Interdisciplinary campus festival project organized by the departments of “Linguistics—Semantics and Lexicology of Modern High German” and “Early German Literature” on the topic:

Why a Grasshopper Is (Not) an Insect and Minne Is Not Love.
The Relevance of Word Meaning and the History of Concepts to Political and Literary Discourses—a Hands-On Workshop.

“Grasshoppers!” is a cry of warning—or an insult. Anyone who feels “minne” (Middle High German) is in love—or is conversing with God. Word meanings change over the course of historical language use; they are recoded by social groups to establish boundaries, or intentionally “reinvented” by actors in political discourse. This is particularly evident today in the context of the “Unwort des Jahres” (Word of the Year) selection, in which politically relevant shifts in meaning or neologisms are regularly chosen. This raises the question of to what extent speakers are aware of these shifts in meaning, reinterpretations, or even subtle signs of changing meaning, and whether they also reflect on their own language use. Changes in meaning play a particularly important role in the realm of political language and in literary texts. In the latter case, historical distance often leads to a misunderstanding of the texts and the ideas and mentalities they convey. In the former case, a decision must be made as to whether certain terms are intentionally being given new meanings, or whether the shift in meaning is the result of a transformation in political ideas and systems that is reflected in language.

In a hands-on workshop, interested visitors to the campus festival will have the opportunity to reflect on their own language use in an interactive and playful way using selected examples. The workshop combines the transmission of factual knowledge, playful text and word analysis, and analytical experimentation with participants’ own use of language and terminology. The goal is to raise participants’ awareness of the power of language—which is both political and poetic—and of corresponding phenomena of language change.

Participants (Departments):

• David Bieseke (FB02, Early German Literature)
• Sarah Bley (FB02, Early German Literature)
• Maurice Bontemps (FB 02, DFG Project “Language in Conspiracy Theories”)
• Vivien Donath (FB02, Early German Literature)
• Merle Hormann (FB02, Semantics and Lexicology of Modern High German)
• Jennifer Langer (FB02, Early German Literature)
• Michael Mecklenburg (FB02, Early German Literature)
• Hanna Poloschek (Research Division 02, DFG Project “Language in Conspiracy Theories”)
• Christine Riess (FB02, Semantics and Lexicology of Modern High German)
• David Römer (Department 02, Semantics and Lexicology of Modern High German)
• Vanessa Sternath (FB02, Early German Literature)
• Lisa Maren Stöhr (Department 02, Early German Literature)