Lamppost networks *:Stickers as a genre in urban semiotic landscapes

This paper examines the pragmatics of stickers as a genre prominent in communication in urban public space. Although normally small in size, stickers may quantitatively dominate signage in certain areas of cities. Stickers are examined here as localized communicative events that mediatize social practices through a range of complex multimodal and linguistic processes, based on data from the Digbeth area in central Birmingham, UK. An analysis of the distribution of stickers, their agency, audience, and the multimodal practices involved in their creation reveals that they bring together transgressive, artistic and commercial discourses and form a specific layer of urban communication, especially in areas of pedestrian transit within a city. A large number of stickers also initiate communications that can potentially be continued onlin

Language shift revisited:linguistic repertoires of Jews in Low German-speaking Germany in the Early Twentieth Century. Insights from the LCAAJ Archive

This paper analyzes the linguistic repertoires of Jews in the Low German-speaking areas in the first decades of the twentieth century, as a contribution to historical sociolinguistics. Based on fieldwork questionnaires held in the archives of the Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry (LCAAJ), it addresses the question of whether the Jewish minorities spoke a supralectal form of standard German or Koiné forms of dialects, relating this to issues of language shift from Western Yiddish. The study shows that many Jews living in northern Germany during the 1920s and 1930s still had access to a multilingual repertoire containing remnants of Western Yiddish; that a majority of the LCAAJ interviewees from this area emphasized their excellent command of standard German; and that their competence in Low German varied widely, from first language to no competence at all, depending on the region where they lived

Semiotic Rural Landscapes and the Performance of Community in Villages.:A Case Study from Low German-Speaking Northern Germany

This article analyses the semiotic landscapes of 19 villages in Low German-speaking northern Germany, thus contributing to the growing body of research in the field of semiotic landscapes in rural settings. Drawing from Blokland’s (2017) typology of community, it analyses the semiotic landscapes of the villages as material manifestations of communicative practices and performances which create fluid, flexible configurations of community. The analysis reveals that signage in this particular rural context reflects social processes by which individuals and communities have constructed new images of themselves by using elements of local tradition, culture, language, and history. In doing so, they have also carved out a specific approach to tourism for themselves, which is opposed to mass and package tourism

Post-vernacular language use in a Low German linguistic community

In a time of rapid shift and loss of smaller, regional and minority languages it becomes apparent that many of them continue to play a role as post-vernacular varieties. As Shandler (2006) points out for Yiddish in the United States, some languages serve the purpose of identity-building within a community even after they have ceased to be used as a vernacular for daily communication. This occurs according to Shandler through a number of cultural practices, such as amateur theatre, music and folklore, translation, attempts to learn the language in evening classes, etc. This paper will demonstrate that the paradigm developed by Shandler for Yiddish can be applied to other linguistic communities, by comparing the post-vernacular use of Yiddish with Low German in Northern Germany. It will focus on the linguistic strategies that individuals or groups of speakers apply in order to participate in a post-vernacular language community

Plaedoyer fuer die Entwicklung einer integrativen Didaktik im Bereich der German Studies

Theme of the following polemic is the absence of a didactic-methodological approach in the UK higher education Germanistik, goes beyond the field of language teaching. The resulting problems are to be exemplary unfolded. Following an alternative is presented. Thema der folgenden Polemik ist das Fehlen eines didaktisch-methodischen Ansatzes in der britischen Hochschulgermanistik, der über den Bereich der Sprachvermittlung hinausgeht. Die daraus resultierenden Probleme sollen exemplarisch entfaltet werden. Im Anschluss wird eine Alternative vorgestellt

