FAIR and near-synonyms in English and Swedish. Differences and similarities in use

Abstract: In this study, the aim is to examine the word fair and words that have a similar meaning. Two more words in English have been chosen – just and right – and two words in Swedish, rättvis and rätt. We seek to establish if there are similarities and differences between the lexemes and between the languages in the use of these lexemes. Anna Wierzbicka analyzed the word fair and the concept of fairness. She also looked at the word right and arrived at the conclusion that there can be three different senses to use the word: moral, intellectual and conversational (Wierzbicka 2006). A second, and more specific aim of this study is to test these results and determine if these senses also apply to the English near-synonyms and their Swedish translations. However, we only consider the moral and the intellectual senses, since this use not is possible in Swedish and also because our non-dialogic data source limits the possibilities for investigating the conversational role of such a lexeme.