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The topic and comment analysis is a way of looking at information structure, not at grammatical elements. It is an overall system of distinguishing what is being talked about (topic) in actual communication, and what is being introduced as information added (comment) to the topic. The topic and comment structure may roughly be translated ‘as for X, it is Y, meaning that there is a special relationship between X and Y. The topic, being that which is talked about, is different from the subject. When the speaker introduces the subject, he deliberately excludes all other possibilities, which may happen in other time and places than the present “here and now”. And vice-versa, when the speaker introduces the topic, the listener expects a piece of new information. The topic and comment distinction is very similar to the theme and rheme distinction.
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Review of: А. Аlоnsо-Согtés. Lingüistica. Madrid, Ediciones Câtedra, 2002. 569 стр.
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Review of: Ил. Кръпова. Лекции по езикознание. Пловдив, Сема 2001, 2000. 312 стр.
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Review of: Stereotyp jako przedmiot lingwistyki (Teoria, metodologia, analizy empiryczne) [Język a kultura t. 12], pod red. J. Anusiewicza i J. Вartmiń-Sкiego, Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Polonistyki Wrocławskiej, Wrocław, 1998, 336 s.
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Review of: E. Tabakowska. Gramatyka i obrazowanie.Wprowadzenie do językoznawstwa kognitywnego, [Nauka dla wszystkich № 474], Krakow, PAN, Oddzial w Krakowie. (Wyd. IL) 1999, 103 s.
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Most people, including many scientists, readily assume that human perception depicts reality truthfully, that human thought processes are essentially rational, and that episodic memory aptly stores and recalls factual information about personal experiences. However, these notions are only partially true. Of course, evolutionary pressures have culminated in an overall quite powerful cognitive system that allows humans to adequately cope with the circumstances present within their ecological niche(s), but nevertheless, perception of the outside world is subject to the brain’s “motivated” interpretation out of imperfect input, thinking is guided by heuristic shortcuts as well as a plethora of unconscious biases, and memory shows itself to be imperfect as well as malleable to a variety of influences. As a result, intuitive judgments on reality are, in principle, to a certain degree unreliable. Cognitive shortcomings constitute an intrinsic condition of human nature and profoundly impact how people interpret the world and interact with their material and social surroundings. This paper is motivated by the fact that many scholars within linguistics, as well as most students of the field, have little to no awareness of the pertinent literature, even though these biases may directly or indirectly influence their work. The following therefore aims to present a concise introduction to the topic, from the evolutionary background to practical implications within linguistic research.
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The article deals with the problem of a possible pleonastic interpretation of the constructions with particle as verb adjunct and a preposition semantically and partly formally corresponding with it. The topic concerns one aspect of the local modification of verbs. The focus of the analysis is on prepositional and adverbial verb particles. They are separable verbs. The classification into single particles and double particles is carried out, as well as their morphological and semantic difference is discussed. The controversial status of the separable part of the verb is also discussed. The constructions discussed here consist of a preposition that indicates a goal, starting point, or distance of the movement, and a particle that names the direction and reference point from which the movement originates. Although the topic of verb particles has been treated broadly, what status verb particles and prepositions have in constructions remains open. Do such compounds as climb up the mountain or stick to the blackboard bring additional information and are optional, or are they necessary for understanding localization? The assumption that the constructions are pleonasms, that is, words with the same meaning, is rejected in the article. Both the preposition and the verb particle have their semantic function.
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In this article, selected headlines on the topic of coronavirus in the German and Polish online tabloid press will be analysed and described. The aim is to shed light on linguistic and graphical characteristic of the headlines examined as well as to show differences and similarities in the design of the headlines in the two languages. The following text presents press headlines from two online sources – the Bild newspaper and Superexpress (bild.de and se.pl). Based on the collected material the author discusses the following phenomena: graphic distinctions, noun accumulations, exclamations, questions in the headline, as well as the area of evaluating vocabulary. The used phenomena attract the reader’s attention and encourage to read. It is also not without significance that the issues discussed evoke emotions and feelings of fear, anxiety and uncertainty in the reader, which accompany the epidemic situation. The article ends by summarising the analysis and pointing out the differences between the two languages and styles.
