bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Dative Alternation in Norwegian Child Language
Authors: Anderssen Merete , Fikkert Paula , Mykhaylyk Roksolana , Rodina Yulia
Published: October 2015

Research has shown that givenness is one of several factors that influence the choice of word order with the Dative Alternation in languages such as English. This paper investigates to what extent Norwegian children between the ages of 4;2 and 6;0 are sensitive to this factor in production. In order to test this, an experiment was carried out in which the children were prompted to produce structures involving ditransitive verbs when either the Theme or the Recipient was given. The results show that the children are sensitive to the impact of givenness, but while this is expressed through the choice of word order in Theme-given contexts (yielding the prepositional dative), it is expressed by argument omission in the Recipient-given contexts (resulting in one-argument responses with only the Theme overtly produced).
A note on cognate objects: Cognation as doubling
Authors: Gallego Ángel
Published: October 2015

This note considers some of the problems raised by so-called “cognate objects” in the light of Hale & Keyser’s (1993, 1997, 1998) analysis of unergative verbs, which involves incorporation of a noun occupying the internal argument position. Unless we assume that the cognate object is post-syntactically inserted in the internal argument position (which already contains a trace/copy left by the element undergoing incorporation), this element should not be licensed. I propose that this tension can be solved if the incorporating noun (or root) and the cognate object start off as part of the same syntactic object: a big NP/DP. From such perspective, cognation can be seen as a subcase of a more general phenomenon: doubling.
Preposition stranding versus pied-piping: Negative Shift of prepositional complements in dialects of Faroese
Authors: Engels Eva
Published: October 2015

In Faroese, Negative Shift of a prepositional complement is subject to variation across dialects, as well as to variation across speakers of the same dialect as regards preposition stranding and pied-piping. In particular, Negative Shift of a prepositional complement is possible for all speakers in the presence of a main verb in situ, stranding the preposition. Only if the main verb undergoes finite verb movement does dialectal and inter-speaker variation arise. In Icelandic, in contrast, the choice between preposition stranding and pied-piping during Negative Shift seems to be independent of verb position and to be lexically determined by the verb-preposition combination instead.

         These asymmetries will be accounted for within Fox and Pesetsky's (2003, 2005) cyclic linearization model, which requires non-string-vacuous movement to proceed through the left edge of Spell-out domains, deriving cross-linguistic variation as to Negative Shift from differences in the availability of these left-edge positions. Thereby, pied-piping is considered a last resort strategy, possible only if the prepositional complement cannot undergo Negative Shift on its own due to the unavailability of the relevant left-edge position.
Word Order, Grammatical Function, and Referential Form: On the Patterns of Anaphoric Reference in Finnish
Authors: Kaiser Elsi
Published: October 2015

Research on reference resolution has shown that there exists a connection between the form of a referring expression and the accessibility/salience of its referent. More specifically, the most salient referents – i.e. those currently at the center of attention and most prominent at that point in the discourse – are referred to with the most reduced referring expressions. This raises the question: What kinds of factors influence a referent’s salience, i.e. make it a good candidate to be referred to with a reduced anaphoric expression? This paper focuses on two factors which have been claimed to influence referent salience: (1) grammatical/syntactic role and (2) word order. These issues are addressed from the perspective of Finnish, a highly inflected, flexible word order language which has canonical SVO order and two kinds of third person anaphors: the gender-neutral pronoun hän ‘s/he’ and the demonstrative tämä ‘this.’ In this paper, I present the results of three psycholinguistic experiments investigating the referential properties of these two anaphors, and show that hän and tämä differ in their referential properties and are sensitive to different kinds of factors. The results indicate that instead of trying to define the referential properties of these forms according to a unified notion of salience, we should investigate how different factors may be relevant for different referential expressions. The implications that these findings have for our view of how referential systems work are also discussed.
Features and Recursive Structure
Authors: Nasukawa Kuniya
Published: October 2015

Based on the cross-linguistic tendency that weak vowels are realized with a central quality such as ə, ɨ, or ɯ, this paper attempts to account for this choice by proposing that the nucleus itself is one of the three monovalent vowel elements |A|, |I| and |U| which function as the building blocks of melodic structure. I claim that individual languages make a parametric choice to determine which of the three elements functions as the head of a nuclear expression. In addition, I show that elements can be freely concatenated to create melodic compounds. The resulting phonetic value of an element compound is determined by the specific elements it contains and by the head-dependency relations between those elements. This concatenation-based recursive mechanism of melodic structure can also be extended to levels above the segment, thus ultimately eliminating the need for syllabic constituents. This approach reinterprets the notion of minimalism in phonology by opposing the string-based flat structure.
A radically emergentist approach to phonological features: implications for grammars
Authors: Nazarov Aleksei
Published: October 2015

