German Material Research Articles

Интерпретирующий потенциал немецкой лексики, содержащей в своей структуре обозначение цвета

We analyze of German lexis with color definition in its structure and consider the secondary importance of the lexical categories of “plants” and “animals”. The relevance is due to the continuous interest of linguists to the study of the processes of interpretation and conceptualization, which is confirmed by numerous works in this field of research. The purpose of this research should be considered the analysis of lexical units objectifying the areas of “plants” and “animals” within the framework of their color realization on the material of German, Russian and English. The main methods in the work are the method of conceptual analysis, the method of component analysis. We describe in detail the implementation in languages of the “color” attribute of interpretive knowledge formats based on lexical categories representing the areas “plants” and “animals”. In the course of the study of the actual material, interpretive signs of the perception and observation format, characteristic of the categories of this field, were revealed. We analyze a number of lexical units included in the “plants” and “animal” areas, and make conclusions on updating the color scheme in the language using the interpretation of lexical categories.

Макроструктура научной аннотации: универсальное и культурно-специфическое (на материале английского, немецкого и русского языков)

Макроструктура научной аннотации: универсальное и культурно-специфическое (на материале английского, немецкого и русского языков)

Synthesis and ion exchange properties of zirconogermanates

AbstractPure and Nb-doped zirconium germanate materials of composition K2-xZr1-xNbxGe3O9.H2O where x = 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.25 with the structure of the mineral umbite have been successfully synthesised. The parent material displays negligible ion exchange of K+ for Cs+ but the doped materials shows much improved exchange. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction shows substantial peak splitting which varies with increasing niobium content. Preliminary Rietveld refinements suggest a two phase model with a caesium and potassium rich doped umbite phase.

Mitigation in the Scientific Discourse

The article is devoted to the study of mitigation strategies and tactics in scientific discourse on the material of English, German and Russian languages. Objectivity, accuracy, consistency and clarity of presentation are traditionally distinguished as the main style-forming factors of scientific discursive practice focused on scientific knowledge. At the same time, the anthropocentrism of modern linguistic science naturally led to the inclusion in the focus of research interest of the subjective components of the scientific discourse, in which the personality of the addressee of the scientific text is reflected and to which the category of mitigation can be properly attributed. The strategy of assertive mitigation is realized in the scientific text through ritualized tactics of deictic depersonalization and modalization. These tactics reflect the interaction of two tendencies - the subjective (the author's desire to show the scientific significance of his personal contribution to scientific research, or, on the contrary, to preserve the face by softening the categoricity of the presentation) and objective (the desire to present only facts and strong evidence). The paper proves that the assertive mitigation strategy realized in the analyzed languages by ritualized tactics of depersonalization and modalization plays an important role in scientific discourse and serves, in the final analysis, to preserve the face of the addressee of the scientific text.

THE STRATEGY OF SELF-PRESENTATION AND ITS TACTICS (BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF LINGUISTIC DISCOURSE)

Self-presentation is a fundamental social need of a personality to have its own face. There are significant developments regarding its specificity in different genres of political, autobiographical, musical, existential and Internet discourses. Scientific discourse is represented on the material of German language.The communicative strategy of self-presentation in linguistic discourse is realized using several tactics: objective informing, subjective informing, consolidation, and transference. The analyzed strategy is characterized by reflection of the author’s self, people’s picture of the world and scientists’ views.A vivid way of self-presentation of these tactics is the use of pronouns I, my and we. The pronoun we can be realized in several variants. Lexemes linguists, onomasts, editorial board and editors of collection of scientific works express tactics of consolidation.With the help of self-presentation strategy, a scientist expresses his opinion about himself. He gives objective and subjective information.

Tuning of emission color in the germanate luminescent materials for cement application

Nowadays, tunable luminescence that can be only pumped upon excitation at an invisible single ultraviolet (UV) wavelength has attracted great attentions in the lighting fields. Unlike most of previous works which focus mainly on the application of luminescent phosphor materials for phosphor converted white light-emitting diodes (pc-wLEDs), a new type of germanate phosphor luminescent material, which can emit a broadly tunable spectral range and show the promising for cement application, has been reported in this work. As for the structure purity of the as-obtained germanate phosphor materials, we, based on the XRD results, reveal that they belong to a trigonal structure with the space group of R3 (No. 146). The luminescent centers, i.e., the +3 europium and +3 bismuth ions, which tend to substitute the Lu sites in the germinate crystal host, can emit the blue emission and the red emission upon excitation at 297 nm and 393 nm, respectively. Due the great spectral overlapping between the excitation wavelength of +3 europium and the emission wavelength of +3 bismuth, the energy transfer from +3 bismuth to +3 europium is demonstrated. More remarkable, fixing the doping content of +3 bismuth yet changing the doping content of +3 europium can induce the emission color tuning from blue, white and to red. In order to explain the PL results we achieved, here we also construct a mechanistic pattern based on the energy transfer from +3 bismuth to +3 europium. Our results show that such germanate materials can suggested for cement application.

