Research interests:
Nordic languages in general and selected aspects of applied linguistics, educationally sociolinguistic ones in particular, such as
* written as well as spoken language norms and variation (all linguistic levels),
* acquisitional problems and development of written language morphology and spelling,
* other sociolinguistic topics (e.g. language attrition and death, language planning, linguistic rights, language and gender, language and religion),
* recent (socio-)dialectology of Nordic languages,
* recent history of Nordic languages,
* the history of Nordic linguistics.
Mentalities and rhetoric of death and of silence
Educational background:
Candidatus philologiae 1975:
1 term (= half a year) philosophy
1 term Latin
1 term educational studies (pedagogy)
2 terms general linguistics and phonetics on top of two one-term propedeutical courses in phonetics and general linguistics respectively
3 terms American and English language and literature
8 terms Nordic languages and literature
In sum: 8 years, all at the University of Oslo, Norway.
Doctor philosophiae 1992 (University of Oslo).
Current activities:
Main project: Educational (esp. school curricular) relevance of and topics in cand. philol. theses in Nordic linguistics 1906-2007.
Lesser studies of various Nordic linguistic topics.
Main administrative tasks:
Current administration of MA courses in Nordic language curricular studies.
Teaching:
All-term MA courses in Nordic language curricular studies.
Dissertational tutoring of MA and PhD students in Nordic language curricular studies.
Completed projects:
Numerous projects, international as well as national ones, since the 1970s.
Other functions:
Currently:
Membership of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (called 1999).
Membership of the Royal Norwegian Society of Science and Letters (called 2001).
Chairman of the comprehensive group 5 (Philology and linguistics) of the historical-philosophical class of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters 2008-2011.
Ad hoc committee and referee tasks for professional journals, publishers, councils of science and letters as well as of other national and international bodies, both governmental and non-governmental ones.
Formerly:
Membership of the Norwegian Language Council 1976-1996 and chairman there 1988-1996.
Editorship and membership of editorial boards of international as well as of national journals in Norwegian and applied linguistics.
Deputy membership of the central board of appeal at the University of Oslo 2002-2007.
Chairman of the former Group 6 (Philology and linguistics I: Nordic, other Germanic and Romance languages) of the historical-philosophical class of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters 2006-2008.