Germanistik, Deutsche Sprache und Literatur
Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Book (156)
- Article (76)
- Part of Periodical (11)
- Part of a Book (9)
- Contribution to a Periodical (6)
- Doctoral Thesis (6)
- Review (5)
- Magister's Thesis (4)
- Report (4)
- Periodical (2)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (281)
Keywords
- Transylvanian Saxons (4)
- Quelle (3)
- Belletristische Darstellung (2)
- Herta Müller (2)
- dictatorship (2)
- literary cartography (2)
- memory (2)
- translation (2)
- translator (2)
- ,making excuses, evasions‘ (1)
Institute
- Extern (93)
- Neuere Philologien (9)
- Geschichtswissenschaften (2)
- Präsidium (2)
- Evangelische Theologie (1)
- Fachübergreifend (1)
- Gesellschaftswissenschaften (1)
The stories about the Vaser Valley in the northern Romanian Forest Carpathians have not only fascinated the population of the region, but also famous writers who have always tried to collect the stories and tales from the historical region of the Vaser Valley. The best-known author of this region, who turned his lifelong work into this spectacular project, is the German-speaking ethnologist and writer, of Romanian origin, Anton-Joseph Ilk. His book Die mythische Welt des Wassertales includes a remarkable collection of legends and tales from this region, presented in their orally transmitted stories. The main themes of the stories naturally include customs and traditions, whereby certain values and principles were passed on not only to he children and grandchildren, but also to all succeeding generations.
Briefnormen
(1994)
Richard Wagner hatte ein gebrochenes Verhältnis zum Geld: Er benötigte viel, hatte aber meist so wenig, dass er auf Pump leben musste. Nicht selten war er auf der Flucht vor seinen Gläubigern. Die Erfindung des Geldes hielt er für einen Sündenfall, das Eigentum für die Wurzel allen Übels. Im »Ring des Nibelungen « spiegelt er im Mythos vom Fluch des Goldes die moderne Erfahrung der Macht des Geldes.
The writer Otto Fritz Jickeli (1888-1960) turned to events of the 19th century in his unpublished story Die Kosakenbraut. The revolution of 1848 /49 forms the chronological axis for the events in the description, with their befor and after. The episodes do not lack the unusual moments that occur in times of revolutionary upheaval. As is well known, the Imperial Austrian troops were supported in their fight against Hungarian revolutionaries by the Tsarist Russian army, and the armies of the insurgents finally succumbed to this military alliance of the great powers. The changing fortunes of war, the events effecting private life are vividly presented, also with the help of a spontaneous love affair between a Cossack commander of the Russian army and a Transylvanian woman who, under problematic circumstances, becomes the „Cossack bride” and mother of a half-Cossack. It is both fluent and stimulating reading about the customs and moral concepts of the time, aprose work that testifies to the author’s expertise and also to this sense of humour.
The research reported in this thesis examines two main questions: firstly, which dictionary type, bilingual or monolingual, is most effective for intermediate learners of German for reading comprehension, and secondly, which features make monolingual dictionary definitions effective for these learners. These questions divide the thesis into two parts. The first part compares the effectiveness of the bilingual versus the monolingual dictionary, and the second part compares two different monolingual definition styles.
The research was originally motivated by the observation that Hong Kong Chinese intermediate learners of German prefer to use a German-English bilingual dictionary. Since the translations are presented in the learners' second language, the effectiveness of this bilingual dictionary is doubtful. On the other hand, the learners are reluctant to use the monolingual dictionary, recommended to them by their language teachers. Three investigations were conducted in order to gain more detailed knowledge about the learners' dictionary preference, and the effectiveness of the two dictionary types. The learners' dictionary preference was investigated by means of a survey of ninety-eight foreign language students. The effectiveness of the bilingual and monolingual dictionary for reading comprehension and incidental vocabulary learning was first measured experimentally. The think-aloud method was then used in order to discover factors which determine the effectiveness of the two dictionary types.
The results of the experiment revealed that the German-English bilingual dictionary was not significantly more effective for the learners than the monolingual dictionary. The only monolingual dictionary available for German at that time, however, is linguistically too difficult for this proficiency level. Because of these findings, the research turned to monolingual dictionary definitions with the aim of identifying features that make them accessible to intermediate learners. Based on findings from the first think-aloud study, and principles promoted as user-friendly in the lexicographic literature, new definitions were developed for the target words in the research. These new definitions were compared with those in the existing dictionary. A second think-aloud study was conducted in order to generate hypotheses about individual definition features. These hypotheses were then tested in the second experiment, which was conducted with eighty-six learners of German in Shanghai.
The investigations reveal several features that determine the effectiveness of monolingual definitions for intermediate learners. The findings have theoretical and pedagogical implications. In the theoretical field, some lexicographic principles were recommended that are, unlike previous principles, based on empirical insights into user needs. In the pedagogical field, the research findings provide an empirical basis for the evaluation and recommendation of suitable dictionaries to intermediate learners.
A model of dictionary effectiveness is proposed. This model could help to assess the effectiveness of different information categories in dictionaries for different proficiency levels and different activity contexts. It could also provide lexicographic principles for the design of dictionaries. This research contributes one component to the proposed model: criteria for the effectiveness of definition features for intermediate learners in the activity context of reading.