Festskrift till Lars-Gunnar Andersson med anledning av hans 65-årsdag. Boken innehåller 20 artiklar om språk av följande författare: Karin Aijmer, Sture Allén, Gunnar Bergh & Sölve Ohlander, Elisabet Engdahl, Catharina Grünbaum, Olle Josephson, Fred Karlsson, Lars Lindvall & Mårten Ramnäs, Per Linell & Kerstin Norén, Magnus Ljung, Sven-Göran Malmgren, Bengt Nordberg, Christer Platzack, Bo Ralph, Lena Rogström, Eva Sundgren, Ulf Teleman, Mats Thelander & Björn Melander, Peter Trudgill samt Jan-Ola Östman. 

This paper presents a study of pronouns used in Sweden-Swedish and Finland-Swedish supervision meetings. In both countries, supervisors use similar sets of pronouns when commenting on an academic essay written by a student. Often, the supervisor addresses the student directly, e.g. but you could write x, or uses an indefinite pronoun, e.g. perhaps one could simply write x. Sometimes, the supervisor makes suggestions while referring to herself as a writer, e.g. I would write x. The supervisor may also use an inclusive we-authorship, e.g. well we cannot write x. This use of we is predominantly found in the Sweden-Swedish data. In relation to politeness strategies, our analysis indicates that pronouns appear in a more direct and clear-cut way (cf. respect strategies) in Finland-Swedish, and with a stronger focus on creating common ground and fostering group membership (cf. solidarity strategies) in Sweden-Swedish. Throughout, we point to differences and similarities between the dominant and the non-dominant variety of Swedish.

Personal training is a new form of institutional interaction that has not been extensively studied as regards language. Still, alongside embodied interaction, language is central in this activity. In this paper, phrasal utterances are studied as a resource for instructing in personal training. The data consist of 7 h 23 min of video recordings of training sessions with Swedish-speaking participants from Finland and Sweden, which are supplemented with field notes. The theoretical–methodolo- gical framework includes interactional linguistics, ethnography of communication, and variational pragmatics. Results show that participants use all semiotic information at hand when they produce and understand phrasal instructions during personal training. This process involves the overall ac- tivity, the participants’ institutional roles as trainer and client, their body positions and movements, and trajectories of earlier interaction and embodied elements of the instructions themselves. Phra- sal instructions are short; thus, they are focused and easily integrated into the ongoing physical ac- tivity. Certain differences are observed between the data from Finland and from Sweden, e.g., Finnish data have more phrasal instructions, whereas the Swedish data have more third-turn follow-ups, which may indicate cultural differences in this domain. The article concludes that phrasal utterances are not only useful as instructions in personal training but also well-suited for the activity type.

The present study investigates the interplay between language, material and embodied resources in one specific type of service encounters: interactions at theatre box offices. The data consist of video recorded interactions in Swedish at three box offices, two in Sweden and one in Finland. Cases representative of the interactions are selected for a multimodal micro-analysis of the customer--seller interactions involving artefacts from the institutional and personal domain. The study specifically aims at advancing our understanding of the role of artefacts for structuring and facilitating communicative events in (institutional) interaction. In this way, it contributes to the growing research interest in the interactional importance of the material world. Our results show that mutual interactional focus is reached through mutual gaze in strategic moments, such as formulation of the reason for the visit. Artefacts are central in enhancing intersubjectivity and mutual focus in that they effectively invite the participants for negotiation, for example, about a seating plan which can be made visually accessible in different ways. Verbal language can be sparse and deictic in these moments while gaze and pointing to an artefact does more specific referential work. Artefacts are also a resource for signalling interactional inaccessibility, the seller orienting to the computer in order to progress a request and the customer orienting to a personal belonging (like a bag) to mirror and accept such a temporary non-accessibility. We also observe that speech can be paced to match the deployment of an artefact so that a focal verbal item is produced without competing, simultaneous physical activity.

