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Until today, variation and change in the use of subjunctive II variants in the dialects of Austria have been poorly studied. Largely neglected by traditional dialectology, even more recent studies neither consider all dialect regions of Austria, nor do they go into detail about intra-linguistic factors. Furthermore, an integration into morpho-syntactic theories of language change is missing. This paper addresses the above-mentioned desiderata. Using an apparent-time design, it intends to uncover linguistic, geographical, and sociolinguistic factors of variation and change in the use of subjunctive II variants in Austria's dialects. In order to achieve these goals, a comprehensive corpus of direct dialect recordings is analysed by means of various quantitative methods (cluster analyses, factor analyses, mixed variance analyses). Data are based on the dialect translations of 21 verb forms by 163 speakers from 40 locations (3,430 tokens). Overall, results show that periphrastic variants spread in the Austrian dialects, in particular periphrastic forms with the täte-auxiliary. Meanwhile, synthetic forms lose importance (both strong and weak synthetic forms). Moreover, results reveal significant verb-related differences which cannot be explained by their belonging to inflectional classes, as previous studies suggested. Instead, the 21 verbs studied can be divided into six clusters reflecting different stages in the spread of periphrastic forms. In terms of linguistic geography, Austria is divided into three parts with regard to subjunctive II variation: an Alemannic region in the west, a northwestern Bavarian area, and a south-eastern Bavarian area. With respect to sociolinguistic factors, gender is hardly a relevant factor, whereas age turns out to be decisive. Younger speakers use periphrastic forms more often and synthetic variants less often. Finally, these empirical findings will be discussed against the background of the theory of Natural Morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the explored aspects of the functioning of the different varieties of modern standard languages (here German in Austria and Russian in Belarus) as well as to the rather distinct terminology in this area. In this connection authors consider the terms "natiolect" and "regiolect" in comparison with the pluricentric languages theory. A special attention is paid to the problems of the translation specifics occurred in natiolect, especially to the problem of terminology and culture concepts translation. The problem of interlingual interference has also been taken into account. Authors emphasize the need to include these issues in the curriculum of translation and interpreting studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historians have used university statutes and acts to reconstruct the official astrology curriculum for students in both the arts and medical faculties, including the books studied, their order, and their relation to other texts. Statutes and acts, however, cannot offer insight into what actually happened during lectures and in the classroom: in other words, how and why astrology was taught and learned in the medieval university. This paper assumes that the astrology curriculum is better understood as the set of practices that constituted it and gave it meaning for both masters and students. It begins to reconstruct what occurred in the classroom by drawing on published and unpublished lecture notes. These offer insight into how masters presented the material as they did, and why. The paper argues three points: first, the teaching of astrology centered on demonstrations involving astrological instruments: specifically, various kinds of paper astrolabes. Second, the astrological instruction focused on conveying the pragmatics of astrology rather than esoteric, theoretical issues. Finally, astrology as it was taught in the arts curriculum was explicitly intended to provide a foundation for students who would advance to study medicine at the university. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]