ПРАГМАТИЧЕСКИЙ ЭФФЕКТ ГИПЕРБОЛЫ В МЕДИАДИСКУРСЕ (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ НЕМЕЦКОГО И РУССКОГО ЯЗЫКОВ)

Данная статья рассматривает прагматический потенциал гиперболы. Источниками материала исследования послужили немецкие и российские спортивные издания и газеты, содержащие рубрику «Спорт». Материал в немецком и русском языках был сопоставлен как по количественному, так и по качественному показателям.Цель. Статья посвящена прагматико-стилистическому аспекту медиадискурса. Предметом анализа выступает прагматический потенциал гиперболы на материале спортивного немецкого и русского дискурса. Целью исследования стало определение прагматических функций гиперболы в медиатексте.Метод или методология проведения работы. В ходе исследования авторы использовали стилистический анализ и прием количественного подсчета.Результаты. Результаты работы заключаются в том, что авторы выделяют эмоционально-экспрессивную и аттрактивную функции гиперболы в текстах спортивного дискурса. Мейозис как разновидность литоты, которая рассматиривается в рамках гиперболы, определяется как одно из самых эффективных средств эвфемизации в газетном тексте и в спортивном репортаже, в частности. Поскольку при сопоставлении материала в немецком и русском языках количественные и качественные показатели имеют близкие значения, представленные выводы могут считаться релевантными для обеих лингвокультур.Область применения результатов. Результаты исследования могут быть учтены при описании прагматических особенностей в целом и при сопоставительных описаниях немецкого и русского медиадискурсов.

ЛЕКСИКО-СЕМАНТИЧНА КЛАСИФІКАЦІЯ ДІЄСЛІВ ГНОСТИЧНОГО ПСИХІЧНОГО СТАНУ В УКРАЇНСЬКІЙ, НІМЕЦЬКІЙ ТА АНГЛІЙСЬКІЙ МОВАХ

The article deals with the concept and lexical-semantic classification of the gnostic mental state verbs on the material of modern Ukrainian, German and English languages. Particular attention is given to determination of common and distinctive features in the semantics of the gnostic mental state verbs in Ukrainian, German and English. The theoretical significance of the research lies in the definition of the concept and lexical-semantic features of the gnostic mental state verbs as a separate lexical-semantic class in each of the researched languages, which might lead to the further development of the study of lexics denoting mental states. The lexical-semantic classification of the gnostic mental verbs in Ukrainian, German and English, identification of common and distinctive features in the researched languages was made basing on the body of the authoritative dictionaries of modern Ukrainian, German and English languages. The results of the statistical processing of the dictionary samples helped to establish the degree of productivity of lexical-semantic groups in each of the above mentioned languages. The analysis of already made attempts to create some classifications of gnostic mental states in psychology and verbal lexicon, which denotes gnostic mental states in linguistics, revealed the absence of an adequate classification and description of these notions – ” gnostic mental state” and ” gnostic mental verbs”. Systematic analysis of the scientific data provided an opportunity to define the gnostic mental verbs in the research and describe the features of this verbal class on the lexical-semantic level within the framework of comparative research on the material of Ukrainian, German and English.

The German liberty in England and the Dutch Republic: On the pan‐Protestant literary field and the circulation of a loaded epithet

AbstractIn this article, I track the reception of Gustavus Adolphus, Swedish king and hero of the Thirty Years War, across the borders of Northern Europe. I argue that writers in England, the Dutch Republic, and the German territories consciously participated in a ‘pan‐Protestant literary field’, united by shared ambitions, beliefs, and cultural stock. Typology was particularly important in uniting Protestants in the celebration of Gustavus, and it shaped how English and Dutch writers read the war and identified with their suffering co‐religionists. At the same time, terms within the celebration varied radically by context, and I trace the variant understandings of Gustavus's mythic role, ‘Defender of the German Liberty’. German liberty, in both England and the Dutch republic, assumed republican signification only latent in the German materials. I thus suggest that a transnational approach to early modern literature requires a recognition of early modern identifications to better understand how tropes, images, and ideas circulated in the period.