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The article focuses on prepositional word phrases that are considered usualised and lexicalised word compounds. Lexicalisation is marked by the zero article between the preposition and the noun. Their meaning is compositional, so they do not affect correct comprehension in receptive language skills. In the productive language skills, non-native speakers often have problems because the lexicalisation processes are unique to each language. The lexicographical description only takes very limited account of such usualised word phrases, often they are not even mentioned in the dictionaries, although they form an integral part of communication. In the article, these word compounds are examined in the meaning of the medium in the digital environment. Their formal properties – preference of the individual prepositions with base words internet, email, chat and SMS – are examined to determine which of the word compounds is most frequently used in communication. The qualitative analysis of the corpus evidence shows in turn whether the word compounds studied can be considered synonymous. This can be analysed on the basis of the typical contexts of studied compounds, which is possible by analysing their verbal collocates. Such analyses of electronic corpora show the concrete preferences on the quantitative and qualitative levels and contribute to a better formal, semantic, lexicographic and linguistic-practical description of the word phrases. The article emphasises the importance of corpus linguistic approaches in current linguistics.
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The controversy about form focus versus content focus or lexicality versus textuality and the relevance of the respective chosen degree of contextualization of the teaching material for successful L2 vocabulary acquisition is still considered unresolved. While on the one hand Krashen with his input hypothesis (1985 ff.) and the work that followed him (e.g., Wu 2010, Yang 2011, Jergerski 2021, Lichtman/VanPatten 2021, Lowen 2021) advocate content-oriented vocabulary work, other researchers such as Laufer (et al. 2009, 2010, 2017a,b), Spada (2011), Shintani (2013), Yang/Shintani/Li/Zang (2017), Kang/Sok/Han (2019), Sima (2019), McLean/Stoeckel (2021), Soodmand (2021) and other representatives of modern language teaching research argue for paying much more attention to form-oriented vocabulary work. One of the main reasons for this divergence may be that many empirical studies only cover a small database of a few test vocabulary items in observation periods that are also very limited in time, which severely limits gene- ralizable statements from the outset. This paper addresses this problem and discusses the possibilities of a computer-based longitudinal analysis and optimization of the complex learning conditions of L2 lexicon acquisition. The focus is on the extent to which the contrast of context isolation versus context integration of lexical learning material influences learning efficiency and success. The empirical data collected in the pilot study presented here (based on more than 107,000 computerized lexical learning and reactivation records) and their systematic analysis demonstrate that the dependence of lexical learning and reactivation performance on the chosen degree of contextualization is apparently much lower than propagated by both representatives of the input hypothesis and proponents of form-focusing.
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This paper deals with debates about political correctness as they can be observed in comment sections of the website “Zeit Online”. Under articles on the topic of political correctness, numerous critical comments can be found which are then in turn reacted to with counter speech. On the basis of a corpus of 4791 comments of nine articles, in which the thread structures are also marked up, typical linguistic features of counter speech which are summarized as characteristics of counterness, are determined with quantitative corpus linguistic methods. In qualitative fine analyses, selected findings are further enriched. It will be shown that epistemic positioning, i.e., the indexing of one’s own and other people’s knowledge, and the associated acts of demarcation play an important role in the articulation of counter speech.
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The paper deals with conventionalised linguistic formulae that once were or still are in use in communication when crossing the German-Polish border. The research material for this analysis comes from selected German-Polish phrasebooks, from the first printings in the 16th century to recently published editions. Numerous examples of German expressions regarding the specified area are excerpted from the contents of the above-mentioned reference works, then grouped thematically and presented chronologically, sometimes with brief commentary. The aim here is to present expressions used repetitively in language interaction between travelers and customs officials at border control points retrospectively. In addition, reference is made to the (im)politeness and emotional charge of the language used at the border. The analysis carried out showed that the language formulae used at border control points have not changed much over the course of time, starting from the 19th century. Furthermore, it was determined that the communication between customs officials and travelers in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century relied on a large number of conventionalized politeness formulae. In the more recent examples, the language used is also polite, though the formulaic expressions are different as the manner of linguistic politeness itself has changed over the years. In addition, it was possible to find out which regulations applied at the German-Polish border. The present study thus represents a contribution to sociopragmatics while also addressing phraseological issues from a diachronic perspective.
