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Previous works have explored the options of Pair Merging R and v as well as T and C, respectively, yielding R‐v and T‐C with various consequences. This paper proposes that v and T can yield the complex head v‐T, an amalgam formed by external Pair Merge. Some empirical ramifications for the verb cluster and the middle field in German are explored. If tenable, the current approach supports the idea that heads can Merge freely, either by internal or external Set Merge, as well as by internal or by external Pair Merge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that German and Dutch have productive diminutive morphology. What is much less discussed is the fact that several other Germanic languages do not have such productive morphology, notably the Scandinavian languages. Instead, these languages form compounds to express a diminutive meaning. This paper addresses the puzzle of why the Scandinavian languages do not have productive diminutive morphology. The paper argues that the culprit is the particular definite suffix that the Scandinavian languages have. This is a postnominal definite suffix that occupies a low position in the nominal functional spine. It is argued that the presence of this suffixed article accounts for the lack of productive synthetic diminutive formation in these languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that German and Dutch have productive diminutive morphology. What is much less discussed is the fact that several other Germanic languages do not have such productive morphology, notably the Scandinavian languages. Instead, these languages form compounds to express a diminutive meaning. This paper addresses the puzzle of why the Scandinavian languages do not have productive diminutive morphology. The paper argues that the culprit is the particular definite suffix that the Scandinavian languages have. This is a postnominal definite suffix that occupies a low position in the nominal functional spine. It is argued that the presence of this suffixed article accounts for the lack of productive synthetic diminutive formation in these languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Merels (also called Nine Men's Morris) comprises a family of traditional board games with ancient roots. Between medieval and modern times, merels saw an interesting onomasiological shift: Several European languages took up a new name for the game. This new name is sometimes claimed to have originated in German, but the details surrounding this naming practice are still unclear. There are mainly two German groups of names for this game, the older names based on the number 9 (Neunstein, Neunten Stein, Neunermal etc.) and the younger based on the German word for "mill" (Mühle, Mühlspiel, Mühleziehen etc.). Relying on philological evidence (partly pulled from lexicographical data) this paper outlines the evolution of German terms for merels, focusing on the naming practices from the 15th to 17th century. Possible motivations of the name Mühle are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the morpho-syntax of phrasal proper names like Deutsche Bahn 'German Railway' and Norske Skog 'Norwegian Forest' in German and Norwegian. As regards determiner elements, there are three types of phrasal proper names in German: some proper names do not have a definite article, some do, and yet others exhibit a possessive. Depending on the syntactic context, the first two types pattern the same as regards the presence or absence of the article but contrast with the third, where the possessive is always present. It is proposed that proper names in German vary in their structure as regards the presence of the DP-level: unlike articles, possessives have a referential marker, and a DP is obligatorily projected with the latter element. Norwegian is different. While proper names in Norwegian also vary in the presence or absence of determiners, there is no flexibility—determiners are always present or always absent, independent of the syntactic context. It is proposed that unlike in German, the DP-level in Norwegian is always present. As argued by Roehrs (Glossa J Gen Linguist, 5(1):1–38, 2020, https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1267), phrasal proper names involve a regular syntactic derivation. Given that elements of regular DPs are sensitive to definiteness in Norwegian, it is proposed that Norwegian proper names involve an obligatory definiteness feature. As this feature surfaces in the DP-level, the latter must be present in that language in all instances. Besides this cross-linguistic difference, we document that phrasal PN may show features of recursivity evidenced most clearly in Norwegian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study focuses on German word-initial consonant clusters and asks whether feature-based phonotactic preferences correlate with patterns of type and token frequencies in present-day usage. The corpus-based analyses are based on a comprehensive list of such clusters, representing current usage, and on a number of feature-based phonotactic preferences. Correlating the variables by means of a correlation analysis and a regression analysis leads to a number of observations relevant to the general topic of featural-segmental structures versus usage. First, out of eighteen correlations between (raw and logarithmic) type and token frequencies, and preferred feature patterns, only one significant correlation was found. Second, a regression analysis led to similar results: out of thirteen variables tested, only two contribute to logarithmic type and token frequencies. Only a limited set of cluster properties investigated in the present paper constitutes a relevant predictor of frequency measures. The study thus demonstrates, in accordance with other recent evidence, that preferred phonetic/phonological structures and their usage frequency constitute two separate domains for which distributions may not have to coincide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: German is exceptional in its use of noun capitalisation. It has been suggested that sentence‐internal capitalisation as in German may benefit processing by specifically marking a noun and thus a noun phrase (NP). However, other cues, such as a determiner, can also indicate an NP. The influence of capitalisation on processing may thus be context‐dependent, that is, dependent on other cues. Precisely this context dependency is investigated in the current study: Is there an effect of capitalisation on reading and is this affected by the presence of other cues such as a determiner (specifically, an article)? Methods: We ran an eye‐tracking study with 30 German‐speaking adults, measuring fixations during sentence reading. Critical NPs either contained correctly capitalised nouns or not and were presented either with or without a determiner. Results: The results show that both the presence of capitalisation on the noun and the presence of a determiner led to faster reading. When no determiner was present to signal the NP, the presence of noun capitalisation aided reading most. Conclusions: From these results, we conclude that the influence of capitalisation is indeed context dependent: Capitalisation aids processing most when no other cue is present. Thus, different cues play a role in NP recognition. Based on these findings, we argue that noun capitalisation should not be studied in isolation. We argue that a better understanding of capitalisation as a reading aid is relevant for teaching reading strategies. Highlights: What is already known about this topicGerman has the quite exceptional characteristic of sentence‐internal capitalisation of all nouns.The function of sentence‐internal capitalisation is controversial. What this paper addsThis study experimentally shows that capitalisation and presence of an article conspire in NP recognition