Centre of Language for Specific Purposes

Language for specific purposes and research

Language for specific purposes (LSP) concerns domain-specific language use where participants must be familiar with its conventions to communicate efficiently and with precision, avoiding ambiguities and misunderstandings. It is also a language use that professionals and other specialists within a certain domain use between themselves.

Within CLSP, this broader take on LSP is reflected in our research and collaborations. Research is conducted on, for instance, official language, academic language, medical language, legal language, and translation of language for specific purposes. The relationship between LSP and general language is also foregrounded – for instance, when citizens encounter texts from authorities and when organisations communicate with individuals.

Examples of research within CLSP:

• The Linnaeus University English-German-Swedish Corpus (LEGS). The LEGS research group compares linguistic structures across English, Swedish, and German in non-fiction texts.
  
  
• Communication across Media Borders. This project investigates how meaning is changed when travelling among different forms of media such as visual images, written texts, music, speech and film.
  
  
• Marknadens språk. Studies on the discourse of markets from the Middle Ages to the present. The aim of the project is to increase knowledge of the historical developments that have led to the market becoming a dominant concept in our time.
  
  
• Metaphors in palliative cancer care. This project aims to strengthen the scientific foundation for the use of metaphors in Swedish palliative cancer care, thereby contributing to development of praxis in Sweden.
  
  
• Expecting a baby in Arabic and Swedish! This project has created a digital language support for Swedish midwives, to facilitate communication in maternity care. The language support is available in Arabic, English and Swedish. 

Language for specific purposes and education

The researchers at CLSP are active teachers on programmes and courses with specialisation in language for specific purposes, at the departments of Language and Swedish. These include the Non-fiction translation programme and the course package in Language counselling and corpus planning at second-cycle level, but also freestanding courses in Plain language work, crisis communication, forensic linguistics, rhetoric, and terminology. The teaching is anchored in the teachers’ current research and is mainly offered at a distance.

• Non-fiction Translation Master’s Programme, 60 credits
• Language Counselling and Corpus Planning, course, 30 credits
• Courses with specialisation in language for specific purposes at second-cycle level:
  - The rhetoric of crisis communication in theory and practice, 7.5 credits
  - Plain language work in the public sector, 7.5 credits
  - Terminology in theory and practice, 15 credits
  - Introduction to forensic linguistics, 7.5 credits

Language for specific purposes and collaboration

The research group at CLSP has direct contact with authorities and other public organisations to conduct research studies, skills development, and integration in courses. These include representatives from the legal system, health and medical care, school, Swedish authorities, and municipalities and regions.

Other actors that we collaborate with are the European Commission and EU translators as well as other specialist bodies like The Language Council of Sweden and Terminologifrämjandet. The research group has thorough experience of contract education, commissioned research, and skills development within the field of language for specific purposes and it welcomes requests relating to such work.

Seminar series

At the Centre for Language for Specific Purposes, we arrange research seminars on various LSP topics.

The schedule for the autumn 2023 is outlined below and most seminars are held both via Zoom and on campus in Växjö. If you are interested in participating or perhaps giving a seminar yourself, feel free to contact the coordinators: Claes Ohlsson or Jenny Ström Herold.

• 12/9 2023, at 13.15−15 CFS-gruppen besöker LiLa-labb. Introduktion och presentation av labbet och dess utveckling (Annika Andersson) samt exempel på planerad eller genomförd forskning med fackspråksanknytning i labbet
  
  
• 21/11 2023, at 13.15−15 Lena Sundström Mattsson, språkvårdare och översättningskoordinator, Folkhälsomyndigheten: om klarspråk och översättning
  
  
• 5/12 2023, at 13.15−15 Mikko Laitinen, professor i engelska, University of Eastern Finland: "Killer language" or living multilingualism? First results of a recent survey of English in Finland

Members