German Linguistics

The specialisation German Linguistics puts its focus on the structure, variation and change of the German Language as well as multilingualism in the German-speaking region. Additionally, students gain insights into Interactional Linguistics and Research perspectives on German Linguistics

In the module Structure of German, students acquire a broad and well-founded overview of current theories explaining grammatical structures of German. This will enable them to access selected areas of phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and/or lexicology and to describe and explain linguistic phenomena in these areas in a scientifically appropriate way on the basis of the acquired theories.

The focus of the module Language Variation and Language Change in German is on theories for explaining phenomena of linguistic-structural variation in areal, social and situational terms as well as for analysing and explaining language change processes in the past and present apart. The students learn to analyse processes of variation and change on the basis of the developed theories with appropriate methods.

Multilingualism is - especially in times of globalisation, migration and flight - not an exception but the normal case. This also applies to official German-speaking societies. In the module Multilingualism in the German-speaking region, students receive a broad and well-founded overview of current theories and questions on the analysis and explanation of individual, institutional and societal multilingualism. They also deal in depth with selected areas or phenomena of multilingualism. There is always a close connection to current societal developments and social issues, which cannot be separated from the questions of multilingualism research.

In the module Interactional Linguistics of German, current theories, methods and results of language-related interaction analysis are dealt with. Using German as an example, students learn to analyse how the specific resources of spoken German are used in oral interactions and how they interact with physical resources such as gestures and gaze. On the basis of natural interaction data, they deal in depth with selected phenomena of spoken German. The linguistic phenomena in focus and their multimodal embedding are described and explained in an empirically appropriate way on the basis of the theories and methods developed.

In the module Research Perspectives in German Linguistics, project seminars offer students the opportunity to work independently and empirically on a topic from the research area of the seminar or from the research area of the seminar leader. They carry out a specially designed project independently and thus gain early insights into independent, scientific work.