in German.We find that capitalisation aids processing. This effect is strongest when no determiner is present. Implications for theory, policy or practiceWe argue that possible reading aids for NP recognition (like capitalisation, articles and adjectives) should not be studied in isolation.Investigations of these aids and how they may interact should also be done for other languages.A better understanding of capitalisation as a reading aid is relevant for teaching reading strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the SAGT Turkish–German code-switching treebank, and observations and annotation challenges we encountered during its development. The treebank consists of transcriptions of bilingual conversations annotated with several layers: language IDs, lemmas, POS tags, morphological features, and dependency relations. The annotations follow the Universal Dependencies annotation scheme and the conventions used in monolingual treebanks as much as possible. We present and discuss a number of issues that arise because of the need for consistent multilingual annotation within a single treebank, as well as the informal language, which is where code-switching is observed most. Besides proposing solutions to these issues, we present some observations about code-switching phenomena that are only possible to observe in a data set with rich linguistic annotation. The treebank was annotated with a focus on quality of annotations through an iterative process of detecting and correcting annotation errors. We also present quantitative measures for indication of annotation quality. The code-switching treebank created in this study is released to the public through Universal Dependencies repositories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analyses the translation of motion events from Spanish novels into German and English. More precisely, it focuses on three translation agents: translation students, professional translators and the neural machine translation tool DeepL. The study, contextualised in the Thinking-for-translating hypothesis (Slobin, 1997, 2000, 2003), aims at investigating whether all the information about the motion events in Spanish novels is transferred or otherwise Manner information is added, as might be expected due to intertypological differences (German and English languages are satellite-framed languages and Spanish is a verb-framed language, Talmy, 1985, 2000) and the data obtained from studies based on professional translation (cf. Slobin, 1996; Cifuentes-Férez, 2013; Molés- Cases, 2019). Overall, the results show that the way students and professionals deal with the translation of motion events is influenced by their mother tongues. However, it seems that, in general, students are more reluctant to add information about Manner in motion events than professional translators. Besides, the most observed translation technique in the case of DeepL corresponds to literal translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to understand how German speakers living in Norway with their families navigate partially shared repertoires. Using the notion of legitimate peripheral participation, I aim to analyse how family members work towards shared repertoires in the family or account for only partially shared linguistic and cultural repertoires within the family and wider social contexts. This speaker-centred research draws on interviews and multimodal activities. Language experiences, ideologies and narratives are analysed to understand subject positioning and negotiations among the family members (and the researcher). Findings indicate that speakers distinguish social spaces that are governed by the family language policy and others that are perceived as more peripheral, albeit relevant to interact with friends and relatives. Apart from the immediate experiences of family members, national contexts and references are used in the interviews and creative tasks to construct the family's position in a transnational space. Within this special issue, this paper relates to the use of complex semiotic resources that families use to construct and maintain family language policies, especially in light of the subjects' positions vis-à-vis ideological and societal discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate around the effects of globalization and the influence of English on languages and cultures worldwide (amongst others Phillipson 2009; Pieterse 2009; Blommaert 2010). These effects, which are mostly viewed from the perspectives of homogenization and hybridization in the German case by previous research, are reconsidered in this paper by means of shedding light on the yet undiscovered linguistic and cultural changes on current German adult contemporary radio media. By means of a quantitative and qualitative analysis of radio language as well as interviews with the producers of radio content, particular attention is paid to the usage of anglicisms on air, journalistic practices and the radio format as well as how these are shaped by linguistic and cultural flows. The term asymmetrical hybridization is proposed to describe the uneven effects of linguistic and cultural flows on Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The encoding of path shows systematic inter-typological variation, with speakers of satellite-framed languages (S-language; e. g. German, Polish) typically conveying path outside the main verb (in particles, prefixes, etc.) and speakers of verb-framed languages (V-language; e. g. Spanish) typically conveying path in the main verb. However, less is known about intra-typological variation in the expression of path, especially for bilingual patterns of path encoding. In this paper, we examine path descriptions produced by two groups of bilinguals and compare the descriptions made by these bilinguals with those made by native speakers of the corresponding L1 and L2 languages. The first group consisted of native Polish speakers who were L2 German speakers (intra-typological L1-L2 transition), while the second group comprised native Polish speakers who were L2 Spanish speakers (inter-typological L1-L2 transition). Our results provide evidence for greater alignment to L2 among bilinguals learning an L2 from a different typological group (i. e. Polish L1-Spanish L2 bilinguals), and closer alignment to L1 among bilinguals learning an L2 from the same typological group (i. e. Polish L1-German L2 bilinguals). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The orientation of phraseological nomination towards the human allows the reflection of everyday collective observations, experiences and evaluations of a certain (norm-deviating) behaviour or action. The paper explores the role of the linguistic image in the metaphorisation of the concept ‘Wahnsinn’/‘Verrücktheit’ in German and Romanian, in order to ask about the productive initial domains for the conceptualisation of this term, since conceptual spheres allow conclusions to be drawn about the models of thought and values anchored in the language. The interlingual analysis of this particular excerpt from the German and Romanian lexicon of phrases makes it clear that one cannot speak of serious differences in the phraseological realisation or of differing valuations and that universal and productive metaphorical patterns can be discerned in the conceptualisation of ‘Wahnsinn’/‘Verrücktheit’ in German and in Romanian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People use language to express their thoughts and emotions, as well as reflect and construct their attitudes and knowledge (Haid, 2019). Therefore, it is essential to develop oral communication not only in the mother tongue, but also when learning foreign languages. Oral communication or interaction may be defined as using language for communicative purposes by interlocutors who focus mainly on the content of their conversation, not so much on the