Eintrag

Titel

Writer construction in English and German popularized academic discourse. The uses of we and wir

Personen

Nicole Baumgarten

Jahr

2008

Typ

Aufsatz

Periodikum

Multilingua
Journal of cross-cultural and interlanguage communication

ISSN

0167-8507

Seiten

409 - 438

Heft

4

Sprache(n)

Deutsch
Englisch

Schlagwörter

Kontrastiv
Schriftsprache

Objektwörter

wir

Abstract

The present article investigates writer-reader interaction through the construction of writer and reader personae in English and German popular scientific writing by means of first person plural pronouns in subject position. Popular scientific writing only became firmly established as a German-language genre in the last quarter of the 20th century when the high-profile publication Scientific American entered the German news magazine market with a German-language sister issue, featuring German translations of articles from the English magazine and original text production in German. We assume that language contact in the process of translation from English to German influenced both the German translations and original text production in German and helped to shape genre-specific communicative styles in the then emerging genre of popular scientific writing in German. Writer-reader interaction is considered as one aspect of communicative style. Focusing on the contribution of first person plural pronouns to the realization of writer-reader interaction through specific writer and reader personae, it will be shown that, over time, patterns of use surface in both the translated and non-translated German texts that can - at least in part - be traced back to the English communicative style in popular scientific writing.

https://grammis.ids-mannheim.de/bdg/35715