Preface: This article is the preface to Vol. 6, No. 1 of the Nordic Journal.
Abstract
This special issue of the Nordic Journal of English Studies is dedicated
to Professor Karin Aijmer on the occasion of her retirement from the
Chair of English linguistics at the English department, Göteborg Univer-
sity in 2006.
The seven contributions in this issue were first presented at a seminar
in Karin’s honor in January 2006. The seminar was intended as a tribute
to Karin’s particular love of informal intellectual meetings – “there will
be coffee!”– and was part of ‘the contrastive seminar’ series at Göteborg
University, which has served many a cup of contrastive observations
over the last few years.
Karin’s is exceptionally versatile as a linguist. Her research interests
cover contrastive linguistics, pragmatics, modality and learner language,
some of which are reflected in the contributions to this issue. Above all,
however, the contributions illustrate Karin’s keen interest in corpus lin-
guistics. Bengt Altenberg, Stig Johansson and Hilde Hasselgård use par-
allel corpora to describe contrastive issues and Lars Lindvall uses corpus
methods to solve problems of disputed authorship. Jennifer Herriman
uses corpus methods to describe differences in self reference in argumen-
tative texts by students of English compared to native speakers writing
professionally or in an educational setting. Arne Olofsson composes his
own corpus in order to provide empirical evidence to the study of the
grammaticalization process of the Swedish verb kommer (without the
following infinitive marker att (to)), and Göran Kjellmer uses the Co-
buildDirect Corpus to throw light on the polysemy of the verb risk.
An exciting touch of uncertainty surrounded the planning of the
seminar, as Karin was not informed about its preparations. Due to cir-
cumstances beyond our control, Karin was unfortunately at the last min-
ute unable to attend the seminar, but we had the pleasure of her company
at the following post-seminar event. I am therefore particularly pleased
to present the papers in this issue and sincerely hope that they will be
enjoyed by Karin and many more. A warm thank-you to the contributors
for their participation, both in the seminar and in the publication of this
issue.
Göteborg April 2007
Lene Nordrum
to Professor Karin Aijmer on the occasion of her retirement from the
Chair of English linguistics at the English department, Göteborg Univer-
sity in 2006.
The seven contributions in this issue were first presented at a seminar
in Karin’s honor in January 2006. The seminar was intended as a tribute
to Karin’s particular love of informal intellectual meetings – “there will
be coffee!”– and was part of ‘the contrastive seminar’ series at Göteborg
University, which has served many a cup of contrastive observations
over the last few years.
Karin’s is exceptionally versatile as a linguist. Her research interests
cover contrastive linguistics, pragmatics, modality and learner language,
some of which are reflected in the contributions to this issue. Above all,
however, the contributions illustrate Karin’s keen interest in corpus lin-
guistics. Bengt Altenberg, Stig Johansson and Hilde Hasselgård use par-
allel corpora to describe contrastive issues and Lars Lindvall uses corpus
methods to solve problems of disputed authorship. Jennifer Herriman
uses corpus methods to describe differences in self reference in argumen-
tative texts by students of English compared to native speakers writing
professionally or in an educational setting. Arne Olofsson composes his
own corpus in order to provide empirical evidence to the study of the
grammaticalization process of the Swedish verb kommer (without the
following infinitive marker att (to)), and Göran Kjellmer uses the Co-
buildDirect Corpus to throw light on the polysemy of the verb risk.
An exciting touch of uncertainty surrounded the planning of the
seminar, as Karin was not informed about its preparations. Due to cir-
cumstances beyond our control, Karin was unfortunately at the last min-
ute unable to attend the seminar, but we had the pleasure of her company
at the following post-seminar event. I am therefore particularly pleased
to present the papers in this issue and sincerely hope that they will be
enjoyed by Karin and many more. A warm thank-you to the contributors
for their participation, both in the seminar and in the publication of this
issue.
Göteborg April 2007
Lene Nordrum