Phonological features are often assumed to be innate (Chomsky & Halle 1968) or learned as a prerequisite for learning grammar (Dresher 2013). In this paper, I show an alternative approach: features are learned in parallel with grammar. This allows for addressing an interesting question: is it really optimal that the phonological grammar only use phonological features to refer to segmental material (Chomsky & Halle 1968), or could it be more advantageous for the grammar to refer to segmental material on more than one level of representation? The learner considered here finds that it is only optimal for the grammar to use phonological features to refer to multiple segments in the same pattern (e.g., the class of nasals), but when a pattern refers to a single segment, it may be at least equally good for the grammar to refer to this single segment as a bare segment label (for instance, [m] instead of [labial, nasal]). In this way, the grammar uses different kinds of representational units (features and non-features) for the same sound – which mimics models with multiple layers of representation (such as Goldrick 2001, Boersma 2007).
Poor pronoun systems and what they teach us
Authors: Harbour Daniel
Published: October 2015

The world’s smallest pronoun systems can eschew any of the following contrasts: (i) author–nonauthor, (ii) participant–nonparticipant, (iii) singular–nonsingular. This supports the view that features are mutually independent parameters (Harbour 2011a, 2014a, 2014b), but is problematic for Koeneman and Zeijlstra’s (2014) recent reworking of the Rich Agreement Hypothesis, which is predicated on the claim that (i)–(iii) are universally obligatory. 
Case and Adverbials in Inari Saami and Finnish
Authors: Nelson Diane
Published: October 2015

This paper explores the relationship between case-marked adverbials and event structure in two related languages, Inari Saami and Finnish. New data is presented to show that while oblique case-marked adverbials do not delimit events in either language, the two languages diverge with respect to accusuative adverbials. Finnish shows a one-to-one mapping between case and event delimitation, while in Inari Saami not all accusative adverbials delimit events. These findings lend support to proposals by Arad (1998) and Tenny (1987) that each predicate may contain only one event delimiter.
Linguistic Power Wielding and Manipulation Strategies in Group Conversations Between Turkish-Danish Children
Authors: Madsen Lian Malai
Published: October 2015

The study concerns the linguistic power wielding in group conversations among bilingual children and adolescents. In bilingual conversations one of the pragmatic linguistic means of negotiating power relations and identities is of course the choice of language. This is also the main subject of the study of Jørgensen (1993) who presents a view on the linguistic power wielding in group conversation in which he combines code-switching theories with Kjøller’s (1991) concepts of linguistic power wielding. Kjøller claims that schools ought to teach children how to exercise linguistic power. Jørgensen shows that in spite of this the bilingual children do acquire manipulation skills. He also emphasizes the fact that co-operation is not the only principle that rules the conversations. Jørgensen finds that the manipulation strategies, which Kjøller has established, are useful in the study of bilingual conversations from the Køge Project. Inspired by this, this article describes some of the principles behind the manipulation strategies used by the children in my data. The article focuses on the conflicts in the conversations. The study consists of 1) a qualitative analysis of the manipulation strategies and the power-processes in the negotiations, and 2) a quantitative study of the outcome of the conflicts in the conversations. The study, which is described in Madsen (2001), concerns both linguistic and social parameters. The relationships between linguistic variation and social structures are considered. As a starting point linguistic variation is seen as a means of negotiating power relationships and identities. The linguistic choices bring about social relations in the conversation. The results, however, suggest that linguistic behavior in the conversation to some extent depends on brought-along social factors (Rampton 1995).
Structure and Cohesion of English Narratives by Nordic and Chinese Students
Authors: Lee Miranda
Published: October 2015

As one of the most notable studies in discourse level of English as second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) in Nordic countries, NORDWRITE project (1985) succeeds in identifying important problems and suggesting solutions for students’ writing in terms of discourse-level properties such as cohesion and superstructures. Findings from NORDWRITE project were reported in several papers, such as Enkvist (1990), Evesen (1990), Lindeberg (1988), Linnarud (1986), Wikborg (1990). However, a comparative study of Nordic and other EFL/ESL writing has not been dealt with yet. In order to identify similarities and differences between English writing of two distinct first language (L1) groups, in this study, a number of Chinese ESL texts were collected and compared with the results obtained from NORDWRITE project. In this study, narrative was elicited by giving subjects a series of pictures which allows reliable comparison across texts produced by different subjects. A group of Hong Kong Chinese tertiary students was asked to write narratives in both English and Chinese. Meanwhile, a group of English students with similar age and education background wrote the narratives in English, and their texts serve as a reference for comparison. The areas for analysis cover narrative structure and cohesion. By examining the similarities and differences in Chinese ESL students’ and Nordic EFL students’ texts, we find that certain similarities between the two groups are due to the fact that English is their second/foreign language. On the other hand, differences may be attributed to the influence of their L1, as the two groups belong to two distinct language groups. The study also shows that certain writing problems of ESL/EFL students are originated from inadequate understanding of English discourse. The implications of L1 influences on discourse level for ESL/EFL writing were drawn as well.
Introduction: Multilingual Behavior in Youth Groups
Authors: Jørgensen Jens Normann
Published: October 2015

