This thesis looks from a historical perspective at the morphological-semantic motivation of words denoting persons with foreign suffixes that have been borrowed into and also formed in German, whereby, among other things, the role of motivation in relation to the borrowing and retention of lexical items is elucidated. In a theoretical section peculiarities and problems in the word formation of loan items are discussed, and motivation is defined as a synchronous-semantic category. In the analysis words denoting persons that have seven different foreign suffixes, deriving principally from Latin, are examined with material primarily from dictionaries. The study shows that especially for the frequent suffixes in German there is a consistently large proportion of motivated words. It is generally the case that the words are motivated on their first appearance in the material, and changes in their motivation are on the whole infrequent. The analysis further proves that motivated formations often disappear from the material, and words are mostly retained after the loss of their motivation. The reason that the words for the most part are motivated in German when borrowed, is that suffixed words denoting persons are generally closely related in their semantic structure to another word in the original or donor language. In German, a relatively large proportion of motivated formations for one suffix does not always correlate with high frequency or with high productivity of the suffix. Furthermore, many of the words examined do not belong to the common vocabulary, which restricts their motivation from a socio-linguistic point of view and can to some extent contribute to their disappearance.

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The central concern of this thesis is to investigate the development of the personal identity of the main characters in four novels, a novella, and a short-story, written in German by authors from different countries who have immigrated to post World War II Germany and Switzerland. Earlier research concerning these identity processes is reviewed with emphasis on the relevance of the different theoretical models of development of personal identity used. A model called “identity-balance”, first described by the German sociologist Lothar Krappmann, is used in analysing the changes in personal identity. This model is preferred because of Krappmann’s strong emphasis on interaction, process, and openness. Based upon the results of the interpretations a modification of Krappmann’s model is suggested in order to better shed light upon identity processes following migration. As languages are shown to play a great role in these processes, aspects concerned with multilingualism and the part languages play in the “identity-balance” are discussed throughout the thesis. The textual interpretations reveal the connection between three lines of change: changes in personal identity, changes in society following migration, and changes in the field of literature.

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>The novel <em>Berlin Alexanderplatz</em> by Alfred Döblin was published in 1929. It has subsequently been widely recognized as an important part of German Modernism due to its new conception of the hero, as well as its innovative narrative structure. The aim of this essay is both to determine the innovatory details in the concept of the hero and to describe the narrative structure, which is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the hero Franz Biberkopf. Hence, not only direct utterances by the hero and other narrative techniques are dealt with in the analysis, but also a wider context, including social interaction and the impact of the metropolis. In <em>Berlin Alexanderplatz</em> the concept of the hero is based on a fundamental criticism of the bourgeois view of the human being, a view which derives from the classical Homeric epic, stretching over the Enlightenment and into Döblin's time. However, the narrative innovation in <em>Berlin Alexanderplatz</em> is not only to be seen as the personal result of Döblin's critical reflections on the narrative tradition of the ʻbourgeois epicʼ, but also as one manifestation among others within the framework of Modernist criticism.</p>

<p>The concept of equivalence has for many years attracted attention of researchers in variousdisciplines: from mathematics to philosophy to translation theory to terminology. This thesisintends to survey the concept of equivalence in three subject fields all of which focus onlanguages and communication, namely: translation theory, lexicography and terminology. Thepurpose of the paper is twofold: to investigate the theoretical grounds of equivalence in thesethree disciplines and to survey the methods and practices of establishing equivalence inmultilingual terminology work. The results of the theoretical investigation are summed up onthe basis of the terminological concept analysis. Four concepts systems are structured andpresented in the form of concept diagrams (two for translation theory, one for lexicography andone for terminology). The concept systems give an overview of the current understanding ofequivalence in the three subject fields and expose the relations between equivalence and anumber of related concepts. The central theoretical question of the thesis whether equivalencecould be considered the same concept in all three disciplines is answered on the basis of theresults of the terminological concept analysis. The empirical investigation is carried out in theform of case studies in the frame of multilingual terminology work. It focuses on the problemsof establishing equivalence, of determining the degree of equivalence as well as on the methodsand practices of presenting equivalents in various terminological resources.</p>

<p>This survey focuses on the omissible constituents of a sentence, which not only relate to the verb but also describe the subject or object. In a sentence analysis, they cannot be determined by the syntactic structure alone, but need an additional semantic approach. These units are commonly used, but so far have been insufficiently described in grammars and research literature, although the understanding of the function of these units is necessary in order to be able to make a complete sentence analysis. Further, there is no consensus regarding terminology and classification. The term depictive secondary predication is commonly used in English, and the terms <i>prädikatives Attribut, freies Prädikativ </i>and <i>Koprädikativ</i> are the most widely used terms in German. In this study, the term <i>freies Prädikativ</i> (FP) is used. The classification of these constituents in the literature varies between FP, adverbials and in some cases attributes.</p><p>Based on the information available in German grammars and mainly German research literature, a model was developed, which makes it possible to distinguish FP from adverbials and attributes. A corpus containing German novels and newspapers was analysed in the light of this model. The controlled sentences of grammar books and research literature almost always use adjectives as examples of FP. This study shows that FP can be found in all types of phrases like adjective phrases, participle constructions, als- phrases and prepositional phrases. In addition, it is shown that FP occur with all types of verbs.</p>