correctness of their language use (Philp & Tognini, 2009). Usually, this means conversations between two persons, and sometimes also listening to the interlocutor or delivering a monologue (Eriksson, 2020). When learning a foreign language, we primarily resort to the notions of speaking and listening in connection with oral communication (Krelle, 2011). The main problem in a foreign language class is the learners' reluctance to communicate (Ikonomu, 2010; Kroemer & Hantschel, 2019). The DESI (Deutsch Englisch Schülerleistungen International, 2001-2008) study on the proficiency of German schoolchildren in English and German shows that, on average, teachers speak 70% of the classroom time and learners only 30%. For example, if the number of pupils is 15 and the lesson lasts for 45 minutes, each learner can only speak for about one minute during the whole lesson (Helmke et al., 2007). The significance of the development and practice of speaking in a foreign language and the role of teaching communicative skills is also emphasised in the Estonian context because, in certain cases, teaching foreign languages is largely focused on preparing for the exam (EVK, 2009-2017). A similar view is expressed in the report on the state of the language in Estonia, in which the methodology used in foreign language learning is criticised for focusing excessively on grammar and language (Lukk et al., 2017). Dialogues and speaking tasks used in language classes often differ from real-life communicative interactions as they are limited to the themes and vocabulary contained in textbooks (Lütge, 2017). Textbooks are often aimed at the correct use of grammatical forms rather than concentrating on grammar for communication purposes (Delius, 2020). However, the natural process of language acquisition is forgotten in foreign language lessons. Didacticised dialogues in textbooks use complete sentences without any sentence breaks or repetitions and with their syntax and vocabulary corresponding to the use of the "language of distance" (Distanzsprache). Comparisons with oral language corpora show that the language of textbook dialogues differs from natural language usage to a great degree (Delius, ibid.). Oral communication in a language class requires an independent, creative and flexible approach and is not restricted to knowing grammar rules. While speaking, the language user has to consider the language, the content, the present situation and the listener, which in methodological terms means the principle "message before accuracy", i.e., the content is more relevant than the accuracy of the language used (Kurtz, 2013). Research shows that in interactions, it is more important to express yourself comprehensively rather than point out mistakes (Rösler, 2012). Speaking exercises in the form of different games, role-plays, simulations, improvisation and projects are recommended to stimulate interaction (Kurtz, 2013). This paper examines the influence of using fictitious identity as a technique for learning and teaching foreign languages (French 'simulation globale') and on the communication readiness of the students in teaching German. Fictitious identity is defined as an activity-oriented language teaching technique in which learners assume new imaginary identities for an extended period, creating an imaginary universe for themselves (Maak, 2011). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we apply a mixed-methods approach on epistemics and evidence in interaction to the investigation of the unstressed German modal particle wohl and its different functions as a linguistic resource for displaying knowledge in interaction. In addition, the paper takes a regional perspective based on the observation that speakers from the Northwest German area use wohl differently in constructing knowledge stances than speakers of other German varieties. Methodologically, we follow a combined approach of conversation analysis and multivariate statistical analyses of German Face-to-Face interactions. In contrast to traditional classifications of wohl displaying an assumptive [K–] stance, the results of the sequential analyses in the paper reveal that the modal particle is used to display all functions of the epistemic gradient from a [K–] to a [K+] stance. Moreover, the quantitative analysis shows that there is a regional effect, as primarily Northwestern German speakers use the epistemic [K+] function of wohl in interactions. We discuss the results with regard to the role that interaction analysis and regionality should play in investigating modal particles. Finally, we link our findings to the historical and contact induced factors that especially determine the divergent usage of wohl in the Northwestern area. • We investigate the German modal particle wohl applying a CA approach on epistemics. • Wohl is not only deployed to display a [K–] but also a [K+] status in interaction. • There are regional peculiarities regarding the epistemic use of wohl in German. • Predominantly Northwestern German speakers index a [K+] status with wohl. • Parallels are evident between the Northwest German wohl and the Dutch particle wel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the processes and actions involved in hiding, searching for, collecting and archiving German colonial records during and after the end of the First World War in Tanganyika. The paper explains how the Germans, before leaving East Africa, hid their records to prevent the allied forces, or anyone else, from accessing them. It argues that German colonial records which were unearthed from different parts of the country after the war played a significant role in the administration of mandate Tanganyika and were inherited by the independent government of Tanganyika not only as a record of past for historians or researchers, but also as cultural objects that symbolize part of the country’s historical continuity, collective memory as well as national identity. In explaining this legacy of German records, the author shares Joan Schwartz and Terry Cook’s view that archives or records wield power over the shape and direction of collective memory and national identity, and over how we know ourselves as individuals, groups and societies. The paper draws on archival and other documentary sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internal states, e.g., emotions, cognitive states, or desires, are often verbalized by figurative means, in particular by embodied metaphors involving human senses, such as touch, taste, and smell. The present paper presents a database for German metaphorical expressions conveying internal states with human senses as their source domains. 168 metaphorical expressions from the source domains of vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and temperature combined with literal equivalents were collected and rated by 643 adults. The agreement between the metaphor and an equivalent literal expression, as well as emotional valence, arousal, and familiarity values were assessed using a 7-point Likert scale. Between the metaphorical expressions and their equivalents, familiarity, but not valence or arousal differed significantly while agreement ratings indicated high similarity in meaning. The novel database offers carefully controlled stimuli that can be used in both empirical metaphor research and research on internal state language. Using part of the stimuli in a sentence completion experiment revealed a significant preference for literal over metaphorical expressions that cannot be attributed to higher familiarity levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the dynamics of the use of water metaphors in refugee discourse as reflected in the German version of Wikipedia. The free encyclopaedia allows us to analyse the dynamics of metaphor use in a unique way, by comparing the edits of an article during its construction in relation to the comments on the