Abstracts
Petra Bačuvčíková / Renata Šilhánová
From Textbooks to Social Networks: The Presentation of Legal Knowledge in Different Media
In today's media landscape, there are numerous sources of information that make specialized knowledge accessible to the general public. The aim of this contribution is to provide a comparative analysis of texts on a specific legal topic from various sources: official legal texts, textbooks for German as a foreign or second language, and multimodal online legal guides such as websites or social media posts aimed at the general public. Through case analyses on the topics of labor law, employment contracts, and working conditions, this study illustrates how specialized knowledge is presented in different media and the methods used for knowledge transfer. The focus is on how these texts simplify complex legal information, what elements remain consistent, and what changes are introduced. Additionally, the analysis examines the use of multimodal tools for knowledge transfer and highlights the similarities and differences in the presentation of specialized knowledge in specific texts.
Dominika Beneš Kováčová
Sports meets politics: Constructing political expertise in an unlikely environment through the performance of speech acts
In recent years sports talk shows, primarily in the USA, have been found to extend their scope beyond mere sport talk and incorporate different types of commentary, including political commentary focusing on, for example, the US presidential election and immigration laws (Bensinger & Browning, 2024). Although this can be considered a promotional strategy, the trend arguably requires that current and former athletes also present themselves as experts in different fields, completely unrelated to their careers, in these shows. With this development in mind, the goal of the paper is to explore how political expertise is constructed by athletes and sports commentators in the Pat McAfee Show, a popular sport talk show hosted by ESPN and available on YouTube. To achieve that, the paper adopts a discourse-analytic perspective and examines the use of self-mentions and the types of speech acts performed in the selected sport talk show. The dataset comprises the transcripts of two app. 45-minute segments of the talk show that are devoted to the discussion of vaccine mandates and the US politics. The preliminary results of the analysis show that the political expertise of a talk show guest is constructed collectively by both the guest and the talk show hosts through the performance of (self-)disclosive speech acts, which are characterized by, for instance, the use of exclusive personal pronouns and a re-definition of certain terms (e.g., research, liberal). Given the popularity and reach of the show, this paper aims to shed more light on the discursive construction of expert identities and the way these can be (mis)used and propagated in the media discourse.
Alexandra Berendová
Nuevas tecnologías en la enseñanza del español jurídico (EFE)
Sandra Braun / Janina M. Vernal Schmidt
Unleashing the Potential of Productscapes for International Students in the Study Programme German Business Communication
In semester 4 of the BA study programme 'German Business Communication' (GBA) at the University of Applied Sciences Zwickau, students with Languages other than German (LOTG) delve into the sociolinguistic concept of linguistic landscapes, especially into the business-related topic of 'productscapes'. Multilingualism is recognized as an asset in the learning process of Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) in multilingual and diverse corporate settings where translanguaging (Wei & García, 2022) often occurs while dealing with partners across international borders.
The exploited concept of "'productscape' all language use on products, packaging and including the advertising of these commercial goods. This proposal for a new domain in linguistic landscape research highlights the key role of the industry, and particularly of company managers, CEOs and product designers, in determining which languages are visible and which others are silenced" (Ganayim & Mazolli 2023, 294).
GBA students are conducting a field study on multilingual and intercultural marketing, examining products, their packaging and advertising campaigns in the public and digital space (Shinhee, 2019). The empirical study is accompanied by the lecture "Introduction to Multilingualism" (theoretical framework) and the course "German Business Communications" (practical language structures and vocabulary).
The objective of this project-based learning unit is to understand how to plan a qualitative-empirical study and how to adhere to research ethics standards and confidentiality of data (Sayer, 2020). Finally, students are expected to gain insights into the corporate sector by analysing productscapes, taking into consideration multimodal and multilingual language use in advertising and how it is implemented with the products. Linguistically, students will expand their knowledge in the area of business-related lexico-grammatical and terminological resources. They also gain a deeper understanding of critical language awareness (Krompák, 2018).
In the scope of the talk, we will share the results of the students' projects and carefully classify the potential for developing German Business skills and cultural learning for GBA students with LOTG.
Ines Busch-Lauer
Hands-on LSP Teaching Experience: Challenges & Impulses for Future Language Learning
In recent years, LSP communication and subject-specific language teaching and learning have been strongly influenced by innovative technologies. Learning platforms, video conferencing systems, apps, self-learning programmes, virtual tutors and chatbots. Finally, AI tools offer a variety of ways to teach, learn and use languages. At the same time, migration and a shortage of skilled labour forces as well as the need for multilingualism in the professions pose serious challenges for foreign language teaching. Time to identify challenges and recognise potentials. The keynote will first consider the changes in teaching and learning scenarios of recent years, use practical examples to provide an insight into the current LSP challenges and spur impulses of future foreign language learning.
We will focus on the effects of the virtualisation of teaching, the role of digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI) and the potential of multilingualism in society. Some application scenarios of AI in foreign language teaching will be highlighted and their consequences for those involved in the teaching-learning process. As AI experience ranges between experimentation, euphoria, doubt and criticism, the following questions arise:
How do we organise our teaching and examination formats in view of the rapid changes? How do we meet the new requirements of/ with AI in foreign language learning? Is AI really a game changer? What consequences can we expect from the interaction between human and artificial intelligence in the practical use of language in everyday life and in professional interaction?
Eva Cieślarová / Lenka Vaňková
Disease names in non-medical contexts
The intensive infiltration of technical terms into our everyday life is closely related to the processes of determinologization and de-terminologization. The presentation first explains these concepts and then demonstrates, using selected disease names, how these technical terms function in new contexts with figurative meanings. The reference corpus of the Leibniz Institute for the German Language (DeReKo) in Mannheim serves as the material basis for this analysis.
Jan Ciosk
Agonizing Administration: Terminology at the Boundary of Two Administrative Systems
Although some languages belong to the same law system, share a common history and use mostly the same or related legal concepts, it is common to encounter terminological problems when translating specialised texts. Those who deal with the German translation of Czech administrative units also find themselves in a difficult situation.
In this contribution, the author aims to present translation challenges relating to selected terms from the field of Czech administrative law into German. The focus is set on the terms kraj and okres, which serve (or served) as basic administrative units. Firstly, a brief outline of the historical development of both legal concepts is presented with reference to their German counterparts (Kreis and Bezirk, or vice versa). The main aspect here is the pluricentric nature of the German language, which caused that the translations vary according to the German, Austrian or Swiss tradition and use different terms in each. The current situation is then discussed in terms of the functional characteristics of both concepts and the dominant methods used to translate them. Finally, the author will analyse the respective influences for the methods mentioned on the basis of selected theoretical frameworks and discuss their adequate translation.
The fact that the given expressions are still used inconsistently in practice is alarming. It is hoped that the article will spark a professional linguistic discussion that will ultimately lead to a satisfactory solution.
