call for papers : dgfs meeting 1998 call for papers as part of the annual meeting of the german linguistic society ( deutsche gesellschaft fuer sprachwissenschaft ) , to be held in halle ( saale ) , germany , march 4 / 6 1988 , there will be a workshop ( arbeitsgruppe ) on the following topic : the linguistic analysis of intercultural communication in the last thirty years research on intercultural communication has attracted increasing scientific attention not only as a result of social developments but also due to the growing interdisciplinary cooperation between different disciplines such as cultural anthropology , ethnology , sociology , and linguistics ( c . f . ehlich 1996 ) . a central topic of the linguistic analysis of intercultural communication is determined by the experience that the use of a common language system does not guarantee mutual understanding . therefore , the theoretical conception of intercultural communication ( either in everyday or in institutional situations ) is characterized by misunderstandings ( gumperz ) . analyses of the mediation of intercultural competences show that both contrastive and interactive investigations into intercultural communication are important in order to answer the questions on the contextualizations of speech actions and on their universal or culture specific characteristics . only recently , has the innovative potential of intercultural communication started to attract particular attention ( c . f . koole & ten thije 1994 ) . it has become clear that research into intercultural communication should take an interdisciplinary perspective and requires reflection on traditional linguistic categories of linguistic description in order to see which new discursive forms are facilitated by intercultural communication . the specific question to be adressed in this workshop is whether the linguistic involvement in intercultural research has resulted in the extension and enhancement of new linguistic categories and research methods . reflexion on this issue should focus on topics like procedures of assertaining understanding ( verstdndnissicherung ) ( c . f . metacommunication ) , pragmatic universals ( c . f . politeness ) , contrastive analyses of speech actions and texts , linguistic forms of perspectivity or culture comparison . references ehlich , k . ( 1996 ) interkulturelle kommunikation . in : h . goebl et alii ( eds . ) kontaktlinguistik . ein internationales handbuch zeitgenvssischer forschung . berlin / new york : de gruyter , 920 / 931 . koole , t . & j . d . ten thije ( 1994 ) the construction of intercultural discourse . amsterdam : rodopi . papers relevant to this topic are invited . papers should take 40 minutes , to be followed by 20 minutes of discussion . a one-page abstract should be sent ( preferably by e-mail to the organizer ( adress below ) by september 1 , 1997 . - - dr . kristin buehrig germanisches seminar der universitdt hamburg jan d . ten thije , professur interkulturelle kommunikation technische universitaet chemnitz , 09107 chemnitz tel . : . . 49 . 371 . 531 . 2966 ; sekr . : . . . 4533 ; fax : . . . 2933 e-mail : jan . tenthije @ phil . tu-chemnitz . de http : / / www . tu-chemnitz . de / phil / ikk