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In: Grenzen der Empathie

This article hypothesizes that French Guianese Creole (fgc) had a markedly different formative period compared to other French lexifier creoles, a linguistically diverse slave population with a strong Bantu component and, in the French Caribbean, much lower or no Arawak and Portuguese linguistic influence.The historical and linguistic description of the early years of fgc shows, though, that the founder population of fgc was dominated numerically and socially by speakers of Gbe languages, and had almost no speakers of Bantu languages. Furthermore, speakers of Arawak pidgin and Portuguese were both present when the colony began in Cayenne.

In: Journal of Language Contact

This introduction outlines the six articles in this special issue, which analyse the early years of language contact in different locations where a language contact variety emerged. The questions this issue aims to address are first, whether the sociolinguistic conditions in the early period of language contact differed significantly from those of later periods, and if so, whether these conditions had a crucial and disproportionate influence on the contact language that later emerged. Epistemological problems in trying to answer these questions are described: namely, the great time depth in most contexts, and the scarcity of reliable linguistic resources. The solution adopted is to take a wider socio-historical approach. This involves examining population movements, demography and the nature of social interactions, rather than relying primarily on language documentation and/or linguistic texts. The articles generally support the view that significant differences existed between sociolinguistic conditions in the early years and those later on, but the two periods most often do not conform to the common view of earlier small homesteads versus later large plantations. Rather a variety of other distinctions are described. The articles also support a broader view of the Founder Principle: that the varieties spoken by all the earliest inhabitants in each location, including speakers of not only the lexifier but also substrate languages (both imported and indigenous), had a disproportionate impact on the contact language that emerged. In addition, the articles demonstrate commonalities in all six locations in the mechanisms involved in language contact in the early years: borrowing and/or incomplete language acquisition (in varying degrees). The diverse outcomes, however, are largely the consequence of the differing sociolinguistic conditions in the various locations in the later years.

In: Journal of Language Contact
Philosophische, psychologische und anthropologische Perspektiven
Wie verstehen wir andere Personen? Was erlaubt uns, Aussagen über ihre psychischen Zustände wie Emotionen, Gedanken, Absichten und Wünsche zu treffen? Unter dem Begriff der Empathie werden diese menschlichen Fähigkeiten phänomenologisch beschrieben und interdisziplinär diskutiert. Empathie ist in den letzten Jahren zu einem zentralen Begriff der Philosophie des Geistes, der Kognitionswissenschaften und der Kulturwissenschaften geworden, mit dem unterschiedliche Formen zwischenmenschlicher Begegnung und Grade des interaktionalen Verstehens beschrieben werden. Der Band gibt einen Überblick über aktuelle Ansätze in der Empathieforschung, geht aber über diese insofern hinaus, als explizit die Frage erörtert wird, was die Bedingungen sein können, unter denen das Fremdverstehen und die Einfühlung in eine andere Person nicht gelingen.