# Swedish: Men gripandena verkar inte ha avskräckt



## pigg

Sammanhanget är som följer:
"Varpå 700 personer greps av New York Polisen. *Men gripandena verkar inte har avskräckt*. Igår fortsatte protesterna som nu går in på sin tredje vecka. 
"Det hörde jag i ett nyhetsklipp om Ockupera Wall Streetrörelsen. 
Jag undrar om "gripandena" här syftar på de som är gripnade, eller händelsen om att många har varit gripna? 
Och jag är inte säker på "avskräckt" här. Menar det att gripandena har inte skrämt bort protesterna?

Tack för hjälpen på förhand!


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## jonquiliser

Exakt, på bägge punkterna; 'gripandena' syftar på det faktum att 700 personer greps. Men detta faktum (att så många gripits) har inte hållit demonstranterna borta utan protesterna har fortsatt.


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## pigg

Tack, men en fråga till, varför är det"gripandena" och inte "gripandet", för "att 700 personer greps " är väl en sak?
Tack på för hand!


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## Tjahzi

Nej, varje gång en person grips ses det som en enskild händelse. Således är det _gripandena _snarare än _gripandet._


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## Ben Jamin

Tjahzi said:


> Nej, varje gång en person grips ses det som en enskild händelse. Således är det _gripandena _snarare än _gripandet._


Is this plural usage of gripandena an old feature in Swedish, or is this a modern development (under the influence of the English "plural epidemy")?


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## Tjahzi

I don't know. To me it seems obvious that we are dealing with a multitude of arrests and as such the plural is the only logical solution. Would you prefer singular in Norwegian?


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## AutumnOwl

I would think that _gripandena_ means that the arrests was made at different times and/or at different places, which the fact that the demonstrations are going on for the third week. If all the arrests had been made at one occation would be something like: _Gripandet av 700 personer under måndagens demonstrationer..." _while in this case it's probably _"Gripandena av 700 personer under de senaste veckornas demonstrationer...", _and not so much the number of people that are arrested.


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## Tjahzi

Well, yes, of course. If you round up all the 700 people and chain them with a single chain, then it is indeed a case of a single arrest.


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## Ben Jamin

In many languages, including English, Norwegian, and I suppose Swedish too, the words like "arrest", "life", and so on were treated as abstract nouns, such as "breath", "hearing" or "honour" still are. A couple of decades ago, a process started in the English language, a process of change from abstract to concrete, and as a result from singular only to plural. Nowadays the English say "we saved our lives", not "our life" as they would have said some 50 years ago. The same process was imported to the Norwegian, and I suppose to the Swedish language. If the process continues we'll hear expressions like "the people stoped their breaths" and "you are tarnishing our honours", and "we have bad hearings", forst in English, then in Norwegian, and than (if not at the same time) in Swedish.


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## BlueSuede

> Well, yes, of course. If you round up all the 700 people and chain them  with a single chain, then it is indeed a case of a single arrest.


...and everyone among these 700 people is a subject of a one 7 hundreth of one arrest? No, I don't think so. Every one of these 700 people feel that they are arrested, individually.
But I do appreciate your humour.


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## Tjahzi

Well, yes, but keep in mind that this is not a normal noun but formed from the past participle (and as such technically a gerund).

---

Well, they are indeed subject to the same one act of arresting, just as the blowing up of a plane would be killing multiple people in a single act of murder.


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## Ben Jamin

BlueSuede said:


> ...and everyone among these 700 people is a subject of a one 7 hundreth of one arrest? No, I don't think so. Every one of these 700 people feel that they are arrested, individually.
> But I do appreciate your humour.


No, arrest does not need to mean "a single act of arresting a person", it may be a generalized idea of "arrest". In English ypu can still say "killing of all these people" (not "killings", one for each dead person").


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## BlueSuede

Well, if I was arrested and my friend was arrested, isn't that two arrests, even if we were arrested at the same time? As true as 1+1=2? 
And you wrote "A couple of decades ago, a process started in the English language, a  process of change from abstract to concrete, and as a result from  singular only to plural. Nowadays the English say "we saved our lives",  not "our life" as they would have said some 50 years ago. The same  process was imported to the Norwegian, and I suppose to the Swedish  language.", supporting my idea? 

Let's go on topic again, and now I am serious: The difference between arrests, gripande, and arrest, gripande, is so minute in Swedish, that it doesn't make anyone raise their eyebrows.


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