This chapter investigates the use of imperative-formatted directives in Swedish medical consultations. The specific focus of the chapter is the division of labor between straight, non-modulated imperative turns and imperative turns which are modulated with a discourse particle or some other verbal mitigating device. The results show that non-modulated imperative turns are embedded in diagnostic work, nominating subsequent actions in a series. Orientations to projected trajectories of action and the other participant’s expectations are clearly present when modulated imperative turns are produced; they are also frequent in the opening and closing routines of the consultations. Thus, there is a link between routinized and projectable actions and the use of imperatives with a pragmatic modulating element.

Swedish is a pluricentric language in the sense that it has official status in more than one nation. Swedish is the main language of Sweden but spoken by a minority of 5.4% in Finland. Because of national differentiation, the varieties of Swedish differ from each other in certain respects. Variation in pronunciation, lexis and syntax are well documented. However, differences in pragmatic aspects of language use, such as expressions of politeness, intimacy and formality, have not been researched systematically to date. This paper has its background in a project which aims to fill this research gap. It presents the general societal background for Swedish in Finland and some of its characteristic differences from the Swedish standard. In addition, two studies which explore the pragmatic differences are presented: a study of speaker attitudes to forms of address and a conversation analytic study of expressions of criticism in teacher-student encounters.

This study examines positive low- and high-grade assessments in service encounters between customers and salespersons conducted in Swedish and recorded in Sweden and Finland. The assessments occur in a regular sequential pattern as third-turn moves that complete request-delivery sequences, longer coherent requesting sections, or request sequences in a pre-closing context. The positive valence of the assessments coheres with the satisfactory outcome of task completion, but their function is primarily pragmatic, used for segmenting the flow of task-oriented institutional interaction. The assessments stand as lexical TCUs, and their delivery is characterized by downgraded prosody and the speaker's embodied shift away from the other. The analysis reveals distributional differences in the interactional practice: Customers produce task-completing assessments more often than the salespersons, and high-grade assessments are more frequent in the data from Sweden than from Finland. The data are in Sweden Swedish and Finland Swedish with English translations.

Inom forskningsprogrammet Interaktion och variation i pluricentriska språk (IVIP) utforskas kommunikativa mönster i sverigesvenska och finlandssvenska i tre typer av institutionella samtal: servicesamtal, lärandesamtal och vårdsamtal (se t.ex. Norrby m.fl. 2014; Wide 2016). I denna artikel fokuserar vi på servicesamtalen, i vilka deltagarna har bestämda roller (kund–personal) och i regel inte känner varandra från tidigare. Servicesamtalen är starkt rutinartade och inriktade på ärendet, dvs. köp av biljetter, och ärendepresentationen är sålunda en central social praktik i samtalen som är anpassad till situationen och identifierbar för deltagarna. Syftet med artikeln är att redogöra för de vanligaste presentationsformerna i servicesamtalen och jämföra distributionen av dem mellan varieteterna och språken.

Sharing language but not communicative patterns: Feedback in Sweden-Swedish and Finland-Swedish academic counselling interaction

In this article, we present a study of oral feedback (back-channels and responsive turns) given in academic counselling meetings between an essay supervisor and one or two students. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss and improve an academic text written by the students. Our data consist of naturally occurring Sweden-Swedish and Finland-Swedish institutional interactions at the university level. The overall aim of the study is to compare feedback patterns in the Sweden-Swedish and the Finland- Swedish data and to contribute to the field of variational pragmatics. A detailed analysis of the recorded interactions reveals overt differences in the frequency, intensity and distribution of feedback in the two varieties of Swedish. In the Sweden-Swedish data, there is a preference for relational work, evidenced, for instance, by students praising the advice given by the supervisor. In the Finland-Swedish data, an orientation towards clarity is prominent and corrective advice, for instance, is usually uttered in a straightforward way. Our results support previous findings on communicative patterns in Sweden and Finland. These findings highlight the dialogic nature of institutional communication in Sweden, on the one hand, and the orientation to the task and its result in comparable situations in Finland, on the other. The outcome of this study adds to the understanding of the communicative patterns of Sweden- Swedish and Finland-Swedish with a detailed analysis of the oral feedback occurring in counselling meetings.

