Linguistik im Sprachvergleich

This textbook introduces the linguistic description and analysis of German, English, French, Italian, and Spanish from a comparative perspective. The characteristic sound features, inflectional features, and word formation processes as well as the sentence structure peculiar to these languages are presented. Separate chapters are devoted to the historical developments of these languages as well as the socially and geographically determined varieties, resulting in a comprehensive account of these five languages, their structures, usage, and historical development. Two chapters on semantics and pragmatics, explaining universal aspects of meaning analysis and principles of language use, respectively, complete the picture. - In a two-color layout with definitions, consolidation, and exercises.

Goethe formulated: "He who does not know foreign languages, knows nothing of his own". The usefulness of a comparative presentation cannot be formulated more succinctly. In order to clearly recognize the special features of German, the comparison with the dominant world language English as well as the Romance languages French, Italian and Spanish is of great benefit. For students of English and Romance languages, the comparative perspective allows a particularly reflective approach to the linguistics of the foreign language studied.