Jan Svennevig

Academic positions

2008-pres. Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo
2003-2007 Professor of Communication at the Norwegian School of Management, BI
1998-2003 Professor Linguistics at the Department of Scandinavian and Media Studies, Agder University College
1997-1997 Associate professor at the School of Journalism, Oslo University College
1993-1997 Research fellow at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo
1990-1991 Norwegian lecturer at Université Lumière, Lyon 2, France
1989-1989 Norwegian lecturer at Tampere University, Finland

Education

Doctor artium (PhD) in Linguistics at the University of Oslo, 1997 (Dissertation: Getting acquainted in conversation. A study of initial interactions, awarded His Majesty King Harald’s gold medal)
Candidatus philologiæ (MA) at the University of Oslo, 1989 (Scandinavian Studies, French, Russian)

Research areas

• Conversation Analysis (Repair, interaction in meetings)
• Interactional Linguistics (Norwegian discourse markers)
• Intercultural communication (Understanding in second language interaction)
• Rhetoric (Oral presentations in the classroom)

Editorial work

Member of the editorial board of:

• Research on Language and Social Interaction
• Text & talk
• Journal of Intercultural Communication
• Norsk Lingvistisk Tidsskrift (Norwegian Journal of Linguistics)

Edited volumes:

• Jan Svennevig (ed.): Special issue of Discourse Studies, 1-2012: Interaction in workplace meetings
• Birte Asmuss and Jan Svennevig (eds.): Special issue of Journal of Business Communication, 1-2009: Meeting talk

Selected publications

Hasund, Kristine, Toril Opsahl & Jan Svennevig 2012: By three means. The pragmatic functions of three Norwegian quotatives. Ingrid van Alphen & Isabelle Buchstaller (eds.): Quotatives: Cross-linguistic and cross-disciplinary perspectives. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 37-67. 

Svennevig, Jan 2012c: Reformulation of questions with candidate answers, International Journal of Bilingualism 16(3).

Svennevig, Jan 2012b: The agenda as resource for topic introduction in workplace meetings. Discourse Studies 14(1), 53-66.

Svennevig, Jan 2012a: Introduction: Interaction in workplace meetings. Discourse Studies 14(1), 3-10.

Svennevig, Jan og Ronny Johansen 2011: Sociopragmatic variation in the sequential organization of talk. Gisle Andersen and Karin Aijmer (eds.): Pragmatics of Society (Vol. 5 in the series Handbooks of Pragmatics) Mouton – de Gruyter, 473-500 (pdf)

Svennevig, Jan 2011: Leadership style in managers’ feedback in meetings. Jo Angouri & Meredith Marra (eds.): Constructing Identities at Work. London: Palgrave, 17-39. (pdf)

Haug, Magne M., Haavard Koppang og Jan Svennevig 2010. Moderator bias in television coverage of an election campaign with no political advertising. Nordicom Review 31:79–94

Rønneberg, Kari og Jan Svennevig 2010. Declining to help. Rejections in service requests to the police. Discourse & Communication 4, 279-305.

Svennevig, Jan 2010. Pre-empting reference problems in conversation. Language in Society 39, 173–202. (pdf, © Cambridge U Press)

Svennevig, Jan 2009. Forståelse og sosiale relasjoner i håndtering av språkproblemer i andrespråkssamtaler.[Understanding and social relations in managing language problems in second language conversations] Nordand - Nordisk tidsskrift for andrespråksforskning 4(2), 35-64.

Asmuss, Birte & Jan Svennevig 2009. Meeting talk – an introduction. Journal of Business Communication, 46(1), s. 3-22.

Svennevig, Jan 2009 Språklig samhandling. Innføring i kommunikasjonsteori og diskursanalyse. [Verbal interaction. Introduction to communication theory and discourse analysis]. Oslo: Cappelen Akademisk Forlag

Svennevig, Jan 2008. Ledelsesretorikk i nedbemanningssituasjoner. En kasusstudie av fusjonen mellom SAS og Braathens. [Managerial rhetoric during downsizing. A case study of the the merger between the airlines SAS and Braathens] Rhetorica Scandinavica 46, 56-74.

Svennevig, Jan 2008. Exploring leadership conversations. Management Communication Quarterly 21 (4), 529-536.

Svennevig, Jan 2008. Trying the easiest solution first in other-initiated repair. Journal of Pragmatics 40 (2), 333-348.

Svennevig, Jan 2007 ”Ikke sant” as a response token in Norwegian conversation. Nilsen, Randi-Alice, Nana Aba Appiah Amfo & Kaja Borthen (eds.): Interpreting Utterances. Pragmatics and Its Interfaces. Essays in Honour of Thorstein Fretheim. Oslo: Novus, p. 175–189 (pdf)

Opsahl, Toril og Jan Svennevig 2007. "Må ha det. Bare må ha det” Bare som pragmatisk partikkel i samtale. [”Bare” (eng. ”just”) as a pragmatic particle in conversation] Norsk lingvistisk tidsskrift 25, 29-56. (pdf )

Svennevig, Jan og Maria Isaksson 2006. Communication strategies in a joint venture between the Nordic and the Post-Soviet countries. Øyvind Dahl m.fl. (eds.): Bridges of understanding. Perspectives on intercultural communication. Oslo: Oslo Academic Press 2006, s. 213–226. (pdf )

Skovholt, Karianne og Jan Svennevig 2006. E-mail copies in workplace interaction. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12/1, 42-65. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue1/skovholt.html

Svennevig, Jan 2004. Other-repetition as display of hearing, understanding and emotional stance. Discourse Studies 6/4: 489–516.

Svennevig, Jan 2003. Reformulering av spørsmål i andrespråkssamtaler. [Reformulation of questions in native/non-native interaction]. Nordberg, Bengt m.fl. (eds.): Grammatik och samtal. Studier till minne av Mats Eriksson. Uppsala universitet: Institutionen för nordiska språk, s. 75–90. (pdf )

Svennevig, Jan 2003. Echo answers in native/non-native interaction. Pragmatics 13/2, s. 285–309. (pdf )

Svennevig, Jan 2001 ”Institutional and conversational modes of talk in bureaucratic consultations”, i Anne Hvenekilde & Jacomine Nortier (red.) Meetings at the crossroads. Studies of multiculturalism and multilingualism in Oslo and Utrecht. Oslo: Novus, s. 106–135. (pdf )

Svennevig, Jan 2001 ”Ja, jo and nei initiating responses to wh-questions in Norwegian”. H. Vater & O. Letnes (red.) Modality and more. (Fokus, Linguistisch-Philologische Studien) Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, s. 143–165. (pdf )

Svennevig, Jan 2001 ”Abduction as a methodological approach to the study of spoken interaction”, Norskrift 103, s. 1–22. (pdf )

Svennevig, Jan 1999 Getting acquainted in conversation. A study of initial interactions. Pragmatics & Beyond New Series), Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (see Google books )