Iva Dedková
Orthographe traditionnelle ou orthographe rectifiée pour les anglicismes dans la presse économique francophone
Anna Dolata-Zaród
Le pouvoir des adverbes en contexte – le cas du discours juridictionnel
Maria Drgas
The metaphorical image of artificial intelligence. Convergences and divergences in Polish and German
Artificial intelligence is increasingly present in our everyday lives. It has been developed and used so much in recent years that the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have adopted the Artificial Intelligence Act, which aims to regulate the use of AI in the context of risk categories.
This legal document prompted me to prepare a contrastive description of Polish and German IT technical language, with a particular focus on convergences and divergences in the metaphorical image of artificial intelligence. The study is based on Lakoff and Johnson's cognitive metaphor theory and does not constitute a complete analysis, but is an attempt to separate out some tendencies that will be developed in further scientific work.
The study examines scientific (technical language) IT texts in online versions published in 2024 that concern the legal regulation of AI.
Tomáš Duběda
L'image linguistique du droit tchèque dans les traductions françaises
Thomas Edeling
A technical term as a buzzword - the use of "dysfunctional" and "toxic" in German
In recent years, technical terms have increasingly been used in German in standard language contexts. Two prominent examples are "dysfunctional" and "toxic". They are often used in certain (relationship) contexts. It can even happen that both terms are combined in one thought. In other words: What comes across as dysfunctional, i.e. having a negative effect, becomes toxic in the worst case, i.e. drains your health to such an extent that, strictly speaking, it can be fatal. Misunderstandings or misinterpretation of statements can therefore occur.
In the talk, I'd like to put forward that, depending on the context, technical terms serve less a factual, scientific discourse, i.e. the claim of clarity, but rather present a situation more drastically than if an alternative term were used. A tendency towards exaggeration and incorrect representation is thus recognisable. It could also be argued that technical terms are degraded to buzzwords. Thus their meaning no longer corresponds to their original meaning, or only to a limited extent. A source analysis, especially of magazines, should provide information, which in turn offers conclusions about the target audience. The aim is to critically figure how communication between experts and laypersons differs from that at the end of the 20th century.
Ludwig Maximilian Eichinger
How do you recognize a specialist by his or her language? Why it's not so easy these days
Acting and speaking professionally appear in quite a lot of different practical and theoretical fields of action. The sum of these communicative events of professional acting should in some way be included in a concept of professional language. On a conceptual level this uniting effect could be traceable to the common feature of professional craftmanship (cf. Sennett 2008). There is no simple equivalent to this in the field of the linguistic means used for acting professionally. The linguistic similarities and differences found through the varying constellations – e.g. in relation to topics, text or medial types, theoretical or practical orientation etc. – suggest that an explication of their coherence must be found in an analogical structure like that of "family resemblance". Such an analysis is all the more useful in the view of current developments in media and society leading to a greatly expanded dissemination of specialized knowledge, particularly in the new digital media.
Irena Fialová
Aspectos lexicográficos de la definición de los términos
Zuzana Gašová
Terminological databases as a mean of recording specialist terminology and instruments for optimizing specialist communication
The creation of terminological databases is one of the most important processes in optimizing specialist communication in the respective specialist area. Multilingual terminological databases make it easier to convey specialist knowledge in international communication. In addition, they can be an effective tool for translatologists. The aim of the article is to present the project entitled "Terminology databases as a tool for modernization and internationalization of university education", aimed at the creation process of terminology databases as well as the didactization and popularization of this process, building on another project that has already been implemented. With regard to the desiderata that shape the creation of bilingual or multilingual terminology databases, the article also considers the concept of less widespread languages and the issue of narrowly specialized subject areas. Based on the practical experience gained during the creation of a German-Slovak terminology database for hunting, not only theoretical starting points and practical procedures, but also experiences gained, pitfalls and concrete results in connection with the creation of such a terminology database are presented. Finally, further perspectives for the creation of a bilingual terminological database for the field of hunting are outlined, also in the context of didactization.
Anca Gata
À propos de l'identification et la veille des néologismes : un bref état de l'art comme contribution au projet de coopération scientifique européenne ENEOLI – online
Jitka Glosová
Variedades diatópicas del español: delitos penales
Pavlína Hilscherová
The Use of Music Terminology in the German-Language Daily Press – A Study of Function and Context
This research paper analyses the use of selected musical terms in the German-language daily press with a focus on their functional and contextual roles. By analysing various sections, it will be shown in which contexts music terminology appears in a metaphorical sense and which stylistic and argumentative goals are pursued with it. Particular attention is paid to the differences in the use of this terminology between serious and tabloid newspapers and to the geographical variations within the German-speaking countries of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Zuzana Honová
La traduction des termes juridiques tchèques, français et italiens - un exemple du droit pénal : la Décision d'enquête européenne
Markéta Hotařová
Specialized Language Knowledge Transfer Using the Example of Driving School Conversations: A Corpus-Based Analysis
The article focuses on authentic speaker events in 14 driving school conversations from the ZuMult project. Using corpus linguistic methods, the specialized language in the transcribed conversations and the specialized lexicography are examined in comparison to general language usage. Furthermore, different types and various degrees of preformed linguistic units, conversation organization, factual presentation, action constitution, and identity and relationship organization between the conversation partners are analyzed. The study also explores how specialized vocabulary can change its meaning and function through the spoken language context and the potential value and usage possibilities of analyzing spoken language for specialized language research.
Zuzana Hurtová
Communication strategies and circularity: An ecolinguistic analysis of the brand image as created through the circular economy narrative
Today's globalized world, characterized by and heavily criticized for overconsumption, which contributes to climate change and therefore to all the negative consequences associated with this phenomenon, has for the past couple of years faced a gradual change towards business models that account for and embrace sustainable practices of the circular economy. Currently, companies across industries adopt the idea of reusing, repairing, refurbishing, recycling, and sharing in order to eliminate waste and pollution. This paper is placed within the discourse of environmental concerns, corporate social responsibility in particular. Using the example of a popular fast fashion brand's YouTube video presentations the present paper demonstrates how the emphasis on the circular economy model is used to construct socially and environmentally responsible identity and expertise. The analysis is based on the theory of ecolinguistics as outlined by Stibbe (2021) and focuses on identifying key themes, linguistic patterns and underlying ideologies that shape the brand's sustainability messaging and whether these elements encourage environmentally beneficial or destructive behavior. The aim of the paper is also to contribute to the discussion on brands and branding strategies and their impact on lifestyles.
