Swedish Dictionaries Research Articles

Pronouns Beyond the Binary: The Change of Attitudes and Use Over Time

Gender-inclusive language, such as the Swedish pronoun hen, may aid in breaking a binary notion of gender and avoid sexism. The present study followed the implementation of a gender-inclusive third-person pronoun singular (hen) in Swedish in two surveys with representative samples in 2015 (at the time when hen was introduced in the official Swedish dictionary; N = 1212) and in 2018 (N = 2009). The surveys comprised measures of attitudes toward, and use of, hen as well as possible predictors such as area of residence, age, preferred pronoun, political orientation, and interest in gender issues. Results showed that attitudes toward hen became more positive and that use of hen increased between 2015 and 2018. About half of the population used hen in their communication in 2018, which is a 14-percentage-point increase from 2015. Younger age, she or hen as preferred pronoun, political left-wing orientation, and interest in gender issues predicted a more positive attitude and a more frequent use. Furthermore, the positive change between 2015 and 2018 was larger among younger people, indicating that hen will remain in the Swedish language. The present research is unique in that it follows a gender-fair language initiative during its implementation in representative samples, thereby providing insights for social movements aiming for gender-fair language. We also discuss the theoretical implications of a gender-inclusive pronoun in comparison with past studies on gender-fair language.

Folkmun.se: A Study of a User-Generated Dictionary of Swedish

Abstract This study examines the Swedish user-generated web dictionary Folkmun.se, encompassing roughly 5,000 entries. Initially a general overview of the website is presented, followed by an analysis of how the content of Folkmun.se has developed, with particular focus on 190 usernames. The contributors can be grouped together based on two distinct factors: 1) by number of contributions, and 2) by the kind of words they prefer to submit. One conclusion of this study is that a great majority of contributors only publish one or two entries. This entails that a large number of users have contributed to the dictionary. Furthermore, a majority chooses to focus on dialect words or slang words. Many of these entries are not represented in traditional Swedish dictionaries. The advantages of having people of different backgrounds and skills working with word collections are obvious, and their work is an important, albeit often neglected, contribution to general linguistics.

State-of-the-art on monolingual lexicography for Sweden

The minireview describes the state-of-the-art of Swedish monolingual lexicography. The main actors in the field, both commercial and non-commercial, are mentioned alongside with the description of lexicographic products that have been offered by them to the lexicon users. The minireview makes it clear that there is an obvious tendency among the Swedish dictionary users to abandon paper-based dictionaries and switch over to online portals and apps, which influences the practices adopted by commercial publishing houses, such as Norstedts, Bonniers, Natur & Kultur. Among the leading non-commercial players, the Swedish Academy, the Swedish Language Bank, Institute for Language and Folklore are named. Swedish monolingual lexicography offers, however, dictionaries produced not only by experts but also by non-experts (i.e. using the efforts of the crowd).

Ett tidigt försök att etablera en svensk juridisk vokabulär? Lexikaliska och fackspråkliga perspektiv på en juridisk handbok från 1674

In this paper we investigate if growth and consolidation of legal vocabulary can be discerned in a Swedish legal handbook from 1674. The survey focuses on 55 lexical units in Latin and Swedish from four central semantic areas of the legal process: the ACTIONS, the ACTORS, the ARENAS and the TOOLS. The investigation is carried out with material from the first legal handbook in Swedish: Observationes […] (1674), by Clas Rålamb together with four Swedish dictionaries published between 1773 and 2009. We analyse to what extent the lexical units were lexicalized at that time and if they perhaps could be considered to be juridical terms of Swedish (Germanic) or Latin origin. The results show that Swedish and Latin lexical units co-vary with the different semantic areas. The area of TOOLS has the closest connection to Latin, whereas the other semantic areas to a higher extent are related to Swedish. There is also reason to believe that Swedish legal terminology started to gain structure long before the printing of the first legal handbook in Swedish.

”Klitoris orsakar orgasm”. Kön och sexualitet i svenska ordböcker

The article deals with the construction of gender and sexuality in contemporary Swedish dictionaries. Feminist linguists have pointed out the reproductive force of dictionaries and shown their sexist attitudes towards women. Traditionally, dictionaries are compiled by men for men in a patriarchal society, based on the speech and writing of men. And dictionaries not only tell us about the views and attitudes of the society, they also actively reinforce and reproduce those views. Central words for sexual organs and sexual activities in nine Swedish dictionaries have been analysed. The analysis shows that the female sexuality is not made invisible or passive in a systematic way. For example, the clitoris is described as an active organ “causing orgasm” in two of the dictionaries and the definition of intercourse given in a dictionary intended for use in compulsory school is at least partly non-heterosexist. Dictionaries from the twenty-first century have also included a neutral colloquial word for the female genitalia – which has been thought of as absent in Swedish. All this can be interpreted as an effect of the relatively strong political influence of feminism, struggle for gender equity and the gay movement in Sweden in the past decade. And due to the reproductive force of the dictionaries, this is a good sign of progress.