discussion pages. The theoretical framework for the analysis of water metaphors in the analysed fragment of refugee discourse is provided by discourse linguistic analysis, which, starting from Foucault's tradition of conceptualizing discourse, focuses on transtextual linguistic patterns, both on their systematicity and contextual use, as well as on their dynamics. The results of the study show that water metaphors play an important role in the perspectivization of refugees in the analysed fragment of refugee discourse from the German Wikipedia, forming a diverse multimodal metaphorical field. The decline in the use of such metaphors over the course of the article's construction in the highlighted parts of the descriptive text can be linked to the consensus on the sensitive use of water metaphors in refugee discourse that is established on the discussion pages. Their frequent representation in quotations, however, points to an uncritical reproduction of metaphors from the media. Visual water metaphors are not thematized in the metalinguistic discussion and do not fluctuate, which indicates a narrow perception of the problematic nature of water metaphors in the fragment under observation. The results of the research signifi- cantly complement previous research on metaphors in media refugee discourse in several respects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides insights into online language practices among bilingual teenagers who speak and learn a lesser-used language. Regarding language diversity, the internet is seen to pose both challenges to and opportunities for smaller languages. Focusing on German-Upper Sorbian adolescents, this study enquires to what extent new media and technologies facilitate Sorbian-language maintenance and learning, and what influences language choice (German, Sorbian or other) in online environments. Via questionnaire and group discussion methods, it is revealed that German dominates the online activities of participants (n = 164). However, Sorbian assumes relatively stronger roles in online activities for school/homework, as well as chat, social media and internet telephoning. Although German dominates these users' online environments, the educational and interactive roles that Sorbian plays are a relatively good indicator of biliteracy activities. Yet these two roles do not seem to converge. Students claim to use technologies for the 'correct' use of Sorbian in the formal domain of education, whereas biliteracy in social media can also refer to ways in which German and Sorbian (and increasingly English) are mixed in informal, non-standard and creative ways. Language choice online largely reflects offline behaviours, yet new issues also emerge, such as available software in the minority language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper recounts some experiences on the Western Front of two men who had worked at the Ipswich Railway Workshops before the First World War. Lt. Colonel A. C. Fewtrell, who trained as a cadet engineer at Ipswich Railway Workshops, and was involved in the operations of a light railway unit on the Western Front presented a paper about his experiences to some graziers in New South Wales in 1920. Major S. H. Hancox had been in charge of the powerhouse at Ipswich Railway Workshops before enlisting and being sent to France where he worked on the construction of a section of the 60 cm gauge light railways during 1917. Hancox relates some of the horrific conditions he encountered through letters to his mother in Brisbane. In 1916, the British adopted the 60 cm gauge light railway system which was already being successfully used by both the Germans and the French. The British introduced the Hunslet 4-6-0T locomotives, many hundreds of other steam and early internal combustion locomotives as well as thousands of wagons providing a solution to maintaining the necessary supplies to the front lines. Following the end of the War, fifteen Hunslet locomotives built for use in France came to Queensland for use in the sugar industry. Hunslet Engine Company Works Number 1239, delivered to France in late 1916, was one of those Hunslet locomotives. We briefly follow the history of No.1239 after its delivery to Australia in 1920 and donation to the Queensland Museum in 2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English vague language (VL), as in general noun phrases, general extenders and general verbs, is central to casual conversation. It can have discourse functions and create an informality and solidarity. The rationale for the study described here was a gap in the literature vis-à-vis language learner metapragmatic awareness of VL in their L1. It was hypothesised that attitudes towards VL vary from language to language. This paper describes a comparative questionnaire study of German, Spanish and Mandarin speakers' attitudes to VL in their languages. Subjects were invited to translate English VL to their languages and to think of other vague forms: German speakers volunteered 'Dingsbums' and 'und so'; Spanish speakers suggested 'cómo se llame' and 'o algo así; Mandarin speakers noted 'na ge dong xi'. Subjects were also asked to describe social variables, domains and functions associated with their VL: German speakers saw VL as creating closeness but many felt that it made addressors sound unreliable and mildly impolite; Spanish speakers mostly saw VL as a way of showing a relaxed, close, comfortable, friendly, but a few saw it as an sign of laziness and impoliteness; Mandarin speakers responded that VL was a marker of friendly informality and solidarity but they mostly associated it with indifference, laziness, impatience, irritation, anger, disappointment, contempt and dishonesty. The paper concludes with suggestions of ways to incorporate tasks on VL into English language teaching classrooms, and to raise language teachers' awareness of English L2 users' beliefs and intercultural differences in terms of VL. • Vague language forms, functions and variation. • Close with family and friends. • Indifference, impoliteness with strangers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper discusses a possible correlation between the placement of pronominal objects with non-nominal antecedents in Norwegian, and the use of the pronouns es 'it' and das 'that' in German. For Norwegian object shift (OS), it has been shown that while pronominal objects with non-nominal antecedents generally do not shift, this is not the case when these elements take on the discourse function of continuing topics. In this paper, we show that a very similar pattern can be observed in German. However, this is not related to whether object pronouns scramble or not, but rather to which pronominal form is used to refer back to the clausal antecedent. In German, das is generally used to refer back to non-nominal antecedents, however, es is also sometimes an option. In this study, we find parallels between the use of OS and es, on the one hand, and lack of OS and das, on the other, and propose that the former is preferred when the proposition the proform refers back to is part of the common ground in the discourse. This ties in nicely with previous research on Norwegian OS, as in order for a proposition to constitute a continuing topic in the discourse, it has to be established as part of the interlocutors' common ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage speakers have been shown to use multiword units, which merge structural elements of both their languages, which do not conform to the combinability patterns of the monolingual variety. However, it is not clear to what extent heritage speakers actually have the knowledge of the corresponding monolingual sequences. The present study on Russian heritage speakers in Germany addresses the question of whether heritage speakers have receptive knowledge of monolingual multiword units that they do not command in