Welcome to
A Norwegian Centre of Excellence

The Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Linguistics (CASTL) conducts comparative studies to explore the characteristic elements of linguistic variation, and to determine the parameters along which languages differ. The research is intended to provide a theoretical grounding for language planning, language teaching, language technology, and the standardization and establishment of orthographies. Our investigations, which are organized by theoretical topics relevant to all languages, crucially rely on solid empirical research. Much of CASTL’s empirical research is based in the North. No linguist could live and work in Tromsø without becoming interested in Saami. CASTL linguists also work on dialectal variation in the North Germanic languages. In this area we pursue not only theoretical characterizations of the special properties of these dialects, but we are also actively engaged in the documentation of microvariation among the dialects. Under the auspices of CASTL’s NORMS (Nordic Centre of Excellence in Microcomparative Syntax) wing, a team of linguists documented small details of dialectal variation on Senja, a large island in Northern Norway. The careful documentation carried out on the empirical side of the NORMS project comes at a crucial moment: some of the most conservative and distinct dialects in Scandinavia are falling prey to a general regional leveling and the differences among the dialects are diminishing. If they are not documented now, before they disappear forever, then we will have lost a wealth of information about the limits of dialectal variation. Our work on languages in our part of the world led CASTL in 2006 to the creation of the Nordic Language Variation Network (NLVN), which is a cooperative project including six Nordic research groups. With funding from Nordforsk, we investigate issues of linguistic variation, viewing them from both sociolinguistic and generative perspectives. For more information about the center and its activities, please follow the links on the left menu.

Next at CASTL:

Tarald Taraldsen celebratory workshop 9.-10. June 2008