analysis (variation in fundamental frequency) coupled with an analysis of the information structure, we segmented the speech into functional discourse units (les paragraphes oraux). This analysis suggested some characteristics of highly advanced learner usage for the position of the connector donc. One such feature was the incorporation of donc in a constituent of the discourse unit, both from a syntactic and prosodic point of view.

This dissertation is a comparative investigation of the work of two subtitlers of Swedish films translated into French in the last decade of 20th century. It is a look at how they try to render the illusion of spoken language in the written line that is a subtitle. This effect has to be created despite the constraints of time, synchronisation, readability, and the limited number of characters available to work with. We have shown that the subtitles examined in this work include many of the characteristics typical of spoken French. These characteristics can be classified as belonging to the Phonetic, the Lexical or the Syntactic level. At the lexical level we can see that the translators use expressions with a lower style-level than the originals but manage to avoid being too shocking, innovative or destabilizing for the audience. We have also shown diastratic language differences in translation: our subtitlers strengthen characters of social differences by using a different language style depending on the status that the person in question has. Because of the polysemiotic nature of film it is not the primary purpose of a subtitler to translate everything. Typically verbal speech characteristics such as repetition, hesitation, incomplete phrases and non-informational expressions that are often seen as less acceptable in the written word are normally sacrificed in subtitles. On the other hand, we could not show that the original language (Swedish) had a sizable impact on the style and construction of the subtitles. We also looked at possible stylistic differences between the two subtitlers translations and tried to find out if the “voice” of the subtitler shone through. If so, we were interested in attempting to see if a difference could be caused by the fact that one of the subtitlers has French as her native language while the other translates from his second language. We were not able to relate the cause of the difference of style we observed to anything other than the original dialogue’s changing style-levels. In which direction the verbal content in subtitles will develop is an interesting and relevant question. In this work we have identified a development of style that has taken place during recent years in French subtitles to Swedish films. This development goes from a previous situation where the style of the spoken word was practically unused compared to today’s more frequent and systematic use.

<p>Dans la mondialisation d’aujourd’hui et dans un monde plus démocratique et ouvert, la diplomatie publique est devenue un sujet qui suscite de plus en plus d’intérêt. Selon Anholt, un analyste de société anglais, tous les gouvernements doivent, pour le compte du peuple, des institutions et des entreprises, développer une stratégie pour améliorer et fortifier la perception du pays. La théorie utilisée est celle d’Anholt appelée <em>Nation branding</em> où il applique une théorie commerciale dans le monde des sciences politiques et sociales en comparant les pays aux marques commerciales. Dans ce mémoire, en utilisant les méthodes de l’étude du corpus et l’entretien, je compare les stratégies et les objectifs de la diplomatie publique de la France et de la Suède. Après avoir fait un inventaire des cinq grandes voies de promouvoir un pays à l’extérieur et après avoir regardé les stratégies actuelles des deux pays, on trouve de nombreuses similarités, surtout dans les stratégies des cinq voies de promouvoir un pays. Les différences se trouvent ailleurs. Par exemple la Suède n’hésite pas à comparer l’image du pays avec une marque commerciale selon la théorie de <em>Nation branding</em> tandis que la France est plus hésitante, mais le nouveau ministre des Affaires étrangères et européennes en France est favorable à la notion. D’autre part, j’ai pu constater que l’optique suédoise de la diplomatie publique correspond plutôt à une volonté de placer la Suède sur la scène mondiale et d’instaurer un sentiment de <em>good will</em> tandis que la France souhaite avant tout sauvegarder son rang de puissance mondiale et considère la position forte de sa langue comme une condition nécessaire pour ce faire. L’action culturelle extérieure suédoise s’organise surtout depuis la Suède, parce que la Suède n’a pas de réseau culturel comparable à celui de la France. La mise en place du Conseil de la promotion de l’image de la Suède dans le monde permet partiellement de contrer la grandeur de la France.</p> / <p>In the globalization of today, in a more democratic and open world, public diplomacy has become a subject that gets more and more attention. According to Anholt, a British social analyst, all governments should, on behalf of the people, the institutions and the companies, develop a strategy to improve and strengthen the perception of the country. The theory applied is Anholt’s <em>Nation Branding</em> where he uses the ideas of branding for the public diplomacy of a country. He likes to compare countries to commercial brands. The aim of this minor thesis is to compare the strategies and objectives of the public diplomacy of today in France and Sweden. To reach my conclusions I have collected information from Anholt’s books of <em>Nation branding</em> and from the official websites of the different national administrations. I also made interviews with people involved in the matter. There are five ways to communicate the image of a country abroad. France and Sweden have similar strategies within these fields. The differences are to be found, foremost in the way of talking about the country as a brand and the value of <em>Nation Branding</em>. It’s a part of the Swedish strategy while the French are more reluctant. At the same time, the French minister of foreign and European affairs, Kouchner, seems to be influenced by the ideas behind <em>Nation Branding</em>. I have also come to the conclusion that the aim of the Swedish public diplomacy regards primary to place Sweden on the world map and to create a sense of good will while the main priority of France is to stay a leading world nation and considers the language aspect very important to do so. The Swedish cultural diplomacy is organized at the head office in Stockholm while the French have an immense network of cultural institutes. As Sweden is not represented worldwide, the Swedish solution is a national council of international representations that work together to form a strategy to promote Sweden.</p>

