Research Focus and Projects

German grammar in the present and history, in particular:

• Grammatical text analysis (a functional syntax 'from top to
  bottom' (= from the text level (text elements) via the sentence level (sentence elements)
  to the word group level (word group elements))
• Contemporary grammar and language history
• Grammatical change
• Syntax of Modern High German
• Grammar and literalization
• Grammar and orality/writing (proximity/distance)
• Junction theory
• Dependency grammar
• Valence theory
• Historical valency (Early New High German)
• Syntax of the nominal group
• Phraseology and grammar
• Coordination ellipsis
• Grammar and literature
   

1) DFG project: Syntactic basic structures of Modern High German. On the grammatical foundation of a reference corpus of Modern HighGerman (Univ. Kassel and Univ. Gießen) (Homepage)

There are currently several projects for the creation of grammatically indexed reference corpora of older language levels; however, a comparable project for the grammatical-corpus-linguistic indexing of Modern High German does not yet exist. The planned project is therefore intended to complement the efforts of the "German Text Archive" to create a reference corpus of the Nhd

The situation is comparable with regard to the grammatical writing of High German: There are a number of contemporary grammars as well as language level grammars of Ahd., Mhd. and Frnhd. available, but a grammar of Nhd. does not yet exist. Yet this is precisely the epoch of the development of the modern written and standard language, the emergence of modern colloquial and regional languages and the differentiation of text types, text styles and literary genres that is central to language and cultural history. This deficit is not only a cause for concern within the discipline, the asymmetries in research are also striking in comparison with other text-related disciplines: While the 18th and 19th centuries, for example, have been very well researched in terms of literary and philosophical history, a well-founded grammatical analysis of central literary and philosophical texts of the 18th and 19th centuries would not even be possible due to a lack of studies on basic syntactic structures of the Nhd. A central aim of the project is to lay the theoretical and empirical foundations for a syntax of Modern High German. Fundamental to this is the concept of grammatical text analysis (see III/1 below), which is based on the meaningfulness and symbolic nature of grammatical structures.

The guiding linguistic principles of the project are: i) Bridging function (viability): Connecting historical to contemporary grammar research and grammar writing and vice versa; ii) Grammatical-theoretical openness: convergence between projectionist and constructionist grammar models; iii) Varietal dynamics: by taking varietal differences into account, the project generally aims to contribute to a better grammatical and cultural understanding of language variation and the diversity of textual worlds in both Nhd. and contemporary German.

The project is being carried out in cooperation with the University of Giessen. The Giessen project group is headed by Prof. Dr. Mathilde Hennig.

2) Modern High German grammar (1650-2000)

This is a long-term project with the aim of creating a grammar of German language levels for the period from 1650 to 2000.(Download "Projektskizze Neuhochdeutsche Grammatik") For basics and guiding principles see. II/1 above.

The realization of the New High German grammar was and is supported by two DFG projects led by Mathilde Hennig and myself: a) "Explicit and elliptical junction in the syntax of New High German. Pilot project on a language level grammar of Modern High German" (2007-2009)(Download, see III/2 below) and b) "Syntaktische Grundstrukturen des Neuhochdeutschen. On the grammatical foundation of a reference corpus of Modern High German" (2016-2019) (see II/1 above).

1) Grammatical text analysis (book project)

2) DFG project: Explicit and elliptical junction in the syntax of Modern High German. Pilot project on a language level grammar of Modern High German (2007-2009)

The empirical result of the project is the Kassel Junction Corpus (KAJUK).

The Kassel junction corpus consists of four syntactically richly annotated texts each from the 17th and 19th centuries. The annotation focus was on junction-relevant grammatical features, through the combination of which various techniques of explicit and elliptical junction can be reconstructed. The annotated corpus is publicly accessible at ANNIS

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