Processing and Directionality in German and English

The paper discusses basic aspects of a general theory of contrastive stylistics, which is taken to result from the interaction of parameterized properties of languages with universal principles of language use. Proceeding from some basic psycholinguistic assumptions about language processing, the discussion will concentrate on various problems arising from specific processing conditions in English and German. The basic claims will be exemplified by translational evidence subjected to the method of control paraphrases. The findings pertain to contrastive linguistics, translation theory and a better understanding of individual literary style.