German Language Research in East and West Germany

Abstract

It is often quite difficult for American teachers of German to keep informed of new information in the field of linguistics.* This is especially true at a time when the appearance of new journals dealing with linguistic topics is steadily increasing, not to mention the proliferation of unpublished papers and other hard-to-obtain documents. But the major prob!em in this information explosion is perhaps not so much volume as direction. Most current work in the field of linguistics is at best of marginal interest for the FL teacher. This short paper is an attempt to introduce the readers of UP to some of the research in German linguistics presently in progress in East and West Germany. Specifically, it deals with the institut fir deutsche Sprache in Mannheim (68 Mannheim, 12 Friedrichsplatz) and the Arbeitsstelle far strukturelle Grammatik in East Berlin (08 Berlin, Otto Nuschke Str. 22/23). These are by no means the only institutions in Germany which are engaged in German linguistic research, but they are significant and should serve as an example of what is being done. It is hoped that future issues of UP will report on other current projects.