The present article surveys the main directions of the contemporary lexical-semantic typology and how the German language data can be applied to the existing classifications. The diachronic aspect concerns the typology of lexical change, namely universals and particulars of semantic change, lexical borrowing and word formation. The synchronic aspect has two different perspectives: one is onomasiological, directed at the determination of universal and specific models of lexicalization of concepts; the other is semasiological, which is expressed in the comparative analysis of the semantics and structure of the polysemy of corresponding lexemes.
 

Pragmatic set phrases (pragmatic phrasemes) are also called communicative routine formulas. They have been given particular attention by research in the field of conversational analysis and foreign language teaching, but they are also a research subject in phraseology, though on the periphery of the discipline. Pragmatic set phrases are mainly used in oral communication, but they also appear quite often in newspaper texts, where there is a preference for certain classes of set phrases. This paper deals with problems in the classification of pragmatic set phrases which appear in commentary texts of different types of German newspapers. The material for the investigation is taken from the recently compiled Helsinki Commentary Corpus.
 

The paper provides an overview of the current state of affairs in German studies in Ukraine also shedding some light on the educational qualifications in German studies and the structure of professional training of German teachers and translators/interpreters for the BA and MA degrees at Ukrainian universities.
 

The contribution discusses the choice of language of French Germanists in their scientific publications. Contrary to the international academic world and the spreading of English in it, this pilot study to a bigger survey shows that the discipline of German Studies in France only uses two languages: German as the object language and the lingua franca of the guild, and French as meta-language and conveying code for the national language community. However as a recent development a slight Anglicisation can be observed.
 

In my article, I present the person metaphor as the constitutive term for the theory of artificial persons. We have been dealing with various manners of reading the nature of the legal person, and consequently of law in general, especially private law (Privatrecht), since Roman times to this day. The point of departure for my deliberations, in which I try to demonstrate the nature of metaphorical expressions used in building legal theories, is a statement by Paul Kirchhof, who demanded that metaphorical expressions be eradicated from positive (statutory) law. In my article, I ask whether the demand can also be applied to theoretical deliberations of lawyers on the nature of law. Based on examples from legal discussions on the nature of the legal person, I formulate the claim that Paul Kirchhof’s demand should be applied only to positive law texts. Metaphorical expressions have no raison d’être in such texts, especially if they are meant to serve as terms. A different situation occurs where a metaphorical expression is the basis for building a legal system and relations among its components. At this phase of developing law, metaphorical expressions give rise to similarities on which its functions depend. Therefore, at the stage of structuring the meanings of legal terms, corresponding to the vagueness of the metaphor are the important processes of defining and then using legal terms.

The paper emphasises the importance of research on the history of German used on the territory of Poland. The studies on the history of the German language and dialects based on texts from Polish urban archives were the focus of Germanic studies in Poland during the pre-World War II period. After the war, such research continued until the late 1960s but was interrupted later. Currently Polish language historians concentrate on the study of early Modern High German text sources from Polish urban archives and the examination of their graphemic, phonetic, syntactic, lexical features and text typology. Also examined are endangered dialects spoken on the territory of Poland.