Exhibition
| Language and Language Acquisition
| History of the Language
The Art of Writing and Speaking
| Language and Technology
| The Living Language
Since the first advanced civilizations came about, many different techniques for preserving the spoken word and thus making information available over time and distance have been developed. For a long time writing was the most important instrument for this purpose. In the 19th century new inventions such the telegraph and the telephone made it possible to transmit language over great distances by means of wire or cable. The phonograph could even play back recorded sound. In the 20th century computer technology brought new methods of approaching language and its research. The use of technology has also influenced linguistic behaviour. The customary form of written conversation, the letter, is now increasingly being replaced by communication per e-mail or cell phone. Electronic transmission accelerates and intensifies communication, but also leads to a terseness specific to the media and thus to an impoverishment in communication. The manufacture of word-processing systems has led to new possibilities of man/machine communication.
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