This introduction reviews some of the major work on bilingual and multilingual children and adolescents in Scandinavia, from Kotsinas (1985) and Boyd (1985) to the present. The introduction was originally published in J. N. Jørgensen (ed.) 2001: Multilingual behavior in Youth Groups, Copenhagen Studies in Bilingualism, The Køge Series, Volume K11, Danish University of Education.
V-to-I Movement in the Absence of Morphological Cues:Evidence from Adult and Child Northern Norwegian
Authors: Bentzen Kristine
Published: October 2015

Several people have pointed out that there seems to be a close correlation between inflectional morphology and verb movement (see e.g. Kosmeijer 1986, Holmberg & Platzack 1988). The nature of this correlation has been claimed to go in both directions. Vikner (1994, 1995) and Rohrbacher (1999) have both suggested that the verb can only move to an inflectional head if the morphology is rich enough. Bobaljik (1995), Thráinsson (1996), and Bobaljik & Thráinsson (1998), on the other hand, argue that the correlation goes in the other direction, i.e. that rich inflection is a reflection of verb movement, rather than the cause for it. A correlation between morphology and verb movement has also been suggested in first language acquisition (Santelmann 1995 on Swedish, Clahsen et al. 1996 on German, Déprez & Pierce 1993, and Meisel 1994 on French). Several of these studies indicate that children use inflectional morphology as a cue for verb movement in the acquisition process, and that they employ verb movement as soon as they acquire verbal inflection. In this paper I will present new data from a dialect of Northern Norwegian which challenge the strong correlation between verb movement and inflectional morphology in both the adult language and in the acquisition of this dialect. More specifically, this dialect appears to have optional independent V-to-I movement despite the fact that the inflectional morphology is very poor. With respect to the acquisition of this dialect, preliminary data from one subject seem to indicate that children to some extent overgeneralise this verb movement pattern into constructions where adult speakers would not allow it.
A Subject Clitic in Child Catalan
Authors: Gavarró Anna
Published: October 2015

In this paper we examine an instance of subject cliticisation in child Catalan previously unattested in the literature (1),. Given the lack of an adult counterpart to (1) in the input the child is exposed to, the claim is made that its occurrence, far from being accidental, must result from deep properties of grammar, also detectable in other Romance varieties.  (1)M'he vist una pel.lícula.    (Lena, 5;9)
 1sCL have seen a film
 'I have seen a film.'  This subject clitic is sensitive to the presence of a person feature - it is limited to first person singular - and tense-sensitive - it is only found in the present perfect. The subject clitic is analysed as a means to identify the empty subject of the sentence in cases where incorporation of be to yield have is taking place, along the lines of Kayne (1993). The analysis extends to also previously unattested existential constructions found in child Catalan, which involve instances of be instead of have (Hi era un caçador instead of Hi havia un caçador 'There was a hunter' (Joan 3;5)) , but not vice-versa.
The Acquisition of Past Tense in English/Norwegian Bilingual Children Single versus Dual Mechanisms
Authors: Jensvoll Maja
Published: October 2015

In a study of three Norwegian/English bilingual siblings, their strategies for acquiring past tense of verbs in both languages were examined. Elicitation tests were performed in both languages and the children’s performance and error patterns were examined. These results were then compared to data from monolingual English and Norwegian speaking children. The results are discussed within the framework of the Single Mechanism Account Hypothesis, a Connectionist approach, and the Dual Mechanism Account Hypothesis, a Generative Approach. The current study suggests support for the Dual Mechanism Approach Hypothesis. It seems that the children in the current study did in fact create rules for past tense which they could apply by default.
Phonological Development in a Child with Cri du Chat Syndrome (CDCS)
Authors: Kristoffersen Kristian Emil
Published: October 2015

Cri du chat syndrome (CDCS) is a genetic disorder resulting from loss of genetic material from the short arm of chromosome 5. Symptoms include delayed linguistic development. In my paper I present results from a longitudinal study of a girl with CDCS, focussing on two areas of phonological development, firstly, the development of consonant inventories, and, secondly, the development of syllable structure. It is shown that although her consonant inventory hardly develops over a period of 2 1/2 years, the way she uses her consonants to build syllables and words develops considerably. At 4;6 her syllables are dominantly of the CV-type, and bisyllabic words are mostly reduplications. At 5;9 the picture is very different: She uses a variety of syllable shapes, and there are almost no reduplications left. This development continues from 5;9 to 7;0. On the basis of these results I conclude my paper with some remarks on possible causes of the articulatory problems seen in children with CDCS.
Negative evidence in L2 acquisition
Authors: Dahl Anne
Published: October 2015

