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This empirically based study aims at establishing the frequency, distribution, tenacity and the nature of errors produced by more than 700 advanced Swedish learners of French, at different university levels. The errors are classified in grammatical and lexical categories. Four grammatical categories (articles, nouns, pronouns, verbs) have been selected for a thorough examination, and examples of different types of errors are presented and commented upon. The error analysis follows, principally, the steps suggested by Corder (1974) and implies the discussion of such concepts as error, norm and usage.

The verbs present the most frequent and tenacious errors constituting at each level about a third of all errors. The proportions of the different types of errors change according to task and level. The errors concerning tenses predominate in the translation tests, those concerning conjugations in the diagnostic test. As for pronouns, they cause 40 % of all errors in the diagnostic test (fill-in/transformation tests), 7 %-8 % in the translation tests. This reduction is partly due to the fact that many pronouns are necessarily regarded as part of the construction of a verb and classed as such. Put together, the errors concerning gender, orthography and vocabulary constitute 40 % at the advanced levels.

The study includes a correlational analysis aiming at confirming or confuting some hypotheses regarding the interrelation, on the one hand between the results of the different parts of the two tests given during the first term of the university studies (vocabulary, grammar, metalingual knowledge), on the other hand beween the results and some external factors such as marks in French (secondary school), stay in French-speaking country, length of previous studies of French, etc. Among other things, it is shown that the students’ results in grammar are systematically better than those in vocabulary and that six years of previous studies of French do not generally lead to better results than three years’ studies.

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The present study focusses on the theatre audience, and on its’ role in the maintenance of the theatrical situation. Using video-recorded performances of relatively naturalistic, modern dramas, the study examines the behaviour of the audience in relation to the unfolding of stage events. Such behaviour is described through close inspection of the sounds the audience produces, consisting primarily of coughing, throat-clearing, and laughter.

The study contributes to the growing body of research surrounding ethnomethodological conversation analysis (CA). CA methods are used to analyse not only an audience’s overt reactions to stage events, but also the actions occurring outside these relatively short-lived phenomena in the context of a theatre performance.

It is demonstrated that members of the audience refrain from making « vocal noise » during the verbal interaction of actors, and some of the resources used to achieve this end are described. These include the interpretation of the emerging dialogue, of the relative positioning of actors and of the actors’ use of gesture. Members of the audience are observed making vocal noise around possible completions in the sequence of ongoing stage actions, a placing which seems to make it maximally unobtrusive.

Furthermore, the audience’s laughter is described. It is argued that members of the audience negociate collective moments of laughter with each other and with the actors. In doing so, the audience displays a sensitive awareness of the other members of the audience and the performers on stage.

It is finally suggested that vocal noise on one hand and laughter on the other are differently placed in relation to an emerging action. This relative placing seems to indicate their producers’ different orientations to these actions, according to which vocal noise is to be hidden and laughter to be taken as an overt reaction.

This dissertation has three goals : to establish an inventory of translation strategies applicable to the translation of metaphor, to investigate how the application of these strategies affects the balance in metaphorical quality between source text and target text, and, finally, to determine whether this balance is a useful indicator of the direction of the translation as a whole, towards either adequacy or acceptability.

To carry out this research the author has established a corpus comprising 250 metaphors from the novel La goutte d’or by Michel Tournier and its Swedish translation, Gulddroppen by C.G. Bjurström. Based on the criteria thematical and contextual connection 158 metaphors from this corpus have been selected for analysis.The strategy used in the translation of each metaphor has been established. The degree of balance in metaphorical quality between the two texts has then been determined and its significance as an indicator of the direction of the translation as a whole has been discussed.

The underlying theory and methodology of the study are those of Gideon Toury as outlined in his book Descriptive Translation Studies and beyond. The study is thus essentially descriptive in nature.

The dissertation is divided into two parts. The first part gives a survey of well known research within the fields of metaphor theory and translation theory. Various theories concerning the requested equality between a text and its translation are presented, as well as inventories of translation strategies established by a number of researchers. The second part contains the analysis of the selected metaphors and establishes a set of strategies for this purpose.