Toril Opsahl
Biographic Data
| ID | 3797380 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Toril Opsahl |
| GIVEN NAMES | Toril |
| FAMILY NAME | Opsahl |
| SIGNATURE | OPSAHL T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oslo |
| ORCID | 0009-0005-0711-3619 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 6 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 6 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Language change and the loss of feminine gender
This article presents an investigation of the ongoing change in grammatical gender in Norwegian dialects, specifically the dialect of Oslo. We find that the feminine indefinite article ei and the prenominal possessives mi/di/si have disappeared from the Oslo dialect, resulting in a two-gender system with common and neuter. While the feminine definite suffix - a and the postnominal possessives mi/di/si have been found in previous studies to be gen…
If you don't speak Norwegian well, they think you are stupid
No(r)way? Language Learning, Stereotypes, and Social Inclusion Among Poles in Norway
This study recognizes the diversity and heterogeneous nature of a migrant group that long has been portrayed and perceived in a limited way, for instance in Norwegian media, without considering the multifaceted nature of the group in question. Drawing on data from focus group interviews, we apply narrative analysis to shed light on the impact stereotypes surrounding Poles have on Polish adult migrants’ striving for social inclusion and profession…
“One, Two, Many = One too many?” Conceptualizations of mother tongue
In this article, we analyze the use of the term ‘morsmål’ (‘mother tongue’) in official Norwegian documents and in media texts to identify if and how its conceptualization has changed in the era of increasing globalization. Our point of view is explorative. When examining our data, we highlight the importance of reflecting openly about the instability of powerful concepts. We highlight two partly conflicting conceptualizations that we name the ‘t…
Dead, but Won’t Lie Down? Grammatical Gender among Norwegians
This paper examines grammatical gender from the sociolinguistic perspective. The question pursued is to what extent exponents of grammatical gender are tied indexically to identity categories. Building on literature and corpus data, I claim that within the Norwegian context, grammatical gender is associated with sociolinguistic dimensions such as the urban/rural distinction, political views, class, ethnicity. The traditional three-gender system i…
Wolla I swear this is typical for the conversational style of adolescents in multiethnic areas in Oslo
This paper argues that the conversational style of adolescents in multiethnic areas in Oslo is characterized by an extended degree of epistemic focus and expressions pointing explicitly towards the news value of utterances. The linguistic traits contributing to this notion is a set of discourse markers where wallah , or as it is often referred to in Norwegian; wolla (orig. Arab. ‘I swear by Allah’), seems to be prominent, together with Norwegian …
If you don't speak Norwegian well, they think you are stupid
No(r)way? Language Learning, Stereotypes, and Social Inclusion Among Poles in Norway
This study recognizes the diversity and heterogeneous nature of a migrant group that long has been portrayed and perceived in a limited way, for instance in Norwegian media, without considering the multifaceted nature of the group in question. Drawing on data from focus group interviews, we apply narrative analysis to shed light on the impact stereotypes surrounding Poles have on Polish adult migrants’ striving for social inclusion and profession…
Wolla I swear this is typical for the conversational style of adolescents in multiethnic areas in Oslo
This paper argues that the conversational style of adolescents in multiethnic areas in Oslo is characterized by an extended degree of epistemic focus and expressions pointing explicitly towards the news value of utterances. The linguistic traits contributing to this notion is a set of discourse markers where wallah , or as it is often referred to in Norwegian; wolla (orig. Arab. ‘I swear by Allah’), seems to be prominent, together with Norwegian …
“One, Two, Many = One too many?” Conceptualizations of mother tongue
In this article, we analyze the use of the term ‘morsmål’ (‘mother tongue’) in official Norwegian documents and in media texts to identify if and how its conceptualization has changed in the era of increasing globalization. Our point of view is explorative. When examining our data, we highlight the importance of reflecting openly about the instability of powerful concepts. We highlight two partly conflicting conceptualizations that we name the ‘t…
Dead, but Won’t Lie Down? Grammatical Gender among Norwegians
This paper examines grammatical gender from the sociolinguistic perspective. The question pursued is to what extent exponents of grammatical gender are tied indexically to identity categories. Building on literature and corpus data, I claim that within the Norwegian context, grammatical gender is associated with sociolinguistic dimensions such as the urban/rural distinction, political views, class, ethnicity. The traditional three-gender system i…
No(r)way? Language Learning, Stereotypes, and Social Inclusion Among Poles in Norway
This study recognizes the diversity and heterogeneous nature of a migrant group that long has been portrayed and perceived in a limited way, for instance in Norwegian media, without considering the multifaceted nature of the group in question. Drawing on data from focus group interviews, we apply narrative analysis to shed light on the impact stereotypes surrounding Poles have on Polish adult migrants’ striving for social inclusion and profession…
Language change and the loss of feminine gender
This article presents an investigation of the ongoing change in grammatical gender in Norwegian dialects, specifically the dialect of Oslo. We find that the feminine indefinite article ei and the prenominal possessives mi/di/si have disappeared from the Oslo dialect, resulting in a two-gender system with common and neuter. While the feminine definite suffix - a and the postnominal possessives mi/di/si have been found in previous studies to be gen…
If you don't speak Norwegian well, they think you are stupid
Linguistics (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Norwegian (5 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (4 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Gender Studies (3 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (3 works) · Political science (3 works) · Computer Science (2 works)