This article deals with the L2 acquisition of differences between Norwegian and English passives, and presents data to show that the acquisition of these differences by Norwegian L2 acquirers of English cannot be fully explained by positive evidence, cues, conservativism or economy. Rather, it is argued, it is natural to consider whether indirect negative evidence may facilitate acquisition by inferencing. The structures in focus are impersonal passive constructions with postverbal NPs and passive constructions with intransitive verbs. These sentences are ungrammatical in English. Chomsky (1981) proposes that this is a result of passive morphology absorbing objective case in English. There is no such case to be assigned to the postverbal NP in impersonal passives. In passive constructions with intransitive verbs, the verb does not assign objective case, so that there is no case for the passive morphology to absorb. Thus, impersonal passives have to be changed into personal passives, where the NP receives nominative case, and the objective case is free to go to the passive morphology. Intransitive verbs, however, cannot be used in the passive voice at all. Both the structures discussed in this article, i.e. are grammatical in Norwegian. However, the options available in English, viz. personal passives and active sentences, are equally possible. Åfarli (1992) therefore proposes that Norwegian has optional case absorption (passive morphology optionally absorbs case). On the basis on such observations, we may propose a parameter with the settings [+case absorption] for English, and [-case absorption], signifying optional case absorption, for Norwegian. This means that none of the structures that are grammatical in English can function as positive evidence for the [+case absorption] setting, since they are also grammatical in optional case absorption languages. The question is how this parameter is set.
How to Tell Beans from Farmers: Cues to the Perception of Pitch Accent in Whispered Norwegian
Authors: Nicholson Hannele , Teig Andreas Hilmo
Published: October 2015

East Norwegian employs pitch accent contours in order to make lexical distinctions. This paper researches listeners' ability to make lexical distinctions in the absence of f0 (ie. whispered speech) as the listener attempts to determine which pitch accent word token best fits into a whispered ambiguous utterance in spoken Norwegian. The results confirm that local syntactic context alone is not a reliable cue to assist in lexical selection and concur with Fintoft (1970) in suggesting that listeners utilise a separate prosodic cue, possibly syllable duration or intensity, to make the pitch accent distinction in whispered speech.
Information structure development: Evidence from the acquisition of word order in Russian and English
Authors: Dyakonova Marina
Published: October 2015

The present paper aims at shedding some light onto the nature of the early child grammar. It is claimed that children do not operate with pure syntactic structures but also have access to pragmatics. On the basis of word order acquisition in Russian and English it is shown that from early on children resort to various strategies to encode information structure. Children acquiring Russian, a language that allows for structural encoding of Topic and Focus, make wide use of pragmatically marked word orders. Speakers of English, a highly configurational language, find other ways to mark information status of constituents, e.g. by means of Topic drop.
 The results of the study suggest that different grammatical modules, syntax and pragmatics in the particular case, are acquired in a parallel rather than consecutive fashion.
Cues and expressions
Authors: Hróarsdóttir Thorbjörg
Published: October 2015

A number of European languages have undergone a change from object-verb to verb-object order. We focus on the change in English and Icelandic, showing that while the structural change was the same, it took place at different times and different ways in the two languages, triggered by different E-language changes. As seen from the English viewpoint, low-level facts of inflection morphology may express the relevant cue for parameters, and so the loss of inflection may lead to a grammar change. This analysis does not carry over to Icelandic, as the loss of OV there took place despite rich case morphology. We aim to show how this can be explained within a cue-style approach, arguing for a universal set of cues. However, the relevant cue may be expressed differently among languages: While it may have been expressed through morphology in English, it as expressed through information structure in Icelandic. In both cases, external effects led to fewer expressions of the relevant (universal) cue and a grammar change took place.
When the prefixes meet the suffixes
Authors: Jabłońska Patrycja
Published: October 2015

This paper explores the different interpretations the prefix po- in Polish gets depending on what kind of stem it attaches to. Thus, I show that the distinction between high and low suffixing verbalizers correlates with a distinction within the prefixal domain, namely the type of verbalizer influences the interpretation that po- is assigned, as well as being responsible for the restriction on po- attachment.1 I argue for four different structural positions into which a prefix can be inserted. The system bears on the way Aspectual proper- ties are decided in the course of the derivation, with three different aspectual levels (Asp1P relevant for most of the prefixes, Asp2P i.e. Secondary Imperfective (henceforth, SI), and Asp3P relevant for po- exclusively) contributing information which can be overridden on higher levels.
Persian Preposition Classes
Authors: Pantcheva Marina
Published: October 2015

In this paper I present the prepositional system in Persian. I show that Persian prepositions can be divided into three classes (Class 1, Class 2a and Class 2b) which exhibit distinct syntactic behavior. Then I examine the question of the categorial status of Class 2 prepositions and demonstrate that they are not to be regarded as nouns. Finally I present the extended PP projection of Persian spatial prepositions and argue for a feature-based analysis of the properties they manifest.
Goal-Source Asymmetry and Russian Spatial Prefixes
Authors: Markovskaya Evgenia
Published: October 2015

In this paper, I draw on data from Russian to argue for the asymmetry between Goal and Source prepositional phrases. Source prepositional phrases are structurally ambiguous; they can occur both as arguments and adjuncts in certain syntactic contexts. Goal prepositional phrases are unambiguously arguments. I claim that Source prepositions have lexically specified semantics, which determines their relative structural freedom; whereas Goal prepositions are derived from locative prepositions when the building of the event structure takes place and therefore they are bound to be the arguments of the verb.
The Emergence of Axial Parts
Authors: Svenonius Peter
Published: October 2015

