Lena Späth M.A.

In the project I am researching language structures that differentiate humans from other animals. The demarcation can be seen most clearly in vocabulary, where pairs of words such as essen/fressen ('eat' for human/nonhuman referents), stillen/säugen ('[breast]feed' for human/nonhuman referents) or Frau/Weibchen ('female individual' for human/nonhuman referents) form oppositions that differentiate the concepts of “human” and “animal” where humans’ animal nature is actually most evident: in our existence as biological creatures. The basic distinction in human versus animal Mensch ('human being') versus Tier ('animal') suggests a categorical difference between humans and other animals and is being researched in the project in its origin and functionalization.

Currently, I am concerned with the German sex-marking suffix -in (Ärztin), which only works for animals that are conceptualized as humanlike (Hündin, Löwin, Wölfin), while it doesn’t apply to animals we construct as dissimilar to humans (*Käferin, *Aalin, *Spechtin). If such animals are anthropomorphized, the suffix is sometimes used (handtaschenschwingende Marienkäferin). Examining the contexts of such word formations, I try to understand how and why we anthropomorphize animals.

What interests me most about the research question of our project is the interaction between language and the perception and construction of the world: How do we conceptualize ourselves as “human beings”? How do we verbalize this concept by distinguishing it from other concepts? To what extent can changes in social and cultural concepts be traced linguistically over time?

Foto: Stephanie Füssenich