This project challenges traditional views of language as compositional and meaning-transfer-based, proposing instead that human communication aims to reduce uncertainty about intended meaning. Focusing on grammatical gender—often seen as functionless—the researchers apply an information-theoretic framework to argue that gender systems help predict low-information elements like nouns, aiding communication. Comparing German and English, the project investigates how gender systems manage information, their learnability, and their real-time use in speech. Using corpus analysis and experimental methods, it seeks to reveal how languages are structured to optimize communication, offering insights for both linguistic theory and debates around the utility of gendered language systems.

PIs:
PD Dr. Michael Ramscar (University of Tuebingen)
Prof. Elizabeth Wonnacot (University of Oxford)

Funding Period: 2025 - 2027

This project investigates how causal knowledge—essential for daily choices and major decisions—is communicated through language. While much is known about causal reasoning, little research has explored how causal information is transmitted linguistically. Using experimental pragmatics, the project introduces a new framework, “CommuniCause,” to examine how people express and interpret causality in communication. This approach bridges philosophical theories and computational models of causal cognition, emphasizing the role of language in transmitting causal concepts. By generating testable predictions and unifying previously disconnected research areas, CommuniCause offers a novel perspective on the intersection of language, thought, and causal understanding.

PIs:
Prof. Dr. Michael Franke (University of Tuebingen)
Dr. Dan Lassiter (University of Edinburgh)

Funding Period: 2025 - 2027

This project reinterprets the role of land in the late Roman world (AD 300–600), focusing on how land grants shaped political authority, social structures, and local societies. While land has long been recognized as a source of wealth and power, its function in the relationship between rulers, elites, and communities remains underexplored. The project examines land grants as political tools used by emperors and kings to assert authority, reward loyalty, and restructure hierarchies. Through legal, literary, and archaeological sources, it will create a public database and produce new analyses, revealing how land distribution influenced governance, legitimacy, and societal transformation across the Mediterranean.

PIs:
Prof. Carlos Machado (University of St. Andrews)
Prof. Dr. Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner (University of Tuebingen)

Funding Period: 2024 - 2027

This project explores the global impact of Rhenish stoneware jugs—known as Bartmann or Bellarmine jugs—produced c. 1500–1750. Iconic for their bearded face masks and bulbous forms, these vessels were widely exported, appearing in archaeological sites from Europe to the Americas. Despite their global spread, their production, trade, and cultural significance remain under-researched. By integrating archaeological, historical, and scientific methods, the project aims to establish a clearer typology, analyse materials, and assess their social, technological, and global influence. It seeks to position Bartmann jugs as key artefacts for understanding early modern trade, communication, and cultural exchange.

PIs:
Prof. Dr. Natascha Mehler (University of Tuebingen)
Jacqui Pearce (Museum of London Archaeology)
Prof. Dr. Michael Schmauder (University of Bonn)

Funding Period: 2024 - 2026

This project reexamines Western Europe’s long tenth century (c. 900–1050), challenging dominant narratives of collapse or elite collaboration. Instead, it focuses on the largely overlooked lives of local priests—key intermediaries between laypeople and elites—who made up the bulk of the medieval Church. Despite their importance and archival presence, these priests have been under-researched. By systematically studying their economic roles, knowledge, societal integration, and evolving standards across post-Carolingian territories (modern Germany, northern Italy, and France), the project offers a fresh perspective on cultural and social change, reframing our understanding of this pivotal period in European history.

PIs:
Prof. Dr. Charles West (University of Edinburgh)
Prof. Dr. Steffen Patzold (University of Tuebingen)

Funding Period: 2020 - 2024

The project examines the Íslendingasögur as prosimetrum – i.e. as a combination of prose and verse – and considers this structure to be a central literary feature of the saga corpus. The aim is to conduct a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of all forty surviving sagas. Among other things, the number, metre and style of the verses as well as the social roles of the speakers will be recorded. On this basis, new insights into the literary form and composition of the sagas will be gained. The innovative approach promises to reinterpret aspects of prose and verse that have been treated separately in the context of medieval Icelandic prosimetrum.

PIs:
Prof. Judy Quinn (Cambridge University)
Prof. Dr. Stefanie Gropper (University of Tuebingen)

Funding Period: 2019 - 2022

PIs:
Prof. Dr. Katrin Axel-Tober (Universität Tübingen)
Prof. Dr. Ellen Brandner (Universität Stuttgart)
Dr. Richard Faure (Université de Tours, CeTHiS)
Dr. Friederike Moltmann (Université Côte d’Azur-CNRS, BCL) 

Funding Period: August 2023 - July 2026

In the 12th century, Parisian scholar Petrus von Poitiers created the Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi to present a concise overview of biblical history. This groundbreaking work visualizes salvation history through a linear synoptic diagram, aligning the genealogy from Adam to Christ with biblical dynasties, enabling simultaneous reading of chronological and thematic connections. It reflects the medieval belief in a divinely ordered, intelligible, and purposeful history. Widely disseminated in the Latin West between the late 12th and early 16th centuries, it survives in hundreds of manuscripts yet remains unedited and understudied in its complex graphical form. The project unites multiple disciplines to produce a critical digital edition, codicological database, visualizations, and contextual studies, offering innovative methods for representing and analyzing diagrammatic works.

PIs:
Prof. Dr. Andrea Worm (University of Tübingen)
Prof. Dr. Patrick Sahle (University of Wuppertal)
Dr. Roman Bleier (University of Graz)

Funding Period: January 2023 - December 2025