Sarah Ihden
Linguistic patterns of defining and explaining in early modern music textbooks
Research works in the field of medieval and early modern German specialised language still concentrates on certain groups of texts, in particular medical, nature study and legal texts as well as recipe literature and calendars. Texts from other areas have received little attention. This includes, among others, the specialised literature of music, which is primarily in the focus of editions (e.g. Jessel 1981; van Schaik 1995) or studies on vocabulary (e.g. Eggebrecht 1955, 1972-2006; Relleke 1980; van Schaik 2012; Woitkowitz 2011). Even in Denk's work (1981) on late medieval manuscripts on notation, solmisation and singing and texts from around 1500 on the study of instruments the edited text is in the centre, the content and the language of the texts is only referred to marginally. This desideratum in linguistic studies of music textbooks is the starting point of a habilitation project on linguistic patterns in early modern vocal and instrumental textbooks (Ihden 2024). The focus of the study lies on linguistic patterns that have a strong connection to the intention of knowledge transfer in the texts and to necessarily supporting the understanding of the content. Creating texts that are easy to understand plays a special role in the music textbooks I analyse, as they are primarily made for music lessons in schools. The intended recipients of the texts are laymen with no particular theoretical knowledge of singing or playing an instrument. Hence, linguistic patterns for the purpose of defining and explaining musical terms, objects and activities are of crucial importance in these books. Such patterns are in the centre of my talk. Based on Gloning's approach (2010), various realisations of this communicative function using linguistic patterns will be identified and described in my presentation. Since definitions are considered a typical feature of specialised texts (Kalverkämper 1998: 36), the linguistic investigation of patterns of defining and explaining also contributes significantly to answering the question of how historical music textbooks constitute themselves as specialised texts.
Eva Janečková
New developments in construction at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and their impact on technical language. A case study of the Groß-Ullersdorf estate
Technical progress, beginning in the period of the industrial revolution, had an impact on various specialised fields. This progress played a decisive role in the construction industry, for example, where the use of new technologies, including the use of iron structures and electrification, could be observed in the course of the 19th century. The question is how this progress was reflected in the technical language of construction at the time.
The focus of the planned contribution is the Groß-Ullersdorf estate, which was owned by the Liechtensteins between 1802 and 1945. During this period, numerous building works were carried out both in the castle and in other parts of the manor. The corpus, which consists of registers for masons and carpenters as well as rent office accounts, examines the question of what changes can be observed in the descriptions of the building work carried out in these texts. The article focusses in particular on the lexical level, where a conspicuous change can be observed, especially in the last quarter of the 19th century.
Beata Jarosz
The domain-specific wordnets as a modern type of thesaurus.
Projects – achievements – challenges (an overview)
The topic of the presentation are domain-specific wordnets, which is a modern type of thesaurus containing special nomenclature in specific fields of knowledge and technology used in professional communication. The creation of such lexicons functioning online and based on databases used in automatic natural language processing is a current research problem. While the methodology of building general wordnets (referring to varying degrees to the Princeton WordNet, its assumptions and model) is known, the construction of domain-specific wordnets is still experimental. There are only a few projects of such thesauri in the world so far (e.g. ArchiWordNet, Jur-WordNet), but most of them have not yet been finalized and the results are still not available to users, including researchers. The aim of the presentation will therefore be to review what has been achieved so far, taking into account the problematic aspects of constructing domain-specific wordnets (including the selection of lexical units, the scope of information included in the headword entries, the model of defining lexical units, the way of organizing headwords and linking them with the general wordnet).
Fengjiao Ji
Dynamics of Metaphors in Professional Communication: From Figures of Thought to Discourse Networks – An Example from Intercultural Studies
My doctoral research investigates the metaphorisation of the concept of interculturality in professional texts of various disciplines that locate themselves interculturally, such as intercultural philosophy, intercultural German studies, intercultural psychology. Metaphors significantly contribute to knowledge creation and communication in many ways. The reason for this is that metaphors in science are not isolated from one another, but are always in interaction. However, this aspect of metaphors is hardly thematised by current research in comparison to their well-known role as figures of thought on which concepts and theoretical models are based, and their role as figures of writing for better comprehensibility of content. A metaphor, once established as a figure of thought, is cited by other researchers, who comment on it in their arguments and often link further metaphors to it. This creates a network of metaphors with coherence and non-coherence to each other, which in a certain sense represents the structure of the professional discourse in the field.
My contribution focuses on the metaphor of "Blickwinkel" (point of view), one of the core concepts of intercultural German studies, as a case study. It conceptualises the process of intercultural understanding as a change of perspective between the self and the other. Using examples from professional literature and interculturality discourse, I demonstrate how Wierlacher, founder of intercultural German studies, developed this metaphor as a thinking model. Additionally, I show how it is adapted by scholars in other disciplines, encountering counter-images and comparative metaphors, leading to new metaphors as other aspects of "Blickwinkel" are further developed.
In general, I predict that metaphorical interaction offers a special approach to the structural reconstruction of theory formation and professional discourse. It deserves attention in professional communication research, especially in view of the tendency for research fields to be increasingly conceived in an interdisciplinary context.
Marcelina Kałasznik
Duplicates in the technical language of medicine – an analysis using the example of texts from external medical communication
The technical language of medicine is characterized by many features that often make it incomprehensible to the layperson. In order to take into account the principle of clarity/precision, objectivity and intentionality, it uses foreign language terms and abbreviations that can make communication between experts and laypeople difficult. Nevertheless, it can be said that in no other specialist area is understanding-oriented communication as important as in the field of medicine. Especially in this area, it is extremely important that medical laypeople can understand what is being taught to them.
It is characteristic of the language of medicine that, in addition to technical terms, there are also used colloquial equivalents. The focus of the article is on the technical synonyms (duplicates) and their use in the texts that serve for external communication between the doctor and the layperson. On the one hand, the analysis uses a corpus of introduction texts from doctors in which a doctor's medical offerings are presented. They come from the websites of doctors and medical practices as well as the medical profiles on doctor rating portals. On the other hand, online questions from patients to doctors are taken into account, in which those affected contact doctors who work online and describe their complaints in order to obtain advice. In the case of both subcorpora, the question is how synonymous technical terms are dealt with in the texts, to what extent their use is target group-specific and depends on the level of technicality of a respective technical term.
Ivana Kapráliková
Innovative Methods in Teaching Business Negotiations in English in the Context of Successful Employment of Graduates of the University of Economics in Bratislava on the Domestic and Foreign Labour Market
Proficiency in negotiation techniques of various kinds (especially business ones) in English is currently one of the most in-demand skills needed in company workplaces, whether in Slovakia or abroad. It requires a very complex set of knowledge and skills. To negotiate and bargain successfully, an individual should have a good command of the language of negotiation and excellent communication skills. Therefore, there is now a need for formal research to identify specific relevant skills that lead to effective implementation of the acquired skills in negotiation processes, the results of which form the basis for education and training programmes, helping individuals to develop practical skills in the field. The article aims to present a current project proposal for a larger research in cooperation with domestic and international companies operating in Slovakia, which is expected to produce original and relevant results in practical terms. The project aims to develop and implement a business negotiation course which, unlike the current Business Negotiations course in English, will be specifically designed to increase the knowledge and skills of students of the University of Economics in Bratislava faculties in the field of negotiation and bargaining. The systematic development of students' negotiation skills should not only improve their employability but also increase their satisfaction with the course, as well as help to meet employers' expectations in this area. We anticipate that this research will also assist in the design of other future courses aimed at improving student employability. In addition, the project should also contribute to the literature on vocational training for economics students and remedy the lack of research that addresses the development of complex interpersonal skills such as those involved in negotiations.
