Volume 45, Issue 2

It is self-evident that language changes across time; how this process of language change takes place has been investigated for specific domains, such as the genitive case. Language change may induce a heterogeneity of verbal competences. However, in differential psychology theoretical models on verbal intelligence imply that verbal competence is a rather homogeneous. Accordingly, the question of homogeneity and heterogeneity of verbal competences is a rather open one. Therefore, this study investigates the competence of differentiating sentences with genitive verbs from other object types and of evaluating the familiarity with these object types. It was examined whether homogeneous or heterogeneous linguistic competences are relevant for the evaluation of the grammatical correctness of sentences. The methodological basis for the linguistic and differential psychological study was a questionnaire of 22 groups of sentences with verbs requiring the genitive as an object case and/or verbs requiring another object case. Participants ( N = 177 students) were asked to evaluate the grammatical correctness of the sentences (correct vs. incorrect) and the familiarity of content of the sentences on a six point Likert scale. Based on a statistical method termed principal component analysis, the relevance of homogenous vs. heterogeneous linguistic competences was investigated. This analysis led to six principal components which can be differentiated with regard to their relevance for linguistic competences. In addition, it could be demonstrated that the mother tongue (German vs. non-German) and the course of study (German studies or Psychology) influenced the evaluation of correctness. The findings indicate that relations between specific linguistic competences and verbal intelligence should be analyzed with regard to language and socialization processes.

Typically, a majority of students in BA and MA programs in German language and literature studies ( Germanistik or Deutsche Philologie ) at German universities are future school teachers of German, not future linguists. For decades, linguists have been discussing how German grammar and linguistics should be taught to these students. Furthermore, it is often lamented that first-year students have not acquired sufficient skills in descriptive German grammar in their secondary education ( Sekundarstufe ), and that this stands in the way of teaching them German linguistics effectively. Our study makes an empirical contribution to this discussion. We assessed the proficiency of 220 BA students in a test composed of grammar exercises designed for students between the sixth and tenth grade. We show that, contrary to some earlier assessments, they achieve quite good results overall. However, it also becomes apparent from the results that studying linguistics does not significantly improve their performance in the test. Furthermore, exercises which require free analysis combining structural and functional aspects are handled significantly less well than more mechanical one-dimensional exercises. First, we argue that this is actually an ideal point of departure for deeper, more theory-driven linguistic analysis in university courses. Second, we propose that linguistics departments should continually perform similar assessments in order to be able to adapt their teaching methods and content to the previous skills and the intended career of the majority of their students.

The paper provides an overview of the functions of emojis in everyday written communication – either used to complement or to replace text. The first chapter presents the current research literature on this topic and addresses the differences between unicode emojis and the former ASCII-signs. Then we discuss a question hotly debated by the public: May emojis be considered the basis of a new universal language? After having shown on both the lexical and the grammatical level that this cannot be the case we move on to the question whether, within our alphabetic system of writing, emojis may be used as additional graphic signs. The last chapter offers some examples of WhatsApp messages containing emojis in the various functions discussed before (as allographs and ideograms, for instance). Furthermore, a frequency analysis based on the Swiss WhatsApp corpus shows the distribution of emojis in these data.

The terms Handlungs-, Tätigkeits-, Vorgangs- and Zustandsverb are common in linguistic literature. They convey the impression that Handlung, Tätigkeit, Vorgang and Zustand are inherent features of verbs. The objective of this paper is to show, that all such are not inherent features of verbs but possible perspectives, predicates realise in sentences. Perspectives are modelled as prototypical, significative (i.e. not denotative) semantic roles of predicates. However, verbs are considered not open in terms of perspective but to have predispositions for specific perspectives.