Alla samtal måste börja på något sätt, och det vanligaste sättet att inleda är att utbyta hälsningsfraser. I den här artikeln undersöker vi bruket av hälsningsfraser i finlandssvenska och sverigesvenska servicesamtal.* Inom forskningsprogrammet Interaktion och variation i pluricentriska språk (IVIP) har vi samlat in ett omfattande videomaterial i servicesituationer i Sverige och Finland (se t.ex. Norrby m.fl. 2015). Syftet här är att kartlägga bruket av hälsningsfraser i finlandssvenska och sverigesvenska utifrån 260 av dessa samtal vid teaterkassor och bokningscentraler. Mer specifikt vill vi undersöka: 1. Hur ser hälsandets lexikon ut i sverigesvenska och finlandssvenska? 2. Hur varierar hälsningsfras med talarens ålder, kön och interaktionellaroll? 3. Vilka eventuella anpassningar gör deltagarna i sitt hälsningsbeteende? Artikelns titel anspelar på en studie av Lars-Gunnar Andersson från 1996, nämligen Hej, hej, hemskt mycket hej, där han undersökte hälsningsmönster i olika servicesituationer. Genom att låta 60 studenter vid Göteborgs universitet göra etnografiska observationer i sammanlagt över 150 timmar kunde Andersson beskriva svenskans hälsningsmönster. Hans studenter noterade också att vissa individer tog efter andras hälsningsbeteende. I den här studien jämför vi våra resultat med Anderssons (1996) och därigenom kan vi också jämföra etnografiska observationer med videoinspelningar.

This study investigates the use of greetings in Sweden-Swedish and Finland-Swedish service encounters and the social meaning of different greeting forms. Situated within the framework of variational pragmatics, the study explores Swedish as a pluricentric language and investigates with interactional and statistical analyses to what extent the variable nation affect variation in greeting forms. While nation indeed is an important factor, the study also illustrates how social variables such as age, gender and participant roles as well as situational variables such as medium, region and venue impact the greeting choices participants make. Further, by applying an interactional analytical perspective the study contributes to the methodological development of variational pragmatics. This analysis shows how the sequential position of a greeting plays a part in the choice of greetings, and demonstrates that pragmatic variation emerges in interaction. The article suggests that greetings can be a resource for indexing the degree of social distance between interlocutors, and thereby manifest recurring cultural patterns.

Swedish is a pluricentric language and has official status in both Sweden and Finland. Until recently, most studies on such languages have focused on differences and similarities in grammar and lexicon, but less on pragmatic variation. We suggest that a pragmatic perspective aids in understanding the relationship between national varieties, and in this study, we investigate greetings in Sweden Swedish and Finland Swedish. Previous comparisons of the two varieties suggest that Sweden Swedish is less formal than Finland Swedish, and in this article we problematize the concept of formality, and discuss whether formality may explain any differences in the use of greetings.

We use three datasets from Finland and Sweden respectively: video recorded service encounters from box offices and information desks, recorded focus groups as well as experiments. Combined, the data suggest that the Finland Swedish greeting repertoire is larger than the Sweden Swedish one, and that Finland Swedes therefore are more sensitive to social distance than Sweden Swedes. At the same time, the study highlights the complexity in the use of greetings, and that variables such as gender, age, context and level of acquaintance all play an important part in the use of greetings in both Sweden Swedish and Finland Swedish. 

The article gives an account of research into the relationships that exist between varities of pluricentric languages, introducing central concepts and theoretical underpinnings of pluricentric research, covering power relationships, expressions of identity and attitudes as well as the debate on pluricentricity vis-à-vis pluriareality. The article surveys foundational work in the field concerning linguistic structural differences between varieties as well as more recent work on pragmatic  and interactional variation in pluricentric languages.

