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Research

The research conducted at the Department is divided into:

Swedish
Swedish as a Second Language
Nordic Languages
Natural Language Processing
Lexicology

Swedish, Swedish as a Second Language and Nordic Languages offer opportunities for many different research interests. The main areas are currently Modern Swedish and Swedish as a Second Language. Some research foci can be said to be more persistent than others: Natural Language Processing and Språkbanken (the Swedish Language Bank); the Institute of Lexicology and the Institute of Swedish as a Second Language (ISA). Other research emphases tend to vary over time. At the moment, many researchers are involved in grammatical research, for example on dialectal syntax.

Swedish and Nordic Languages

The discipline of Modern Swedish can be described as the study of the present structure and usage of Swedish. Modern Swedish grammar and semantics constitute the core, but there are other sub-disciplines involved as well, such as sociology of language, language cultivation, stylistics, rhetoric and language learning, the latter in connection with Swedish as a Second Language in particular, where also language pedagogy and language didactics are included. The discipline of Nordic Languages can be described as the study of the Nordic region as a language area, especially the development of the North Germanic languages and the links among them. The core of this discipline, which mainly relates to language history, consists of many somewhat different sub-disciplines such as Nordic philology, vocabulary research and onomastics, runology and the history of Nordic language research. The modern Nordic languages (other than Swedish) are of course also studied in Nordic Languages, while dialectology is included in both disciplines.

Natural Language Processing

Language technology is one of the University's strong areas, and the research in this field is organised at the Centre for Language Technology (CLT), which engages researchers from two faculties and four departments. CLT has been allocated strategic funds for three years of research (2009-2012).

Natural language processing belongs in the cross-disciplinary research area language technology, in which language and language usage are studied with the ultimate purpose to get computers to handle language in a human-like manner, meaning with an understanding of the actual content of texts and other language production. Natural Language Processing deals primarily with written language, mainly as large text masses (corpuses). Such empirical language material is used in the development of dictionaries and other language-related databases and tools that can be used within for example language technology. Thus, the research is focused around these so-called linguistic resources and their use in research and education. Information refinement, computer-aided language learning and corpus linguistics are some important areas of application.

The Institute of Lexicology

The Institute of Lexicology produces the dictionaries Svenska Akademiens ordbok, SAOB, and Svenska Akademiens ordlista, SAOL. The different editions of SAOL are currently being processed to lay the foundation for a large study on the historical development of the Swedish vocabulary. Besides documenting the development of the vocabulary and the different lexicographic principles, the study will also guide decisions on future improvements of the SAOL.

One fundamental source of research material at the Institute of Lexicology, as well as at the Department in general, is the Swedish language bank Språkbanken, which contains and processes various large text corpuses that can be utilised in research.

The Department is also involved in Is-Lex, a dictionary project to establish an internet-based Icelandic-Swedish dictionary. The dictionary is based on an Icelandic vocabulary database that has been translated to Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.

The Institute of Swedish as a Second Language (ISA)

The Institute of Swedish as a Second Language (ISA) was established in 1997 and serves to support the discipline Swedish as a Second Language by conducting research and by increasing competence in the area among educational institutions via close contact with the educational system. ISA currently funds a number of school-related projects that for example explore how internet-based tools can be used in the teaching of Swedish as a second language. Other projects focus on second-language students' development in terms of writing and vocabulary, and on the vocabulary used in school textbooks and how students with a native language other than Swedish relate to it.