Volume 18 (2015): Edition 1 (December 2015)

The article presents an exemplary corpus-based analysis of selected Norwegian idioms in order to gain insight into their theory and actual use. The analysis comprises nine frequent idioms with the component 'heart'. First, each idiom is analyzed using the Leksikografisk bokmålskorpus and Oslo-korpuset av taggende norske tekster in terms of: frequency, possible variants and modifications. Next, the results are compared with the lexicographic description from Norwegian dictionary Bokmålsordboka. The main purpose of this chapter is thereby to show the potential of the corpus-based approach in the studies of idiomatic expressions.

The paper examines the phenomenon of the feminine gender, which in Bokmål is optional. The choice between the masculine and feminine forms is nevertheless not without meaning. It has been proved that if some nouns appear in feminine form earlier in a text, it implies the use of feminine gender on other nouns (Dyvik, 2012). Hence, the appearance of feminine marking on different words is mutually related, and may be shown to be consistent or not. The paper analyses texts written by Polish students of Norwegian on three different levels of language command (A2, B2/C1 and C2+) and investigates their use of feminine marking. The results show that the feminine gender is most often used by beginner learners, which confirms the initial hypothesis. Contrary to expectations, the most advanced students show inconsistency in their choice of feminine marking at least as often as beginner learners. The general conclusion is that the majority of Norwegian learners are not fully aware of the implications which come with the use of the feminine gender.

The article offers a classification of adjective prefixes in Danish (section 3) including, among others, native and foreign prefixes (e.g. gen- and a-, respectively), genuine prefixes (e.g. ægte-) and particle prefixes (e.g. anti-). Various definitions of prefixal derivatives have been presented in section 4, while section 5 shows examples of and discusses native and foreign negative prefixes modifying the meanings of adjectives in contemporary Danish. The adjectives in question have been analyzed with regards to their structure and the emotional load they convey. Section 6 concludes the paper and includes comments on the productivity of the prefixes in question, as well as synonymy and antonymy in their usage.

In the text presented, I have undertaken an analysis of the early essays of Pär Lagerkvist (dated 1915-1917), both the ones published in periodicals and the unpublished manuscripts in the possession of the Kungliga Biblioteket in Stockholm. In those essays, Lagerkvist paid considerable attention to the matters of the ethics of art and the conflict between the ethical and aesthetical criteria of assessment of the work of art, and those problems are discussed also in Lagerkvist’s letters from that time. The aim of the article is to present this less known area of the artist’s activity and to point to the fact that the consequences of those reflections can be tracked in Lagerkvist’s literary works written in the same time period. Moreover, it can be argued that the understanding of the ethical art and the moral sense of the artistic activity presented in the early texts became an import and lasting feature of Lagerkvist’s writing - and, consequently, it can be claimed that the essays under discussion have a formative effect on Lagerkvist’s later output.