Abstract Decimal time. Analysis of a rational reform. Decimal tideräkning. Analys av ett rationellt förslag. Christina Rydberg    University of Stockholm. History of ideas. Bachelor’s study. Autumn 2014 Mentor: Elisabeth Mansén   The aim of this study is to try to understand why the late 18th century French attempt to introduce decimal time was a failure. The question is whether there are substantial differences to be seen when compared to the rest of the reforms, like the meter. What part did politics, science, implementation, design and public opinion play in the outcome? The study draws on primary sources on decimal time, such as minutes of the French Convention and Senate (Gallica data base), as well as secondary sources on the contemporary reforms. There are few studies on decimal time; but those of Michel Froeschlé and Lars Nystedt introduce important aspects. Literature is otherwise mainly focused on the spatial reforms and especially on definition and introduction of the meter. The method used is close reading with the purpose of identifying arguments and circumstances relevant to the outcome of the reform.  The result of this study concurs with prior research in the impression that the “revolutionary” halo of the calendar discredited decimal time, especially in other countries. Also confusion was created by old names given to the new hours and minutes. The watchmakers disliked not being able to sell their stock of handicraft. Finally, most people disliked fewer days off. This study further argues that the reform was given away by the French Convention in order to save the rest of spatial metric reforms including decimalization. It also highlights the ambiguity with which the reform was abolished by the politicians. The metric reforms had meant creating standards, defining units and agreeing on what mathematical base to be used. It is important to note that the arguments for abolishing decimal time were less negative to decimalization than to other parts of the reform. The study suggests that if the French reform on time had been limited to the decimal dimension alone, the possibilities for success could have been greater. Instead decimal time was introduced as part of a revolutionary era and disappeared with the persons who created this vision.   Key words: Decimal time, metric reform, Republican calendar, 18th century, French revolution

This thesis investigates learners’ reading practices and especially the processing of cross-linguistic similarities at the lexical level. The aim is to determine how learners proceed in order to understand text in French (L3). Data were collected using various reading comprehension tasks in combination with the think-aloud method. Reading comprehension was mainly assessed through a translation task while the reading practices were observed in think-aloud protocols. According to a reading comprehension score, 20 learners were divided into high level and low level groups. The majority of participants were Swedish learners who are also proficient in English L2. Another group of 10 Swedish learners and 10 French native speakers participated in a cross-linguistic word association task. Reading practices were defined as including skills, strategies and readers’ reactions to the text, the tasks and their own capacities. A typology of twelve reading practices was established including three categories based on intralingual and interlingual similarities. Results from the translation task and the think-aloud protocols show that interlingual processing is more important when learners have difficulties in understanding text content. The more learners in the low level groups relied on intralingual and especially interlingual similarities the less they understood the text content. The high level groups on the other hand used reading practices such as reformulation or translation procedures. The think-aloud protocols also show that learners believe that they compare words in the French text (L3) with English similar words (L2) although their interlingual processing during translation actually confirms the dominance of Swedish (L1). Moreover, results from a cross-linguistic word association task suggest that French Swedish/English cognates and false friends activate this type of words more often than French control words. Cross-linguistic stimuli actually triggered patterns of potential interlingual similarities, for example sacrifice (stimulus) – religion (response), even more than words that are similar to the stimulus diplomate – diplom ‘diploma’.

