Press release: Impact of narratives and processes of language interpretation
Nr. 87/2011 - 28.04.2011
Courant Research Centre “Text Structures” – Inaugural symposium and lecture on 30 April
8PUG9Young researchers working at Göttingen University’s Courant Research Centre are examining the structure of texts, the impact of narratives on readers, and language processing. The Centre will be officially opened on Saturday, 30th April, 2011 with an inaugural symposium and special lecture. The interdisciplinary centre is one of a total of seven Courant Research Centres set up by the University on funding from the Excellence Initiative of the Federal and State Governments.
How are linguistic meanings activated in the brain? What emotions do narratives stimulate in the reader? Professor Dr. Annekathrin Schacht’s Junior Research Group “Experimental Psycholinguistics” is exploring language interpretation processes, combining paradigms of cognitive psychology with methods from neuroscience. Annekathrin Schacht, born in 1976, was awarded her doctorate in 2008 at the Humboldt University in Berlin. She proceeded to research and teach there as well as at the Universities of Potsdam and Geneva before becoming a Junior Professor at the University of Göttingen on 1st October, 2010.
All linguistic utterances answer explicit and implicit questions. This is the central hypothesis of Prof. Dr. Edgar Onea’s Junior Research Group “Theoretical Linguistics”. The linguists seek to capture the content structure of individual sentences, paragraphs and whole texts using the hierarchical organisation of questions. They are also looking for linguistic ‘markers’ that remove ambiguities in the question-answer process. Edgar Onea, born in 1980, obtained his doctorate at the University of Heidelberg. He has researched and taught at the Hungarian University in Debrecen and at Stuttgart University. On 1st October 2010 he took up a Junior Professorship at the University of Göttingen.
The Junior Research Group “Analytic Literary Theory” deals with narrative structures in literary texts and their interrelation with the reader. “Complex narrative structures cannot be bound solely to words and sentences. This is why we are examining theoretically and experimentally the interactions between text data, reading conventions and reader activity”, explains Prof. Dr. Tilmann Köppe, who since 1st January 2011 has been a Junior Professor heading this Junior Research Group. Tilmann Köppe, born 1977, was awarded his doctorate in 2008 at the University of Göttingen. He then took up a Junior Research Fellowship at Freiburg University’s Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS).
The Junior Research Group leaders will be presenting their research projects in the course of the inaugural symposium. Guests will be welcomed by University President Prof. Dr. Ulrike Beisiegel, Prof. Dr. Anke Holler, Coordinator of the Courant Research Centre “Text Structures”, and Prof. Dr. Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen of Oslo University, who is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board. The symposium on 30th April 2011 in the Paulinerkirche, Papendiek 14, begins at 11 a.m.
The inaugural lecture entitled “Bewegung zwischen Sehen und Verstehen” will be held at 6.15 p.m. in the Great Hall, Wilhelmsplatz. The lecturer is Leibniz Prize-winner Prof. Dr. Reinhold Kliegl of Potsdam University. His fields of research include the interrelation between linguistic, visual and eye movement processes in reading and in spatial observations.
You can find further information about the CRC “Text Structures” at the following link www.uni-goettingen.de/crc-textstrukturen zu finden.
Contact:
Anke Holler, Spokeswoman
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
CRC “Text Structures”
Nikolausberger Weg 23, 37073 Göttingen
Phone +49 (551) 39-7543, Fax +49 (551) 39-20020
E-Mail: crc.text@uni-goettingen.de
Internet: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/136164.html