Külalisloeng „Language, Nation and Culture in pluricentric languages: Examples from Finland and Sweden“

Stockholmi Ülikooli rootsi keele ja mitmekeelsuse osakonna professor Catrin Norrby peab 18. aprillil kell 16.15 külalisloengu, kõneledes Soome ja Rootsi näitel pluritsentrilistest keeltest. 

Loeng toimub Jakobi 2-114 ja on inglise keeles.

Many languages are pluricentric in nature, i.e. they exist as a national or an official language in more than one nation. They range from languages diffused widely across different continents, such as English or Spanish, to languages predominantly used in neighbouring countries, such as Dutch or Swedish.

In this talk, Catrin Norrby will discuss the complex relationships between language, nation and culture in light of interactional data from one such pluricentric language – Swedish. After an overview of typical features of pluricentric languages in general, she will compare and contrast the use of certain pragmatic features, such as address practices and greeting formulas, in Swedish service encounters recorded at similar venues in Finland and Sweden. She will finish off by suggesting that the observable national pragmatic variation in these interactions provides us with a key to the socio-cultural norms of a speech community.