Eit forsøk på å utvide språket. Dei naturvitskaplege artiklane i Syn og Segn i utbyggingsfasen fram til 1940

Abstract

What happens when one writes about a subject for which there are no words in the language one is using? This thesis is an investigation of the articles about natural sciences in the journal Syn og Segn during the Norwegian Nynorsk elaboration stage up until 1940. It is a study of the historical context in which these articles were written and read, taking the bilingual reality of the two Norwegian written standards Nynorsk and Bokmål into account. A quantitative analysis of the thematic content in the 75 first volumes of Syn og Segn has been carried out, in order to explain the role of the natural sciences in the journal. A qualitative analysis is done by reading and interpreting a selection of articles in Syn og Segn in the specific period, and has led to a synthetic presentation of a genre, as well as a particular presentation of four representative articles. Employing a cultural analysis approach, the focus is on explaining the rise and premises of the Norwegian language conflict, and how Syn og Segn was a product of this conflict. The investigation shows that the articles were an effort to reach a language policy goal of writing in Norwegian Nynorsk about a wide range of subjects in a time when the language was gaining new users. The language went from formulation and codification stages into an elaboration stage where it was important to show that Norwegian Nynorsk could be a fullfledged and versatile language. The presentation shows that it is fruitful to emphasize other motivations than language purism and nationalistic considerations as far as the ideological background for the New Norwegian style is concerned. There are challenges attached to writing about “new” fields of research in a language that has no established terminology for the field, and the authors of the articles about natural science met these by taking various pedagogical measures. The articles helped expand the sphere of subjects that can be written about in Norwegian Nynorsk, but they are problematic when it comes to creating a foundation for natural scientific terminology. This is because the form, style and genre are more coloured by the ideal of turning colloquial language into print than by the ideal of communicating with the level of detail that natural science requires.