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- Svahn, Margareta, 1957-
(författare)
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Finnskägg, tåtel och sia : Om folkliga namn på gräs
- 1991
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- By collecting and analysing plant names linguistically, a knowledge of popular botany and its relationshipto scientific botany can be obtained.This study has two primary aims: to describe the popular botanical view of the part of thevegetal world represented by grasses and to illustrate the dialectal use of plant names.The material consists of dialectal names for grasses and has been taken chiefly from variousarchives. The area investigated is primarily Sweden, but other parts of Fenno-Scandinavia, chieflyNorway and parts of Finland where Swedish is spoken, have also been included. The plant namesanalysed are either equivalents or synonyms: they have the same meaning but different geographicalareas of distribution or the same meaning and the same geographical areas of distribution.Three popular "species", each of which represents three different correspondences betweenpopular and scientific botany are described."Grass with a panicle" illustrates underdifferentiation. A number of grasses are collectivelygiven the same name. The grasses are primarily characterised by their similarity in appearance,but they are also used in the same way, as fodder grasses. "Grass with a panicle" has five namesin Swedish dialects: ven, tåtel, bunk, jägarn and tannar."Vegetative tillers" exemplifies overdifferentiation. The tillers are only one part of the plant,which means that the popular classification is more differentiated than the scientific one. Thereare probably several reasons for this differentiation: The vegetative tillers are the first to appearin spring, before the culms with panicles. The tillers are grazed, not cut like the flowering stems.The names found in Swedish dialects are rysk, tov and sia."Mat-grass" represents one-to-one correspondence. The "species" is on the whole identicalwith the scientific species mat-grass. The reason for this identity is the characteristic appearanceof the plant and its hardness. It is difficult to cut. In Swedish dialects mat-grass has five nameswhich are widely spread: stagg, finnskägg, hära, sägg and fnugg. But it also has a great numberof names with a very limited distribution. Because of the special efforts required at harvesttime—mat-grass often bent to the scythe only to rise again soon afterwards—this grass could stirup emotions and hence it has been subject to affective word-formation.The material points to the conclusion that external characteristics of plants may be decisive fortheir classification in popular botany. It is important to note, however, that the use made of aplant is also important in the popular division of "species".
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| 2. |
- Wiklund, Staffan, 1935-
(författare)
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Våtmarksord i lulemålen : En ordgrupp sedd ur informant- och intervjuarperspektiv
- 1992
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The grass of wetlands in northern Sweden has been utilized for mowing and pasture even in our time. There are a large number of words and expressions, expecially in the dialects, to denote and describe the various types of wetlands.The chief aim of the thesis is to investigate some 40 wetland terms in a limited area - the old parish of Luleå, Norrbotten, in northern Sweden - in order to establish their distribution, meanings and use. The aim of the study is also to illustrate different semantic aspects, such as semantic features, semantic fields, the relationship between common nouns and place-names, as well as explanations based on the appearance of the wetlands. The material consists of words that derive from archives, the literature on the subject and interviews with 43 informants, and has been supplemented with studies of the wetlands themselves.Three semantically similar words, drävj, dröla and dovei, are scrutinized and compared with reference to their frequency and distribution, position, humidity, vegetation, form and depth of the ground. To illustrate the relationship between words and referents the author investigates what words are used about (small) muddy pools in a swamp (mire) and about the dry parts of a swamp (in technical language called flarkar and strängar, respectively). The words drävj and dröla are compared with five other words for 'depression/hollow' etc. and 'small pool' etc. Similarities and differences are illustrated in three figures on the basis of criteria like depression/hollow, humidity and size. The words are often explained with reference to special places in the area or to adjacent places, the names of which contain the word in question. With two pairs of words as examples, grande and skärpa, and drävj and dröla, respectively, the author investigates the meanings of the words and their referents and the explanatory strategies of the informants.The author stresses the dependence of word explanations and the learning of words on their contexts and functional situations. This aspect is illustrated in a chapter which summerizes how the author's semantic views of dövel, dröla and drävj have been formed. This is done with reference to the so-called prototype theory.
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