070225 UE Foreign Languages in Historical Science (2020S)

We already are challenged by writing an academic text in our mother-tongue. But, what if it is another language, in which we need to find scholarly expressions and phrases?

In this course, we will examine commonly used terms that seem to mean the same in different languages but, actually do not.
English will be our language of reference.
We will concentrate on what Uwe Pörksen called “plastic words”, a type of terms that once meant something specific but, over time, acquired so many meanings and connotations that it does not mean anything specific anymore. Such words lost their denotations, and therefore, can be used interchangeably with other such terms.
The English translator of Pörksens book on plastic words that will be our guideline gives a taste of how plastic words can profoundly change in different languages: "In German, like in the Latin, Diktatur means dictator, dictation, and dictation-giver. ... In my lecture I analyzed the self-perpetuating dynamics of terms such as 'development', 'sexuality', 'problem'. 'solution', and 'strategy'. A woman in the audience asked if I would say that this sort of terminology, used in a particular way, was in practice a dictatorship. I hesitated and then answered: 'Yes, a leise Diktatur --a quiet, gentle dictatorship'" (Pörksen, Plasticwords, XI).
As this statement indirectly says. The slightest difference in using words, metaphors and (or) phrases.

Methodologically, we will assess words and meanings by using as many tools as possible to find our way through the jungle of meaningless global chatter. Dictionaries, encyclopedias, etymology, thesaurus, and a variety of electronically available tools like Grammarly, Ludwig.guru, etc. will become our companions to the use of thoughtful expressions in academic texts.