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Research program on the theory and empiricism of language dynamics and language cognition

The Research Program

The program to investigate language dynamics and language cognition represents the central research focus for linguistics at Marburg. This research focus, which was initiated in 2000, is the result of a collaboration between the Department of Theoretical Linguistics at Philipps-Universität Marburg and the Department of Language Variation and Language Change Research at the Research Center Deutscher Sprachatlas. In this research focus, the previously very successful single-discipline research approaches, questions and methods are brought together in such a way that sustainable advancement of knowledge becomes possible for linguistics as a whole. The program is brought to life by numerous research projects by Marburg linguists, such as the cross-disciplinary joint project Founding Basic Linguistic Categories, which was funded as a Hesse State Excellence Initiative (LOEWE) focus area by the State of Hesse (from 2012 through 2015). On the basis of this joint research program of Marburg linguists, a research building was approved by the Hesse Science Council in 2010 and financed by BMBF and the State of Hesse, enabling the participating research groups to work in a networked way on the projects and providing a unique infrastructure to this end.