4 Germanic Languages I
4 GERMANIC LANGUAGES I. GERMAN STUDIES Language and LinguistiCS Alan Scott, University of Nottingham and Marc Pierce, University of Texas at Austin 1. General A major work which appeared towards the end of the review year is Ulrich Ammon, Die Stellung der deutschen Sprache in der Welt, Berlin, de Gruyter, xviii + 1296 pp. Assessing the global position of the German language and its recent history, A. views the position of German in the context of a global constellation of competing languages, examining unique features and congruities in such areas as business, science, diplomacy, linguistics, word art, the media, and foreign language instruction. The perennial debate as to whether the German language is in decline is the subject of Sprachverfall. Dynamik-Wandel-Variation, ed. Albrecht Plewnia and Andreas Witt, Berlin, de Gruyter, viii + 371 pp., which contains contributions from many prominent scholars, both from Germany and elsewhere. The volume has two principal foci, namely providing a comprehensive analysis of the discourse on perceived language decline, and offering a sociolinguistic perspective on the processes underlying the public debate on the topic. Chapters include Wini Davies and Nils Langer, ‘Die Sprachnormfrage im Deutschunterricht: das Dilemma der Lehrenden’ (299–321) and Martin Durrell, ‘Mit der Sprache ging es immer schon bergab Dynamik, Wandel und Variation aus sprachhistorischer Perspektive’ (11–31). A new and insightful contribution to another long-standing debate surrounding the German language, namely the extent to which Martin Luther can be considered to be the Schöpfer of the New High German written language, is made by Werner Besch, Luther und die deutsche Sprache.
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