Justyna Kendik-Gut
Keywords and key terms in English automotive discourse: a corpus-based analysis focusing on pedagogical worthiness
The lack of up-to-date authentic teaching materials with current vocabulary and phraseology is one of the problems in the area of teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at Polish secondary vocational schools. This corpus-based study, focusing on English automotive discourse, is intended to fill this gap and its goal is twofold. First, I aim to identify and describe discoursal functions of keywords and key terminology (nominalizations) in a purpose-designed specialised corpus comprising car reviews, car brochures, scripts from a motoring TV programme and excerpts from car owner's manuals concerning safety (with more than 1 million words in total). Second, by using questionnaires administered to teachers of ESP at one of the secondary schools and calculating inter-rater agreement, I aim to identify those keywords and key terms that are the most pedagogically-useful. The study findings reveal a high degree of register variation within the four text types found in the corpus of English automotive texts and provide a pedagogically valuable set of language structures that may be used as a starting point for developing vocabulary exercises targeted at secondary vocational school students with a specialisation of car mechanics.
Filip Kolecki
Le recours à la métaphore, à la métonymie et à la synecdoque dans le langage managérial: une approche pragmatique
Lenka Kopečková
Voices in the news, framing, labelling, stigmatizing and poisoning
Since the beginning of the 1990s the Chechens have been called terrorists by the Russian propaganda preparing the ground for Russia's Chechen War. Labelling Chechens terrorists and even joining George W. Bush's Global War on Terror have become successful tools to manipulate the discourse of news and to gain the public support both inside the Russian state and on the global scale while individual Chechens struggle to promote their services and agrotourism in Georgia in Caucasus. The present paper presents the study of linguistic means which are used to frame the picture of Chechens in the most read American and British online news. It explores language that represents distinct voices speaking differently about an identical ethnic group, the Chechens. The method of the study exploits Teun A.van Dijk's sociocognitive paradigm within critical discourse analysis.
Linda Krajčovičová, Žaneta Pavlíková
Metaphors in the headlines of business, economic, finance and industry texts (in the Trend magazine)
Metaphors as a unique figure of speech have been employed and studied for centuries. However, their vital cognitive role examined primarily in the field of cognitive linguistics was addressed only a few decades ago, starting from George Lakoff and Mark Johnson and their seminal work Metaphors We Live By in 1980, who perceive metaphors to be more than just a poetic device utilised mainly in the rhetorical style and carrying out an ornamental function. This approach is seen in the use of metaphors in different non-literary genres, such as politics, economics, journalism, etc. The main aim of the present study is to identify conceptual metaphors dominant in the headlines of the Trend periodical. The researched corpus comprises headlines from the magazine's business, economic, finance and industry sections. In the process of analysis, we apply a whole complex of methods, namely systemic, descriptive and content. We also rely on contextual analysis, which determines the specifics of how metaphors work; pragmatic analysis is used to describe the intentions of the metaphorical process and the semantic background of specific metaphorical models. Using a discourse approach, we trace the interrelationships between linguistic and extra-linguistic aspects of the media text. Another, however not less important, aim of the present paper is to categorize the extracted metaphors into main groups of conceptual metaphors.
Alexandra Kroiss
"Hitting the nail on the head": On the role of phraseology in professional discourse
Phraseologisms are an integral part of every language and play a central role not only in understanding everyday language but also in professional communication. This contribution attempts to demonstrate a didactic approach to teaching phraseologisms and how these can be implemented profitably in the classroom. Both theoretical and practical aspects will be considered, including the challenges arising from the cultural and context-dependent nature of phraseologisms. Innovative didactic approaches and methods will be presented that aim to teach phraseologisms across different language levels, especially with the use of digital tools. In addition, this paper aims to show that a stronger focus on phraseologisms not only improves communicative competence, but also contributes to a more precise and effective understanding within specialised communication.
Tim Krokowski
"Aber die meilen seint klein" - On the linguistic representation of geometric units in specialist texts from the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period
One of the core tasks of astronomical science has always been to determine the relationships between space and time, such as the sizes and distances of celestial bodies or their movements. Although it was not until Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) that we can speak of a functional German astronomical terminology (cf. Gottschall 1999: 2357), numerous German-language writings offering cosmological calculation attempts were already available at the end of the Middle Ages. The lack of uniform, standardized scales for determining physical quantities proves to be problematic, which becomes clear both in the transfer of data values from Greek, Latin or Arabic sources into the German technical texts and in view of the regionally different units of measurement in the German-speaking area. The lecture will examine how the three most important representatives of the so-called Viennese Astronomical School (cf. Maisel 2021), Johannes von Gmunden (1380/84-1442), Georg Peuerbach (1423-1461) and Johannes Müller, better known as Regiomontanus (1436-1476), dealt with this problem and which linguistic solution strategies they used.
Michaela Kuklová
Accessible specialised communication: self-reflection and public discourse
Jana Kusová
Metaphor and the Process of Metaphorisation in the Professional Language of Architecture
The article deals with metaphors and metaphorisation processes in the professional language of architecture, which is strongly associated with visualisation and sensory perception in relation to its signified, for example a city or a building and its elements. Metaphors are typically used e. g. for concepts such as space, time, structure or form. The article looks for sources and forms of metaphorical transfer in the field of architectural theory and practice, both from a synchronic and diachronic perspective.
Jana Lauková
Conveying Specialized Knowledge in Interpreting Instruction: Reflecting on Post-Pandemic Changes and Student Needs
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the integration of new technologies and teaching methods into the educational process, particularly in the field of interpretation teaching. The aim of this article is to highlight the challenges and opportunities associated with the integration of various methods for conveying specialized knowledge and to promote a comprehensive understanding of current developments. The discussion aims to contribute to identifying and evaluating forward-looking approaches for the effective conveyance of interpretation skills in the digital age.
Attila Mészáros
Artificial intelligence in translation. Challenges and opportunities
The presentation will address the question of what challenges and opportunities artificial intelligence offers for a specialised field that is so technologised as translation. This field has been characterised by a high degree of technification for decades, thanks in part to CAT software. However, while the computer basically serves as an aid for human translators, with the rise of AI-based technologies there is increasing talk of the end of human translation.
This presentation will give a brief overview of the development of machine translation on the one hand and explain the basics of AI-based translation on the other. Against this background, the question of how AI can change translation practice will then be addressed.
Ilka Mindt
Analysing Academic English from a corpus perspective
In this talk I will provide a broad overview of research in English corpus linguistics. For many decades Douglas Biber has worked on registers, genres and texts and how to explore, analyse and categorise these form a corpus perspective. Based on the so-called register-functional approach to grammatical complexity, I will give an outline of the research conducted by Biber and colleagues with a foucs on academic English.
I will start with contrasting spoken and written language forms, then demonstrate how academic registers in English have developed diachronically from about 1800. In a last step, I will focus on the development of academic English by L1 (native English) speakers in contrast to L2 (non-native English = learners of English) speakers.
