The Phonology of Quantity in Icelandic and Norwegian

Tematem niniejszej rozprawy jest analiza fonologiczna iloczasu w j. islandzkim i norweskim. Podstawę teoretyczną analizy stanowi model Fonologii Rządu. W rozdz. 1. przedstawione zostały inwentarze dźwięków j. islandzkiego i norweskiego, a także hierarchia elementów prozodycznych (akcentu, iloczasu i tonu) i wpływ akcentu na dystrybucję długich i krótkich samogłosek. Rozdz. 2. przedstawia podstawowe założenia Fonologii Rządu. Rozdz. 3. poświęcony jest tzw. wzdłużeniu w otwartych sylabach i alternatywnej definicji otwartej sylaby. W rozdz. 4. analizie poddano zbitki spółgłoskowe, które występują na początku i wewnątrz wyrazów. Dla podkreślenia uniwersalności analizy, przywołano dane z j. farerskiego. Rozdz. 5. analizuje preaspirację w j. islandzkim. Opisana jest ona zarówno pod względem struktury melodycznej, jak i pozycji w sylabie. Rozdz. 6. poświęcony jest analizie spółgłosek retrofleksyjnych w j. norweskim. Rozdz. 7. rozwija opis zbitek spółgłoskowych wewnątrz słowa, skupiając się na takich, które następują tylko po krótkiej samogłosce. Rozdz. 8. prezentuje szczegółową analizę jednej spółgłoski islandzkiej, /s/, i jej znaczenia dla opisu iloczasu w tym języku. Opisano /s/ jako „podwójnego agenta” w fonologii j. islandzkiego. Rozdz. 9. konfrontuje ustaloną w regułę iloczasu z formami złożonymi morfologicznie, tj. derywatami i złożeniami. Rozdz. 10. kontynuuje dyskusję nad rolą informacji morfologicznej w analizie iloczasu. Zaproponowano opis wybranej kategorii morfologicznej tj. tworzenia czasu przeszłego.Chapter 1 briefly presents sound inventories of Icelandic and Norwegian. Chapter 2 presents basic theoretical assumptions of Government Phonology. Chapter 3 is devoted to the so-called „open syllable lengthening” in Icelandic and Norwegian. Chapter 4 discusses branching onsets in Icelandic and Norwegian. An attempt is made to explain why forms like Ic. sötr or Norw. Afrika have a stressed long vowel, although a consonant cluster follows. Chapter 5 further analyses the distribution of long and short vowels and continues the discussion on Icelandic preaspiration. Chapter 6 sheds some alternative light on the so-called retroflex consonants in Norwegian. Chapter 7 takes a closer look at what was traditionally called coda-onset contact. Chapter 8 analyses the peculiar phonological behavior of /s/ in Icelandic. Following GUSSMANN (2001a) we call it “the double agent” of Icelandic phonology. Chapter 9 is devoted to the phonology of quantity in compound words in Icelandic. Chapter 10 analyses the creation of past tense in Icelandic and Norwegian from the phonological point of view

Intonation in Language Acquisition - Evidence from German

This dissertation studies the role of intonation in language acquisition. After a general introduction about the phonetic and phonological aspects of intonation and its different forms and functions within language, two different models of language acquisition and the role of intonation within these two models will be presented. Following this, I will present and discuss empirical data on the question, whether young German learning children use intonation in order to acquire language. Two comprehension studies will be presented. Here, I concentrate on the question whether children understand the referential function of intonation and whether they can use this knowledge in order to learn new words. Additionally, I will present empirical evidence that focuses on the question whether children use intonation in resolving participant roles in complex syntactic constructions as well as in resolving syntactic ambiguities development. Finally, I will present two production studies that investigate the prosodic realization of target referents that have different informational statuses within a discourse from both young children and parents, talking to their children. Overall, the data from these studies suggest that language learning children do use the intonational form of an utterance from early on in order to understand another´s intention. Young language learning children do understand that a certain intonational form conveys a function. Additionally, the studies presented in this thesis suggest that children also use intonation in order to convey their own communicative intentions. Thus, intonation is an important instrument for young children‘s language acquisition as they use the information that is provided by intonation, not only to learn words and to combine them to syntactic constructions, but also for the understanding of paralinguistic properties of language. The findings of the studies presented in this thesis are discussed with regard to different theories of language acquisition. Additionally, I will give insight into the understanding of the development of young children´s use of intonation

Language and language ideologies in radio and television : Standard language and language standards in Finland-Swedish broadcast news

