Swedish: A comprehensive grammar (review)

This book is an excellent overview of the contemporary language aimed at nonnative learners of Swedish. Since both of the authors are English-speaking, the book is intended primarily for those learners of Swedish whose first language is English; there are plenty of examples and parallels drawn between these two languages. The data used in this book is a mix of especially constructed and adapted naturally occuring examples that have been verified by native speakers. Several examples from the first edition have been changed in order to simplify the argumentation and avoid repetition.

In their approach, the authors have tried to retain traditional linguistic terminology and structure as much as possible and pair it with actual contemporary language use. The result is a good account of standard up-to-date Swedish.

In addition to the changes in examples, the second edition differs from the first in several ways. First, the numbering is different; second, there is an additional chapter on word formation (Ch. 11). Third, two chapters on nouns and nouns with articles have been merged to form an overview chapter on nouns (Ch. 1), and the noun declension classification in Ch. 1 has been revised to tie in with the 1999 grammar by the Swedish Academy. Finally, Ch. 10 includes an additional section on phrases.

In what follows, each chapter is summarized individually. The first nine chapters deal with major and minor categories. Ch. 1 focuses on nouns, gender rules, plurals, and genitive forms, but also on forms for indefinite and definite articles and their use. Ch. 2 discusses the form and order of adjectives, the indefinite and definite declension, and comparison of adjectives. Ch. 3 gives an overview of different types of pronouns, such as subject and object pronouns, reflexives, emphatics, possessives, demonstratives, determinatives, indefinites, interrogatives, and relatives. Ch. 4 shows how cardinal and ordinal numerals and fractions are used, and how to express dates and time. Ch. 5 outlines the forms of verbs with attention to tenses, modality, transitivity, and reflexivity, morphological and periphrastic passive forms, and compound formations. Ch. 6 discusses the form and function of adverbs, and sets location apart from movement, while Ch. 7 outlines the use of simple and compound prepositions. Coordinating and subordinating conjunctions and other coordinators are discussed in Ch. 8, and Ch. 9 focuses on interjections.

Ch. 10 moves on to sentence structure and word order. The authors first divide sentences into identifiable units and discuss phrases, and then they consider word order in main and subordinate clauses. Following that is a section concentrating on order within positions, main clause transformations, and subordinate clauses, and ending with brief accounts of prominence and ellipsis.

In Ch. 11 the authors turns to word-formation processes, such as affixation, compounding, expressive formation, and abbreviation, but they also include a section on foreign influences on Swedish and conversion. Finally, Ch. 12 outlines the symbols and sounds of Swedish, and its orthographic rules (spelling and use of small and capital letters), and Ch. 13 concludes with notes on punctuation. The book is also equipped with a glossary of linguistic terms used, a short bibliography on Swedish and English grammar, and a helpful index of English key words and Swedish examples.