Handbücher Sprachwissen (HSW)

The Handbook of Multilingualism systematically presents the latest knowledge about central aspects of this subject area with a particular focus on the language situation in Germany. It provides an extensive, linguistically grounded, and interdisciplinary overview of basic terms, theoretical perspectives, research methods, topics, and the fields in which individual, societal, and institutional multilingualism manifest themselves.

The Handbook of Language in Education is a compilation of essays that investigate and present the ways that relevant knowledge for educational policy is negotiated, linguistically constructed, and constituted. The essays cover the linguistic construction of the idea of “education” itself and an exploration of the ideological role ascribed to language in education.

This handbook discusses urbanity as a communicative and linguistically constituted concept. Special focus is placed on the integration of urban linguistics into the traditional disciplines of linguistic research and the presentation of urbanity as an interdisciplinary phenomenon. Covering relevant concepts from international research with reference to empirical data, the handbook imparts basic knowledge on a key theme in contemporary linguistics.

This work examines the linguistic construction of knowledge in history, politics, and society. It presents a range of disciplinary approaches, linguistic phenomena (such as lexemes, text types, and rhetorical tropes), and political, historical and, social structures (such as actors, media, and commemoration). Case analyses reveal that history, politics, and society are inextricably interlinked in the social construction of knowledge.

The Handbook of Language and Religion offers the first extensive amalgamation of research findings on religion from linguistics and other disciplines. Understanding key concepts such as charisma, ritual, annunciation, worship, commemoration, ineffability, transcendence, and metaphysics will facilitate dialogue between researchers, teachers, and students engaged in the study of language and religion from diverse academic perspectives.

This handbook deals with linguistic aspects of literature and literary knowledge. Its contributions, written by leading experts in the fields of linguistics and literary studies, provide innovative insights into the relationship of language and literature from a wide range of perspectives.

For the first time, the Handbook of Language in Art Communication provides a systematic overview of the linguistic aspects of art communication, ranging from everyday art talk to the academic tradition of discourse on art, including art education, aesthetics, and art history. It covers exhibition practice and depictions of art communication in art itself.

There are numerous individual studies available on the use of language in science, engineering, and mathematics. This handbook orders the field from a decidedly linguistic perspective by looking at the role played by language in the constitution and transfer of knowledge. This approach allows readers to learn more about the relationship between language and knowledge in these disciplines and provides starting points for future research.

This handbook systematically addresses the topic of organizational communication, which occupies a middle level between the “micro-level” of language interaction and the “macro-level” of collective linguistic-communicative practices and structures. The handbook aims to provide broad survey of organizational communication in German, English, French, and Spanish while giving due attention to the cultures of each language.

Researchers in linguistics have long sought a concise, scientifically based synopsis of communication in economics and business. The handbook meets this need and covers the key areas of communication in economics (internal and external corporate communication and intercultural communication). Its target audience includes teachers, researchers, and students of linguistics.

The Handbook of Language in Law documents the textual and communicative processes of setting standards in the law. Its focus is on the legal explication of meaning, as examined from the perspectives of the courts, the legislature, the executive, and legal science. For the first time, it provides linguists, legal scholars, and social scientists with an introductory compendium on the theory, empiricism, and methodology of legal linguistics.

Language in medicine is more than a means of communication – it is a diagnostic and therapeutic instrument. Language is essential to medical research and education and in social discourse in a medicalized society. The handbook surveys language in medical and media communication related to the health care system. Contains contributions from experts in medicine, linguistics, conversation research and the media and communication sciences.

Language is not only a subject of reflection for linguists. Language, language change, and language usage are often addressed, discussed, and analyzed beyond the confines of linguistics. This handbook provides an overview of the themes, issues, controversies, methods, and history of non-linguistic reflection on language, while also offering insight into linguistic theories and methods for describing and evaluating them.

This handbook presents the various dimensions of language use in social groups. After a basic introduction, it focuses on three areas: (1) language patterns and communication in social groups; (2) language use in particular social groups, and (3) areas of application. The essays reflect central themes, examining each of them based on the current state of research.

The Handbook of Language in History examines the role ascribed to speaking and writing in the German language over the course of language history. It reveals the historicity of language in the transmission of language awareness and the range of linguistic usage. A general section is followed by an analysis of different domains of knowledge (the quotidian, institutional, religious, scientific, and poetic worlds).

The handbook covers language usage in multi-semiotic textual environments. Integrating linguistic features with images, sounds, and typography creates patterns of substantive, formal, and functional linkage. The volume outlines the paradigms in multimodal linguistic research, systematic methods for analyzing semiotically complex texts, and offers insight about the functionality of selected types of multimodal texts.

The handbook explores the notion of “discourse” using basic linguistic concepts and the methods of discourse linguistics. Different linguistic approaches see discourses in terms of dynamic, heterogeneous, and conflictual constellations. The volume also covers the materiality of discourse as knowledge-based coding of social conventions and beliefs, thereby capturing current debates in discourse linguistics.

The handbook brings together key findings and current research issues in the linguistics of text and conversation based on a research tradition extending across 40 years. The basic focus is on the ways that texts and conversations constitute, represent, discursively implement, and communicate knowledge. General survey articles on characteristic features of texts and conversations are supplemented with essays on specific communication areas.

What is the level of complexity of sentences and utterances? How do they relate to schemata? In the context of these questions, the book explores the basic elements in the relationship between the language system and linguistic usage and the basic analytic units in syntax. The handbook thereby bridges competency-based and performance-based approaches and also incorporates research on sign language and gesture.

Our understanding of words and vocabulary as key elements of language has undergone significant change and has become more “fluid” as a result of corpus and cognition linguistics and the cross-referencing of written and spoken literacy. This volume combines academic and lay perspectives to include an examination of word elements, word combinations, vocabularies, word meanings, word history, spelling, vocabulary acquisition, and documentation.

The handbook offers multifaceted insights for scholars and students interested in linguistics, founded on the most up-to-date theoretical and empirical research on the units of the German spoken language. It covers the characteristic features of syllables, words, and larger units. In addition, pursuing the goal of a systematic intermodal phonology, it also covers these units in German sign language and writing.

The inaugural volume of the Handbücher Sprachwissen series demonstrates the relevance of language as a symbolic system for creating knowledge and applying it in social domains and other spheres of activity (medicine, law, business, etc.). The series takes a language-systemic perspective that goes from sound to text and discourse, combining it with a usage-oriented approach focusing on linguistic phenomena as such.