Gunnar Persson

Gunnar Persson

Professor
English
Fax: 0920-49 22 34
Tel home: 090-77 97 73
Mobile: 070-608 50 98
Email: gunnar.persson@lh.luth.se

I have been professor of English at Luleå University of Technology since 1996 after nearly 25 years at Umeå University and with past experience from the universities of Uppsala and Örebro. I will retire on October 31, 2002, but I will remain active as a supervisor of some doctoral students. I am a linguist specialising in semantics and lexical research. My largest project, in which a number of scholars and doctoral students have participated, is called "Male and Female Terms in English". We are studying how the two genders have been named over time in their various central and social roles. The project has so far given rise to a couple of doctoral theses, one conference volume and a great number of articles (see Research in English). It is part of a research programme called ELIXIR (English Lexical Research), in which such areas as gender terms, the contextual functions of various word classes, different types of figurative language, etc., are studied.

In the last few years I have started combining a hobby, namely mushroom picking, with my linguistic research.I have published a couple of articles on terms for fungi and will eventually produce a multilingual dictionary based on a prototype analysis of the terms and their referents, in which I will compare and analyse the naming of fungi in different cultures in Europe.

Among my external assignments may be mentioned that I am a member of the committee for doctoral scholarships in modern languages of the Wallenberg Foundation.

After my retirement I will still have the same e-mail address: gunnar.persson@lh.luth.se. Letters and other mail will have to be sent to my home address: Klaverstråket 25, 903 53 Umeå.

I am an experienced translator and can do translations from English to Swedish and from Swedish to English. I can also function as a consecutive interpreter in both language directions.

The full text of my farewell lecture, Språk och manipulation, is available here.

Farewell lecture
»	Språk och manipulation

Publications

(1974) Repetition in English: Part 1. Sequential Repetition. Dissertation. Uppsala: Uppsala universitet, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.

(1986) (Co-author: Ulf Magnusson) Facets, Phases and Foci. Studies in Lexical Relations in English. Stockholm: Almqvist &camp; Wiksell International.

(1988) Homonymy, Polysemy and Heterosemy: Three Types of Lexical Ambiguity in English. [In] Hyldgaard-Jensen, K. &camp; A. Zettersten (eds) Symposium on Lexicography III. Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Lexicography May 14-16, 1986 at the University of Copenhagen. LEXICOGRAPHICA, Series Major 19. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag 1988.

(1986) (Co-author: Ulf Magnusson) Artefacts and Localism in English. Umeå Papers in English, No. 8. Umeå: Umeå University, Dept. of English.

(1988) Ed. (with Inger Henrysson) of English Today. Papers Read at the English Studies Conference in Umeå, June 2-3, 1988. Umeå: Umeå University, Dept. of English.

(1988) Synonymy or Hyponymy - Thats the Question. [In] Hyldgaard-Jensen, K. &camp; A. Zettersten (eds) Symposium on Lexicography IV. Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Lexicography April 20-22, 1986 at the University of Copenhagen. LEXICOGRAPHICA, Series Major 26. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.

(1989) On the semantics of Collective Nouns in English. [In] Odenstedt, B. &camp; G. Persson (eds) Instead of Flowers. Papers in Honour of Mats Rydén on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday, August 27, 1989. Stockholm: Almqvist &camp; Wiksell International.

(1989) Deep and Profound: A Study in So-called Synonymy. Umeå Papers in English, No. 10. Umeå 1989.

(1989) Metaforernas makt: Utan metaforer blir världen obegriplig. Västerbottens-Kuriren 12/10 1989

(1990) Male and Female Terms in English. A Diachronic Study of a Semantic Field. Research program. Umeå: Umeå University, Dept. of English.

(1990) Meanings, Models and Metaphors. A Study in Lexical Semantics in English. Stockholm: Almqvist &camp; Wiksell International 1990.

(1991) Ed. (with Danell, K.J. &camp; A. Stedje) of Språket som kulturspegel: Umeforskare berättar. Symposium och språklärardagar i Umeå 5-6 november 1990. Stockholm: Almqvist &camp; Wiksell International.

(1991) Samhällsyn och sociala roller i engelska ordböcker. [In] Danell, K.J., G. Persson &camp; A. Stedje (eds) 1991.

(1992) False and its Friends. Some Preliminary Observations. [In] Hyldgaard-Jensen, K. &camp; A. Zettersten (eds) Symposium on Lexicography V. Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Lexicography May 3-5, 1990 at the University of Copenhagen. LEXICOGRAPHICA, Series Major 43. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.

(1992) Review of Gunnar Backmans dissertation Meaning by Metaphor. An Exploration of Metaphor with a Metaphoric Reading of Two Short Stories by Stephen Crane. Uppsala 1991. Studia Neophilologica 64: 117-119.

(1993) Think in a Panchronic Perspective. Studia Neophilologica 65:1, 3-18.

(1994) Masculine, feminine and epicene nouns in English dictionaries: presentation of a pilot study. [In] Hyldgaard-Jensen, K. &camp; V.H. Pedersen (eds) Symposium on Lexicography IV. Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Lexicography May 7-9, 1992 at the University of Copenhagen. LEXICOGRAPHICA, Series Major, Band 57. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.

(1992) Ed. (with Edlund, L.E.) of Language the Time Machine. Papers in Honour of Bengt Odenstedt on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday, July 21, 1992. Stockholm: Almqvist &camp; Wiksell International.

(1992) The Shifting Image of the Creature. [In] Edlund, L.-E. &camp; G. Persson, (eds).

(1993) The nutty flavour of karljohan. On names for fungi in some languages. [In] Söhrman, I. (ed) La culture dans la langue. Studier i språken som kulturbärare tillägnade Hugo Olsson och Karl Johan Danell på deras respektive högtidsdagar 1993. Stockholm: Almqvist &camp; Wiksell International 1993.

