Fachbereich Philosophie und Geisteswissenschaften

Andreas Pankau

This network project investigates adverbial clauses and their dependency relations from synchronic, diachronic, and typological perspectives, aiming to deepen understanding of subordinate clauses. Meetings explore dependencies between adverbials and matrix clauses, the development, variation, and grammaticalization of adverbial constructions, and non‑canonical functions such as adnominal adverbial clauses and adverbial argument clauses. Emphasis is placed on crosslinguistic comparison, drawing data primarily from Celtic, Germanic, Romance, and Slavic languages, to map patterns, constraints, and theoretical implications for clause subordination and syntax research.

Giulia Cabras

This study examines how urban growth, policies, migration, and socioeconomics shape language use in public spaces, focusing on multilingual signage. Combining ethnography, sociolinguistics, and urban studies, it analyzes visibility of Tibetan and Standard Chinese in Rongwo (Longwu), a rapidly urbanizing town in Rebgong, Qinghai. With both languages officially recognized and new infrastructure emerging, the research investigates how state and community needs, ideologies, norms, and language contact create hierarchies and inequalities. It explores minority roles and policy effects on ethnolinguistic representation.

Dr. Fabio Gasparini – Institute for Semitic Studies

The cultures and environment of Modern South Arabian Language (MSAL) speakers are threatened by rapid social changes like urbanisation and Arabization, unsustainable development, and climate change. This leads to a loss of traditional knowledge about human–landscape relationships, negatively impacting local culture. The project aims to document and analyse the toponymic and orientation systems of MSAL speakers to preserve this endangered heritage and promote the maintenance of traditional cultural knowledge.

Matthias Hüning and Anne Fleig

This comparative project investigates the origins of modern monolingualism—“pre‑monolingualism”—and its literary effects by comparing 18th‑century German and 20th‑century Turkish. It examines how standard‑language ideology, national linguistic norms, and reforms (notably Atatürk’s) shaped notions of the mother tongue, literary originality, and purist language practices. Through historical case studies and analysis of contemporary Turkish‑German literature, the study traces continuities and ruptures between pre‑ and post‑monolingual situations, exploring how multilingual realities are represented and negotiated in literary cultures across time, space, and sociopolitical contexts.