Syftet med  studien  är att undersöka förekomst och vilka funktioner sekvensavslutande värderande responser fyller i servicesamtal mellan kund och personal vid teaterkassor, bokningscentraler och likande runtom i Svenskfinland och i Sverige. Vi ställer oss följande frågor:

1. Enligt vilka interaktionella mönster förekommer positiva värderande responser i servicesamtalen?

2. Vad bidrar de med i interaktionens sekventiella flöde?

3. Vilka slags värderande uttryck förekommer?

4. Finns det skillnader i bruket mellan svenskan i Finland och svenskan i Sverige på någon av punkterna ovan, och vad kan eventuella skillnader tänkas bero på?

Undersökningen är en delstudie inom forskningsprogrammet Interaktion och variation i pluricentriska språk: kommunikativa mönster i sverigesvenska och finlandssvenska (IVIP) som undersöker språk och social interaktion inom tre domäner: service, lärande och vård i Sverige och Finland.

Vid teaterkassor och bokningscentraler utspelar sig dagligen en mängd korta möten mellan kund och personal. Kunden kommer för att hämta eller köpa biljetter och det är personalens uppgift att försöka uppfylla önskemålen. Dessa institutionella samtal är målinriktade, effektiva och förs vanligen mellan personer som inte känner varandra. Samtalen följer en typisk struktur: kunden framställer sitt ärende, personalen genomför det, kunden betalar och parterna tar avsked. Ofta sker allt detta inom loppet av ett par, tre minuter. Mot den bakgrunden kan det verka osannolikt att deltagarna skulle ta upp ämnen av privat karaktär, till exempel tala om familjemedlemmar, men i vårt arbete med 1 000 servicesamtal vid biljettkassor runtom i Sverige och Svenskfinland har vi noterat att det trots allt förekommer. Syftet med föreliggande artikel är att undersöka referens till icke-närvarande familjemedlemmar i servicesamtal. Först ger vi en bakgrund till forskning om personreferens och beskriver de teoretiska utgångspunkterna för studien. Därefter redogör vi för material och metod innan vi presenterar våra resultat och diskuterar dem.

This chapter gives an overview of Finland Swedish as a non-dominant variety of Swedish. The first part outlines the status and position of Swedish in Finland and documents research on Finland Swedish. We present this body of work with reference to work on Finland-Swedish status- and corpus planning. While there is an impressive body of work on the phonological, lexical, morphological and syntactic characteristics of Finland Swedish, much less attention has been paid to the pragmatic and interactional aspects of Finland Swedish vis-à-vis Sweden Swedish. With the exception of a few studies on politeness strategies, address and greeting practices, no systematic investigation of communicative patterns in the two Swedish varieties has been undertaken. The second part presents our methodological framework for such an investigation, and present preliminary results from a pilot study on openings in institutional telephone conversations in the respective national variety. These results suggest that there are systematic differences which warrant further investigation.

Många av världens språk är s.k. pluricentriska språk, dvs. språk som talas i fler länder än ett. Bara i Europa finns en rad exempel på sådana språk, till exempel engelska, franska, tyska och svenska. Men samtalar man på samma sätt i olika länder bara för att man talar samma språk? Eller ser de kommunikativa mönstren olika ut? Programmet ”Interaktion och variation i pluricentriska språk” (finansierat av Riksbankens Jubileumsfond 2013-2020) undersöker och jämför kommunikationen i samma typer av samtal i liknande miljöer i Sverige och Finland, med fokus på domänerna service, lärande och vård. Syftet är att identifiera skillnader och likheter i hur man utformar sociala handlingar som tilltal, signalerar samtycke och oenighet eller formulerar kritik och beröm i finlandssvenska och sverigesvenska.

