The present study from the field of comparative Indo-European linguistics deals with the so-called amphikinetic accent and ablaut class of athematic nouns in Proto-Indo-European. Its focus lies on secondary amphikinetic formations—that is, on such amphikinetic stems that are derived from other nominal stems by means of non-suffixing (so-called “internal”) derivation. On the basis of selected amphikinetic compounded and simple nouns it is investigated which factors in each case lead to the development of the amphikinetic ablaut pattern. As is demonstrated, the accent or, more precisely, a shift of accent plays a significant role in the development of some secondary amphikinetic stems. This result also strengthens the widely held view that ablaut in Proto-Indo-European was—at least partly—a phenomenon caused by the (shift of) accent.

In this work, the Authors provide a detailed analysis of the Pashto Simple “Naked” Verbs, i.e. all not suffixed simple verbs, and the linguistic dynamics at work still nowadays. The classification of used Simple “Naked” Verbs in three main groups (those belonging to the “norm”; those whose position is changing and can be located in a “zone frontière”; those showing a complexification linked to the aspect) will be useful and helpful for Pashto students and scholars, for researchers in the field of Iranian philology and for linguists.

„Das „Chinesisch-Deutsche Lernwörterbuch Verben“ ist wunderbar geeignet, wenn man schauen möchte, in welchem Zusammenhang ein Verb verwendet wird und vor allem auch, um den eigenen Wortschatz aufzufrischen, es stellt somit eine sinnvolle Ergänzung zum Vokabellernen dar.“ Christina Hammer In: Das neue China. Nr. 3/2010. S. 35-36.

Ein wichtiges Phänomen im römischen Porträt ist das „Zeitgesicht“, die Angleichung der Bürger an das Bildnis des Kaisers. Zur Zeit Konstantins des Großen wird jedoch nach 300 Jahren dieser unmittelbar erfahrbare Reflex der zuvor prägenden Prinzipatsideologie aufgegeben und insbesondere die Vertreter der Reichsaristokratie suchen fortan nach angemesseneren und vom Herrscherbild entkoppelten Formen der Bildnisrepräsentation. Gleichzeitig nutzen in Griechenland alte Eliten das Medium des Porträts als Ausdruck eines ganz besonderen Vergangenheitsdiskurses. Die Arbeit bemüht sich unter Berücksichtigung einer Vielzahl literarischer und epigraphischer Quellen um eine kulturgeschichtliche Einordnung des spätantiken Porträts, um eine Ergründung der Bedeutung der Gattung der Porträtstatue für ihre Zeitgenossen am Ende der Antike, und letztlich um eine Diskussion der Frage, weshalb sie schließlich als Repräsentationsobjekt aufgegeben wurde.

The study represents the first extensive monograph on these significant Old High German texts. The controversial linguistic material is examined etymologically while questions concerning the context, the historical transmission, linguistic and religious historical problems as well as functional aspects of these texts are treated in a broad cultural-historical approach.

This small-size manuscript, probably produced in the second quarter of the fourteenth century in eastern central Germany, is here studied in depth for the first time. The manuscript is without any known parallels as regards its structure: illustrated with coloured pen-and-ink-drawings throughout, the manuscript consists of a sequence of images with German-language partial paraphrases of gospel pericopes, a festival calendar with pictorial abbreviations as well as an image cycle on the passion. As it is linked to Dominican liturgy as well as elements of folk tradition and was in use until the early sixteenth century, as later additions in the calendar section show, it is here interpreted as a meaningful document of the history of piety in the late Middle Ages.