Syrine Jemour, Aarhus University/University of Bergen
In this presentation, I will discuss a case study from my PhD project examining how hygge is represented in French media discourses. I explore how linguistic markers in the press frame hygge as an idealized symbol of Scandinavian identity. My analysis highlights specific discursive mechanisms that contribute to creating a positive yet exoticized perception of Scandinavian culture. Additionally, I demonstrate how narratives about Scandinavia circulate and become firmly established within contemporary media discourse. On a broader level, my study addresses the discursive construction of national stereotypes, showing how idealized collective imaginaries develop and persist through the media dissemination of foreign cultural concepts.
Kirstine Boas, Aarhus University
This presentation will discuss how local stereotypes influence the geospatial perception of the Funic dialect spoken on Funen in Denmark. Using the Salient Language in Context (SLIC) tool, we have analyzed how listeners from Jutland, Funen, and Zealand geographically place speakers. The stimuli consist of two Funic speakers in a rural, serious, and neutral topical context. Our findings show that certain dialectal features become salient in one context but remain unnoticed in another, and that commentary strategies differ across topics and listener groups. Additionally, our results demonstrate that specific lexical items can activate locally embedded stereotypes, which may block competing linguistic features or thematic cues. When discussing boats, Zealandic listeners often recognize the speaker as Funic, while Funic listeners recognize it as Jutlandic, and Jutlandic listeners as Western Jutlandic. This shows how indexicality mutates, as perceptions of "rurality" varies across listener groups. Consequently, this influences where listeners believe the speaker originates from.
Ismaël Zaïdi, Université Grenoble Alpes
Generalizations over human nouns with the definite singular (e.g. The American has strong beliefs in development) are considered problematic since they set off the class as “species-like”, as though a single person could be representative of the whole class, which overlooks the diversity of human groups. However, my data indicates that generalizations with the American do exist. This presentation thus aims at shedding light on the contexts in which they may be used as well as wondering whether non-acceptability is an inalienable feature of such generalizations.
Franscesca Sanvicente, Université Grenoble Alpes
This presentation aims at contextualizing my research as a PhD student working on the subject of attrition among Andorran trilinguals of Catalan, Spanish, and French. After making a brief presentation of the Principality of Andorra, I will introduce the subject of acquisition, which will allow me to discuss that of attrition, both phenomena being tightly intertwined. Then, after touching on the objectives of the PhD, I will focus on the methodology considered by describing four new experiments, all offering a particular insight on an aspect of language, namely: the lexicon, the phonology, and the grammar.
Julie Rohde, Aarhus University
This talk presents the results of a corpus study of English and Danish, investigating the linguistic phenomenon Adverb Raising (AR) in which an adverbial in the matrix clause is interpreted in the embedded clause as in (1):
This phenomenon resembles Neg Raising (NR), in which a matrix clause negation is interpreted in the embedded clause. It has long been debated whether the interpretation arises through syntactic movement or due to semantic/pragmatic inferences, which makes the origins of AR similarly unclear.
Johanna Gunn, University of Bergen/Université Grenoble Alpes
This presentation explores the French conjunction car through the lenses of polyphony and interlocutive dialogism. Drawing on examples from PresseClim, a corpus of French newspaper articles on climate change, the analysis examines how car introduces justificatory sequences that reflect multiple voices and potential speaker–addressee interactions. Grounded in praxematic and polyphonic frameworks, the study highlights car as a marker of enunciative heterogeneity and implicit dialogue, revealing its discursive function in structuring voice relations and argumentative dynamics.
Maria Dahl, Aarhus University
The question “Who do you think’s talk we’re listening to?” has a discontinuous possessive phrase, who + ’s talk, which in generative grammar is described as possessor extraction (PE). PE has been said to be impossible in the Germanic languages generally, but some speakers of English and Danish seem to have it as a productive option colloquially. After discussing different theoretical approaches to the phenomenon in Danish, I will share the results of my introductory corpus study of Danish PE and discuss the (lack of) parallels with English PE.
Chloé Simon, Université Grenoble Alpes
Pronunciation is a major challenge in learning French as a foreign language, often linked to anxiety and fear of judgment in face-to-face settings. MOOCs (Massive open online courses) offer a flexible, less intimidating environment, but suffer from high drop-out rates due to low motivation. Our research explores gamification as a way to boost engagement by integrating game mechanics into a MOOC. This interdisciplinary research integrates language teaching, motivational psychology, and digital learning design to tailor and improve online pronunciation training.