Produktion von L-Methionin mit Corynebacterium glutamicum

Targets of this project were the screening for microbial overproducers of L-methionine by random mutation (UV-radiation plus following selection) and optimization of the production in shake flask and bioreactor scale by varying of biochemical (nutrient concentration, pH) and general cultivation parameters (temperature, stirring speed, in bioreactor: oxygen partial pressure and fed batch). In this context one major focus of the research was the development of a fast screening and selection system for microbial overproducers of L-methionine. For the necessary experiments the strain Corynebacterium glutamicum DSM20300 was used. A big problem was the selection system after radiation with ultraviolet light (UV) to sort out potential candidates for the analysis. A second challenge was the searching for microorganisms already containing the property to overproduce L-methionine. One strain, Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC21608, is commercially available from a public collection of microorganisms in the USA. It could be shown in several experiments, that this bacterium is able to produce L-alanine in small amounts (200 mg/l) but L-methionine could not be produced in significant quantities. The strain Corynebacterium glutamicum KY10574 has been obtained from the company Kyowa Hakko Kogyo, Japan, a well-known producer of amino acids with microorganisms. A successful accumulation of L-methionine was observed. In first experiments the concentration of L-methionine in the supernatant of the cultivations was about 100 – 150 mg/l, in further experiments in the shake flask (several scales) and the bioreactor (3 – 3.5 litres) L-methionine concentrations of 1.4 – 1.5 g/l could be achieved. For both bioreactor and shake flask scale significant parameters for this optimization were the creation of an adequate minimal medium and the oxygen supply in combination with the stirring speed.Ziel dieses Projektes war das Screening nach mikrobiellen Überproduzenten der Aminosäure L-Methionin durch zufallsbasierte Mutagenese (UV-Bestrahlung und nachfolgende Selektion). Daraufhin sollte die Produktion im Schüttelkolben- und Bioreaktormaßstab durch Variation der biochemischen (Nährstoffkonzentrationen, pH) und generellen Kultivierungsparameter (Temperatur, Schüttel- und Drehzahlraten, im Bioreaktor: Sauerstoffpartialdruck und Zufütterungsstrategien) optimiert werden. Zunächst war die Entwicklung eines schnellen und effizienten Screenings- und Selektionssystems für mikrobielle Überproduzenten von L-Methionin das Hauptziel des Projektes. Dafür wurde der Stamm Corynebacterium glutamicum DSM20300 benutzt. Als grosses Problem stellte sich die Etablierung eines effizienten Selektionssystem zum Aussortieren potentieller Kandidaten für die Aminosäureanalyse heraus. Ein weiterer Punkt war die Suche nach Mikroorganismen, die bereits die Fähigkeit zur Produktion von Methionin besitzen. Der Stamm Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC21608 ist kommerziell an einer amerikanischen Stammsammlung erhältlich. In verschiedenen Versuchen konnte gezeigt werden, dass dieser Stamm die Fähigkeit zur L-Alaninproduktion in Mengen um die 200 mg/l besitzt. L-Methionin wurde von diesem Stamm nicht überproduziert. Der Stamm Corynebacterium glutamicum KY10574 wurde von der Firma Kyowa Hakko Kogyo, Japan, Tokio zur Verfügung gestellt. Hier konnte eine L-Methioninproduktion beobachtet werden. In den ersten Untersuchungen konnten L-Methionin Konzentrationen zwischen 100 – 150 mg/l im Überstand gemessen werden, in weiteren Experimenten im Schüttelkolben- und Bioreaktormaßstab wurden Konzentrationen zwischen 1,4 und 1,5 g/l erzielt. Wichtige Parameter für diese Optimierung waren die Herstellung eines adäquaten Minimalmediums, die Sauerstoffversorgung und die Zufütterungsstrategie (Glucose) im Bioreaktor

Soziolinguistische Perspektiven auf Praktiken des Semiotic Landscaping in Zeiten der Coronavirus-Pandemie. : Ein Stadt-Land-Vergleich

The Covid-19 pandemic has left an impact on the semiotic landscapes of both rural and urban environments. The present study analyses two corpora of signs which emerged as a direct result of the pandemic in the rural environment of Krummhörn, a municipality in northern Germany, and in the city of Essen (Ruhr Metropolis) between March and July 2020. In addition to regulatory and informative signage, the data revealed a high proportion of affective signs which were displayed mainly by individuals around private homes, intended as boosters of collective moral in times of crisis. The analysis shows that slightly different semiotic strategies were applied when comparing a rural with an urban environment