The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine how nuns regard reading. The reading of the Bible is a regular element in their everyday life. This study however, focuses mainly on the nuns’ self-chosen reading beyond the reading of the Bible. We explore the benefit they gain from reading and if life in convent influences their reading. Qualitative interviews were used and eight nuns, between 46-79 years of age, at four different convents, were interviewed. The analysis is based on two theories. First, we use Sten Furhammar’s model, which includes four functions of reading. The second theory, a model presented by Björn Viktröm, focuses on the understanding of a text. The model includes three stages of interpretation. The result shows that nuns reading habits are influenced by the culture of the convent. A central motive for their reading is spiritual growth. They keep contact with their cultural roots and the reading of hagiographies (biographies of saints) seems to strengthen their identity as nuns. We also found that the nuns have developed an interpretative way of reading. Through history, the Bible has been the object for interpretation. The nuns’ reading of the Bible, seems to influence their reading of other forms of literature. When speaking of literature and reading, they use concepts that indicate an experience in analysing texts. In other areas their reading habits are similar to that of people in general. They read the news and seem anxious to stay informed of issues of society. All informants read detective novels for relaxation. A general impression, however, is that the nuns are particular in their reading. They demand quality when it comes to language, characteristics and literature in general. / Uppsatsnivå: D

This thesis approaches the question of how nominal compounds as linguistic means contribute to the construction of cultural meaning within the framework of knowledge transfer in the medieval monastic school. The starting point for the study is the semiotic definition of culture, which sees culture as shared models for perceiving, relating and interpreting among members of a social group. Language is seen as the place where cultural meaning is constructed and manifests itself in significant patterns, i.e., patterns of language usage that have meaning due to the fact that they are patterns. The central objective of this study is to reveal such patterns in nominal compounds drawn from Old High German (or rather bilingual hybrid) adaptations of Latin school texts translated, or adapted by Notker III (Labeo). Focus is placed on newly formed compounds, as well as compounds that differ distinctively from their Latin models. Methodologically this study combines the morphosemantic analysis of nominal compounds with a hermeneutic approach interpreting compounds in their textual and cultural context. Three significant patterns were established: (1) explication of implied meaning, (2) summary of complex expressions, and (3) explanatory translation. The first pattern can be observed in cases where the power of compounds to give additional information was utilised, e.g., in order to ensure a certain interpretation of a metaphorical expression. The second pattern demonstrates the capacity of compounds to refer to more complex concepts, expressing underlying syntactic constructions in a more memorisable manner. Finally, recourse was taken to explanatory translation in order to make the concept easier to understand. The three patterns are not necessarily the only patterns used by Notker III (Labeo); rather they are to be seen as an exemplification of the potential of nominal compounds for meaning construction.