(1993) Review of Geoffrey Hughes (1988) Words in Time. A Social History of the English Vocabulary. Studia Neophilologica 1993.

(1993) (Co-author Mats Rydén) Projektet "Male and Female Terms in English: A Diachronic Study of a Semantic Field". ASLA Information 19:2.Uppsala 1993.

(1994) Social Change, Prototypes and Word Meaning. [In] Todtenhaupt, M. &camp; I. Valfridsson (eds) Sprache als lebendiger Kulturspiegel. Festschrift für Astrid Stedje. Stockholm: Almqvist &camp; Wiksell International.

(1994) A Cognitive Analysis of Converse Sentences in English. [In] Allwood J., B. Ralph, P. Andersson, D. Kós-Dienes &camp; Å. Wengelin (eds) Proceedings of The XIVth Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics and The VIIIth Conference of Nordic and General Linguistics August 16-21 1993 Gothenburg Papers in Theoretical Linguistics 69.Göteborg: Eric Lindgrens Boktryckeri AB.

(1995) On Collective Involvement in English. [In] Melchers, G. &camp; B. Warren (eds.) Studies in Anglistics. Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis. Stockholm Studies in English LXXXV. Stockholm: Almqvist &camp; Wiksell International.

(1995) Ed. (with Kardela, H.) of New Trends in Semantics and Lexicography. Proceedings of the International Conference at Kazimierz, December 13 - 15, 1993. Uppsala: Swedish Science Press.

(1995) (Co-author Mats Rydén) The Project "Male and Female Terms in English: A Diachronic Study of a Semantic Field". [In] Kardela, H. &camp; G. Persson (eds).

(1996) Review of Christine Johansson, The relativizers whose and of which in Present-Day English: Description and Theory. Dissertation. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia 90. Stockholm: Almqvist &camp; Wiksell International 1995. Studia Neophilologica 1996.

(1996) Ed. (Rydén, M) of Male and Female Terms in English. Proceedings of the Symposium at Umeå University May 18 - 19, 1994. Uppsala: Swedish Science Press 1996.

(1997) Fränskivling eller poison pie. Kognitiva aspekter på namngivning av svamp i olika språk. [In] Aspekter på växtnamn. Skrifter utgivna av Dialekt-, ortnamns- och folkminnesarkivet i Umeå. Serie E. Växtnamn nr 1. Umeå.

(2000) Vit flugsvamp or Destroying Angel. Cognitive Aspects of Names for Fungi in Some Languages. [I] Mogensen, J.E. &camp; A. Zettersten (eds) Symposium on Lexicography IX. Proceedings of the Ninth Symposium on Lexicography, April 23 - 25, 1998 at the University of Copenhagen. LEXICOGRAPHICA, Series Maior 103. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.

(1999) Review of Svartvik, J. (ed) Words. Proceedings of an International Symposium, Lund 25-26 August 1995. Kungl. Vitterhets, Historia och Antikvitets Akademien. Stockholm: Almqvist &camp; Wiksell International 1996. Studia Neophilologica 1999.

(2000) Ed. of Filosofer funderar. Föredrag hållna på filosofiska fakultetens dag 20 mars 1999. Uppsala: Swedish Science Press.

(2001) Pin, pin bring me luck, because I stop to pick you up. On Magic in the English Language. [In] Aijmer, K. (ed) A Wealth of English. Studies in Honour of Göran Kjellmer. Göteborg Studies in English 81. Acta Universitatis Gothoburgiensis.

(2002) From Spinning Woman to Old Maid to What? On the Sense Development of Spinster. [In] Gottlieb, H., J.E. Mogensen &camp; A. Zettersten (eds) Symposium on Lexicography X. Proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium on Lexicography May 4-6, 2000 at the University of Copenhagen. LEXICOGRAPHICA, Series Major 109. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.

(2002) Ed. of Människor, hälsa, miljö. Föredrag hållna på filosofiska fakultetens dag 6 oktober 2001. Uppsala. Swedish Science Press.

(2002) Dictionaries as Mirrors of Social and Cultural Change. [In] Gottlieb, H., J.E. Mogensen &camp; A. Zettersten (eds) Symposium on Lexicography XI. Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Lexicography April 2-4, 2002 at the University of Copenhagen. LEXICOGRAPHICA, Series Major 109. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag (in press).

(2002) 'Språk som manipulation'. Avskedsföreläsning 2002-09-24. Full text available in Adobe Acrobat format here.

(2003) Ed. of Periphery and Centre. Seamus Heaney and Folke Isaksson on their Backgrounds and Art. Uppsala: Swedish Science Press.

(2003) "What is 'Shift of Meaning'? An Attempt at a Linguistic Analysis" http://www.lexicool.com/articles_003_persson.asp

(2004) "Frames for the semantics of bachelor". [In] Dollerup C. (ed.) Worlds of Words. A tribute to Arne Zettersten. Nordic Journal of English Studies. Special Issue, Vol. 3, no. 1, 2004.

(2005) 'Dictionaries as Mirrors of Social and Cultural Change'. [In] Gottlieb, H., J.E. Mogensen &camp; A. Zettersten (eds) Symposium on Lexicography XI. Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Lexicography April 2-4, 2002 at the University of Copenhagen . LEXICOGRAPHICA, Series Major 109. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag (in press).

(2005) 'Male and female Plugs. On Bodily Metaphors for Technological Artefacts. [In] Granath, S., J. Miliander &camp; E. Wennö (eds) The Power of Words. Studies in Honour of Moira Linnarud. Karlstad University: Department of English.