<p>The purpose of this experimental study is to examine the translation processes and the resulting translations of eight translators performing translation tasks from German into Swedish. The data about the translation processes were collected with the think-aloud technique, i.e. the translators were asked to verbalize as much of their thinking as possible while translating. The translators – four of whom had long working experience and the others substantially shorter experience – were asked to translate the same source text (a news item) for two different fictitious audiences: first for a morning newspaper and then for a children’s magazine.</p><p>With regards to the translation process, the results showed that the two categories of translators did not differ considerably from each other, neither in their dictionary use, nor in their overall accomplishment of the translation tasks. However, they did differ in their attitude. The less experienced translators were more involved in the process, which also led to quality improvements. At the same time, individual differences were substantial regarding all of the criteria examined.</p><p>The resulting translations (the products) were evaluated both by the researcher and by journalists from the newspapers or magazines in which the texts, according to the briefs, were to be published. The results showed small differences in text quality for the two categories of translators. According to the journalists, the less experienced translators even produced slightly better texts for the morning paper.</p>

<p>The central concern of this thesis is to investigate the development of the personal identity of the main characters in four novels, a novella, and a short-story, written in German by authors from different countries who have immigrated to post World War II Germany and Switzerland. Earlier research concerning these identity processes is reviewed with emphasis on the relevance of the different theoretical models of development of personal identity used. A model called “identity-balance”, first described by the German sociologist Lothar Krappmann, is used in analysing the changes in personal identity. This model is preferred because of Krappmann’s strong emphasis on interaction, process, and openness. Based upon the results of the interpretations a modification of Krappmann’s model is suggested in order to better shed light upon identity processes following migration. As languages are shown to play a great role in these processes, aspects concerned with multilingualism and the part languages play in the “identity-balance” are discussed throughout the thesis. The textual interpretations reveal the connection between three lines of change: changes in personal identity, changes in society following migration, and changes in the field of literature.</p>

The present dissertation investigates the use of the fantastic and its functions in contemporary prose, the initial hypothesis being that the fantastic is not historically exhausted, but continues to be productive. The major part of this study consists of a close reading of four novels printed between 1995 and 2001: Marie Hermanson’s Värddjuret (1995), Majgull Axelsson’s Aprilhäxan (1997), Karen Duve’s Regenroman (1999) and Elfriede Kern’s Schwarze Lämmer (2001). Tzvetan Todorov’s definition of the fantastic as structural ambiguity is fundamental to the dissertation. In order not to bind the definition to a normative concept of genre, the fantastic is in this study considered as a narrative strategy. The dissertation’s analyses demonstrate that in these contemporary novels there is considerable variation of narrative devices, as well as of intertextual motifs deriving from the ‘archive’ provided by the tradition of the fantastic. The fantastic is to a great extent intertextual, but does not merely function as a “signal of fiction” in a postmodern game where ambiguity is no longer relevant. Instead, the narrated world in these novels is characterized by a deeply-rooted ambivalence, heterogeneity and instability. Both attractive and dangerous, the fantastic corresponds to a meeting with “the other” and the unknown, while dampening the conflict between the supernatural and the natural so clearly seen in Todorov. What is central is not the crisis of perception undergone by the novel’s characters as they choose between two opposing views of reality, but their mental state of mind. These characters are in a condition of “betwixt and between”, which in all four novels is linked to the theme of the artist. Via the fantastic, Regenroman initiates a confrontation with male myths of the artist and images of women. Schwarze Lämmer also engages the romantic fantastic tradition and investigates the link between adolescent delusions of grandeur and artistic creativity. Värddjuret, on the other hand, depicts the genesis of a female artist, while Aprilhäxan presents the female artist’s monstrous image of herself and fantasies of omnipotence. An additional function of the fantastic in these four novels is to thematize a concept of reality that is based, not on the contrast between the natural and the supernatural, but on the possibility of several different realities.

This study aims at examining in detail the linguistic characteristics of sentential idioms (‘idiomatische Sätze’, IS) in German, e.g. Das kannst du dir an den Hut stecken.; Du hast wohl Tomaten auf den Augen!; Da lachen ja die Hühner!. In theoretically and empirically investigating their syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features and productive potential, it is shown that IS can only be described properly by looking at the interfaces between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and by systematically investigating pattern formation. In this respect, the study goes far beyond traditional phraseological research. As a theoretical background, the study refers to research on phraseology, sentence types and sentence mood, linguistic evaluation, morphological productivity, and the frameworks of Construction Grammar and Relevance Theory. Empirical evidence comes from a large corpus of written German, a linguistic experiment on productivity, and introspective data. With respect to syntax, the study shows that IS are bound to one or a few different sentence types, varying according to the degree of restriction of their speech act potential. The complex semantics of IS is shown to consist not only of a literal and an idiomatic, but also of a third, mediating representational level. The idiomatic meaning of IS is described as evaluative meaning. Pragmatically, IS are dependent on special contextual environments to obtain a proper interpretation. A context model is developed which makes use of certain categories of evaluation. Moreover, a relevance-theoretic approach is sketched in order to explain which functional advantages IS might have compared to non-idiomatic utterances. With respect to productivity, ten different idiomatic patterns of construction are identified and described in detail. It is experimentally demonstrated that these patterns are productive to a greater or lesser degree dependent on their internal syntactic, lexical, semantic and pragmatic features.