Reducing front end uncertainties: How organisational characteristics influence the intensity of front end analysis

Front-end (FE) of innovation is crucial for the success of companies' new products. In this research stream, the concept of FE activities has become central to the whole discipline. It describes how the process of finding new product opportunities, as well as enhancing and assessing them, can be implemented. This paper builds on results that FE processes should be flexible and context-specific. It addresses the current need to understand how organisations can influence FE activities so as be more efficient. By conducting semi-structured interviews with 24 FE experts from German material science and engineering (MSE) companies, we identified three organisational factors that impact on FE activities: organisational capabilities, strategic orientation, and organisational culture. Findings indicate that organisational capabilities and strategic orientation could directly reduce the uncertainty rate in the analysis of FE activities. Further, organisational culture and soft skills have moderating effects, and the initial extent of uncertainty has a mediating effect on this rate. Overall, our research contributes to the discussion about FE proficiency, which refrains from the FE life-cycle perspective and demands project-specific and complete execution of FE activities.

Serious Nonsense: Groundhog Lodges, Versammlinge, and Pennsylvania German Heritage

Serious Nonsense: Groundhog Lodges, Versammlinge, and Pennsylvania German Heritage

Umbite Type Zirconium Germanates for Cs Removal

ABSTRACTPure and Nb-doped zirconium germanate materials of composition K2-xZr1-xNbxGe3O9.H2O where x = 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 with the structure of the natural mineral umbite have been prepared in high yield using hydrothermal synthesis methods. The parent material displays virtually no ion exchange of the K+ for Cs+ but the doped materials show rapidly enhanced exchange with replacement of ca. 70% of the K+ by Cs+ for the 30% doped material. Rietveld analysis of the powder X-ray diffraction data is consistent with no change in the unit cell parameters or K+ bonding prior to the exchange, hence we propose the improved property is due to the creation of cation defect sites within the pores of the material that facilities greater cation mobility and leads to exchange.

Loanword adaptation in Hungarian: unexpected vowel harmony in material of Latin and Slavic provenance

In a 1992 article, Eugen Helimski showed that the accented vowel of Old and Middle High German, Medieval Latin and Pannonian Slavic lexemes governed whether they acquired front-vowel or back-vowel harmony when entering Hungarian as loanwords. While the German material appears exceptionless, some words of Slavic and Latin provenance exhibit unexpected back-vowel harmony. The present article submits that if a labial sound follows the originally accented vowel, front-vowel harmony is blocked. This conditioned rule applies without exception to both Slavic and Latin loanwords; it is thus an economical solution. It follows that variation in Slavic loanwords in Hungarian cannot serve as a testimony of Old Slavic accent shifts, but merely of the place of the original (pitch) accent; and that the Slavic language that provided loanwords to Medieval Hungarian must have been fairly uniform. As for Latin loanwords, it likewise renders an appeal to late accent shifts unnecessary. Helimski also discovered that a subset of Latin words containing a medial cluster *-CiV- could trigger front-vowel harmony even if the original accent fell on a back vowel. Here, I argue that the distribution of front and back vocalism in this type is further governed by the vowel of the initial syllable. This minor rule possibly applies to Slavic as well.

The Objects of Remembrance: Jenny Erpenbeck's Short Stories Alongside Contemporary Exhibitions of East German Material Culture

This article highlights the intersection of Jenny Erpenbeck's short stories and exhibitions of East German material culture. Erpenbeck, a leading voice in contemporary German literature, is central to understanding the role of material culture in the dynamic and emotionally charged memory contests surrounding the East German past. This article demonstrates how Erpenbeck's short prose about everyday objects, such as spoons and drip-catchers, provides counternarratives for what have become traditional modes of displaying East German material culture in museums of history and everyday life.

A conspiracy to murder: explaining the dynamics of Romanian ‘policy’ towards Jews in Transnistria

