The study of Swedish lake names may involve difficulties of many different kinds. The varying themes of the individual studies making up this thesis reflect the wide span of hydronymic research. Lake names can be structured morphologically, semantically, chronologically and geographically. In the thesis, the author attempts to bring out and shed light on more general patterns and questions relating to Swedish hydronyms.

The primary, basic concern of research into Swedish lake names remains interpretation. The thesis proposes new interpretations of many names. An exploration of name etymologies naturally takes one into the areas of phonology, morphology and semantics. Phonology is one of the principal themes of chapter 3. Word formation by the addition of suffixes receives a great deal of attention in the first and concluding studies (ch. 2, ch. 8), while semantic typology forms the main theme of two other studies (ch. 4, ch. 6). Chapter 8 examines the original forms and subsequent development of lake names that now end in -aren. In this connection much attention is paid to morphological changes caused by analogy.

The question of the distinction between primary and secondary name formation arises in all the chapters of the thesis. The question of formally primary and formally secondary lake names is another of the key problems in the complex area of name formation. Change of name, ellipsis and reduction—three phenomena critical to the study of hydronyms —are considered in all th estudies in the thesis.