EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSE IN THE GDR AND THE FRG THROUGH THE MEDIA LANGUAGE LENS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of linguistic features typical for educational discourse in the GDR and FRG, which are reflected in Neues Deutschland (GDR) and Der Spiegel (FRG). The relevance of the study stems from the fact that differentiated lexical units related to the field of education are difficult to translate in texts from the era of divided Germany. Therefore, formally similar or even identical lexemes used in the educational discourse of the GDR and the FRG have different semantics due to the differences in the political structure of these countries. This constitutes a challenge for contemporary translators who are confronted with texts from that era, which are becoming increasingly accessible due to the lifting of secrecy and the emergence of educational texts’ electronic collections. This study is limited to the study of differentiated lexical units of educational discourse in newspaper articles from the GDR and FRG periods, since it is the mass media that most clearly reflect linguistic trends, recording typical ways of linguistic nomination. The authors trace the changes in the educational environment associated with the change of political and economic system in the GDR, consider the specificity of linguistic units of that time in the educational discourse, analyze unique lexemes in newspaper articles Neues Deutschland and Der Spiegel and offer their translation equivalents.