Collocations in Swedish Dictionaries and Dictionary Research

Collocations in Swedish Dictionaries and Dictionary Research

A concrete research agenda for critical lexicographic research within critical discourse studies: an investigation into racism/colonialism in monolingual Danish, German, and Swedish dictionaries

The way in which monolingual dictionaries, understood as a discourse formation in their own right, construct realities is regarded as a critical research focus in the broader frame of critical discourse studies. In order to widen research in this area and to cultivate a critical public attitude towards the authority of dictionaries in questions of meaning, a toolbox for critical lexicographic research has been developed. The topic chosen for analysis is the production and negotiation of racism in the context of colonialism in modern monolingual German, Danish, and Swedish dictionaries.

An integrative review combined with a semantic review to explore the meaning of Swedish terms compatible with occupation, activity, doing and task

The aims of this study were to explore the intended meaning of the terms “occupation”, “activity”, “doing”, and “task” used in international occupational therapy literature and from this perspective explore which Swedish terms best capture these meanings. A literature review of occupational therapy-related journals was performed to gain a basic understanding of the term occupation and related terms. In addition, a semantic review was used: English and Swedish dictionaries were reviewed to explore the semantic meaning of the English terms “occupation”, “activity”, “doing”, and “task”, and the Swedish terms “aktivitet”, “syssla/sysselsättning”, “görande”, and “uppgift”. A comparison was also performed by searching for parallels between the results of the literature review, the semantic definitions of the English and Swedish terms and the comprehensive meaning of the Swedish terms aktivitet and syssla/sysselsättning. An overarching idea of the concept of occupation was found in the literature review and for the purposes of this study we have identified this as Occupation for survival. From this overarching idea, three themes were identified: The feature of occupation, Impact of occupation and Occupation an occupational therapy concept. Each theme could be subdivided into sub-themes. The Swedish term aktivitet was found to have more power, strength, and spirit connected to the synonyms found in the semantic analysis than to those connected with the Swedish term syssla/sysselsättning. According to the findings in this study we found that the term “aktivitet” is the best comparable term in Swedish to the English term “occupation”.

Begreppsbestämning av förändring i relation till hälsoprocesser

The purpose of this theoretical study is to gain deeper understanding of the concept ‘change’ and thereby give a meaningful understanding based on interpretation about the process of health. This study is based on Koort's semantical analysis methods in the light of Eriksson's approach for concept determination using eleven Swedish dictionaries between the years 1926–2000.The results of the ontological determination have been articulated into two main dimensions or contents of meaning; transformation and shift. A hermeneutical interpretation of the results ends in the concept of reforming. Reforming can be seen as outer or inner nature in the health process when seeing health as a movement, e.g. health as doing, being and becoming.Furthermore, achieving a higher degree of integration in changing the process of health there needs to bring the change into an action, and therefore, demands the unity of the outer and the inner reforming in order to shape life as well as health. This change needs a motive related to health driven by the vision of possible actions.

A Bibliography of Danish and Swedish Dictionaries, together with a Brief Account of Danish Lexicography

As a science develops, the necessity for some methodical record of its literature becomes more and more felt. The annual book-lists published by scientific journals and societies as well as the more extensive bibliographies in all departments of learning, give ample proof of this fact. In the Scandinavian group of languages, Theodore Möbius has performed an admirable task in cataloguing the works relating to the Icelandic language and literature, while Chr. Bruun, the Librarian of the Royal Library, at Copenhagen, is at present engaged on a far more extensive treatment of the Danish side. The latter work, however, by reason of its very completeness, including as it will the whole range of Danish investigation, will not supply exactly the need met by Möbius’ less pretentious but more accessible list. The subjects of the language and literature, too, have not yet been reached and several years will elapse before the completion of the book. The object of the present paper is to give such information respecting the development and the present state of Danish lexicography as may be of practical use, especially to the foreign student of the Danish language. Keeping the practical always in view, I shall give only a very slight description of the earlier dictionaries, confining myself chiefly to such works as are of general use. Before beginning the account, a few words of explanation respecting the bibliographical lists may not be considered inappropriate. In the classification I have striven after consistency, but in some few cases this was found to be impossible, as with the first class of Danish dictionaries, to which Wandal's ‘Catalogus’ does not properly belong. Technical dictionaries, of which there are comparatively few in either Danish or Swedish, are, for sake of convenience, classified with the Fremmedordböger (Dictionaries of foreign words.) This classification is the more defensible in that the same work occasionally combines the characteristics of both. Of international dictionaries I have given only those in the principal languages, French, German and English, and the two former have been grouped together. In every doubtful case the preference has been given to Danish, so that Danish-Swedish and Swedish-Danish dictionaries will be found in the Danish list, as also Danish-Swedish-German, etc