Many languages have specialized locative words or morphemes translating roughly into words like ‘front,’ ‘back,’ ‘top,’ ‘bottom,’ ‘side,’ and so on. Often, these words are used instead of more specialized adpositions to express spatial meanings corresponding to ‘behind,’ ‘above,’ and so on. I argue, on the basis of a cross-linguistic survey of such expressions, that in many cases they motivate a syntactic category which is distinct from both N and P, which I call AxPart for ‘Axial Part’; I show how the category relates to the words which instantiate it, and how the meaning of the construction is derived from the combination of P[lace] elements, AxParts, and the lexical material which expresses them.
Dialectal Variation in Norwegian Imperatives
Authors: Rice Curt
Published: October 2015

This article discusses the formation of imperatives in Norwegian. It focuses on the cases in which phonological well-formedness requirements interfere with imperative formation. Several attested solutions are presented and receive an optimality theoretic analysis. Some speakers invoke a purely phonological solution, e.g. sonorant devoicing. Others borrow from elsewhere in the paradigm, e.g. taking the infinitive form and using it as the imperative. A third group avoid the constructions altogether, necessitating an analysis in which the null parse is optimal.
The Noun Phrase: Diversity in Dutch DP Design (DiDDD)
Authors: Van Koppen Marjo , Corver Norbert , Kranendonk Huib , Rigterink Mirjam
Published: October 2015

In this paper we discuss our project: Diversity in Dutch DP Design. This project investigates the variation found in the Dutch DP. Not only the variation concerning contemporary dialects is taken into account, also the variation between contemorary Dutch and older variants of the language are investigated. By looking into variation, the project aims to provide an answer to two questions: (i) what is the locus of variation, (ii) what is the structure of the DP-domain.
Generating a lexicon of Scandinavian modals
Authors: Hrafn Hrafnbjargarson Gunnar
Published: October 2015

Morphology and phonology can in many cases be used to figure out which words correspond to which in Scandinavian. For instance, it is rather easy to figure out which Norwegian personal pronoun corresponds to which in Danish, and even Icelandic or Faroese. However, when it comes to prepositions and modal verbs we cannot rely on morphology or phonology alone. For example, Norwegian and Danish måtte do not always have the same meaning, and similarly, Icelandic vilja is not used as the future modal as Norwegian and Danish ville is. Instead of relying on morphology or phonology, we can use parallel corpora. Unfortunately, there are not many parallel corpora that include all of the Scandinavian languages, and those that exist are maybe not large enough to give reliable results. Nevertheless, to get a picture of what it could look like, the Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, and English parts of a small treebank, The Sophie Treebank, were used to find out which modal verbs correspond to which in the various languages.
Synchronic and diachronic variation phenomena in inverted interrogative and related contexts in Northern Italian dialects
Authors: Polo Chiara
Published: October 2015

In the spirit of Ferdinand de Saussure, the present contribution is offered as an integrated synchronic and diachronic analysis of syntactic variation phenomena across a selected number of Veneto and other Northern Italian dialects: the main focus of the study will be on (unembedded) interrogative clauses. The goal targeted is to account for the wide range of structural options allowed by contemporary dialects (VS/SV/SVS) in the light of the discrepant evolutionary stages they embody and reflect, as independently reconstructed and singled out in the history of the Venetian dialect. Seemingly idiosyncratic contemporary inter-dialectal variation phenomena are thus viewed as functions of the different parametric values dialects activate in dependence on the position they occupy in an evolutionary continuum which promotes the elimination of an anciently fully productive inverted pattern VS (along with the syntactic rule V-to-C which possibly underlies its generation).
Suffering Daughters and Wives. Sentimental Themes in Finnish and Nordic Realism
Authors: Isomaa Saija
Published: October 2015

This article examines sentimental themes and scenarios in Nordic nineteenthcentury literature, focusing on Finnish realism. The main claim of the article is that the treatment of the Woman Question in Nordic literature is thematically connected to French sentimentalism that depicted upper-class women caught in the conflict between personal freedom and familial duties. Typical scenarios were family barrier to marriage and love triangle, in which an unhappily married woman fell in love with another man. French sentimental social novels took a stance on the position of women. Similar themes and scenarios can be found in Nordic nineteenth-century novels and plays. The ‘daughter novel’ tradition from Fredrika Bremer’s The President’s Daughters (1834) to Minna Canth’s Hanna (1886) depict the sufferings of upper-class girls in patriarchal family and society. A Doll’s House (1879) by Henrik Ibsen centers on the theme of conflicting duties, depicting the moral awakening of a doll-like wife, and Papin rouva (1893, ‘The Wife of a Clergyman’) by Juhani Aho concentrates on the sufferings and moral considerations of the unhappily married Elli. The article suggests that the sentimentalist legacy informs the Nordic nineteenth-century literature and should be taken into account in the scholarship.
Acts of Literature
Authors: Moi Ruben , Fagertun Thoralf
Published: October 2015

