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School of Languages, Linguistics and Film

Dr Falco Pfalzgraf, PhD (Manchester)

Falco

Reader in German Linguistics

Email: f.pfalzgraf@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 8321
Room Number: Francis Bancroft Building 2.39
Website: http://pfalzgraf.net

Profile

Dr Falco Pfalzgraf is a specialist on Sociolinguistics. His main research interests lie within five areas: 1. Linguistic Purism. 2. Gender and equality. 3. The application of discourse analysis. 4. The relationships between politics, language, and culture. 5. Text book / school book analysis.

His research on Austrian and German language protection organisations has caught the attention of the mass media. His work has been mentioned repeatedly in The Economist, The Guardian, Stern, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and others, as well as in internet publications based outside Europe.

Dr Falco Pfalzgraf has been teaching at university level for over 25 years.. His teaching is informed by his research. He has consistently received excellent student feedback and has been repeatedly nominated for teaching prizes.

He currently teaches German Linguistics, English Linguistics, and Applied Linguistics to undergraduate students. He teaches Applied Linguistics and General Linguistics to Masters students on two MA programmes, and he (co-)supervises doctoral students in areas within and beyond his main research interests. Dr Pfalzgraf is happy to receive proposals/ applications for potential doctoral research.

Dr Falco Pfalzgraf is the co-founder of the MA in Applied Linguistics for English Language Teaching which he convened for several years. He is the founder and convenor of the MA in Language Teaching for which he teaches a compulsory module. He also teaches a compulsory module for the MA in English Language Teaching. 

He is the SLLF Admissions Lead for Undergraduate (BA) and Post Graduate Taught (MA) degrees, the Academic Co-ordinator of the Language Centre, and the Convenor of the Language and Linguistics Section at the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations. He chairs the London/UK branch of the Association for the German Language Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache.

Research

Research Interests:

Most recently, my interest in Linguistic Purism and the strongly related field of language attitudes has led me to conduct research on gender-inclusive language. 

In autumn 2022, I organised the international conference “Attitudes towards gender-inclusive language. A multinational perspective” which was held online on 8th and 9th September 2022, with 46 speakers based in 17 countries, and a total of 192 participants from 36 countries: http://qmul.pfalzgraf.net/.

The result of a collaboration with a group of academics whom I had met on this conference is my latest edited volume Public Attitudes Towards Gender-Inclusive Language. A Multilingual Perspective which will soon be published with De Gruyter Mouton. 

Two (of several) remarkable outcomes of my most recent research are: 

1) Looking at individuals and organisations that criticise the use of gender-fair language throughout Europe, it is evident that their main discourses are not only stunning similar but are also all ideologically motivated. 

2) Resistance to the use of gender-fair language within European languages and beyond discursive patterns identical to the resistance to other language change in the past. Resistance to the use of gender-fair language must therefore be understood as a new facet of linguistic purism. 

For future research, I have identified the following main issues: 

1) A need for an overview of the current state of research, as well as desiderata, across different languages 

2) A need for conceptual clarity with regard to terminology such as e.g. ‘gender-fair’, ‘gender-neutral’, ‘gender-inclusive’, etc. across different languages 

3) A need for academics and practitioners from different countries/ cultural backgrounds to identify synergies with regards to the introduction of gender-fair langue 

These and other issues will be addressed in my International Research Networking Project “Language and Gender: Academic Research and Practical Implementation” which will be running in 2023/2024. It brings together practitioners and academics from various different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Project participants, all experts in their field, reside in 15 countries and cover 12 languages. Not only will the project result in high-quality publications. Most importantly, researchers and practitioners will have a positive impact on each other’s work: http://gender.pfalzgraf.net/networking-project.htm 

Publications

Monographs

Der Verein ‚Muttersprache‘ Wien unter Vorsitz von Karl Tekusch und Erwin Mehl (1949–1984). Heidelberg: Winter, 2019. 581 pages. ISBN 978-3-8253-6935-4.