Uppsatsen är en översättningssociologisk studie om översättningsnormer vid granskningsfasen vid Europeiska kommissionen (EK) och består av två delstudier. Den första studien är textbaserad och fokuserar på revideringar vid granskningsfasen. Materialet utgörs av fyra översättningar i tre stadier från franska till svenska från EK. Den andra delstudien består av intervjuer med två översättare vid EK. Metoden till den första delstudien är hämtad från Nordman (2009). Resultatet visar att majoriteten av revideringarna återfinns på textnivå, samt att den vanligaste normen är språkriktighet. Intervjuerna ger till viss del en annan bild av granskningsfasen. De samlingar med riktlinjer som finns tillgängliga framstår i båda delstudierna som värdefulla.

The aim of this study is to investigate how Swedish and French high school pupils relateto their respective mother tongues. It is a comparative study that seeks to examine thisrelationship from three perspectives: individual, society and history. An additionaloverall perspective in the study is school. The theoretical foundation for the studyconsists of earlier research on the topic and official steering documents for the subjectof Swedish in Swedish high school and corresponding texts about the subject of Frenchin French high school. In-depth interviews have been conducted with two Swedish andtwo French high school pupils. The study shows that the mother tongue is of greatsignificance for personal development and self-esteem for pupils in both countries. Theoutlook on language and society and language and history is more complex and theinformants’ answers show greater variation. Two different attitudes to education andlearning emerge. An important conclusion of the study is that the difference noted in theoutlook on language and society in the steering documents is also found in the highschool pupils’ discourses.

Det övergripande syfte med detta arbete är att undersöka och analysera hur ett urval av grundskollärare som undervisar i franska i årskurs 7 till årskurs 9 uppfattar och hanterar mångfaldens aspekter bland eleverna i dessa årskurser. Genom att studera lärarnas perspektiv kan man få en djupare förståelse för de utmaningar och möjligheter som uppstår när man undervisar franska i en miljö präglad av mångfald. Studien använder modellen av Richard Ruiz (1984) som ett teoretiskt ramverk för att förklara och analysera de erhållna resultaten. Denna modell föreslår tre olika orienteringar eller perspektiv genom vilket språk kan ses: Språk kan ses som ett problem, som en rättighet eller som en resurs. I studie används kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerad intervju. Analysen av de erhållna resultaten gjorde det möjligt att kunna identifiera deras strategier, metoder och resurser som används, och alla forskningsfrågorna fick var och en sitt eget svar. Dessa frågor var relaterade till bilden av mångfald som dessa lärare har, de utmaningar och möjligheter som dessa lärare ser när det gäller att arbeta i en skolmiljö präglad av frankofon mångfald och elevmångfald, och vad de bör göra åt mångfaldsfrågor i klassrummet. / The overall aim of this work is to investigate and analyze how a sample of compulsory schoolteachers who teach French in grades 7 to 9 perceive and manage aspects of diversity among students in these grades. By studying the teachers' perspective, one can gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities that arise when teaching French in a diverse environment. The study uses the model of Richard Ruiz (1984) as a theoretical framework to explain and analyzethe results obtained. This model suggests three different orientations or perspectives through which language can be seen: Language can be seen as a problem, as a right or as a resource. The study uses a qualitative method with a semi-structured interview. The analysis of the results obtained made it possible to identify their strategies, methods and resources used, and all the research questions each received its own answer. These questions were related to the image of diversity these teachers have, the challenges and opportunities these teachers see when it comes to working in a school environment characterized by francophone diversity and student diversity, and what they should do about diversity issues in the classroom.