Oldenburg, Germany

German Language and Literature

Germanistik

Table of contents

German Language and Literature at University of Oldenburg

Language: German Studies in German
Subject area: languages
University website: www.uni-oldenburg.de
degree: Dr. phil.

Definitions and quotes

Language
Language is a system that consists of the development, acquisition, maintenance and use of complex systems of communication, particularly the human ability to do so; and a language is any specific example of such a system.
Literature
Literature, most generically, is any body of written works. More restrictively, literature writing is considered to be an art form, or any single writing deemed to have artistic or intellectual value, often due to deploying language in ways that differ from ordinary usage.
Language
He has strangled
His language in his tears.
William Shakespeare, Henry VIII (c. 1613), Act V, scene 1, line 158.
Language
Language is the only instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas.
Samuel Johnson, Preface to his English Dictionary.
Language
Evolution teaches us the original purpose of language was to ritualize men's threats and curses, his spells to compel the gods; communication came later.
Gene Wolfe, "The Death of Doctor Island", Universe 3 (1973), ed. Terry Carr; reprinted in The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009).
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