Karl Tekusch als Sprachpfleger. Seine Rolle in Wiener Sprachvereinen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Bremen: Hempen, 2016. (Greifswalder Beiträge zur Linguistik 10.vien). 224 pages. ISBN 978-3-944312-33-0.

Neopurismus in Deutschland nach der Wende. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2006. (Österreichisches Deutsch. Sprache der Gegenwart, Vol. 6. Eds. Rudolf Muhr & Richard Schrodt). 350 pages. ISBN 978-3-631-54854-7. Publication fully funded by the Austrian Ministry for Education, Science and Culture.

Edited Volumes

Englischer Sprachkontakt in den Varietäten des Deutschen / English Language in Contact with Varieties of German. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2009 (Österreichisches Deutsch. Sprache der Gegenwart, Vol. 12. Eds. Rudolf Muhr & Richard Schrodt). ISBN 978-3-631-58132-2. Publication substantially supported by the Austrian Ministry for Education, Science and Culture.

Anglo-German Linguistic Relations (with Felicity Rash). Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2008. (Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik, Reihe A, Band 98). ISBN 978-3-03911-656-0.

Peer-reviewed Articles and Chapters

"Widerstand gegen die Verwendung geschlechtergerechter Sprache als neue Facette des Sprachpurismus. Eine Untersuchung der Positionen des Vereins Deutsche Sprache (VDS)". Accepted for: Muttersprache. Vierteljahresschrift zur deutschen Sprache, ISSN 0027-514X.

"Sociolinguistics in the German language area". In: Martin J. Ball & Rajend Mesthrie & Chiara Meluzzi (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics Around the World. Second edition. London: Routledge, 2023. (Routledge Handbooks in Linguistics), pp. 435-444. ISBN 978-1-032-05612-8.

"Der Germanische Sprachverein (Wien 1933–1948)". In: Muttersprache. Vierteljahresschrift zur deutschen Sprache 132:2/2022, pp. 97–122. ISSN 0027-514X.

"Karl Tekusch (1890–1977), his concept of Sprachechtheit, and the purism movement in Austria". In: Historiographia Linguistica 48:1/2021, pp. 60-82. ISSN 0302-5160.

"'Anglifizierung' und 'Globalisierung': Aktuelle Diskurse zu Entlehnungen und moderner Sprachpurismus". In: Gerd Antos, Thomas Niehr & Jürgen Spitzmüller (eds.). Handbuch Sprache im Urteil der Öffentlichkeit / Handbook of Language Evaluation in the Public Sphere. Berlin / New York: de Gruyter, 2019. (Handbücher Sprachwissen / Handbooks of Linguistic Knowledge 10), pp. 291-308. ISBN 978-3-11-029615-0.

"Diskurse zum Mauerfall und zur deutschen Wiedervereinigung in englischen Geschichtsbüchern für allgemeinbildende Schulen". In: Matthes, Eva & Schütze, Sylvia (eds.). ,1989‘ und Bildungsmedien / ,1989‘ and Educational Media. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2016 (Beiträge zur historischen und systematischen Schulbuchforschung), pp. 219–237. ISBN 978-3-7815-2085-1.

"Zur Situation der deutschen Sprachwissenschaft in Großbritannien und Nordirland". In: IDS Sprachreport 1/2016, pp. 1016. ISSN 0178-644X.

"Zur Korpusdefinition in der Schulbuchforschung". In: Jana Kiesendahl & Christine Ott (eds.). Linguistik und Schulbuchforschung. Göttingen: v&r unipress 2015 (Eckert. Die Schriftenreihe 137), pp. 39–52. ISBN 978-3-8471-0515-2.

"Sprachwissenschaft und Sprachkritik in der britischen Hochschulgermanistik". In: Thomas Niehr (ed.). Sprachwissenschaft und Sprachkritik - Perspektiven ihrer Vermittlung. Bremen: Hempen, 2014 (Greifswalder Beiträge zur Linguistik 8), pp. 163–171. ISBN 978-3-944312-17-0.

