On the 1st of September the project “Simply complex! A multimodal and interdisciplinary approach to examine linguistic complexity within Leichte Sprache” funded by the Gutenberg Council for Young Researchers (GYR) started.
An interdisciplinary research group consisting of three professors from Mainz and Germersheim, two postdocs and five doctoral students aims to investigate the psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic correlates of Leichte Sprache, a German version of plain language.
Using an interdisciplinary and innovative approach, the program is intended to advance the framework of Leichte Sprache and its rules. By applying methods such as eye-tracking (ET), electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a neurobiologically feasible model of Leichte Sprache will be developed. The project examines the impact of complexity reduction on several linguistic levels, including those of syntax, morphology, lexicon and semantics.
We are looking forward to cooperating with the faculty 05 (linguistics) in Mainz.
For further information see https://leichtesprache.uni-mainz.de/