ABSTRACTThis article offers a comprehensive interpretation of the Romanian ‘policy’ towards Jews in Transnistria in 1941–44. This region in southwestern Ukraine witnessed both a monstrous number of Jewish victims, usually estimated as no fewer than 350,000 and possibly more, and an unusually high survival rate by the standards of the occupied Soviet territory. The article argues that what is sometimes referred to as ‘inconsistency’ in Romanian policy can be best explained within the framework of the structuralist/functionalist approach to the history of the Holocaust that was first developed on German material. The article argues that Romanian leaders never adopted the policy of complete annihilation of Jews; rather, their aim was to expel them from Romania’s national territory. However, they were not opposed to murdering Jews en masse when they believed it was ‘necessary’ from a military point of view or advisable for any other reason. Given the scarcity of resources in the region and the fear of epidemics, murdering interned Jews in the areas of their greatest concentration appeared to be the way to ‘solve’ a number of problems. At the same time, the absence of a fanatical paramilitary force such as the SS in Nazi Germany and Romanian leaders’ unwillingness to leave a paper trail of their criminal orders complicated the logistics of mass murder. Mass murder required either the ready participation of the gendarmerie and police, which was not always forthcoming, or the mobilization of the ethnic German militia, which was not available everywhere. In the absence of pressure from the authorities to kill, some officers and individual gendarmes, cognizant of the criminal nature of such actions, hesitated or even avoided participation in mass murder.

Geschichte lernen postkolonial?

Although postcolonial studies by no means can be called neither an unimportant nor a new phenomenon they obviously up to now have little influence on teaching history at school in German-speaking countries. Following the raster »development of the subject«, »arrangement of the material« and »assignment of tasks« on the one axis and »postcolonial thinking«, »perspectivity « and »agency« on the other we investigate in how far at least approaches of postcolonial theory can be found in selected current German materials for history classes. In a last step we discuss reasons for the lacking and design some concrete perspectives for historical thinking and learning for history classes in a global world pointing out the essential role of postcolonial theory.

Коммуникационная модель мультилингвального обучения

The article presents a model of teaching four foreign languages. The
 languages obligatory for learning are English and German. The student
 then chooses the languages of distant cultures, for example, Chinese
 and Czech, Japanese and Polish, Turkish and Serbian, etc. The teaching
 materials are course books from Germany while methods of teaching foreign
 languages are Russian and take into account personal characteristics and
 abilities of the students. Original German material is borrowed from other
 sources including the Internet. In the first two years, classes are given by
 two highly skilled teachers who aim to show the common features of English
 and German as the languages belonging to the same Germanic group. In
 the next two years students analyze the differences of distant cultures,
 with reference to the languages they choose for learning, as language
 constitutes part of culture. The suggested model has a universal character
 and can be used in any type of educational institutions. After finishing the
 course, graduates have skills to teach the respective languages as well as
 to translate and interpret from and into them.

Haunting Heritage in an Enchanted Land

This article addresses the functions and meanings of Second World War German material heritage in northern Finland from a haunting perspective and in terms of magical thinking. While archaeologists and heritage professionals have primarily been interested in the historical information that Second World War sites and military material culture may contain, this article explores how encounters and engagements with Second World War materialities in the northern wilderness of Lapland can be considered to affect people and manipulate their perceptions, awareness and understanding of the surrounding world. Second World War sites and matériel may be taken to promote a kind of magical consciousness which enables a degree of restructuring of relationships between the self and world and the past and present.

Gas on the Eastern Front During the First World War (1915–1917)

Russia’s first experience of chemical warfare occurred during the First World War. Although the first use of chemical weapons on the Eastern Front was long thought to have taken place in April/May 1915, in actual fact, the first time the Russians experienced a chemical agent in action was earlier than that, in January 1915 at Bolimow. Using a variety of Russian, English, and translated German material, the article analyzes the use and effect of gas on operations in the Eastern Front throughout 1915–1917. Given the newness of the weapon, its impact was less considerable than it could have been and its effectiveness hampered less by technological counter-measures and more by a lack of serious thought given to its potential operational impact.

Can colors, voices, and images help learners acquire the grammatical gender of German nouns?

Knowledge of lexical items is arguably the most essential aspect of being able to communicate in a foreign language (Richards, 2000). Many studies have examined effective strategies for retaining the meaning of foreign words, but studies investigating the effectiveness of different methods for the retention of essential grammatical features of those words are unfortunately fewer. This study investigates whether memorizing the gender of German nouns concomitantly to their meaning results in a decreased ability by undergraduate native speakers of English to remember noun meaning, and whether a mnemonic approach to retaining the grammatical gender of German nouns may prove effective. In possibly the largest study of its kind ( n = 283), the effectiveness of several mnemonic devices (colors, voices, images, and a combination of these) is also investigated for the retention of noun gender in German. The sole use of images simultaneously coding for noun meaning and gender led to the best observed results, as indicated by scores on two post-tests. The use of images seems to be a promising mnemonic technique for helping learners remember the gender of German nouns, while at the same time not significantly compromising their ability to recall noun meaning. The results of the present study have possible implications for German materials development and teaching, and for computer assisted language learning (CALL) in general.