Martin Mostýn
Linguistic images in expert-lay communication on medical topics using the example of online health and counselling forums in the German-Czech language contrast
This presentation takes a close look at linguistic images in non-specialist medical communication using the example of selected German and Czech online counselling and discussion forums in the context of some frequently occurring dermatoses such as psoriasis (Czech: lupénka), neurodermatitis (Czech: atopický ekzém) and others. The question of the communicative performance of linguistic images, which include metaphors, comparisons and personifications, in the description of therapeutic measures, symptoms, anamnesis, etc. in communication between medical experts and laypersons, but also among laypersons themselves, will be investigated, to what extent the images identified differ from each other in the skin diseases mentioned and whether these are (skin) disease-specific. Furthermore, it will be presented which cognitive concepts underlie the images used in both languages, whether similarities and/or differences in their use can be identified and how text-external factors such as the communicative role of the communicators (medical experts vs. laypersons) or text-internal factors such as the thematic focus of the forum affect the use of these images.
Marta Murányi-Zagyvai
Humour at different levels of abstraction in LSP
According to linguists, professional language is not compatible with humour. In fact, students and translators often complain about the 'dry' style of professional texts. However, there are always attempts to add some colour to the boredom by giving technical terms a creative, witty form. Such 'forbidden fruits' have always existed here and there, but this tendency seems to be increasing, because for some time now we have had a relatively new tool at our disposal, namely acronyms, with which we can consciously play. In addition, there are also 'coincidences' that occur whenever different languages come together in translations. The examples discussed in the presentation come mainly from German and Hungarian.
Annette Muschner
The term as a trigger: what remains of gendering
The term gender as 'social gender' has its home in the social sciences, which are shaking up our patriarchal view of the world with the term gender mainstreaming and creating their research results under the term gendering in linguistic representations that lay the axe to the roots of our individual perception of language. Gendering is advancing from a perennial hot topic in the media to a trigger for polarising public and private discussions, which are often conducted without social science and/or linguistic expertise. The article shows how the technical term 'gendering' is changing its meaning in the context of science, media, business and politics and how all this affects the knowledge representations of Generation Z in the university context.
Piotr A. Owsiński
Technical Communication Communication in the Archival Documents from the Parish Office in the Light of the Analysis of the Entries in the Parish Registers from the 19th Century
The paper, involving a codicological and textological analysis, attempts to identify specific features of the Polish administrative language in the entries of the registers of baptisms, marriages and burials from Piasek Wielki in the 19th century. The aim of the research is also to answer the question how the parish registers were constructed and what functions they had. Furthermore there are examined the differences in the texts of the entries in the particular registers. The author focuses on the structure and characteristics of different entries in the diverse parochial registers. The research area defined in such a manner is based on the outlining of structure and the function of the parish registers and their notes in the context of the church administrative office's functioning as well as of the circumstances of day-to-day life of the town inhabitants.
Grzegorz Pawłowski
Can specialist communication be timeless?
The assertion that specialized communication is transcultural is undeniable based on the current state of research. However, the claim that it can also be transtemporal is more contentious. If such a thesis is proposed, it is likely to encounter partially valid criticism. The question posed in the title is explored with reference to the Byzantine notation system, whose origins can be traced back to ancient rhetoric. The Byzantine notation system is an integral part of Byzantine hymnography and music—fields that are attributed to a history spanning nearly 2000 years. Against this backdrop, I aim to investigate whether, and if so to what extent, one can speak of specialized communication in the absence of a well-developed terminological system in advance. Specifically, I address the following issues: (1) instruments of specialized communication, (2) the development and reduction of specialized lexicons, and (3) the consequences of the mutability of specialized lexicons for the actual status of specialized communication.
Milan Pišl
Economic disinformation in social media
The spread of economic disinformation on social media is a growing phenomenon that not only influences public opinion, but also has a significant impact on markets and trust in economic institutions. This paper examines the linguistic phenomenon of economic disinformation and its verbalisation used in social media to spread false or misleading information about economic issues. It examines linguistic strategies - such as the use of manipulative terminology, contextual distortions and the way information is presented to influence a particular interpretation or perception. A particular focus is on how economic jargon is instrumentalised to disguise disinformation and how these linguistic devices influence the reception by the target groups. The study is based on an analysis of selected posts from Facebook and Instagram, which are analysed using a discourse analysis approach. Finally, suggestions are formulated for the development of strategies to recognise and combat economic disinformation in social media through the choice of words, context or the highlighting of certain details in order to steer the audience's reception of the information in a desired direction.
Eva Polášková
How Much Theoretical Grammar Knowledge Do Learners of German as a Foreign Language Need? Grammar Teaching in Selected German as a Foreign Language Textbooks
In contemporary foreign language teaching, there is a noticeable trend aimed at promoting the communicative competencies of learners of German as a foreign language, while simultaneously avoiding an overload of theoretical knowledge. The COVID-19 crisis has further intensified this trend. Additionally, German as a subject is increasingly being pushed into the background, leading to numerous efforts to highlight the "positive" aspects of the German language to students and to move away from the traditional systematic, but perhaps tedious, concept of teaching through the grammar-translation method. It is recommended to reduce the scope of the taught material, facilitated by the fact that German is taught as a second foreign language and not as a graduation subject in most primary and secondary schools in the Czech Republic.
Despite the focus on communicative competencies in German language classes, it remains essential to teach the basic rules of grammar, as a necessary minimum of grammatical knowledge is unavoidable. This leads to two dilemmas for German as a Foreign Language teachers: On the one hand, they must decide which topics and areas to teach and which to omit. On the other hand, they must weigh how to formulate their explanations in either complex or simplified language. These dilemmas primarily concern the authors of German as a Foreign Language textbooks, which serve as a reference for teachers.
Therefore, this paper aims to analyze and compare the strategies and conditions for grammar instruction in current German as a Foreign Language textbooks available to German as a Foreign Language teachers at secondary schools (high schools) in the Czech Republic based on selected grammatical phenomena. From this, conclusions can be drawn for German as a Foreign Language teaching itself.
The following questions will be addressed:
- How comprehensively are selected grammatical rules described in the analyzed German as a Foreign Language textbooks?
- What terminology and other elements of language for specific purposes are used?
- In what manner and in the context of which other grammatical rules are the analyzed grammatical phenomena explained?
- How do the digital contents of German as a Foreign Language textbooks support the explanation and understanding of grammar?
A typology of the extracted presentation methods will be created, selected passages will be subjected to detailed analysis, and based on this, the optimization potential for teaching will be outlined.
Katarzyna Popek-Bernat
Corpus LSSP como herramienta de trabajo y (auto)formación de los traductores jurídicos
Veronika Resslerová
Quelques remarques à propos de principales ressources terminologiques francophones
Alessandra Rollo, Marco Zappatore
La traduction économique à l'épreuve des nouvelles technologies: de la traduction automatique à l'IA générative. Quels impacts? – online
Hana Romová
Diminutives in Botany Textbooks
This article deals with diminutives in botany textbooks. In botany, lexicalised forms of diminutives are dealt with, which are considered a marginal phenomenon in linguistics. The study corpus consists of two textbooks on botany by Strasburger, one from the second decade of the 20th century and one from 2014. This time span makes it possible to outline trends in the use of diminutive forms in the field of botany.
