Malin Löfström: Style and styling among Finland Swedes in Stockholm from the viewpoint of a dialectology of mobility

Abstract

In the thesis, I examine linguistic style and styling among Finland Swedes from western Nyland in Stockholm in data that consist of interviews and small group conversations with eleven participants. The aim of the thesis is to investigate participants´ linguistic style when they talk to a Sweden Swedish person. The aim is also to seek reasonable explanations for why the participants´ linguistic style and styling look as they do in relation to their identity and to the social significance they attach to language and language change.

Theoretically, the study is based both on traditional variational linguistics and on modern sociolinguistic theory. The two paradigms are reflected in the analytical methods and explanatory models used. The linguistic analysis is performed on sequences from the interviews, which are done by a Sweden-Swedish interviewer, while analysis of identity aspects and of their meta-language is based on both interviews and small group discussions.

Overall, the results indicate that the participants´ linguistic style can predominantly be categorized as Finland-Swedish. The participants consistently use Finland-Swedish variants, and the analysis of covariation also indicates that Finland-Swedish can be described as a transitional variety between the western Nyland dialect and Sweden-Swedish. The impression that Finland-Swedish dominates the linguistic style is also reflected in the participants´ meta-linguistic comments, all of which indicates that the participants´ choice to use Finland-Swedish in Stockholm can to a large extent be linked to identity factors. 

At the same time and according to the variation analysis, language change as styling with Sweden-Swedish features occurs in all participants, to varying degrees in different individuals. The meta-level analysis supports this result. According to participants’ meta-comments, the purpose of the styling is primarily to facilitate communication. At the individual level, however, the styling is more complex and the participants’ linguistic choices can be linked to factors in their personal identity and to the social meaning that they associate with different language features in the Stockholm context. 

My evaluation of theory and method indicates that the combination of variational analysis and interpretive content analysis is crucial to generate results that both provide a detailed description of the linguistic style of Finland Swedes in Stockholm and also provide nuanced suggestions for explanations of the participants´ styling.