Schottmann, Hans: Schwedische Interjektionen und Partikeln

Interjections and particles constitute linguistic resources which have been recognized as forming part of the standard grammars of German and Swedish (e. g., Nübling 2009, Teleman et al. 1999), and are especially characterized by their uses in social interaction (e. g., Lindström 2009, Nilsson 2005). This monograph represents a highly welcome contribution to the study of Swedish interjections and particles in the form of a Swedish-German dictionary. As Schottmann (2020, 1) rightly observes, German as well as Swedish (as other Scandinavian languages) constitute particle languages in contrast to, e. g., English, where differences in meaning are assumed to be rather displayed through, e. g., prosodic resources (cf. Couper-Kuhlen 2009).

The dictionary covers a wide scope of these diverse linguistic structures, including primary and secondary interjections (e. g., oj, hysch, äh; jösses, herre gud), modal particles (e. g., egentligen, helt enkelt), focus and degree particles (e. g., bara, också, lite), discourse particles (e. g., titta, äh), and response particles (e. g., ja, jo; all examples taken from Schottmann 2020, 1–4).

The book consists of four sections: an introduction, a list of abbreviations and symbols, a list of entries for Swedish interjections and particles in alphabetical order, and the most important references. The short introduction discusses issues in the definition of interjections and particles as well as motivates the selection of lemmas, describes the database used for the compilation of the dictionary, and provides guidance for the reader on how the dictionary entries are designed.

The entries for Swedish interjections and particles, which are highlighted in bold, constitute the main part of the dictionary. They feature a German translation and/or paraphrase of the meaning(s) of a lemma as well as sometimes comments on the social actions performed through these expressions; e. g., depending on context, kom an can serve as a shout of encouragement (Anfeuerungsruf) or also often as a challenge or threat (Herausforderung, Drohung). Multiple examples illustrate how the lemmas can be used. In addition, the entries sometimes offer grammatical and phonological information (i. e., a specification of the part of speech, and the pronunciation if it diverges from standard Swedish usage) as well as a specification of relevant linguistic varieties (e. g., slang, regional) or the frequency of alternative expressions. The references contain selected dictionaries and grammars, as well as research mainly on Swedish and German interjections and particles.

The dictionary focuses the limelight on linguistic resources which have often been marginalized by linguistic study. All entries have been attested in linguistic corpora such as Språkbanken, which contributes to the strength of the book. The dictionary provides a valuable reference for all those interested in Swedish interjections and particles by offering a rich collection for both German speakers of Swedish to expand their knowledge of these linguistic resources and scholars with a background in Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Conversation Analysis / Interactional Linguistics, Contrastive Linguistics and Translation Studies.

At the same time, the book is a good reminder of the work still ahead of us. To take an example, for the past decade or so, a burgeoning body of research on spoken social interaction has demonstrated that interjections (e. g., English ah, oh) are produced in recurrent packages of form and function and that paralinguistic sounds (e. g., clicks, whistles) show similar patterns, sharing some of the functions which interjections may serve (e. g., Reber 2012, Reber and Couper-Kuhlen 2020). More recently, the performances of these resources, called sound objects, have been explored from a multimodal perspective (cf. currently ongoing work on Swedish service encounters by the reviewer, Jenny Nilsson, Institute for Language and Folklore, Gothenburg, and Jan Lindström, University of Helsinki, and the research conducted within the project Non-lexical vocalizations directed by Leelo Keevallik, University of Linköping).

It must be left to future research how to embrace and operationalize such a more holistic approach in usage-based dictionaries. Ideally, these should include more detailed information on the context-specific systematics of form and function, which contribute to the meaning-making of Swedish interjections and particles in discourse, and on an even wider scale add paralinguistic sounds, e. g., the pulmonic ingressives deployed by Swedish and other Scandinavian speakers for conversational functions, to the description.