Denkstil und Sprache/n in den Wissenschaften. Mit Beispielen aus der Medizin

Abstract

Scientific research is often understood as an activity or process focussing simultaneously on seeking and explaining universal laws of nature. This is especially true concerning the STEM fields of S cience, T echnology, E ngineering and M aths. These fields' universal laws of nature are widely understood as independent from human beings and individual languages. Due to this, the use of English as a lingua franca is often assumed to be beneficial for the internationalisation and globalisation of academic life. In contrast, the use of different languages is more widely accepted in the social sciences, the humanities and the arts as their interests do not focus on universal laws of nature but instead on societal phenomena. In these disciplines, also the paradigmatic variety is broader, and the “laws of nature” approach accepted in the STEM fields is disputed. However, also in the social sciences, the humanities and the arts there is a growing pressure to publish in the current lingua franca, English, as international publishing is the most rewarded of all scholarly activities, in terms of international reputation, funding and academic positions. One argument that supports the overarching trend towards the use of English is that any concepts not translatable into a “terminologically highly developed language”, such as English, are not “clear”. The aim of this paper is to challenge this assertion, by elaborating on the relationship between the research process and language(s). Firstly, Fleck's concepts of Denkstil (thought style) and Denkkollektiv (thought collective) will be introduced, and it will be argued, together with Fleck and others, that any cognitive activity is sociocultural in nature. Next, the connection of Denkstil and language usage will be illustrated concerning textlinguistic studies in medical scientific writing. Finally, the connection between Denkstil and choice of language, or more precisely, the lack of choice thereof in academic life will be discussed. This lack of choice will be critically scrutinised in terms of the way in which academic life is becoming increasingly commercialised.

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