The object for this sociolinguistic study is the language and the language ideologies in Finland-Swedish broadcast news 1970–2009. The focus is on the pronunciation in the news readings and on the opinions and attitudes of the journalists. I analyze the journalists’ views on different language varieties and on media language norms. The phonological variation analysis is based on the pronunciation guidelines used within the Swedish section of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE), called Svenska Yle ‘Swedish YLE’, and the study is descriptive as well as diachronically comparative. The study shows that the pronunciation in the news readings follows the pronunciation recommendations closely. For example, the final phoneme /t/ in definite nouns (e.g. bordet ‘the table’) and in non-finite verb forms (e.g. hoppat ‘[has] jumped’) is pronounced clearly, whereas it is almost always left out in everyday speech and in dialects. In addition, the study shows a shift towards a more formal pronunciation in the 1990s and 2000s also for short function words, such as efter ‘after’ or vid ‘by’. Furthermore, the study shows changes in two features that are characteristic of Finland-Swedish quantity. The Swedish rules of quantity require either V:C or VCC – for example /va:ra/ ‘to be’ – but the short form /vara/ is a normal feature in many dialects and in everyday speech in Swedish spoken in Finland. The study shows that this feature has increased slightly in the news readings. The other socially distributed quantity feature is the combination of a long vowel and a long consonant, for example in the word baka ‘to bake’, which in the Helsinki-region can be pronounced /ba:kka/. The frequency of this Helsinki-trait has decreased markedly in the news readings during the 1990s and 2000s. My results show that the pronunciation has become closer to the norm for some variables, while other variables have become regionally and socially more neutral. This interpretation is supported by the strong standard language ideology that journalists at Swedish YLE express. Even though many journalists would like to have a wider range of varieties on air, the standard language ideology still dominates their views, and they link this to the quality associated with public service values. The changes in the pronunciation in the news readings can be interpreted as a sociolinguistic neutralization of the standard language. The pronunciation is closer to the norms in some cases, but simultaneously closer to everyday speech. Especially the changes in the socially marked quantity features have made the standard language in the news readings regionally and socially more neutral, which can lead to a wider acceptance of the standard. I interpret this as a sign of a continuous standardization process of the Finland-Swedish standard language.Studien Språk och språkideologier i radio och tv – standardspråk och språkstandarder i finlandssvenska radio- och tv-nyheter undersöker språket och språkideologierna vid de finlandssvenska radio- och tv-nyheterna 1970–2009. Fokus ligger på uttalet i upplästa nyhetstexter och på journalisternas åsikter om och attityder till språknormerna och till olika språkvarieteter. Uttalet analyseras utgående från uttalsrekommendationerna i Svenska Yles interna handböcker och studien visar att uttalet följer rekommendationerna mycket väl. Till exempel uttalas slutljuden i bestämda substantiv i neutrum (taket, bordet), i verb i supinum (hoppat, suttit) och i korta funktionsord (vid, efter, mycket) betydligt oftare i nyhetsuppläsningarna än i vardagligt talspråk. Bortfallet av slutljuden minskar från 1970-talet till 2000-talet och uttalet blir alltså mer normnära med tiden. Undersökningen visar också förändringar i två kvantitetsdrag typiska för finlandssvenskan. Kortstavigt uttal, t.ex. /vara/ i stället för /va:ra/, visar tendenser till en ökning i de upplästa nyhetstexterna, vilket för uttalet närmare vardagligt talspråk. Det andra kvantitetsdraget, uttal med lång tonlös konsonant efter lång betonad vokal (t.ex. /ba:kka/) som framför allt förekommer i det bildade Helsingforsspråket, har minskat kraftigt i nyhetsuppläsningarna under 1990-talet och 2000-talet. Journalisterna ger tydligt uttryck för en standardspråksideologi i sina åsikter och attityder och betonar att mediespråket ska vara korrekt. De lyfter också fram en önskan om större mångfald, med fler regionala drag i etern och ett mer vardagsnära språk, men den standardspråksideologi som kan sägas ingå i public service-uppdragets kvalitetsbegrepp är ändå klart dominerande. Förändringarna i uttalet i de upplästa nyhetstexterna i kombination med journalisternas språkideologi kan tolkas som en sociolingvistisk neutralisering av standardspråket. Uttalet har blivit mer normnära gällande bortfallet av slutkonsonanter i ett flertal ordgrupper, men samtidigt mer vardagsspråkligt i och med det ökande kortstaviga uttalet. Därtill har det Helsingforstypiska särdraget med lång tonlös konsonant efter lång betonad vokal minskat kraftigt, vilket gör nyhetsspråket mer allfinlandssvenskt. Standardspråket i nyheterna har således både blivit mer normnära och regionalt och socialt mer neutralt, vilket kan leda till en större acceptans bland språkbrukarna. Förändringen kan ses som en effekt av en fortlöpande standardisering av det finlandssvenska standardspråket

Theoretical and empirical arguments for the reassessment of the notion of paradigm

The volume discusses the breadth of applications for an extended notion of paradigm. Paradigms in this sense are not only tools of morphological description but constitute the inherent structure of grammar. Grammatical paradigms are structural sets forming holistic, semiotic structures with an informational value of their own. We argue that as such, paradigms are a part of speaker knowledge and provide necessary structuring for grammaticalization processes. The papers discuss theoretical as well as conceptual questions and explore different domains of grammatical phenomena, ranging from grammaticalization, morphology, and cognitive semantics to modality, aiming to illustrate what the concept of grammatical paradigms can and cannot (yet) explain

Vetenskaplig osäkerhet i policyprocessen : En studie av svensk klimatpolitik

The dissertation is about scientific uncertainty in the policy process, that is when scientific knowledge about an issue is lacking or the existing knowledge is uncertain. The aim of the study is to understand if and how scientific uncertainty affects the policy process. For that purpose, the development of climate change policy in Sweden is studied, from 1975 until 2007. The material studied consists of interviews with politicians, bureaucrats and scientists, newspaper articles and debate articles, as well as governmental and agency material. The theoretical framework developed and used in the dissertation builds on John Kingdon’s multiple streams framework as well as insights from Science and Technology Studies, relating to the production of knowledge and the relation between scientists and society. The study shows that scientific uncertainty is only one among many factors that affect the policy process and that it has a limited influence. The area where scientific uncertainty, in the case studied, has had most influence is in the selection and formulation of policies. There policy makers have used a number of ways to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. These include reframing the issue so that uncertainties are no longer relevant, relying on the precautionary principle, requesting more research, and basing decisions on the judgment of scientists. The most common way of managing uncertainty has been to reframe the issue. In the case studied, scientific uncertainty has made scientists very influential as to how climate change has come to be understood as a political problem. Yet they have had a very limited influence over the formulation of climate policy