production.The study followes a mixed methods design by combining corpus and experimental methodology.First, language production data of heritage speakers from two corpora were analysed for nontypical multiword units with prepositional phrases. In the second step, these nontypical multiword units as well as their typical monolingual equivalents served as test items in an acceptability judgement task performed by 53 Russian-German heritage speakers and 56 Russian native speakers.The results show that heritage and native speakers rate nontypical multiword units as less acceptable than their monolingual equivalents. However, the acceptability of typical and the unacceptability of nontypical expressions were more salient for native speakers, whereas heritage speakers in many cases tended to equally accept typical and nontypical items. Acceptability ratings varied according to test items in both groups, but there was no overlap between nontypical multiword units most acceptable to monolinguals and those most acceptable to heritage speakers.Our paper applies an innovative mixed method approach in investigating the receptive knowledge of monoloigual multiword units in heritage speakers. Additionally, it is one of the first studies looking at the reactions of native spekaers to novel multiword units produced by heritage speakers.The findings support the idea of a unified multilingual construction, suggesting that heritage speakers do have some receptive knowledge of monolingual multiword units but this knowledge differs from that of monolingual speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the explored aspects of the functioning of the different varieties of modern standard languages (here German in Austria and Russian in Belarus) as well as to the rather distinct terminology in this area. In this connection authors consider the terms "natiolect" and "regiolect" in comparison with the pluricentric languages theory. A special attention is paid to the problems of the translation specifics occurred in natiolect, especially to the problem of terminology and culture concepts translation. The problem of interlingual interference has also been taken into account. Authors emphasize the need to include these issues in the curriculum of translation and interpreting studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by earlier work on typological profiling of English by Benedikt Szmrecsányi and Bernd Kortmann ([1], [2], [3]), this paper investigates typological profiles of English, Spanish, German, and Slovak, applying Szmrecsányi and Kortmann's methodology of calculating the SYNTHETICITY INDEx and the ANALYTICITY INDEx based on 1,000-word corpus samples. The results show that Szmrecsányi and Kortmann's methodology is replicable, and confirm claims in the literature about degrees of analyticity and syntheticity of these languages. Instead of a simple analytic-synthetic continuum, Szmrecsányi and Kortmann's "typological space" [3] is used to visualize results, showing that languages can be both synthetic and analytic to varying degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a method for designing corpus exploration tasks and integrating them into an intermediate‐level German course during which learners collectively produce the audio description (AD) of a film trailer. ADs are additional soundtracks that inform blind people about the visual events that are considered necessary to understand a film. The Audiodeskription corpus, available on Sketch Engine, contains the AD scripts produced for two German television series. Exploring such a corpus to (re)write an AD script is an activity that is likely to foster language awareness of features of linguistic items needed for describing spatial events and visual perceptions. The tasks designed tackle learning issues identified during the course implemented at the teacher training department, Sorbonne University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a diachronic corpus-based contrastive pragmatic study of German and Japanese Second World War crime apologies. War apology is a very emotively loaded and sensitive phenomenon, in particular because the crimes perpetrated can never be undone. We approach war apologies by examining their pragmatic features and explore the diachronic development of these features. Our aim is to offer a different insight into the phenomenon of war apology than would have been obtained using critical discourse analysis-based and sociological research on language and politics, which often departs from and confirms ideologically loaded assumptions. We approach war apologies through the lens of speech act theory, focusing on apology as an 'extended' interactionally embedded phenomenon. Our corpus consists of apologies issued by Japanese and German representatives of the state. Our analysis not only shows that there are major differences between the public war apologies under investigation and interpersonal apologies, but also that there are significant differences between the realisations of Japanese and German war apologies across time. • Studies war apology from a strictly empirical and language-based vantage point. • Brings together the fields of contrastive pragmatics and language and politics. • Presents a diachronic analysis of apologies for Japanese and German war crimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their target paper, Bekaert & Enghels (B&E) (2019) show convincingly that deverbal nominalizations differ with regard to their 'nouniness': while some capture the semantics of their base verbs quite faithfully, others approximate the semantic prototype of a noun as they refer to more concrete concepts. This is also reflected in their distributional behavior. This response paper relates B&E's considerations to a different word-formation pattern in another language and to diachrony. Drawing on a corpus study of German ung -nominalization, it is shown how intracategorial heterogeneity can evolve diachronically, and the implications of this study as well as the research presented in the target paper for our understanding of categorial shift are discussed. • Bekaert & Enghels show that deverbal nouns often show intracategorial heterogeneity. • The present study taps into the diachronic origins of intracategorial heterogeneity. • The relationship between categorial shift as a synchronic and a diachronic phenomenon is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the expression of Source and Goal in German and Polish, on the basis of descriptions elicited with a series of video clips. As satellite-framed languages (Talmy 1985, 2000), both German and Polish mainly rely on grammatical morphemes to encode Path of motion with respect to Source and Goal. Nevertheless, despite this shared typological feature, these languages also display fine morphosyntactic and semantic differences. Our study reveals that the expression of Source and Goal is more asymmetrical in German than in Polish, both in types of linguistic resources and in semantic distinctions. We show that German speakers tend to combine Path satellites with Path verbs – including both deictic satellites and deictic verbs – more frequently in Source-oriented events, depicting them with finer semantic distinctions than Goal-oriented events. In the expression of the Ground, however, they tend to make finer distinctions in the expression of Goals as compared to Sources, by using a greater variety of prepositions. Polish speakers, by contrast, tend to express Source and Goal in a more symmetrical fashion. These cross-linguistic differences are discussed in the light of language-specific characteristics and their role in the expression – symmetrical or asymmetrical – of Source and Goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results of contrastive research of phraseological neologisms in German and Ukrainian. The research aimed at a conceptual analysis