DOI: 10.1515/glot-2026-3012 ISSN: 1337-7892

Wissenschaftssprache Deutsch in der ukrainischen Germanistik: Interkulturalität und Traditionen aus linguistischer Sicht

Yevheniia Rubana, Svitlana Kiyko, Mykhailo Saiko
Show PDF Cite

Abstract

This study examines the use of German as an academic language among Ukrainian Germanists, focusing on syntactic characteristics and metatextual commentary within scholarly texts. The research analyzes 17 German-language academic articles written by Ukrainian scholars, categorized into five thematic areas: teacher training, German learning during wartime, teaching methods, literature and translation, and linguistics. The analysis reveals distinctive patterns in word formation, including composites, derivations, and participial constructions, which reflect principles of linguistic economy, precision, and abstraction. Passive constructions appear frequently, with an average of 4.8 instances per page, demonstrating a tendency toward deagentivization and anonymity in academic discourse. The syntactic investigation identifies 752 subordinate clauses, with relative clauses comprising 41.4 % of the total, followed by object clauses with “dass” (14.9 %) and causal clauses (8.8 %). The study also examines metatextual elements used for text organization, including global and local thematization strategies, deixis, and author-related actions. Findings indicate that Ukrainian Germanists employ German academic language conventions while maintaining certain regional characteristics shaped by Ukrainian academic traditions and the historical presence of German as a scholarly language in Eastern Europe.

More from our Archive