On 28 February, Aleksandra Ćwiek will be honoured with the Wilhelm von Humboldt-Preis 2024 für den wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs (Award for early career researchers) at the DGfS annual conference in Bochum. She received this award for her creative research ideas, her rigorous methodical implementation of these ideas, her precise analyses and her ability to inspire others in a controversial field of research.
In her dissertation, she analysed various aspects of iconicity on different linguistic levels. She used corpus linguistic and experimental methods. She analysed texts from German children’s books that use iconic expressions, sound symbolism of the imaginary names of Pokémon characters, and the interplay between pointing gestures in vertical space and the pitch of spoken language.
The DGfS praises her work as very clear and excitingly written. In addition, Aleksandra Ćwiek was the first author of a major study that demonstrated iconicity in 28 languages. This study received a great response in the international media.