Volume 46, Issue 1

The paper discusses a practice-based approach to the linguistic analysis of audioguide communication. Based on a corpus of 20 audioguide aggregates of visual arts museum exhibitions, specific and recurrent patterns are outlined (opening routines, different patterns of speaker selection, positioning within the given museum space) which suggest that audioguide communication has to be conceptualised as a mediatised practice and as a located or “location-bound” practice. The authors argue that a practice-based approach enables more comprehensive studies which also take the actual in-situ use of audioguide aggregates into account.

The article focuses on the non-agent construction of the ASKRIPTION of aussehen ( er sieht mitgenommen aus , see basically Lasch 2016a) in the center of the considerations. On the basis of a corpuslinguistic evaluation of the KERN corpus at the DWDS it is shown that and why this construction belongs to the repertoire of linguistic patterns, which are especially established for descriptions in narrative texts.

Drawing on a corpus study conducted using the German national newspaper DIE ZEIT, the paper studies usage contexts of the semicolon, considering syntactic as well as text linguistic factors. In the vast majority of cases, the semicolon is found to connect main clauses; the linkage of subordinate clauses and nominal phrases is significantly less frequent. Moreover, the average semicolon sentence is significantly longer and structurally more complex than the average sentence of the same corpus. However, the sentence elements connected by the semicolon are shorter and less complex than average sentences. The main claim of the article is that the semicolon marks coherence between two clauses. For the most part, the event expressed in the second clause is in some respect similar or equivalent to the first one or provides an explanation, an example or a reason. Less frequently, the second clause denotes a result, implies a contrast or operates in a speech-act domain. While these relations usually are not expressed explicitly by a connector, the coherence is often reflected by co-reference chains extending across both clauses.

This paper deals with a morphosyntactic variable of German verb clusters containing a full verb and an infinitive perfect of the verb lassen or of modal verbs ( gelassen haben, gekonnt haben ). The corpus-based analysis draws upon the concept of center and periphery as it was developed by the Prague School. The main research question underpinning the synchronic analysis concentrates on the use of the IPP ( infinitivus pro participio equivalent to the German term Ersatzinfinitiv ) and the word order of the auxiliary verb within the cluster. In total, there is empirical evidence for four variants in which this variable is realized. Two of them fully correspond to the system of German infinitive constructions (full verb + gelassen/gekonnt haben , or haben + full verb + IPP lassen/können ). However, these systemic constructions are used (much) less frequently in contemporary written German than the other two constructions (past participle of full verb + haben + lassen/können , or full verb + haben lassen/können ). Whereas the former ones can be counted to the center of the German infinitive system from the structural point of view, the latter ones are classified as peripheral, because they are not derivable from the rules of this system. In spite of that, the paper explores one of identifiable epicenters within the periphery of the system, arguing with the highest frequency and further regularities of the third type of the construction (past particple of full verb + haben + lassen/können ). The structural analysis takes the functional equivalency of subordinate clauses and the corresponding infinitive constructions into consideration. This contributes to better clarification of both morphology and word order of the elements creating the analyzed verb clusters.