I vår presentation tar vi fasta på interpersonella orienteringar i läkare-patientsamtal inspelade i Sverige och Finland. Dels studerar vi förekomsten av tilltalsformer, dels studerar vi hur råd och direktiv formuleras i dessa interaktioner. Våra resultat visar att det finns klara tendenser till ett mindre formellt tilltal i de sverigesvenska samtalen. Samtidigt kan inte tilltalsstrategierna beskrivas enbart som mer formella i Finland, utan man utnyttjar speciellt i de finlandssvenska samtalen olika slags tekniker för undvikande av direkt tilltal. Tilltalsstrategierna hänger vidare ihop med hur råd och direktiv formuleras, dvs. hur pass direkt eller indirekt de riktar sig till den andra parten.

Forskningsprogrammet syftar till att bidra till den internationella teoriutvecklingen inom forskningen om pluricentriska språk. Genom att använda teorier och metoder som samtalsanalys och kommunikationsetnografi kan programmet belysa och förklara pluricentriska språkfenomen som tidigare forskning inte riktigt kunnat komma åt. På så vis bidrar programmet till att utveckla den s.k. variationspragmatiken samtidigt som vi får ny kunskap om vad som är unikt för finlandssvenska respektive sverigesvenska samtal.

This article investigates how interpersonal relationships are expressed in medical consultations. In particular, we focus on how modes of address are used in the two national varieties of Swedish: Sweden Swedish and Finland Swedish, with the aim to compare the pragmatic routines in the two varieties. Thus the study contributes to the field of variational pragmatics, where national varieties of pluricentric languages are recognised as important research objects.  Address practices are analysed in two comparable corpora of video recordings from Sweden and Finland using both a quantitative and a qualitative CA-inspired method. There are several differences between the data sets: the Sweden Swedish data are characterised by exclusive use of the informal T pronoun (du ‘you’) and an overall higher frequency of direct address compared to the Finland Swedish data. In some medical consultations in the latter Swedish data the formal V pronoun (ni) is used. The qualitative analysis confirms these differences and the tendency is that the Sweden-Swedish medical consultations are more informal than the Finland-Swedish ones, which are characterised by more formality and maintenance of social distance between the interlocutors. The different pragmatic orientations at the micro level of communication can also be related to socio-cultural preferences at the macro level in society – the development towards greater informality and intimate language is more pronounced in Sweden than in Finland. 

The chapter investigates address practices in 318 audio and video recorded service encounters at theatre box offices and other booking venues equally distributed across the two national varieties of Swedish, Sweden Swedish and Finland Swedish. The results demonstrate compelling variation in address choices, which can be linked to participant roles (customer–staff), generation (below and above 50 years) and national variety. Overall informal address with T (du) is the most common address form in both varieties, and is particularly salient among older customers in Sweden. There are few occurrences of V address in the data, and most are found among younger Finland-Swedish staff.

This chapter investigates social positioning through the use (or non-use) of address pronouns in Finland-Swedish and Sweden-Swedish service encounters recorded at theatre and event booking venues in Finland and Sweden. The results demonstrate some compelling variation in address practices which can be attributed to participant roles (customer or staff), national variety (Finland-Swedish or Sweden-Swedish), age (younger or older speaker and addressee) and situational circumstances, such as type of venue and type of transaction, as well as micro-situational aspects which occur during the course of the interaction (complications, problems or topics treated as sensitive). The study highlights that different forms of address cannot be associated a priori with a certain level of formality, but should be interpreted in their micro and macro contexts in order to understand existing cultural norms for appropriate address.

This article compares variation in the use of address practices across languages (Swedish, Finnish) and national varieties (Sweden Swedish, Finland Swedish). It undertakes quantitative and qualitative analyses of three sets of transcribed medical consultations. In Sweden Swedish, address pronouns which lower social distance overwhelmingly dominate. In Finnish, both address forms reducing social distance and practices maintaining greater distance are found, with age and level of acquaintance revealed as the most salient factors. Finland Swedish is located somewhere between Sweden Swedish and Finnish, displaying a stronger tendency than Finnish to use informal direct address forms to reduce social distance, but also showing similarities with Finnish in the use of direct formal address and indirect address. The differences can be related to larger socio-cultural patterns which, however, form a continuum rather than a fixed set keeping the two languages and countries completely apart.