Bedrohte Wörter. Ursachen des Wortuntergangs
Endangered words. The causes of word extinction

Summary/Abstract: Archaisms and obsolete words exhibit certain lexical, morphological and pragmatic properties that have been widely debated in both canonical and recent studies. However, exhaustive research on the subject remains a desideratum, hence the need for an overview that may point out possible missing links and solutions. And this is the aim and purpose of my paper. In the light of the conference`s theme I shall firstly describe the alternative perspectives on the problematic, thus encompassing an outline of theories on language change, since these theories represent the methodological base of grasping the phenomena, with the purpose to foreground, from my point of view, a suitable framework. The further heading offers an insight into how lexicography is the diachronical resource of codifying, ergo understanding such occurences. This section also offers a selection on converse views on the nature and properties of obsolete words. Accordingly to my past research on the subject, I shall then suggest two hypotheses to highlight aspects on the subject that to my knowledge have not been approached in literature.

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