Changing Pronunciation but Stable Social Evaluation?

The study of phonetic variation and change in sociolinguistics predominantly focuses on ‘the vernacular’ or at least on speech occurring in spontaneous conversations. While such studies are obviously vital to understand the patterns of change in a speech community, it is also desirable to understand how patterns of variation and change develop in a ‘prestige’ standard language which may function as a model for normative language. In order to study on-going sound change in standard spoken Danish and their socio-linguistic consequences, the paper investigates the production of a series of front vowels in the news broadcasts of the national Danish radio, DR, arguably the model for the ‘best’ language to the majority of speakers of Danish. The study focuses on changes in the production of two vowel variables, the short (a) and long (æ:), by studying their position in the vowel space relative to neighboring vowels as well as relating these results to the realization of (a) and (æ:) as observed in sociolinguistic interviews. These variables are of particular interest because they have been discussed as emblematic of substandard pronunciation for generations, and because the social evaluation of the raised variants may be changing considerably in the present

Danish University lecturers’ attitudes towards English as the medium of instruction

The increasing use of English in research and higher education has been the subject of heated debate in Denmark and other European countries over the last years. This paper sets out the various positions in the national debate in Denmark, and then examines the attitudes towards these positions among the teaching staff at the country’s largest university. Four topics are extracted from the debate – one which expresses a positive attitude towards English and three independent but interrelated topics which express more negative attitudes. The responses from the university lecturers show that a majority agree with all positions, negative as well as positive. This finding indicates that the attitude may not form a simple one-dimensional dichotomy. The responses are broken down according to lecturer age and the proportion of teaching the lecturer conducts in English. The results show that younger lecturers and lecturers with a higher teaching load in English are more positive towards the increase in English medium instruction

Studerendes forventninger til specialevejledning og specialevejledere – en surveyundersøgelse

Ved hjælp af et spørgeskema undersøger vi forventninger til specialeprocessen, arbejdsindsats og resultater samt forventninger til deres vejleder og deres relation til denne blandt en årgang af nystartede specialeskrivere på et humanistisk institut. Ved at se på respondenternes akademiske historik, operationaliseret som deres BA-karakter og deres oplevelser med opgavevejledning samt deres selvrapporterede tryghed ved at skulle skrive speciale, inddeler vi respondenterne i henholdsvis fagligt ”sikre” og ”usikre” specialeskrivere. Vi finder at de to grupper ligner hinanden, men også at fagligt usikre studerende i højere grad søger klarhed og struktur på processen, mens fagligt sikre studerende i højere grad søger fagligt modspil. På baggrund af respondenternes svar anbefaler vi på linje med tidligere studier løbende dialogisk forventningsafstemning mellem vejleder og specialeskriver. En vigtig pointe er at forventninger og forforståelse er forskellige hos forskellige studerende; således rapporterer en overraskende stor andel af respondenterne at de har ”særlige problemer” som kan komme i vejen for specialeprocessen. Det øger blot kravet om løbende forventningsafstemning

Socialsemiotiske perspektiver på social kognition. En SFL-funderet metode til analyse af mentalisering

Mentalization describes the ability to understand the actions of others and oneself in relation to mental states. A range of methods is available to investigate mentalizing abilities (Luyten et al. 2012). It is common for the majority of these that mentalizing is assessed based on informants’ linguistic realizations. The methods, however, derive from the field of psychology, and they share a remarkable lack of focus on the description and importance of linguistic features. We propose a method to assess mentalizing founded in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). By including a grammar that has a metafunctional and social semiotic basis, we intend to develop a method that provides more transparent and nuanced analyses of mentalizing as it is displayed through language. The method connects various characteristics of mentalizing to both contextual, semantic and lexicogrammatical aspects in SFL. Related to the development of a linguistically sensitive method to assess metalizing, we also discuss the theoretical implications of considering grammatical choices as reflecting subjects’ mental states, i.e. how language relates to cognition. In particular, we discuss the concept of choice which is both central to SFL and also a somewhat problematic concept

Har ældre universitetsundervisere flere problemer med undervisning på engelsk?

Det er en almindelig antagelse at ældre i samfundet har større problemer med engelsk end yngre. I denne artikel ser vi på om dette også gælder på universitetet, dvs. om ældre undervisere vurderer deres engelskfærdigheder som værende ringere end yngre undervisere, og om de i højere grad oplever problemer med at bruge engelsk i undervisning og anden faglig sammenhæng. [...

Language Works 3(2)

Welcome to this the fifth edition of the Danish student journal of linguistics known as Language Works – Sprogvidenskabeligt StudentertidsskriftVelkommen til denne den femte udgave af Language Works – Sprogvidenskabeligt Studentertidsskrif