Discourse

Language and Communication

Discourse
Image: Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Language and communication (Prof. Gast)

The "Language and Communication" section at the Department of English and American Studies works on the analysis of the modern English language as a system of signs and an instrument for interpersonal communication. This comprises, on the one hand, the description of all basic aspects of the language system and, on the other hand, the interpretation and use of natural language (semantics and pragmatics).

In both research and teaching, the English language is examined from a comparative perspective. A particular focus of our work is on Contrastive Linguistics (English-German) and Linguistic Typology, which investigates the patterns and boundaries of linguistic variation world-wide, and constitutes a frame of reference for the analysis of individual languages. In this comparative contexts international students are encouraged to use their L1 skills for comparative projects (e.g. term papers and theses).

At our department, we pursue a theoretically reflected, empirical approach to linguistic analysis based on comprehensive multilingual and multimodal corpora. We have also been involved in the development of research software for comparative corpus-based linguistic analysis.

 

Projects

Team

  1. Bahlmann-Schulze, Simone Lehrstuhl Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft (Prof. Gast)
  2. Gade, Eberhard Bertram Lehrstuhl Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft (Prof. Gast)
  3. Gast, Volker, Univ.-Prof. Dr Lehrstuhl Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft (Prof. Gast)
  4. Haas, Florian, PD Dr Lehrstuhl Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft (Prof. Gast)
  5. Herbst, Lina, Dr Lehrstuhl Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft (Prof. Gast)
  6. Persohn, Bastian, Dr Lehrstuhl Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft (Prof. Gast)
  7. Tallman, Adam, Dr Lehrstuhl Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft (Prof. Gast)
  8. Tykhostup, Olena Lehrstuhl Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft (Prof. Gast)