The diminutive forms from the corpus are subjected to a semantic and morphological analysis, whereby the question of what function they fulfil in the texts and whether they are used exclusively as technical terms in botany or whether they occasionally only express smallness or an evaluative/emotional statement in the texts. It is also investigated whether the diminutive forms occurring in the analysed corpus can have a different meaning, i.e. whether they also occur in other technical languages or in the common language (general language). As part of the morphological analysis, the question arises as to how the identified diminutives are formed, which types occur in the examined textbooks and which type of diminution predominates in terms of word formation. The aim of the analysis is to determine what function the diminutives in specialised botanical texts have, whether they are predominantly used as lexicalised technical words, and whether they are used in the textbooks.
The aim of the analysis is to determine what function the diminutives have in botanical texts, whether they are mainly used as lexicalised technical terms or whether they can also take on other functions. It will also be analysed whether their frequency in this field has changed over the last hundred years.
The diminutives from the field of botany will be analysed from a morphological and semantic point of view, and in some cases the etymology of the lexemes will also be taken into consideration. The corpus is analysed hermeneutically rather than metalexicographically, although the semantic view plays a fundamental role, as the context is always decisive.
Gabriela Rykalová
Prefixed attributes as components of nominal word groups in specialised terminology
The need for a precise way of expressing technical content in technical language contexts is closely linked to the demand for brevity without redundancy. This applies not only to the formation of technical language terms, but also to the formulation of definitions that precisely describe specific research objects. This article analyses several technical language discourses and describes the role and function of adjectives that appear as components of terms and definitions, with a focus on extended preceding attributes.
Jan Seifert
From polemics to blurbs – practices of evaluation in scientific reviews in the 20th and 21st centuries
A well-founded assessment is a constitutive element of the text type 'review'. These assessments can be realized in very diaerent ways: polemical disputes can be observed, especially in historical texts; This is contrasted with reviews in which only very reserved judgments are made and which resemble a blurb. More recently, there seems to be a trend toward overall positive reviews (cf. Ripfel 1998; Dalmas 2001). The talk will explore the question of how assessment practice can be described diachronically. The basis of the study is a corpus of 300 scientific reviews from the period 1900–2020, which are evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively. It examines how praise and blame are implemented, how explicit or indirect evaluations are made and how matter-of-fact the assessements are. The key aspect is the question of the extent to which we can speak of a change in assessment practices and styles from a diachronic perspective.
Pavla Schäfer
'Complaints before thunderstorms' is a leading symptom of Rhododendron. The symptom concept in textbooks on homeopathy and internal medicine
The proposed contribution is based on my ongoing postdoctoral research project, in which medicine and homeopathy are conceptualised as two 'thought collectives' with different 'thought styles' according to Ludwik Fleck ([1934] 2015). The project is based on the central assumption that thought styles lead to the construction of specific knowledge and that they manifest themselves, among other things, in patterns of language use (cf. Andersen/Fix/Schiewe 2018, Kalwa 2023). Current German-language textbooks on internal medicine and classical homeopathy are analysed. Textbooks have the function of introducing the respective thought style and training future experts. The text type and its function form the basis for comparison. The specific context determines the meaning of terms. The focus of the proposed contribution is the specialised term symptom. Symptom only acquires its specific meaning 'in the context and through the context' (CfP) of the respective thought collective.
From a contrastive perspective, the project takes a look at what is linguistically negotiated as consensual knowledge within the thought collectives of interest. The comparative study, which combines heuristic and corpus-linguistic methods of analysis, identifies and characterises the specific construction of knowledge on as many relevant analytical levels as possible (on exemplarity in medical texts, see Ylönen 1993, Gloning 2008 and Schuster 2010).
The proposed conference paper will focus on the symptom concept. The analysis so far has shown that in internal medicine (representative of human medicine as a whole) and in homeopathy there is a very different concept behind the superficially identical term symptom. The understanding of symptoms has far-reaching consequences for the specific construction of knowledge, treatment and clinical practice, for the understanding of texts and also for the discourse and understanding between the representatives of both positions. These consequences can only be hinted at in the lecture. The focus will be on the linguistic construction of the symptom concept in both thought collectives.
Zdeňka Schejbalová
Analyse de la structure et des termes spécialisés utilisés dans des documents rédigés au XIVe siècle sous Jean de Luxembourg
Pavlína Soušková
Inclusive language with regard to people with disabilities in a German-Czech comparison
This presentation deals with the inclusive language with regard to people with disabilities in mass media discourse, focusing on the German-Czech contrastive analysis. First, the topic and the current state of research are explained in principle, then the methodology used is presented and finally selected examples of inclusive and non-inclusive language with regard to people with disabilities are analyzed from several perspectives using text corpora. Particular attention is paid to the diachronic development of selected collocations and their use in different German-speaking countries. The results evaluate and compare the extent to which selected recommendations of inclusive language have become established in mass media discourse in the Czech Republic and in the selected German-speaking countries.
Libuše Spáčilová
Professional vocabulary of the witch interrogation protocols in Groß-Ullersdorf in the years 1678-1680
The lecture presents the project of the FPVČ grant competition at the Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc entitled Witch-hunts in Velké Losiny – history, linguistic analysis of the sources and their publication. One of its aims is the linguistic analysis of recorded German-language testaments of the defendants that should extend similar research in Germany. The records provide an insight into the usual form of oral communication in a specific type of trial at the time, which involved extremely asymmetrical, authority-driven communication between the interrogating judge and the defendant aimed to convict them of witchcraft. The speaker wants to analyse the specialized vocabulary in the interrogation records, which raises the question of the extent to which the common rural population could use specialized terms in their testaments and the extent to which these were staged interrogations with a predetermined outcome. Historical linguistics could thus help to provide a realistic depiction of these dark events in the history of the Bohemian lands.
Mária Spišiaková / Nina Mocková
The concept of colours in Spanish and Slovak metaphorical economic terms
The subject of the article is the terminological metaphors of colours in Spanish and Slovak economic language. The aim is, first of all, the creation of a corpus of metaphorical colour terms from popular economic texts (newspapers, specialised magazines), the semantic analysis of these terms, and then the contrastive-comparative analysis of the terms in Spanish and Slovak. An attempt is also made to identify and define all possible domains of origin (colour) in terminological metaphors that serve to name an abstract domain in economic language. The study complements the mentioned conceptual taxonomies in terminological metaphors, it also aims to establish which conceptual domains related to colours are the most and the least frequent in the formation of metaphorical terms in the language of economics and what differences in the meaning and use of these terms there are in Spanish and Slovak.
Krystian Suchorab
Ambiguity of terms in the field of guitar construction - a German-English-Polish comparison
Certain terms can be found in music that only take on a different meaning in a specialist context. However, the subject of music does not only include terms that are characteristic for music theory, but also those that are used by sound engineers, stage technicians, luthieres and instrumentalists and are characteristic for these groups. On the basis of this, we will talk about a technical language that relates to music but should be viewed and analyzed from a different perspective.
