Abstracts

Colomina-Almiñana, Juan J.: Current Issues in Spanish Linguistics: Semantics and Pragmatics.

This article offers a contemporary critical overview of both accounts of linguistic meaning, Semantics and Pragmatics, and the different ways they complement each other in Spanish Linguistics. Employing as examples a number of polemic case studies in Spanish (the semantic ambiguities of cierto and otro, the determination of algunos’ reference, the pragmatic effect of discourse markers, and the discrepancy of case in psychological verbs depending upon their interpretation), the article criticizes both the simple recognition of a gap between Semantics and Pragmatics and the tendency to overuse implicatures as the only pragmatic mechanism capable of explaining linguistic meaning. The reason is that neither can linguist meaning be reduced to linguistic content (“what is said”), nor can speaker intentions explain the meaning of every utterance (“what is meant”). The chapter then concludes that, since both Semantics and Pragmatics are comprehensive studies about linguistic meaning (even though they serve two different purposes), different inferential patterns can be established in order to identify a common ground based on which the hearer often reconstrues the meaning of the utterance (“what is interpreted”).

Gubernator, Victoria Mona: Die Versprachlichung von Rassismus und Fremdenfeindlichkeit im aktuellen politischen Diskurs des Rassemblement National in Frankreich.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the French ‘Rassemblement National’ party, has made efforts to realign her party in recent years. In public speeches, these efforts are expressed in a more moderate political rhetoric. These efforts have been recognized by the French people; studies show a change in perceptions regarding attitudes towards the party. However, migration and national security remain core political issues in their discourses. This study takes up these subjects and asks about continuities and changes in Marine Le Pen’s attitudinal statements regarding xenophobia. For this purpose, four official speeches were selected, based on a primarily qualitative research scheme. The analysis of the speeches encompasses several levels – pragmatic and lexical elements are in the foreground, while rhetorical aspects ultimately complement the analysis. The study concludes that xenophobia continues to exist in all her discourses and has not lost relevance in terms of content. However, the linguistic form of their attitudinal statements holds the potential of assuming a more moderate course for the party. The sub-discipline of political linguistics could contribute here to decoding the constitutions of reality.

Wochele, Holger: Il Volga, la Loira und Amazonul – zur Genusattribution und zum Artikelgebrauch bei Flussnamen im Deutschen und in der Romania.

Dahmen, Wolfgang: Besprechung.

RUPP, Horst F. (ed.): Peter Paul Cadonau (1891–1972). Theologe und Seelsorger in bewegter Zeit. Mit Beiträgen von Jan-Andrea Bernhard, Martin Fontana, Horst F. Rupp und Manfred Veraguth. Zürich: Theologischer Verlag (Publikation des Instituts für Kulturforschung Graubünden) 2019. 342 S. ISBN 978-3-290-18203-8.

Zeitschriftenschau.