The connection between language and politics is a much-studied issue and has brought forth an abundance of literature. The present introduction offers an initial approach to the subjects discussed and the methods employed by recent research. Its main focus is pragmatic in that it examines politicians' use of language in concrete communicative situations. The volume provides a set of instruments for analyzing political texts and illustrates its use with reference to numerous examples. Each chapter rounds off with indications for further reading and exercises designed to help readers engage more profoundly with the material and embark on their own analyses of political language use.

Hitherto, research on grammaticalization has been largely language-typological and universalist in its leanings and as such has been consistently gaining ground within the framework of German studies. The present monograph proposes a theory of grammaticalization collating various approaches and discussing them on a broad empirical basis. The material drawn upon is largely taken from spoken West Central German. The area covered by the grammaticalization phenomena discussed is documented on 16 language maps. The inclusion of diachronic analyses places the present-day grammaticalization processes in a broader context.