Zwischen Traualtar und Scheidungsanwalt - Zum Verhältnis von Linguistik und DaF

This paper gives an account of the disciplinary tensions between (German) linguistics and the field <i>German as a second language</i> (DaF). Based on the author's personal experience, the divergingobjectives as well as the areas of contact of the two disciplines are laid out. Transdisciplinaryapproaches to the common subject language will be demonstrated using examples from theoreticaland descriptive syntax, language acquisition and corpus linguistics. The paper argues that there isconsiderable overlap in the subject matter, that there are shared fundamental methodologicalmentalities, and that there is a common tendency towards psychologically realistic accounts oflanguage and (second) language acquisition. Based on these arguments, the author advocates thestrengthening of ties between the two fields.