The linguist Pia Järnefelt asked that question to 64 people, of whom 39 had Swedish as their first language and 25 Swedish as their second language. They were only allowed to answer “yes” or “no”. The purpose was to investigate how small words that actually, in fact, after all, probably and well affect how we interpret a sentence.
It turns out that a statement like “The meeting starts at 10” gets very varying nuances when one of these words is inserted.
These small words, which are usually called discourse particles, have long had a bad reputation, even though they are very common. They have often been dismissed as unnecessary. But in recent years, linguists have begun to take a closer look at them – and realized that they are in fact fulfilling an important function in our conversations.
With the help of the particles, we can, among other things, show our attitude to what we say. We can, for example, flag for a certain uncertainty. In the sentence “The meeting starts at 10 o’clock” can well be interpreted as a question mark; the speaker seeks the listener’s confirmation: “I think the meeting starts at 10 am – is that so?”
The word in “The meeting starts at 10 o’clock” can on the contrary signal cross-certainty; with, of course, we can clarify that we believe that it is a fact that the meeting starts at 10. In addition, we assume that the person we are talking to shares that view.
The particles thus carry on a lot of information. But Pia Järnefelt’s study also reveals that we are far from agreeing on how they should be interpreted – regardless of whether we have Swedish as our first or second language.
The majority of the first language speakers, 62 percent, in her study, for example, perceived the sentence “The meeting actually starts at 10 o’clock” as if the meeting starts at another time. The rest, on the other hand, answered that the meeting starts at 10. For the second language speakers, the situation was the opposite: 68 percent answered yes and 32 percent no to the questionnaire.
If one enough had been put into the sentence, about the same disagreement arose. But for the sentence “The meeting actually starts at 10 o’clock” there was almost total consensus: the meeting starts at 10 o’clock!
Most people are probably unaware that we interpret small words in such different ways. Therefore, misunderstandings can occur. But for the most part, the context sorts it all out.
Two questions about the language
Which Swedish term can you use instead of the English tipping point?
Lena
The Swedish Language Council and the Sustainability Term Group recommend tipping points in Swedish. In some contexts, critical breakpoints may also be appropriate.
The term tipping point is used about an irreversible and relatively sudden change in the soil system, such as a sea current stopping or changing direction, or that the permafrost thaws so that greenhouse gases are released from the frozen soil. Tipping points thus refer to a type of system shift that is associated with changes in the climate system.
The term tipping point is used even though the suffix -point can sometimes seem misleading, as some changes occur gradually. However, compared to how slow such changes tend to be, they are relatively abrupt.
In some contexts, the term critical breakpoint may be more appropriate. Namely, it is based on the translation breakpoint that is often used for the English tipping point when it stands for a more general description of a condition that due to a change changes to another condition.
Other words that have also appeared in Swedish are threshold point and threshold value.
Åsa Holmér
Is it called vaccine passport, vaccination certificate, covid certificate or what?
Hannele
When it comes to choosing a term, it is clearest to use the terms that the E-health authority uses in its information. Then it becomes uniform and not as easy to misunderstand.
The e-health authority uses the term vaccination certificate for the certificate stating that you have received a vaccine against covid-19. The term test certificate is used for the certificate that shows that you have tested negative for covid-19 and recovery certificate because you have recovered from covid-19.
All three of these are different types of covid evidence.
Åsa Holmér
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