"Anglizismen als Thema der Sprachwissenschaft und Sprachkritik". Aptum. Zeitschrift für Sprachkritik und Sprachkultur 2/2011, pp 160–176. ISSN 1614-905X.

"Ausländer, Fremde(s) und Minderheiten in deutschen Fibeln 1933–1945". Muttersprache 3/2011, pp. 161–192. ISSN 0027-514X.

"Linguistic Purism in the History of the German Language". In: Geraldine Horan, Nils Langer & Sheila Watts (eds). Landmarks in the History of the German Language. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Brüssel, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2009. (British and Irish Studies in German Language and Literature Vol. 52), pp. 137–168. ISBN 978-3-039-11890-8.

"Sprachpurismus und Globalisierung". In: Pfalzgraf, Falco (ed.). Englischer Sprachkontakt in den Varietäten des Deutschen / English Language in Contact with Varieties of German. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Brüssel, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2009. (Österreichisches Deutsch. Sprache der Gegenwart Band 12), pp. 215–225. ISBN 978-3-631-58132-2.

"Bestrebungen zur Einführung eines Sprachschutzgesetzes seit der Deutschen Vereinigung". German Life and Letters 61:4/2008, pp. 451–469.

"Einstellungen zu Fremdwörtern und Anglizismen. Anmerkungen zu einer Repräsentativerhebung des Instituts für Deutsche Sprache" (with Torsten Leuschner). Germanistische Mitteilungen 64/2006, pp. 85–107.

"Auffassungen von Laien zum Gebrauch von Anglizismen im Deutschen". Carol Fehringer & Holger Briel (eds.). Field Studies. German Language, Media and Culture. CUTG Proceedings, vol. 5. Oxford: Peter Lang 2005, pp. 29–49.

"Recent Developments Concerning Language Protection Organisations and Right-Wing Extremism". German Life and Letters 56:4/2003, pp. 398–409.

"Fremdwortdiskussion und Rechtsextremismus". German Life and Letters 56:1/2003, pp. 102–116.

Reviews

"Lesen lernen im Nationalsozialismus. Theoriekonzepte - Kindheitsbilder - Bildungspolitik, Kristin Straube-Heinze, Carsten Heinze, Bielefeld, transcript, 2021" Book review accepted for Paedagogica Historica. ISSN 0030-9230.

"Göttert, Karl-Heinz. Die Sprachreiniger. Der Kampf gegen Fremdwörter und der deutsche Nationalismus. Berlin: Propyläen, 2019." Book review. Germanistische Mitteilungen 46/2020, pp. 273–278. ISSN 0771-3703.

"Trabant, Jürgen. Globalesisch, oder was? Ein Plädoyer für Europas Sprachen. München: C.H. Beck, 2014." Book review. Zielsprache Deutsch 2:41/2014, pp. 80–85. ISSN 0341-5864.

"Stricker, Stefanie / Bergmann, Rolf / Wich-Reif, Claudia. Sprachhistorisches Arbeitsbuch zur deutschen Gegenwartssprache. Heidelberg: Winter, 2012." Book review. Germanistische Mitteilungen 39.1/2013, pp. 110–112. ISSN 0771-3703. 

"Wegera, Klaus-Peter / Schultz-Balluff, Simone / Bartsch, Nina. Mittelhochdeutsch als fremde Sprache: Eine Einführung für das Studium der germanistischen Mediävistik. Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 2011." Book review. Germanistische Mitteilungen 38.1/2012, pp. 97–99. ISSN 0771-3703.

"Sommerfeldt, Karl-Ernst. Was ist dem Bürger zuzumuten? Sprachpflege im 21. Jahrhundert. (Sprache – System und Tätigkeit.) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2009." Book review. Zielsprache Deutsch 2:38/2011, pp. 92–98. ISSN 0341-5864. 

"Schröter, Melani / Carius, Björn. Vom politischen Gebrauch der Sprache – Wort, Text, Diskurs. (= Leipziger Skripten – Einführungs- und Übungsbücher.) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2009." Book review. Germanistische Mitteilungen 72/2010, pp. 136–138. ISSN 0771-3703.

