Gällande gällande och andra avseendemarkörer

This article deals with the development of the kind of lexical items in Swedish that correspond to English regarding, concerning, as regards, with reference to etc., i.e. lexical items that head phrases specifying in what respect a certain constituent of the clause (or the entire proposition) pertains. The quantitative analysis, based on large newspaper corpora, reveals a most dynamic situation; “in-what-respect markers” come and go. Two newcomers have appeared recently, gällande (from the participle of gälla ‘concern’) and när det kommer till (overtaken, word by word, from English when it comes to), while others, e.g. beträffande (‘concerning’) and i fråga om (lit.: in question about) are rapidly losing ground. However, the decline of the latter started before the former were beginning to gain ground. Instead, it seems as när det gäller (lit. when it concerns), the – beyond comparison – most frequent in-what-respect marker in present-day Swedish, and the related vad gäller (lit. [in] what concerns) have ousted – from a very modest position before 1950 – earlier more frequent variants. The hypothesis that a competitive in-what-respect marker should be syntactically versatile is tested and strengthened, but it does not fully explain the complex dynamics of the field. Nevertheless, the author dares to suggest some further success of both gällande and när det kommer till.https://doi.org/10.33063/diva-399601