of phraseological neologisms used in digital media during the coronavirus pandemic in Germany and Ukraine. It was conducted in two steps: the description of structural-semantic features of selected phraseological units in both languages, and, by contrasting them to existing neologisms, the determination of their equivalence types. The material basis is formed with 96 German and 60 Ukrainian phraseological neologisms from the years 2020-2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I present a comparative analysis of caused-motion events (involving placement, removal, causation and transfer) in Spanish and German within an emerging Cognitive Construction Grammar theory of mind and language. The aim of this article is to offer a syntactic account by which argument structure information is required to understand the encoding of transferred object/target path in these languages. The core theoretical observation is that the spatial representation of events of transfer and placement is reliant on embodied patterns of constructional attachment (constructional attachment patterns) that are not attributable to typological differences such as particle or monomorphemic verbal encoding of target path. This insight can be summarized as follows: typologically different languages encode caused-motion information in an argument structure construction, while the specific semantics of verbs encode stance, object, shape, weight and target path structure. In Spanish, verbal object–path encoding does not require the use of specific placement markers, since speakers identify the form and shape of objects encoded by specific verbs. In German, object shape and form, as well as path, are encoded by specific particles, prefixes and base verbs. The conclusion is that both argument structure and verbal meaning are required to understand the way speakers perceive and further conceptualize reality through language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore exclamatives when used as responses in a discourse. Our proposal is based on the following pragmatic observation: so-called that -exclamatives in both Germanic and Romance languages are preferred as responses to polar questions, while wh -exclamatives are restricted to a response use in non-polar contexts. We establish this data pattern empirically by means of two judgment studies, and we then provide a detailed theoretical account for these challenging new data points. In particular, we show that the differences between the response uses of wh -exclamatives and that -exclamatives can be explained on syntactic grounds, analogous to 'the syntax of answers' proposed in recent syntactic work by Holmberg (2013, 2015) at the syntax-pragmatics interface. In sum, we provide a pragmatically more refined view on exclamatives and their use in a discourse, suggesting new empirical distinctions at the syntax-pragmatics interface. • We provide a pragmatically refined view on exclamatives and their use in a discourse. • The role of exclamatives in discourse is restricted by features of syntactic form. • Our empirical observations and distinctions hold cross-linguistically. • We provide a starting point for further studies at the syntax-pragmatics interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on data-driven learning (DDL), or teaching and learning languages with the help of electronic corpora, has shown that it is both effective and efficient. Nevertheless, DDL is still far from common pedagogical practice, not least because the empirical research on it is still limited and narrowly focused. This study addresses some gaps in that research by exploring the effectiveness of DDL for teaching low-proficiency learners lexico-grammatical constructions (verb-preposition collocations) in German, a morphologically rich language. The study employed a pretest-posttest design with intact third- and fourth-semester classes for German as a foreign language at a US university. The same collocations were taught to each group during one class period, with one group at each course level taking a paper-based DDL lesson with concordance lines from a native-speaker corpus and the other one taking a traditional rule-based lesson with textbook exercises. These constructions were new to third-semester students, whereas fourth-semester students had been exposed to them in the previous semester. The results show that, whereas the DDL method and the traditional method were both effective and resulted in lexical and grammatical gains, DDL was more effective for teaching new collocations. The study thus argues in favor of using paper-based DDL in the classroom at lower proficiency levels and for languages other than English. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The phenomenon of Partial Control (PC; cf. Landau in Elements of control: structure and meaning in infinitival constructions, Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2000) has received a great deal of attention in recent literature, with two general approaches: while some authors take PC to be a core phenomenon that should be captured by control theory (e.g., Landau 2000 et seq.; Pearson in The sense of self: topics in the semantics of de se expressions. Ph.D. dissertation, 2013; NLLT 34:691-738, 2016), others deny the relevance of PC to control theory by treating it as an instance of exhaustive control (EC) with a covert comitative (Hornstein, in: Hendrick (ed) Minimalist syntax, Blackwell, Oxford, pp 681, 2003; Boeckx et al. in Control as movement, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010). In this paper, we take a closer look at what German can contribute to this debate. Since PC-data are known to be subtle in terms of acceptability, we submitted the phenomenon to experimental investigation. The results of our study clearly show that both the matrix and the embedded predicate are relevant for the availability of a PC-reading in German: if the embedded predicate does not license comitatives, the matrix predicate must be attitudinal (a PC-predicate in Landau's 2000 terminology), while if the matrix predicate is non-attitudinal (Landau's EC-type), the embedded predicate must license comitatives. We thus conclude that two mechanisms exist in German to derive a PC-reading (i.e., singular controller with an embedded collective predicate): (i) true PC via, e.g., extension in the sense of Pearson (2013), and (ii) fake PC, which is, in fact, exhaustive control with a covert comitative (Hornstein 2003; Sheehan in Camb Occas Pap Linguist 6:1-47, 2012; in: Lahousse, Marzo (eds) Romance languages and linguistic theory 2012: selected papers from 'Going Romance' Leuven 2012, pp 181-198, 2014). These conclusions have an impact on the discussion of obligatory control structures insofar as control theory must account for the inclusion relation that holds in cases of true PC. Based on our results, we propose that a multi-factor approach such as argued for by Pearson (2013, 2016) or Landau (A two-tiered theory of control. Linguistic inquiry monographs, vol 71, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2015) is most adequate to capture the variation found in instances of true PC. However, our study also shows that the peripheral nature of PC requires experimental methods in order to investigate its status as a grammatical phenomenon in a language, and, furthermore, that any study focusing on PC must ensure that its discussion is based on true instances of PC, given that fake PC is a real option in languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a corpus study of the position of object pronouns relative to a non-pronominal subject in embedded clauses of German. A total of 4322 embedded clauses from the deWaC corpus (Baroni, Marco, Silvia Bernardini, Adriano Ferraresi & Eros Zanchetta. 2009. The WaCky Wide Web: A collection of very large linguistically processed web-crawled corpora. Language Resources and Evaluation Journal 23(3). 