Our Department Participated in the Conference of the Association of Germanists of the Czech Republic in Ústí nad Labem 2026

Members of the Department of German Studies participated in the international scientific conference of the Association of Germanists of the Czech Republic (KREUZ)WEGE DER GERMANISTIK, held from May 27 to 30, 2026. This year, the event was hosted by the Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem. It is a prominent scholarly forum within the Central European German studies community, focusing on current research trends in German linguistics, literary studies, and the didactics of German as a Foreign Language.

List of Presented Papers and Studies (in alphabetical order):

Barbora Brožovičová: Form, Funktion, Wandel: Überlegungen zu sein-Konstruktionen (Form, Function, Change: Reflections on sein-Constructions)
This paper examines the German construction “sein + klar” from a functional-grammatical perspective, demonstrating how this collocation evolves beyond the boundaries of a classical copular verb toward new interactional or evaluative meanings. Drawing on corpus data and combining diverse methodological approaches, the study illustrates how grammaticalization and semantic change overlap at the intersection of lexicon and syntax within a specific linguistic phenomenon.

Damian Folwarczny: Friedrich Uhl (1825-1906). Ein wenig bekannter Autor zwischen dem Teschener Schlesien und Wien (Friedrich Uhl (1825–1906): A Little-Known Author Between Cieszyn Silesia and Vienna)
The study sheds light on the life and work of Friedrich Uhl (1825–1906), a now almost forgotten journalist and writer originally from the Cieszyn region, who significantly influenced the cultural life of the Habsburg Monarchy. Through his biography and texts, the paper illustrates the mechanics of cultural mobility and explores how shifting contemporary media landscapes, political discourses, and literary forms were reflected in his oeuvre.

Agnes Kim: Tschechische Lehnwörter auf (-ák) im Wienerischen: Lehnlexik oder Lehnmorphologie? (Czech Loanwords Ending in -ák in Viennese German: Lexical Borrowing or Morphological Borrowing?)
This paper provides a critical contact-linguistic analysis of Viennese loanwords ending in the Czech suffix “-ák” (e.g., Feschak, Leschak) and investigates the popular myth regarding the intensive influence of Czech on Viennese German. Based on historical research in the contemporary press, the study concludes that while this suffix was never truly productive in German, the emergence of these words required the highly multilingual environment of Vienna at the time.

Pavlína Koppová: Von der Ouvertüre bis zum Schlussakkord: Zur metaphorischen Funktion musikalischer Genres in der Mediensprache (From the Overture to the Final Chord: On the Metaphorical Function of Musical Genres in Media Language)
This study explored how the titles of musical genres and forms (e.g., sonata, symphony, or etude) are utilized as metaphors in German-language media. Based on an analysis of press texts from the DACH region, the paper uncovers semantic shifts and specific patterns through which these musical terms enrich public discourse in politics, culture, and sports.

Martin Mostýn: Diskursive Strategien und Topoi in der Berichterstattung von Desinformationsmedien zum Thema Klimawandel – eine deutsch-tschechische Perspektive (Discursive Strategies and Topoi in Disinformation Media Coverage of Climate Change: A German-Czech Perspective)
The presentation focused on current research findings regarding the interlingual comparison of discursive strategies and argumentative structures in texts from disinformation media. The research was based on an analysis of the multilingual corpus CLIC24 (Climate Change Multilingual Media Corpus 2024).

Milan Pišl: Die Sprache der Polarisierung und Manipulation: Linguistische und distributive Strategien wirtschaftlicher Desinformationen auf Facebook (The Language of Polarization and Manipulation: Linguistic and Distributional Strategies of Economic Disinformation on Facebook)
The paper addresses the algorithms and typical linguistic features of posts with high disinformation potential appearing on the social network Facebook and interconnected web portals. It examines not only the linguistic tools that polarize both the actors of economic disinformation and, through interaction, social media users exposed to manipulative techniques, but also the argumentative strategies and strong emotional framing of selected posts. The participation of Assoc. Prof. Mostýn and Dr. Pišl at the conference was made possible thanks to the project “Biography of Disinformation with the Attribute of AI: A Risk Phenomenon Through the Prism of Modern Human Sciences” (CZ.02.01.01/00/23_025/0008724).

Eva Polášková: „Hi guys, hallo Leute, welcome back to German with Jenny!“ Zur Grammatikvermittlung in ausgewählten DaF-Ausbildungsvideos (“Hi guys, hallo Leute, welcome back to German with Jenny!”: On Grammar Teaching in Selected GFL Instructional Videos)
This paper analyzed popular online videos for teaching German grammar, examining how they utilize visualization, content simplification, or foreign languages in comparison with traditional textbooks. Based on this analysis, the study evaluates the possibilities of their implementation in both classroom instruction and self-study, offering concrete proposals to enhance their didactic potential.

Iveta Zlá: Kreuzwege der deutschsprachigen Literatur und Kultur in Westschlesien (Crossroads of German-Language Literature and Culture in Western Silesia)
This study outlined the multicultural character of Western Silesia, where German-language literature and culture played a pivotal role until 1945. It focused specifically on the hitherto under-researched Osoblaha (Hotzenplotz) region, demonstrating how this unique borderland offers rich opportunities for deeper cultural-historical and literary research.

Updated: 03. 07. 2026