Abstract   The actions of Sweden during the second world war has been richly discussed over the years. Sweden declared itself neutral in the war between the great powers but did not manage to maintain its neutrality. The nature of neutrality has often been discussed; whether it is of a idealistic or more Pragmatic nature. Realism, a theory of international relations, would argue that it is of a more Pragmatic nature, hence these two are in opposition. Realism also takes credit in claiming to explain how and why a state chooses to act in a situation. The aim of this essay was to, by examining specific decisions made by the swedish government during the Second World War, come to a conclusion whether or not Sweden?s proclaimed neutrality was of idealistic or Pragmatic nature, and thereby possibly coming to a conclusion about neutrality in large.It was also to examine the worth of realism as an explanatory theory by applying it to this specific case; to examine its validity.The study was conducted using a qualitative method; presenting empiric facts and then by using a decision model interpreting the actions and results from a realist perspective. The study concludes that realism has explanatory power, although not a complete one.

Different abilities are of importance to Pragmatics, there among hearing. Hearing impairment can affect language development and also Pragmatic ability. The aim of the present paper was to study the Pragmatic ability in terms of request for clarification in children with Hearing Impairment (HI) in conversation with children with no known hearing impairment, henceforth normally hearing (NH). The present study also describes requests for clarification sequentially in detail, and also highlights points where there may be observable differences between children with and without hearing impairment. Eight conversational pairs consisting of one child with HI and one NH child were studied.

The purpose of this project is to survey the presence of folk expressions, i.e. proverbs, proverbial expressions, wellerisms and familiar expressions, in some of the realistic children?s books by Astrid Lindgren. The purpose also includes the study of the contextual and Pragmatic functions of the expressions as well as how the expressions are integrated into the text by the change of the formulaic standard structure. The contextual and Pragmatic function concern when, how and why the expressions are used and who the users of the expressions are.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to investigate children?s librarian?s perspectives on children?s literature and reading of fiction books. This is a comparative study of Swedish and Lithuanian librarians. The main questions to be answered are how children?s librararians at public libraries motivate their selection and purchase of fiction for children and what kind of considerations there are behind the purchases.

A cochlear implant (CI) is a hearing device that makes it possible for individuals who are deaf or has a severe hearing impairment to receive auditory information and develop spoken language. The Pragmatic ability may be affected. In short, Pragmatics may be described as the study of language use in social contexts. Pragmatic ability can be seen as the result of the individual?s behavior as well as the underlying causes.The aim of the present study was to describe the Pragmatic ability in children with CI.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine the user service discourses in the field of public libraries that can be identified in four Swedish library journals. Also which underlying causes that control the discourses and the consequences of them are examined. Questions in this study are: which discourses can be found, what characterises them, what kind of different discourses concerning technology in society control the user service discourses and what are the consequences of them. The theoretical starting-point is Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes discourse theory. The method is text analytic.

Theory of mind involves the ability to take another person?s perspective in thought, emotions and intentions.  There is today a lack of instruments to assess children?s development of Theory of Mind (ToM) in Swedish. ToM is considered by many scientists to be the basis for development of Pragmatic competence. The relationship between these two abilities is complex and not fully resolved. Both abilities are important components for the development of social skills.    The purpose of this study was to compare 4 and 5-year olds ToM-ability measured with a Swedish version of Wellman and Liu?s ToM-scale, Sally Anne and Social Emotional Test with estimated Pragmatic competence measured with the Children?s Communication Checklist (CCC).

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the meaning the reading group of the public library has to a number of users. To fulfill the aim the following three questions have been formulated: 1) What do a number of users expect from the reading group of the public library? 2) Which approach/attitude or approaches/attitudes do a number of users have to reading and to talking about reading? 3) How do a number of users experience the ongoing reading group?The research is founded on qualitative interviews with five users that take part in three different reading groups in public libraries. The theories that are used is the theory of three so called strategies - the Pragmatic, the traditionalistic, the emancipatory ? and the theory of flow.

The purpose of this master-thesis in library and information studies is to investigate how different views on children´s literature show up in pedagogical work in preschool. The aim is also to study methods used in the pedagogical work with literature. Are there any connections between views and methods? Is any view predominant or are they used in combination? The question at issue is: "Are there any connections between different views on childrens literature and pedagogical methods in preschool, and if so, how do they show?" The framework of theory is based on epistemological concepts viewing children´s literature by John Hultberg. In "Om humaniora, litteratur och tradition" he sorts out three strategies: the Pragmatic, the traditional, and the emancipating.

Choosing the right user experience evaluation method can be difficult, choosing the right one for mobile user experience can be even more so. One major cause is that mobile usage is context dependent. Another contributing factor is that there is not one widely adopted theory or framework for user experience due to its complexity.The purpose of this study was to evaluate an existing method artifact in its feasibility for evaluating mobile applications. The chosen method, AttrakDiff2 is a self-reporting semantic differential questionnaire to evaluate the user experience of an interactive product, based on its hedonic and Pragmatic qualities.A study was conducted where the participants assessed one mobile and one web application, which were later rated with AttrakDiff2. The completion of the questionnaire was conducted as a think-aloud session subsequently followed by an interview.The results suggest that the participants experience was affected more by the evaluated application style than the different platforms.

In order to convince, one must know which arguments are most suitable for the specific situation. But even if you think you know how others will react to your arguments, you may be wrong. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to find out a way of examining to what extent informative text take account to the subjective views of their addressees. The theoretical framework is Blitzer's theory of the rhetorical situation, Pragmatic theory of speech acts and their presuppositions, Burk´s theory of consubstantiality and phenomenographic theory of subjective perceptions. Methodologically, phenomenography has also been used as a guideline for selecting informants, collecting data and processing the interviews.

According to the widespread concept of deception, deception is to intentionally cause someone to acquire or continue to have a false belief.  This paper refutes this notion and argues for a definition of deception based on a view that deception is the misuse of communication with the purpose to achieve a further end; an end that, is believed, can?t be reached without the misuse of communication. It is shown that this new definition can handle cases that earlier definitions could not handle without leading to absurd Pragmatic consequences. In addition, the proposed definition makes it possible to properly distinguish between deception and attempted deception..

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the transition from SAB to DDC in the public libraries of Sigtuna.More specifically, it aims at investigating why the decision was made to adopt the DDC and how the system has been implemented. Particular attention is drawn to the difficulties and problems that have arisen while organising the libraries open shelves with DDC and to the ways in which the difficulties have been handled. These questions are examined through a Pragmatic perspective on Knowledge Organization that focuses on the contexts and domains in which the classification system is used. The empirical material is drawn from qualitative interviews with the former director of Sigtuna public libraries and with the in-charge of the catalogue department.                                                                   .

According to the widespread concept of deception, deception is to intentionally cause someone to acquire or continue to have a false belief.  This paper refutes this notion and argues for a definition of deception based on a view that deception is the misuse of communication with the purpose to achieve a further end; an end that, is believed, can?t be reached without the misuse of communication. It is shown that this new definition can handle cases that earlier definitions could not handle without leading to absurd Pragmatic consequences. In addition, the proposed definition makes it possible to properly distinguish between deception and attempted deception..

There are reasons to believe that recent changes in the Swedish academic library environment create new images of identity. New information technology, changed educational methods and increasing numbers of students in higher education heavily influence the professional basis for librarians. The purpose of this essay is to examine and describe how the images of identity are conceived and expressed by staff in two university colleges in Sweden, Malmö University and Södertörn University. We define identity as the images of what the library is, what it is aiming to be in the future, what it should do and how. In a qualitative study attitudes towards and opinions of the role of the library in the university environment are investigated.