Despite the fact that literary theory has sought new orientations since Derrida´s biblioblitz in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this article claims that the French philosopher's multiple approaches to literatureindubitably mark a shift in literary hermeneutics. Although the questioning of philosophy, language, aesthetic institutions, and genre solidities per se spurs much of his intellectual analysis, Derrida responds to a great diversity of what is normally termed literature in his writing. Derrida´s Acts of Literature presents a point of departure for this article, which traces his engagements with literature in large parts of his oeuvre. Throughout discussions of his many subversions of literary traditions and reflections of the extensive dispute that surrounds his work, the authors seek to demonstrate the significance of his interrogations for the field of literary interpretation.Selv om litteraturteorien har beveget seg i ulike retninger siden Derridas biblioblitz på slutten av 1960-tallet og begynnelsen av 1970-tallet, hevder denne artikkelen at den franske filosofens ulike tilnærminger til litteratur utvilsomt har forandret hermeneutikken. Til tross for at skepsis til filosofi, språk, estetiske uttrykksformer og sjangersoliditet utgjør mye av hans intellektuelle analyser, undersøker Derrida i sin skrivning en rekke ulike typer tekster som vi tradisjonelt sett karakteriserer som litteratur. Derridas Acts of Literature utgjør et springbrett for denne artikkelen som prøver å perspektivere undersøkelsene av litteratur i store deler av hans produksjon. Gjennom å diskutere hans mange oppgjør med litterære tradisjoner og å reflektere over den omfattende debatten hans arbeider har skapt, har forfatterne til hensikt å påvise hvilken betydning hans litterære undersøkelser kan ha for litterær fortolkning.
Depicting a Sámi Society Between Tradition and Modernization: The Strategies of Coping in Jovnna-Ánde Vest’s Trilogy Árbbolaccat
Authors: Fredriksen Lill Tove
Published: October 2015

The Sámi novelist Jovnna-Ánde Vest has written the trilogy Árbbolaččat, where he writes about the lives of the people living in Máhtebáiki, a small Sámi village in Northern Finland, from the late 1950s until the early 1980s. This is a time when new great changes coming from the majority society also has impact on the living conditions in a society where agriculture and fishing are the main lines of work. The article focuses on the protagonist Heaika and how he interacts and what kind of coping strategies he chooses in his endeavor to become a writer. Heaika serves both as a witness and a mediator of how the characters in the local society meet the impacts of the new time
White In. White Out. The Noticeability of Text. Conspicuous Text
Authors: Frost Sabine
Published: October 2015

The term ‘whiteout' is usually understood as a weather condition in polar or mountain regions affecting visibility through diffuse lighting. In this case, however, the idea of ‘whiteout' is not merely taken as a motif, but as a way to describe disruptive effects in literary texts. The term ‘whiteout' is used here to point out how ‘snow'-in the broadest sense-pervades the structure and language of narrative texts from the 19th to the 21st century. Thetexts in question deal with snowstorms and snow drifts; they send their protagonists on polar explorations and mountain expeditions; heros get lost in snow or suffer from extreme frost.
Looking for Redemption in a Globalized North: Representations of the Arctic in Judith Hermann’s Short Stories Kaltblau (Cold-Blue) and Die Liebe zu Ari Oskarsson (Love for Ari Oskarsson)
Authors: Gremler Claudia
Published: October 2015

This paper explores the literary representation of Iceland and Norway in two short stories by contemporary German writer Judith Hermann. It analyses both the depiction of these countries as part of the globalised western world and the redemptive power they are tentatively ascribed by the author. Continuing a long German tradition of looking at Scandinavia from an almost colonial perspective, Hermann on the one hand presents these northern countries as a mere extension of central Europe, largely devoid of distinguishing national characteristics. At the same time she makes reference to the topos of the north as a vast and empty space and highlights both the specific arctic nature of the environment and the effect it has on her urban characters, who find themselves on a search for meaning and orientation in a postmodern fragmented world. Despite Hermann's overall sceptical attitude towards her characters' quest for happiness, these northern locations ultimately appear as potential places of self-realisation and enlightenment.
Heroism and Imperialism in the Arctic: Edwin Landseer’s Man Proposes – God Disposes
Authors: Høvik Ingeborg
Published: October 2015

Edwin Landseer contributed the painting Man Proposes - God Disposes (Royal Holloway College, Egham), showing two polar bears amongst the remnants of a failed Arctic expedition, to the Royal Academy's annual exhibition of 1864. As contemporary nineteenth-century reviews of this exhibition show, the British public commonly associated Landseer's painting with the lost Arctic expedition of sir John Franklin, who had set out to find the Northwest Passage in 1845. Despite Landseer's gloomy representation of a present-day human disaster and, in effect, of British exploration in the Arctic, the painting became a public success upon its first showing. I will argue that a major reason why the painting became a success, was because Landseer's version of the Franklin expedition's fate offered a closure to the whole Franklin tragedy that corresponded to British nineteenth-century views on heroism and British-ness.
Sverdrup´s Arctic Adventures. Or: What makes an Expedition Report worth reading? – Otto Sverdrup: New Land. Four years in the Arctic Regions (1903)
Authors: Wærp Henning Howlid
Published: October 2015