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From a pragmatic perspective, goaloriented communication focuses not only on the linguistic and situational context, but also on the speaker‘s intention and strategy. Using the example of three text excerpts, which represent three different text types, the aim of the article is to show which role adjectives play in different communication situations, which communicative purposes they are used for, and which functions they perform in different contexts. It is shown which linguistic and grammatical specifics lead to the fulfillment of a certain communication goal in connection with the intention of the text producer and the text function. Adjectives in contemporary German are examined from the action-oriented and function-oriented perspectives.
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The notion ‘IAW phrases’ refers to fixed expressions such as in aller Welt ‘in all world’, um Gottes willen ‘for God’s sake’, and zum Teufel ‘the devil’ that are used in wh-questions as a kind of illocutionary intensification. This contribution presents an attempt to come up with a typology of IAW phrases in wh-questions in German. This typology consists of ten groups of IAW phrases (partly with subgroups) that are defined primarily on the basis of formal patterns. The patterns under discussion are [zu X] (with the variant [X]), [bei X], [beim Barte Xs], [in Xs Namen], [um Xs willen], and a group of patterns such as [in all- X], that refer to the world as a whole. The four remaining groups are not based on such a structural pattern; these are swearing words used as IAW phrases, IAW loans, blends, and a small rest group. In a second step, it is shown by means of spot checks that this typology can also serve as a star- ting point for the description of IAW phrases in German imperative sentences and in other languages.
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Scientists often criticize there are not enough diachronical empirical investigations about sorts of texts. The analysis I did, is trying to close this gap. The choose was falling on the beginning of testaments when they wrote down. I’m geared at the dictum of linguists, that the history of language is at the same time the history of sort of texts. The corpus of my investigation includes material I found by my own. I also transliterated it. Already in further time I analyzed the linguistic structure of testaments of citizens in Krakow. These investigations were very successful. Therefore, I wanted to use the same method for testaments of citizens in Breslau. I started with the historical background and the registration of testamentery texts in the so called “Stadtbuch” (registry of town). I explained four levels of description. The same method I used for the investigation of the last will of the citizens of Breslau. In this present paper I give attention on text-linguistical aspects. But there is one difference between two levels: the axiological-ontological and the stylistic level – compared to the contemporary conception of a testament. My contribution can also understand as an invitation for forthcoming investigations of the diachronic of such sorts of texts. The benefit for the subject linguistic shouldn’t underestimate.
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In this paper, selected foreign words are presented and analysed in historical quotations from business articles from 1885-1886 (19th century) and 1995-1996 (20th century) to show how business language has changed over a period of 100 years. The end of the 19th century and the end of the 20th century were thus chosen because there has been a great technical progress during this period, which resulted in an expansion and change of vocabulary. The study aims to show how business communication had developed, especially in the field of trade and industry, which words remained unaffected by the upheavals, and which came out of use. The focus here is on frequently occurring foreign words as well as expressions with foreign words; interest is also directed at hybrid compounds of both native and a non-native words. The article is part of a longer analysis of economic vocabulary from the 19th and 20th centuries, covering economic areas such as trade, industry, the labour market. The article is based on a longer analysis of economic vocabulary from the late 19th and 20th centuries, covering economic areas such as trade, industry, the labour market and finance. The vocabulary examples are drawn exclusively from the business press. These studies also want to join the contributions dedicated to LSP (languages for specific purposes).
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The reasons for choosing a specific university and a specific field of study are frequently researched. Among other things, the question is asked which factors primarily influence the choice. The present study follows up on this research question but focuses only on a group of students with Ukrainian background who took up German studies at the University of Szczecin. In the following article, the question of why persons of Ukrainian background choose to study foreign languages is explored. Given the constantly growing number of Ukrainians at Polish universities, addressing this issue is essential and fills the research gap. Results of a study conducted by the author as part of her dissertation are presented. The results presented in this paper are from both the pilot study and part of the main study. A total of fifteen respondents were interviewed. The study is based on a qualitative method. The respondents’ statements, collected through in-depth interviews, reveal their reasons for choosing German studies, especially positive experiences in language learning in the past. Financial considerations and professional aspects also seem to be relevant factors. In addition, interest in language learning in general and interest in German culture play a major role in the choice of foreign language study.
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