compound words

Painting by Kyli John (detail)

I've been seriously trying to improve my Swedish. Aside from translating Swedish from books, and learning a few Swedish songs, I've been following the Swedish news service SVT nyheter on an almost daily basis. 

That's brought up what I consider one of the most demanding aspects of Swedish vocabulary, the host of compound words, in particular those beginning with simple prepositions or other common prefixes. I've pasted my running list of common ones below... It's a tiny sample; there are thousands more.

Swedish is well known for being an agglutinative language, meaning that where in English we have a term of two or three words, in Swedish this tends to be presented as a single word. (For example, "chairman of the board" is "styrelseordförande"; "in terms of animal welfare" is "djurskyddsmässigt".) These "words" can be coined at will, so only the common ones are listed in dictionaries. But once you've overcome your fear at the formidable string of characters, this is not a big issue. When translating, you notice that it can make Swedish writing seem tautological to English-speaking eyes. A British botanist would say about his new handbook: "Every species is given a description." A Swedish botanist would say the equivalent of: "Every species is given a speciesdescription".

But here I'm talking not about agglutinative coinages but about ordinary compound words, the same thing that we have in English (probably in even greater numbers): words like "demanding", "consider", "translating", "description", "overcome", all in what I've just written. There's a difference, though. The English compound words are predominantly Latinate, and the verbal or nominal part often has no independent meaning (except perhaps as a rare archaism). Thus we have demand, command, remand, but not mand; invoke, revoke, provoke but not voke; describe, inscribe and proscribe but not scribe (vb). My strong impression is that in the predominantly Germanic compound words in Swedish the verbal part is usually meaningful on its own; as in "overcome".

The difficulty for a learner of Swedish is that the meanings of the compound words are so hard to guess, even though Swedish is quite a close relative of English. We share many of the prepositions and prefixes (for, in, under, over, up, out..). But every language uses prepositions in different ways (e.g. "knäppa upp" means "unbutton", not "button up"!). And it's pretty rare for a Swedish compound word to have a cognate English equivalent. 

An [ down](rare except in compound verbs)

Angelägen keen

Anledningen the reason

Ansats attempt

Ansenlig considerable

Anställda employees

Ansvar responsibility

Använde used

Av of, by, off

Avgift charge,fee

Avgå resign

Avgångsvederlag severance pay

Asked dismissed

Avslöja reveals

Avslutas is ended

Avtal agreement

Avtalsbrott breach of contract

Avvisat rejected

Be- only as prefix

Begäran request

Behållas retained

Beklagar regrets

Bekräfta confirm

Bemöta answer, deal with

Beredning preparation, (committee)

Beslagtas seized

Beställdes commissioned

Besviken disappointed

Betonar emphasizes

Betrakta regard

Betyda mean

Biträdande assistant

De- only as prefix

Dementera deny

Er- only as prefix

Erbjudit offered

Erfarenhet experience

Erkänner acknowledges

Fort fast, also prefix meaning continuing

Fortfarande still

Framgår appears

För for före before

Förbryllad puzzled

Förbudet prohibition

Föredra prefer

förenlig compatible

Föreslogs was proposed

Företag business

Företräds represented

Förfärande terrifying

Förfärlig dire

Förhållande relationship

Förhållanden conditions

Förluster loss

Förmodligen probably

förmögenhet fortune

Förslaget the proposal (compare föreslogs)

Förstå understand

Förstöra destroy

Förtal slander

Förtegen reticent

Förtroliga confidential

Förundersökning preliminary investigation

Genom through

Genomfört implemented

Genomslag impact

In in

Införa introduce

inställt cancelled

Inställda på. Willing to

Inverkan impact

konkurrent competitor

Med with

Medborgare citizens

Meddelat announced

Medfången cellmate

Medför cause

Medvetna aware

Ned down

Nedmontering dismantling

Nedrustning disarmament

Nu now

Nuvarande current

Observera observe

Om round, around

Omfattande extensive

Omsorg  care (health, social)

Omständigheter circumstances

Omvärlden abroad

På on, in, at

Påbörjades started

Re- prefix only

Reklam advertising

Till  to, for

Tillfrågad prompted

Tillfällig temporary

Tillräckligt sufficiently, enough

Tillträdde assumed

Underlag foundation, basis

Underrättelse intelligence, notification

undersökning investigation

Upp up

Uppdrag. Task, mission

Uppger states (says)

Uppgörelse settlement

Upplösning resolution (photo)

Uppmanade invited

uppmärksamheten attention

Ut out

Utförts performed

Utgjort constituted, posed (e.g. a threat)

Utreda investigate. Utredare investigator

Utrymmet space (eg advertising)

Utskott committee

uttryck  expression

Utträdesavtalet exit agreement

Åt to,towards åter back

Återhållsam restrained, reserved

Återges reproduced

Åtgärder measures (safeguards)

Över over

överenskommelse agreement

Övergrepp abuse

Överhuvudtaget at all

Övertänt ignited

If you look over the meanings of these words, you can see they talk about imagined concepts; things we can't directly see or smell or touch. They are, however, just the things that news stories are about. A buttercup doesn't make news. But a settlement, a resignation, an investigation, comprehensive yet restrained citizen measures... That's quite a different matter! This is the language of power, it's a toolkit for talking about impact, on us and on others.

On the other hand, this language is quite rare in poetry. For various reasons poets have usually preferred to evoke the tangible and the concrete: a mossy rock, a cheek, a branch, a boat.

It can seem like a progressive limiting. Shakespeare and Donne used a lot of commercial and economic terms; Wordsworth, Tennyson and Hardy, not so many. Arnold's "Scholar-Gypsy" is evidently in some sense a poem about worldly power. But it conducts its critical investigation by leaving the language of power decisively unspoken; by heading for the pastoral fields.

The Cambridge School, you might say, lost faith in this centuries-long project. They dramatically changed direction. Aware that the language of power is chiefly deployed by those who have a stake in power, it felt like poetry was neglecting a duty to contest the terms. The powers that be should not have it all to themselves, for instance to control and manipulate their euphemisms for profiteering, abuse and exploitation.

So Cambridge poetry aggressively and disgustedly incorporates the language of power. Its popular and establishment reception reminds me a bit of the reception of Schönbergian serialism, though without the press outcry. Everyone can understand the point of it but few can abide the results. Even a century later, it's rare to hear Schönberg's serial music on Radio 3. A pity, because it's a wonderful thing. I wish I felt so unconflicted about J. H. Prynne's Brass or John Wilkinson's Lake Shore Drive. I suppose I'm not quite so ignorant of poetry as of music; so everything appears more of a battleground. And besides, this poetry is art of our own time, rarely a matter of simple satisfaction.

Painting by Kyli John

[Image source: from Collision, Kyli John exhibition at the Herrick Gallery, 93 Piccadilly (9th - 14th April 2019.) Artist: https://www.instagram.com/kyli.john/ ]