Otto Sverdrup, born 1854, is one of the main polar explorers in Norway. However he is much less known not only than Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen, but also than Hjalmar Johansen, who was a member of Nansen´s Fram expedition 1893-96, and also lesser known than Eivind Astrup, who took part in two of Robert Peary´s expeditons across northern Greenland in 1891-92 and 1893-94. Hjalmar Johansen and Eivind Astrup published their own accounts from the expeditons: Selv-anden paa 86°14'. Optegnelser fra Den Norske polarfærd 1893-96 (1898) and Blandt Nordpolens naboer (1895). Astrup´s book was reprinted in 1990 and 2004, and Johansen´s book was reprinted in 1942, 1949 and 2003. They are both included in the Polar Library, together with books by Nansen and Amundsen (the Polar Liberary is by Kagge publishing house).Otto Sverdrup´s polar expedition report New Land (Nyt land), a two volume work from 1903, from the second Fram expedition 1898-1902 to north-west Greenland and northern Canada, is in comparison never reprinted. He is not in the Polar library. And his name is among readers of travelogues very much forgotten. Why is this, and what kind of book is New Land?
Political realism and the fantastic romantic German liberal discourse and the Sámi in Theodor Mügge’s novel Afraja (1854)
Authors: Theodorsen Cathrine
Published: October 2015

The novel Afraja, written by the German author and liberal Theodor Mügge and published in 1854 provides an opportunity to explore connections between travel writing and adventure stories from the perspective of one of Germany's most popular writers of the nineteenth century. The focus of my discussion in this paper is to explore the implications of the meeting between a fictional Sámi, living in the exotic North and a Danish aristocratic adventurer whose attitudes reflect the discourse of Mügge's politically liberal views. Additionally, Mügges fiction sketches out different images of the Sámi.
Written in Skin: SuicideGirls
Authors: Christiansen Steen
Published: October 2015

Suicidegirls.com is a website which is both an online community, but also a softcore pin-up site, where the models feature extensive body modifications in the form of tattoos and piercings. The website promotes a democratic approach to the photo shoots, as the models remain in control, not the photographer. Marked by their body modifications, the Suicide Girls (as they call themselves), they actively attempt to subvert the typical pin-up conventions, by transgressing mainstream standards of beauty. In what seems remarkably similar to Judith Butler's account of subversive bodily acts, the pin-up shoots of the Suicide Girls mount a critique of a culture's view of the body as a natural entity. Cultural borders are crossed, as the bodies of the Suicide Girls embed ink into their bodies in the form of tattoos, and gender is played as a subversive game against the expectations of pin-up conventions. Acting as different and impure bodies, the Suicide Girls represent a threat to conventional conceptions of the body.
Creolization and the Production and Negotiation of Boundaries in Breyten Breytenbach's Recent Work
Authors: Viljoen Hein
Published: October 2015

Much of the South African poet Breyten Breytenbach's work has been concerned with borders. In this article I examine borders and creolization in three important poems from Nine landscapes of our time bequeathed to a beloved (Nege landskappe bemaak aan 'n beminde, 1993), Paper flower (Papierblom, 2002) and The wind-catcher (Die windvanger, 2007). The link between creolization and boundaries is the poet's conception of identity and freedom. As is often the case the boundaries of the self are questioned as the poet permutates the central concepts. Crossing boundaries entails entering into dialogue not only with the self but also with the mother tongue itself and with a variety of other artists and writers. In other words, in Breytenbach's work an abrogation and appropriation of the own tradition ("erfgoed") as well as of material from others, other places and other traditions occur. In these three case studies in particular it is clear how the poet stretches and deforms boundaries as part of his poetic project to concretize a dynamic freedom.
The Distribution and Frequency of the Terms "Pride" and "Prejudice" in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
Authors: Dromnes Tanja , Kleppe Sandra Lee , Mikalsen Kenneth , Solhaug Sigrid
Published: October 2015

In this article we examine the title terms of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813) with particular attention to their distribution and frequency in the text. Our method is to connect the statistical material gathered on frequency and distribution to a narratological analysis of the terms, with special emphasis on whether they occur within the focalization of the external narrator, or that of character-focalizers. In order to approach this task, we have availed ourselves of the narratological theories of Mieke Bal. We conclude that there is a differentiation among types of focalization in the novel that enhances the thematic structure of match-making. Although Jane Austen wrote and published her major works two centuries ago, they continue to fascinate literary scholars and general readers alike.
Konstruktion och undersökelse, exotism och närhet i Per Olof Sundmans böker om Lofoten
Authors: Bourguinon Annie
Published: October 2015