209–226), a corpus of written German Internet texts, were analyzed. In 67.0% of all clauses, the object pronoun occurred in front of the subject. Several factors that have been proposed in the literature on word order alternations were found to govern the choice between subject–object and object–subject order in the corpus under investigation. The most important findings are: (i) The Extended Animacy Hierarchy and the Semantic Role Hierarchy independently contribute to the choice of word order. (ii) The Definiteness Hierarchy has a strong effect on the position of the object pronoun. (iii) Word order effects of constituent weight, measured as length in number of words, cannot be reduced to effects of grammatical factors, nor can effects of grammatical factors be reduced to effects of weight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we address some controversially debated empirical questions concerning object fronting in German by a series of acceptability rating studies. We investigated three kinds of factors: (i) properties of the subject (given/new, pronoun/full DP), (ii) emphasis, (iii) register. The first factor is predicted to play a crucial role by models in which object fronting possibilities are limited by prosodic properties. Two experiments provide converging evidence for a systematic effect of this factor: we find that the relative acceptability of object fronting across subjects that require an accent (new DPs) is lower than across deaccentable subjects (pronouns and given DPs). Other models predict object fronting across full phrases (but not across pronouns) to be limited to an emphatic interpretation. This prediction is also borne out, suggesting that both types of models capture an empirically valid generalization and can be seen as complementing each other rather than competing with each other. Finally, we find support for the view that informal register facilitates object fronting. In sum, our experiments contribute to clarifying the empirical basis concerning a phenomenon influenced by a range of interacting factors. This, in turn, informs theoretical approaches to the prefield position and helps to identify factors that need to be carefully controlled in this field of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the prosody of rhetorical questions (RQs) and information-seeking questions (ISQs) in German for two question types—polar questions and constituent questions (henceforth " wh -questions"). The results are as follows: Phonologically, polar RQs were mainly realized with H-% (high plateau), while polar ISQs mostly ended in H-^H% (high-rise). Wh -RQs almost exclusively terminated in a low edge tone, whereas wh -ISQs allowed for more tonal variation (L-%, L-H%, H-^H%). Irrespective of question type, RQs were mainly produced with L*+H accents. Phonetically, RQs were more often realized with breathy voice quality than ISQs, in particular in the beginning of the interrogative. Furthermore, they were produced with longer constituent durations than ISQs, in particular at the end of the interrogative. While the difference between RQs and ISQs is reflected in the intonational terminus of the utterance, this does not happen in the way suggested in the semantic literature, and in addition, accent type and phonetic parameters also play a role. Crucially, a simple distinction between rising and falling intonation is insufficient to capture the realization of the different illocution types (RQs, ISQs), against frequent claims in the semantic and pragmatic literature. We suggest alternative ways to interpret the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the perception of humour in different cultures and presents various attempts of humour researchers, cultural anthropologists, psychologists, linguists, writers, communication experts and media scholars at describing and categorizing the specific features of the humour produced and favoured by some nations. A special focus lies on the generally contested German humour. While stereotypes, blanket statements or subjective assessments are clearly unavoidable, they can, however, offer interesting insights in the mentality and traditions of other peoples that are relevant to cross-cultural communication and may enhance the spirit of tolerance towards alterity as well as contribute to the reduction of existing prejudice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with place name Gošikl (Goschickel) that occured between 13th and 18th century in texts referring to suburb in area south-west of Olomouc city walls. By the author's opinion, the name Gošikl has originated in German and its analogy is the name Šunychl referring to one part of the city Bohumín in Silesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores fronted verb phrases in German, drawing attention to the difference between passive/unaccusative VPs and fronted agentive vPs. While both kinds of verb phrases have been discussed in the literature as being frontable, it has been largely overlooked that fronted vPs typically come with a certain kind of post-fronting context and a rise-fall or bridge-contour intonation, which is characteristic of I-topicalization. We observe that, unlike VPs, agentive vPs essentially need to be I-topics, with a high tone at the right edge of the fronted domain, in order to be frontable. Given the special context required for fronted vPs, the situation described by the vP does not contain new information but must already have been under discussion and is now being commented on. We present the results of two experimental studies and appeal to the thetic/categorical distinction to offer a new angle on the definiteness effect that has been associated with fronted verb phrases. We propose that a subject-containing fronted vP is associated with a thetic rather than the default categorical judgment, which means that the fronted subject and predicate form only one information-structural unit (a topic) rather than two (topic and comment). Contributing to the literature on theticity, we observe that, unlike in non-fronting thetic statements, the subject in fronted vPs cannot be a true definite. We attribute this to clashing intonation restrictions on theticity in non-fronting constructions versus theticity in just the fronted portion of a sentence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Perception of lexical stress is affected by pitch accent type. • F0 peaks temporarily render genuinely unstressed syllables metrically strong. • Stress identification and word recognition are impeded in case of peak-stress-misalignment. • Weighting of f0 peak as stress cue can be modulated by exposure phase. • A potential mechanism is the frequent association between f0 peak and stress. In intonation languages, pitch accents are associated with stressed syllables, therefore accentuation is a sufficient cue to the position of metrical stress in perception. This paper investigates how stress perception in German is affected by different pitch accent types (with different f0 alignments). Experiment 1 showed more errors in stress identification when f0 peaks and stressed syllables were not aligned – despite phonological association of pitch accent and stressed syllable. Erroneous responses revealed a response bias towards the syllable with the f0 peak. In a visual-world eye-tracking study (Experiment 2), listeners fixated a stress competitor with initial stress more when the spoken target, which had penultimate stress, was realized with an early-peak accent (f0 peak preceding stressed syllable), compared to a condition with the f0 peak on the stressed syllable. Hence, high-pitched unstressed syllables are temporarily interpreted as stressed – a process directly affecting lexical activation. To investigate whether this stress competitor activation is guided by the frequent co-occurrence of high f0 and lexical stress, Experiment 