This paper is considered a pilot study and focuses on terms used by luthieres and guitarists, but also occur in the types of texts dedicated to guitar lovers. At the center of the analysis are German, English and Polish terms for the guitar components that make up classical, acoustic, electro-acoustic and electric guitars. The aim of the study is to point out those designations that are only understandable to specialists in a particular technical communication. The ambiguity of these terms, if such ambiguity can be identified, will be addressed. An attempt is made to diagnose whether ambiguity occurs in all the languages analyzed and whether the everyday meanings coincide.
Joanna Szczęk
Fachsprachliche Komponente(n) in der universitären germanistischen Ausbildung in Polen - Neue Konzepte, aktuelle Trends
Die Ausbildung an germanistischen Instituten in Polen erlebt seit längerer Zeit einen sich allmählich, jedoch deutlich vollziehenden Wandel. Es handelt sich um eine Hinwendung zum Praktischen zuungunsten des Theoretischen. Von den Studierenden wird immer lauter und häufiger signalisiert, dass die praktische Dimension des Studiums im Bereich der Neophilologie – hier Germanistik – für sie am wichtigsten sei. Das hängt natürlich mit dem künftigen Werdegang der Studierenden und ihrer beruflichen Entwicklung zusammen. Diesem Trend scheinen sich die Universitäten in Polen langsam anzupassen. Einerseits werden Kandidaten gefragt, was sie vom Studium des jeweiligen Fachs erwarten, und andererseits äußern Absolventen im Rahmen der Verfahren zur Messung der Bildungsqualität ihre Meinung zu Studienprogrammen der bereits absolvierten Fächer. Anhand der ermittelten Daten und Meinungen werden Curricula modifiziert, um den Erwartungen der Kandidaten und Studierenden gerecht zu werden. Diese Hinwendung zum Praktischen manifestiert sich u. a. in der Bereicherung der Studienprogramme um Fächer aus dem Bereich der Fachsprachen, die in der Meinung der Studierenden die praktische Umsetzung der während des Studiums erworbenen Kenntnisse verkörpern. Ob aber ihre Bedürfnisse im Bereich der Fachsprachenausbildung vollkommen, bzw. inwieweit sie befriedigt werden, gilt es in der vorliegenden Studie zu überprüfen. Analysiert werden Studienprogramme des Fachs Germanistik an den polnischen Universitäten mit dem Schwerpunkt der Fachsprachenausbildung. Im Fokus stehen Fächer im Bereich Wirtschaftsdeutsch. Anhand der Analyse von Curricula von 12 Universitäten in Polen (Stand 2024), die die Studienrichtung Germanistik / Germanische Philologie in ihrem Angebot haben, versuchen wir folgende Fragen zu beantworten:
Welche Lehrveranstaltungen zur Entwicklung der Kompetenz im Bereich Wirtschaftssprache werden in Studienprogrammen polnischer Universitäten untergebracht?
Auf welcher Stufe, in welchem Semester werden solche Lehrveranstaltungen eingeführt?
Im Rahmen welcher Module/Spezialisierungen werden diese Fächer angeboten?
Wie heißen die Fächer aus dem Bereich Wirtschaftsdeutsch?
Exemplarisch werden auch die Inhalte der Lehrpläne an der Universität Wrocław analysiert. Die Analyse hat zum Ziel, die aktuelle Lage zu diagnostizieren und Desiderate in diesem Bereich zu formulieren.
Cyntia Szegi
German as Foreign Language 2.0? Internet Memes as Didactic Tools in German Language Teaching
The pandemic and the associated restrictions have had a long-term impact on teaching practices worldwide, the consequences of which can only be eliminated very slowly -if at all in some cases. On the other hand, the pandemic period has also shown that despite the technological age we live in, a rapid transition in education from traditional forms and methods to new, but not necessarily verified, forms and technologies is still associated with some challenges. Apart from the lack of IT skills among teachers and the inadequate technical equipment on both sides, it was particularly the inadequate methods and content that questioned the success of online teaching.
The so-called internet memes were a novelty of the pandemic period in terms of online teaching. These (often) multimedia, satirical contents, which spread in the online space, were already known before the pandemic, but their didactic potential was only discovered or emphasized in recent years. Web 2.0 provides fertile ground for the creation and dissemination of these contents, and, encouragingly, are enjoying ever-growing acceptance, especially among the younger generations. These observations have led us to take a closer look at the didactic potential of internet memes. On the one hand, in the presentation, the nature of internet memes will be addressed, and on the other hand, practical examples will be shown in which areas of language teaching they can be effectively used.
Beáta Szép
A semantic analysis of medical metaphors in terminology of economics
My presentation will analyse medical metaphors in business language. First, translation strategies for metaphors in economic texts will be explained using examples, then the historical background of the emergence of medical metaphors in economic terminology will be focussed on. To provide a historical background for the topic, the work of the 18th century French court physician and economist François Quesnay and his major work, the Tableau économique, which shows the flows of income and goods in a circular representation of an economic year, will be discussed. Quesnay's work, which models the 'cycle' of economic life, was inspired by the Englishman Harvey's discovery of medicine and shows simple reproduction through the opposing flows of money and goods. For Quesnay, the circulation of capital, like the circulation of blood in the body, is triggered by the expenditure of landowners. He sees the development of agriculture as the key to the development of the national economy and distinguishes the classes of society according to their role in the production process (as 'organs' of the economy). Although Quesnay's theory was criticised by his contemporaries, this did not prevent it from spreading rapidly, which also contributed to the popularity of his terminology. This is followed by a semantic analysis of the medinic metaphors in German economic texts, whereby an attempt is also made to distinguish between the actual economic terms and the elements of the so-called 'economic jargon'.
Petr Šlechta
Los documentales etnográficos de Eugenio Monesma como fuentes de un vocabulario casi olvidado
Terezie Šťastná
El contexto lingüístico y cultural de la terminología jurídica checa y española contemporánea
Mirosław Trybisz
Adaptación de la información especializada a no especialistas. Ejemplos de la relación guía / turista
Dagmar Veselá
La métaphorisation dans le lexique de l'économie créative à l'exemple du terme jeune pousse
Lenka Vodrážková
Actiones longas of Teplitz in Bohemia. A case study on German urban historiography of the 16th century in Bohemia with regard to historical research into professional language
In the period of humanism, historiographical writing culture gained importance with a rich palette of texts, of which urban historiography is an important component. This is due to the favourable conditions for its development, namely the humanist conception of history with philological-historical efforts to document the character of historiographical texts, the growing emancipation and self-confidence of the urban population, as well as the identification of historiographers with their city. Urban chronicles emerged as a means of recording the new order of life in cities with the aim of presenting historical occurrences and events of a political, religious and social nature in chronological order. At the same time, the attention of humanist historiographers was drawn to extraordinary events that lay outside the framework of everyday life in the city and had a direct impact on urban life. Urban historiographical works, as important sources of linguistic communication of historical events in terms of content, form and language, contribute significantly to the understanding of the individual and collective identity of the urban population and to the explanation of their world view and attitude to life in the period of humanism.
