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The paper discusses whether easy-to-read (ETR) German can be classified as a ‘variety’ and/or a ‘register’. It appears to be very difficult to capture the variational status of ETR German within the system of language variation due to its rather artificial, rule-based character. On the other hand, the question of whether the notion of variety or register, or any other notion modelling language variation, is suitable for the linguistic classification of ETR German very much depends on how these notions are defined. Thus the article reveals general difficulties in capturing the functioning of language variation with clear-cut definitions and concepts due to the dynamics and complexity of language variation as such. Nevertheless, the explanatory frameworks of concepts such as variety and register prove to be useful for describing the special variational status of ETR German.

ZusammenfassungDer naheliegenden Annahme, dass die Rahmenbedingungen Leichter und Einfacher Sprache erhebliche Grenzen für eine literarästhetische Gestaltung von Texten setzen, steht eine inzwischen stark verbreitete Praxis der Produktion literarischer Texte in Leichter und Einfacher Sprache (und zwar sowohl als Übersetzungen vorliegender literarischer Werke als auch als Eigenproduktionen) gegenüber. Der Artikel nimmt das zum Anlass, die Frage, inwieweit Einfachheit und Literarästhetik aufeinander beziehbar sind, aus einer linguistisch-literaturwissenschaftlich interdisziplinären Perspektive zu diskutieren. Der Artikel stellt Überlegungen zu Einfachheit und Komplexität aus literaturwissenschaftlicher und linguistischer Perspektive gegenüber und setzt sie in Beziehung zu den vorliegenden Regelwerken zu Leichter Sprache sowie Empfehlungen zum Verfassen von Literatur in Einfacher Sprache. Ausgehend von einem einfachen Grundverständnis einer Komplexität-Simplizität-Skala, das von einem Mehr vs. Weniger von Komplexitätsmerkmalen ausgeht, diskutiert der Beitrag, welche literarästhetischen Merkmale für Analysen dieser Art in Frage kommen. Ein exemplarischer Blick auf den kreativen Umgang mit Einfachheit in drei Textbeispielen rundet die Überlegungen ab.

In contemporary German, nominal structures are often prefered to verbal sentences. Since it is rather common to convert main verbs into nouns by the means of derivation, verbal propositions can easily be integrated into new sentences. As the main verb‘s valency is maintained, verbal complements can be transfered into noun phrases as well – now functioning as modifiers. Thus, contemporary German offers a wide range of possibilities of transferring propositions from sentences into noun phrases. On the other hand, it seems to be easier to transfer certain types of sentence structures into nominal structures than others. The article explores the possibilities and limitations of this process on the basis of an empirical study, in which native speakers of German were asked to „translate“ sentences into noun phrases. According to the results of the study, the possibilities and limitations of the transformation of verbal sentences into nominal structures depend on the following factors: amount of complements, form of complements and modifiers, formal similarities and differences of verbal complements and nominal modifiers.

In Fachsprache 1–2/2011 Czicza and Hennig proposed a model that explains correlations between grammatical features and pragmatic conditions in communication in sciences. This model now serves as a basis for the practical analysis of the scientific degree of any written text. The authors present a method of analyzing written texts concerning the four parameters ‚economy’, ‚precision’, ‚impersonalization’ and ‚discussion’. The method is being developed by the analysis of a prototypical scientific article on the one hand and a non-scientific text on the other hand. The two texts serve as the two poles of the scale of scientificity. Finally, the applicability of the model and its operationalization is being illustrated by the analysis of two examples of texts that are located between the two poles (one popular scientific text and one juridical teaching article).

The article aims to examine grammatical features and pragmatic concerns of communicating in the sciences. In the research of certain languages, it became common to explaingrammatical features such as the usage of passive voice and nominal structures by communication requirements such as objectivity and precision. With the assumption that communication in science is designed to help gain and spread new insight, the authors tried to integrate several approaches to pragmatic and grammatical features of communication. By discussing the relationship between the grammar of certain languages and of the corresponding common language, the article also places the subject of communication in the sciences in the discipline of language variation.

Elliptical structures can be seen as a challenge for grammar theory, grammatical research of individual languages and psycholinguistics. Whereas research on elliptical structures in grammar theory and psycholinguistics is mainly restricted to coordination ellipsis, grammatical research on ellipsis in German covers a much wider range of elliptical structures both in written texts and spoken language. The article argues for a broadening of the psycholinguistic understanding of ellipsis by taking into account different types of text ellipsis revealed by research in German linguistics and by correlating different types of elliptical structures with sub-processes of the understanding of texts (coherence, inference). It shows that the shift of attention to a wider range of types of elliptical structures also leads to new hypotheses of understanding elliptical structures. As the article only offers a first approach to the integration of text understanding and grammatical classification of elliptical structures, it cannot provide an elaborate set of methods for proving the hypotheses. It therefore closes with an appeal to a more extensive collaboration of different linguistic disciplines.

Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Vilmos Agel, Dr. Mathilde Hennig Ort: Universitat Kassel Laufzeit: April 2007 bis Marz 2009 Mitarbeiterinnen: Anna Volodina, Dr. Anja Voeste Studentische Hilfskrafte: Yana Andryewa, Hiltrud Lauer, Florian Rietz Kooperationen: – Kompetenzzentrum fur elektronische Publikationsund Erschliesungsverfahren in den Geisteswissenschaften der Universitat Trier – Universitat Augsburg: Prof. Dr. Stephan Elspas – Forschungsinstitut fur Deutsche Sprache, Deutscher Sprachatlas: Prof. Dr. Jurgen Erich Schmidt und Dr. Roland Kehrein – externe Projektgruppe an der Universitat Szeged: Daniel Czicza, Peter Kappel, Orsolya Rauzs, Eszter Zoka Status: Pilotprojekt zum Projekt „Sprachstufengrammatik des Neuhochdeutschen”

The article addresses the empirical problem of part-of-speech classification. In order to illustrate this problem, the study presents an analysis of 100 instances of the use of