The Swedish writer Per Olof Sundman (1922-1992) wrote mostly short stories and novels, but also reportages. The paper deals with two reportages from the Lofoten islands, Människor vid hav (1966, “People by the sea”) and Lofoten, sommar (1973, “Lofoten, summer”) The choice of the Lofoten islands as a subject is related to a fascination Sundman felt towards northern and arctic regions, a fascination he also expressed in a number of fictional narratives and in the documentary novel Ingenjör Andrées luftfärd (1967. English title: The Flight of the Eagle) A question that arises almost immediately is whether that fascination affects the way the reporter works and how it affects it. How does Sundman look at the Lofoten? What does he take notice of and tell us about? What kind of image does he give? And how does he understand his own role, his function as an investigator in an environment which is neither his own nor his postulated readers’ usual environment? Another question deals with the relationship between the reportages from the Lofoten and the author’s other works. Are the reportages easy to recognize as Sundmanian texts, can Sundman’s “signature” be traced in them? It appears that “People by the sea” and “Lofoten, summer” are not merely informative texts. They also to a rather high degree suggest an atmosphere, using among other things inherited representations and judgements to that purpose. Those reportages turn out to be strongly literary texts, in the traditional meaning of the word.
Towards a Grammar of the Idea of North: Nordicity, Winterity
Authors: Chartier Daniel
Published: October 2015

The imaginary of North, in the Western world of the imagination, refers to a series of figures, colours, elements and characteristics conveyed by narratives, novels, poems, films, paintings and advertising which-from the myth of Thule to contemporary representations in popular culture-have forged a rich, complex network of symbolic meanings. The "North" poses the problem of the relationship between geographic realities and the world of the imagination, since those who have written and read about it in Europe and America, have, for the most part, never been there. Representations of "North" are discovered like layers of discourse, laid down by different cultures, and picked up on and shaped by different aesthetic movements.
Greenlanders Seen Through the Eyes of Signe Rink
Authors: Langgård Karen
Published: October 2015

Signe Rink (1836-1909) published four volumes of fiction in Danish, all of them stories from Greenland of the 19th century: Grønlændere. 1886 (155 pages); Grønlændere og Danske i Grønland. 1887 (204 pages); Koloni-idyler. 1888 (262 pages) and Fra det Grønland som gik. Et par Tidsbilleder fra Trediverne. 1902 (264 pages). Some of the stories are short, some are not short at all, actually, e.g. Rink 1902 consists only of two parts, the first one 205 pages long. The focus here will be on this fiction written by Signe Rink: a case study in how genres of fiction might open up for the possibility of going beyond the dominant discourse and for instance throw light at the role played by Greenlanders in colonial Greenland of the 19th century, and how it might be possible now a century later to disentangle the threads of different discourses, through reflectiveresearch - drawing on historical studies, anthropology, cultural studies and post-colonial studies.
One Earth, Four or Five Words. The Peripheral Concept of “Avant-Garde”
Authors: Bäckström Per
Published: October 2015

Metaphors grow old, turn into dead metaphors, and finally become clichés. This succession seems to be inevitable - but on the other hand, poets have the power to return old clichés into words with a precise meaning. Accordingly, academic writers, too, need to carry out a similar operation with notions that are worn out by frequent use in everyday language. One metaphor that has been hollowed out in such a way, through lax use by journalists and literary historians, is the concept of "avant-garde". In this article, I shall try to shed some new light upon this notion, with the purpose of showing its different national use and heterogeneity of meaning. This pluralism is overlooked today because of the hegemony of English in academic studies, which leads one to believe that a consensus exists in the use of the term "avant-garde", since so many academics write their articles and books in this language. The current analysis is directed towards theoreticians' ways of dealing with the notion in question, by which I meaneverybody who writes or thinks about the notion of "avant-garde". This article is an attempt to recuperate the term to stringent use and gain a deeper insight into the aesthetic movements of modernity and late modernity. I hope to show that, despite the fact that many writers believe that there exists only one recognition of the notion of "avant-garde", the understanding of the Anglo-American "centre" is actually as peripheral as that of other countries - which are normally regarded as peripheries.
Punctures in the Periphery. Show-Bix and the Media Conscious Practice of Per Højholt.
Authors: Søndergaard Morten
Published: October 2015

Around 1967 and onwards, Per Højholt (1923-2004) performs a series of punctures in the periphery of a small and self-conscious avant-garde in Denmark - experiments that combine most of the known art forms and genres in a still more active dialogue with new media and technology.One of the first things Højholt engaged himself in at the time was Show-Bix, which is best described as an artist group consisting of the photographer and visual artist Poul Ib Henriksen, composer Gunner Møller Pedersen, and Per Højholt (at the time described largely as a poet). The group was operative from 1968 and until 1971, a period during which it conducted a series of complex experiments involving an audience as well as a media consciousness which is quite unique in Denmark - perhaps even more so today. In fact, I claim that Show-Bix is the visible proof of a paradigmatic change in Per Højholt's artistic practice, as well as in the overall definition of the contemporary art scene.