In this respect, the history of Teplice enriches the experience of the author's level of writing, his methodological approach to the treatment of historical events and the perspective from which the aim of knowledge or mediation is reflected. To interpret the past, the author then postulates causalities and connections between historical events. It should also be noted to what extent the author is dependent on the political and social circumstances under which he is writing the history of the city and to what extent the author's individual point of view affects his intention to inform the recipient about a certain fact, to memorise historical facts and make them available.
Anja Voeste
Reader-supporting means in Eucharius Rößlin's Rosengarten. A typographical-orthographical study of German editions
Eucharius Rößlin's Der Swangern Frauwen vnd hebammen Rosegarten, first published in German in Strasbourg in 1513, is the most important medical work of the early 16th century in the field of obstetrics. It aimed to make medical knowledge accessible to laypeople without any knowledge of Latin, especially midwives, and supported the professionalization of obstetrics. The book is didactically structured, contains clear and comprehensible instructions as well as numerous woodcuts illustrating child positions. Its wide distribution and the numerous new editions in various printing houses show its popularity. My talk takes a look at the didactic preparation of the text using the example of reader-supporting means from the areas of typography and spelling that were used in various German editions of the Rosengarten. Editions from different printing houses are examined: Straßburg (Flach, 1513 und 1522), Hagenau (Gran, 1515), Köln (von Aich, 1518), Augsburg (Steiner, 1528), Straßburg (Beck, 1529) and Frankfurt on the Main (Egenolff, 1534). The focus is on the question of how these creative-didactic means and decoding aids contributed to making the medical discourse accessible to a non-Latin-speaking audience, especially women. In addition, the various editions will be used to trace how the respective printing houses strategically attempted to increase their sales of the work through typographical and orthographical adaptations.
Michaela Voltrová
At the Interface of Marketing and Science (A Case Study in Speech Act Theory)
The external communication of universities (science to public) is of fundamental importance not only for the universities themselves but also for the public. The manner in which scientific content is conveyed is crucial to the effectiveness of this communication. In this context, it balances at the interface between marketing and science. This specificity is evident in the texts published by universities for the public, both on social networks and on university websites.
This article presents the results of a case study analyzing texts from selected university websites. The following research questions are addressed: How is academic rigor constituted in these specific 'mediating' texts, and how is the marketing aspect of the texts constructed? What types of speech acts are employed? Are specific communicative strategies (see Wagner 2001) utilized? In the scholarly literature, specific types and categories of speech acts typical for both scientific and marketing communication have been described. How are they combined in online science-to-public communication, and should a specific type predominate to ensure that the university does not lose its established and traditionally recognized expert position while effectively communicating with the public?
Speech act theory and the speech plan approach (see Wagner 2001) provide an appropriate methodological basis for the qualitative description of the outlined research objectives, with the testing of this methodology representing a secondary objective of the case study.
Wagner, K. R. (2001): Pragmatik der deutschen Sprache. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Claudia Wich-Reif
Language for Special Purposes in Common Language
In everyday exchange about speaking and language, time and again specialised linguistic vocabulary is used. It is noticeable that terms relating to (the German) language are used very confidently without any obvious need for selection or further reflection. From the large number of terms for 'standard language', for example, with High German particularly the one term is often used that is least clear ("But even after almost half a century in the Rhine region, she speaks High German." [Die Zeit, 09.12.2012 (online) via DWDS, transl. CWR]. High German is polysemous in that the word can refer to the standard language, but also to the southern part of the Upper German language area, i.e. it does not refer to the language farthest from dialect, but to the German-language regions where people still speak very close to the dialect. Furthermore, lexemes are used that sound really technical, but are defined differently in languages for special purposes and are sometimes even used rather vaguely or for various issues and contexts, e.g. Umgangssprache 'colloquial language', slang and jargon ("What would not be a long time coming anyhow is a slang of its own." [Süddeutsche Zeitung, 16.03.2002, via DWDS, transl. CWR]; "In addition, there are texts in a horrible gobbledygook of German and English-American slang." [Die Welt, 21 June 1999, via DWDS, transl. CWR).
In the talk, models are set up for vocabulary for special purposes that refer to domains of the use of the German language in the horizontal (space) as well as in the vertical (speech situation) on the basis of a sufficient amount of evidences in their contexts with special regard to the conditions of their use. These are interpreted and their relations to each other will be analyzed.
Norbert Richard Wolf
Special field of knowledge, specialised language(s), specialised stylistic phenomena
Two research objectives can often be observed in specialized language research: If it is not a matter of 'pure' theory, then the unknown set of specialised languages is assumed to exist and to be somehow known, and individual features of such specialized languages are described; the other possibility is that certain linguistic phenomena are sought and listed in specialised language texts. The approach here is different: Two authentic texts will be examined in detail. Two questions will be asked: A short piece of text from the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 18:1-3) will serve as an example of the fact that technical language can also occur in texts in which this is not assumed from the outset. Using history textbooks from the mid-19th century, we will ask whether there can be technical language with an explicit reference to gender.
Gabriela Zapletalová
Expertise construction and performance in social media
The focus of the paper is on linguistic and discursive realisation of expert identity, both formal and lay, in line with Bucholtz and Hall's relational and sociocultural approach, and Bauman and Briggs's performance-oriented approach which subsumes discourse concepts of entextualization. The emergent quality of identity, positionality and indexicality will help identify and explore structures of interactional coherence and interpersonal dis/alignment to investigate how speakers position themselves and negotiate their expertise in podcasts in relation to academic research and other types of learned sources.
Silvia Domenica Zollo
Repérage et analyse de la variation dénominative dans un corpus spécialisé sur les aurores boréales
Alessandra Zurolo
Verbal and non-verbal metaphors in specialized communication: a functional perspective
The investigation of conceptual metaphors in specialized discourse is an established field of study in LSP research (cf. e.g. Drewer 2004; Brown 2003; Herrman / Sardinha 2015; Schmitt et al. 2019). Such metaphors not only play a role in the terminology or lexical naming of scientific content (cf. Bauer 2006), but also determine the structuring of this abstract content. In particular, they can contribute to the establishment of scientific theories or to the explanation of certain phenomena by systematically linking abstract areas with more concrete ones or with those closer to experience (cf. Lakoff / Johnson 1980). Such links give rise to metaphorical patterns that can also serve to structure extensive areas of experience (for medicine, above all war, balance and machine metaphors, cf. e.g. Bauer 2006; Fleischmann 2008; Sander 2012; Schachtner 1999).
Drawing on these theoretical foundations, this article analyzes the form and function of verbal and non-verbal metaphors in selected medical educational texts and popularized science articles. The focus is on the following questions: Which metaphors are used in which modality (verbal or visual)? Do they belong to historically established patterns (cf. Zurolo 2022) or are they formally and functionally reinterpreted? What textual functions are they related to? Are these functions linked to the more general text type function (cf. Brinker et al. 2014)? How do the two modalities interact in the constitution of meaning and what role does verbal language play in non-verbal metaphors (cf. Steen 2018)? Can they be classified as deliberate or non-deliberate in terms of form and function (cf. Reijnierse, et al. 2018; STeen 2015)? Do such uses correlate with the respective text types?
Updated: 05. 11. 2024
