Die Moderne ist, literarisch gesehen, erst einmal ein Sprachprojekt. Und Lyrik gilt als Paradigma der Moderne: In Gedichttexten loesen sich die Fesseln der Tradition. - Friedrich Nietzsche ruft "Sprache als Kunst" aus, und Dichter der Moderne um 1900 folgen, jeweils auf ihre Weise, diesem Ruf. Arno Holz spricht von "Wortkunst", Stefan George insistiert auf seiner "literatur sprache", Rainer Maria Rilke setzt auf "Verwandlung in Worte" und Christian Morgenstern auf "Umwortung aller Worte". Die Studien arbeiten, vergleichend, die Sprachkonzepte der Dichter heraus und erschliessen das je Eigene sowie das Gemeinsame auf dem Weg in die Moderne. Sie ruhen auf einer literarisch-linguistischen Interpretation, die im dicht gewebten lyrischen Text den sprachlichen Ausgriff der Poeten aufzeigt: "schon kaum / erklarbar mehr: vielleicht ein Pflaumenbaum, / von dem ein Kuckuck hastig abgeflogen."

The volume assembles 29 selected articles on Germanic studies (Germanistics) and linguistics by Helmut Henne from the period between 1968 and 2003. 'Germanistics' and 'linguistics' come together in the name 'Germanistic linguistics' designating a subject established by Helmut Henne and others in the early 1970s. It is a product of the academic discourse conducted in modern-language departments at the time and has established itself in the institutional structure of German universities without discontinuing the traditional contacts with Old Germanic studies, literary history, and philology. The four chapters of the volume centre around four different research fields in Germanistic linguistics. They all represent a celebration of the richness of language: semantics and lexicography; group languages (yesterday, today, tomorrow); the linguistics of conversation; language history and literary linguistics. The studies assembled here outline the history of 'Germanistic linguistics', reflect it, and at the same time point to its potential development in the future. Examples of the latter case are cognitive linguistics and 'hypertext lexicography', the linguistics of language varieties, applied dialogue research, and a critique of language firmly rooted both in philology and linguistics.

The volume assembles papers from an eponymous colloquium held in Brunswick on the 18th/19th September 2001. It sets out to provide a documentation and overview of key concerns, currents and developments in German linguistics over the last few years.

Dieser Klassiker auf dem Gebiet der Gesprachsanalyse erscheint nun in einem neuen, lesefreundlicheren Gewand. Er ist fur die 4. Auflage erneut durchgesehen worden. Der bibliographische Anhang wurde auf den neuesten Stand gebracht."

Fritz Mauthner (1849-1923), famed for his parodies in the Berlin of the GrA1/4nderzeit, is best known today for his huge AContributions to a Critique of LanguageA (1901/02). In addition, he wrote various novels, worked for many years as a journalist and drama reviewer and finally retired to Meersburg on Lake Constance to devote his final years to the philosophy of language. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth in 1999, a commemorative ceremony, a staged reading and a symposium were organized in Brunswick. The volume contains the texts by Mauthner performed at the reading, the papers presented at the event and a cross-section of the discussion following the papers.

Two years after the 150th anniversary of Hermann Paul's (1846-1921) birth and one year after the 100th anniversary of his famous dictionary (first published 1897), the editors assemble here for the first time a single-volume collection of his most important treatises and speeches, together with his still immensely apposite remarks on correct German spelling and pronunciation and a complete bibliography of his publications. In the "Introduction" and notes, the editors provide an overview of Paul's life and achievements, while the first chapter proper, titled "Biography," provides documentation culled from obituaries and correspondence.