3 increased the frequency of low-pitched stressed syllables in the immediate input. The effect of intonation on competitor fixations disappeared. Our findings are discussed with respect to a frequency-based mechanism and their implications for the nature of f0 processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Before English took the lead as the prime scientific language among northern European urologists and surgeons, German was widely regarded as the "lingua franca". This shift has to date not been systematically reconstructed. This article provides insights into the question how political and social factors influence how physicians communicate with each other, what they read, and how the constellations of international scientific communities in medicine change over time. Methods: Through a language analysis of more than 2000 articles, including their references, in major Swedish medical journals as well as surgical doctoral dissertations defended at Swedish universities, this paper explores scientific language trends during the first half of the twentieth century among Swedish physicians for the first time on a large scale. Results and conclusions: The study shows that Swedish urologists and surgeons generally did not switch to English during the years immediately after the First World War, as has been documented in other countries. After a decrease during the first 10 years after the First World War, the German language dominated among Swedish urologists and surgeons from the 1930s until the early 1940s, when English first dominated at large. The rapidity of this process shows that almost all surgical researchers had changed from German to English within just a few years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research questions: German and Spanish differ in lexicalization of object position in placement events (e.g. They stand/lay-put the binoculars on the shelf). Do native (L1) speakers of these languages show different recognition memory for object position in placement scenes ("Thinking for Speaking" (TFS))? And if so, can learning German as a second language (L2) improve memory accuracy? Originality: There is very little research on the effect of language on memory in L2 speakers and no such studies have focused on placement events. By adopting a short time course (750 ms) between the prime and recognition phase this study makes a methodological advancement. Design/Methodology/Approach: We employed a design with L1 speakers (N = 54) of German and Spanish, and a group of Spanish L2 learners (N = 123) of German. Participants were presented with a two-phased memory task with minimum delay, with language and pictures showing placement events. Following the direction indicated by German placement verbs we changed position of objects in the picture recognition phase. L2 German speakers received a form-focused instruction on German placement verbs (stand/lay) before the memory task. Data and Analysis: We analysed recognition accuracy for object position changes. Findings/Conclusions: Results showed that L1 German speakers had more accurate recognition memory for object position changes than L1 Spanish speakers. When Spanish learners of L2 German performed the experiment in German, their accuracy exceeded L1 German speakers' scores. Significance/Implications: The findings provide support for TFS effects on memory for object position in placement events for L1 speakers and show accuracy advantages for L2 speakers. Future studies should consider employing tasks with short time courses as the one used in this paper, in order to establish a base of controlled and reliable findings to unravel the linguistic relativity literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the experiences of German Jewish men who defied their deportations and instead tried to subsist in the underground in Nazi Germany during the years of the Holocaust. The author takes a gendered perspective analyzing some of the gender-specific challenges that German Jewish men faced, as well as coping strategies these men developed to overcome them. This article argues that German Jewish men, like women, used distinctly gendered survival strategies. These included the disguising of their Jewish identities through the forging of military papers and adapting military-male behaviors; the masquerading of their physical male constitution qua assuming a female appearance; and the endorsing of their male status in the men-deprived social landscape of wartime Germany, using German women as protective shields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an alternation in German measure noun phrases is examined under a varying-abstraction perspective. In a specific measure NP construction, the embedded kind-denoting noun either agrees in case with the measure noun (eine Tasse guter Kaffee 'a cup of good coffee') or it stands in the genitive (eine Tasse guten Kaffees). Each of the two alternants is syntactically similar to a non-alternating construction. I propose a prototype model which assigns a common prototypical meaning to each of the alternants and its corresponding non-alternating construction. Based on this, I argue that lexical, morphosyntactic, and stylistic features help to predict the choice of the alternant. A large corpus study is presented which supports this analysis. However, in addition to the prototype effects, an exemplar effect is also shown to influence the choice, namely the relative frequencies with which lemmas occur in the non-alternating constructions. I argue that allowing both prototype and exemplar effects is more adequate than following radical prototype or exemplar approaches. It is also verified in two experiments that the corpus-derived model corresponds to the behaviour of native speakers. The weak effect size of the experimental validation is discussed in the context of corpus-based cognitive linguistics and the validation of corpus-derived models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a corpus study using German and Austrian parliamentary protocols, this paper shows that the originally temporal connector nachdem 'after' may carry causal meaning in southern German standard varieties. In these varieties, nachdem clauses may occur with individual level predicates, cases which, I will argue, provide unambiguously causal contexts since a temporal succession of events is excluded with individual level predicates. While nachdem displays polysemy comparable to English since in southern German standard varieties, it is a temporal marker in central and northern German varieties and a causal link may arise only due to a conversational implicature. The observed polysemy coincides with a higher token frequency of nachdem as well as a higher incidence of present tense use in the nachdem clause in the respective southern German varieties. Remarkably, causal nachdem clauses show a clear tendency to be fronted to the matrix clause despite the overall tendency of causal clauses to be post-posed, both cross-linguistically and in German, which may be explained in terms of information structure and discourse-organizing functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a novel argument for the Matching Analysis of relative clauses. The argument is based on antipronominal contexts in German. Antipronominal contexts are syntactic environments that require lexical DPs and therefore bar pronouns. It is argued that the behavior of relative clauses in antipronominal contexts in German points to two conclusions. First, relative pronouns contain a phonologically invisible NP that is identical to the NP contained in the head noun. Second, the two NPs are not connected via movement. Since only the Matching Analysis takes the two NPs to be base-generated, it is concluded that the Matching Analysis represents the correct structure for relative clauses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]