"James, Peter / Kaufman, David. Studying and working in Germany. A student guide. Manchester: MUP, 2002". Review. Deutsch: Lehren und Lernen 26/2002, p. 32. ISSN 0953-4822.

Other

Perspectives on The “Great” War. Selected papers from the World War One International Conference Held at Queen Mary, University of London August 1st – 4th 2014. Edited by Felicity Rash & Falco Pfalzgraf. 112 pages. Available online at <https://archive.org/details/perspectives-on-the-great-war-2014-selected-papers>.

"Deutsch lehren und lernen mit dem Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations". Deutsch: Lehren und Lernen Online 47/2013. ISSN 1461-9245.

"Deutsch lehren und lernen mit der Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache". Deutsch: Lehren und Lernen 45/2012, pp. 2324 ISSN 1461-9245.

"Antisemitismus in Fibeln der Nazizeit". Eckert. Das Bulletin 08/2010, p. 42. ISSN 1865-7907.

"Vorwort". Falco Pfalzgraf (ed.). Englischer Sprachkontakt in den Varietäten des Deutschen / English Language in Contact with Varieties of German. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2009. (Österreichisches Deutsch. Sprache der Gegenwart Vol. 12), pp. 9–12. ISBN 978-3-631-58132-2.

Imagination in Romanen von Tim O'Brien. Staatsexamen (MA equiv.) Thesis. Norderstedt: BoD, 2009. 104 pages. ISBN 978-3-8370-9220-2.

"Introduction" (with Felicity Rash). In: Pfalzgraf, Falco & Rash, Felicity (eds.). Anglo-German Linguistic Relations. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2008. (Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik, Reihe A, Band 98), pp. 9–11. ISBN 978-3-03911-656-0.

Public Engagement

Dr Pfalzgraf holds the Chair of the UK/London branch of the esteemed Association for the German Language/Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS). The UK branch of the GfdS has been residing at QMUL since its opening in March 2010, in the presence of Queen Mary’s Principal, Professor Simon Gaskell, and the German Ambassador to the UK Georg Boomgaarden. The GfdS is Germany’s most important government-sponsored language society. It is a politically independent association for the study, cultivation, and promotion of the German language. Its aim is to deepen the public understanding of the German language, and to make its function visible in a global context. In order to achieve these aims, the GfdS London organises up to two lectures on German linguistics per year. These are normally delivered in German, and are always open to the general public. 

In this capacity, Dr Pfalzgraf is a member of the "Round Table of Cultural Organisations", held bi-annually by the German Embassy in London, and a member of the panel for the award of the German Teaching Price for all German Saturday Schools (Samstagsschulen) in the UK.

AFFILIATIONS 

  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
  • Member of the Editorial Board of the peer-reviewed journalGermanistische Mitteilungen 
  • Member of the Advisory Board of The Institute for Cultural Relations Policy, Budapest
  • Member of the panel for the award of the German Teaching Price for all German Saturday Schools (Samstagsschulen) in the UK.
  • Member of the "Round Table of Cultural Organisations", held bi-annually by the German Embassy in London.
  • Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations (CAGCR); Convenor for Language & Linguistics
  • Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS); Chair of the London/UK branch 
  • Research Fellow Alumni at the Georg-Eckert-Institute, Braunschweig

 

  • External Examiner at Queen's University Belfast (since 2020)
  • External Examiner at the University of Cambridge, Language Centre (2013-2016)
  • External Examiner for German at the University of Greenwich (2008-2012)

 

  • ThePhilological Society 
  • Gesellschaft für Angewandte Linguistik (GAL)
  • Arbeitskreis Linguistische Sprachkritik
  • Arbeitsgemeinschaft Linguistische PragmatikGesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS)
  • The Forum for Germanic Language Studies (FGLS)
  • Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland (AGS, formerly CUTG)
  • The Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN)
  • European Association for Language Testing and Assessment (EALTA)
  • International Society for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media
  • Fördermitglied, Wikimedia Deutschland
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