Universität Bonn

Uni Bonn - LETS

Prof. Dr. Svenja Kranich

Professor for linguistics

Chair of "Linguistics of English and Translation"

Office Hours

This term, there will be no fixed Office hours on eCampus.

On personal request, you can book an Office hour via mail.

About me

I am a dedicated and passionate professor with a deep-rooted fascination for the intricacies of language and linguistic evolution. My academic journey has been driven by a profound curiosity about the ever-evolving nature of language, and my research interests reflect my commitment to unraveling the complexities within the realm of linguistics. Here is a glimpse into my areas of expertise:

 I am actively engaged in studying the dynamic shifts and transformations in both English and German languages. By examining recent linguistic changes, I seek to understand how these languages adapt and evolve in response to societal, cultural, and technological developments. The interactions between different languages have far-reaching implications for linguistic evolution. I investigate the phenomena of language contact, exploring how languages influence each other and adapt through interaction.

The underlying principles governing language change intrigue me. My research endeavors involve uncovering the fundamental principles that drive linguistic evolution, shedding light on the mechanisms that shape our languages over time. A significant portion of my work revolves around the examination of modality and aspect in English, as well as their counterparts in other languages. I am particularly interested in how these linguistic features convey meaning and influence communication.

My research extends to a comparative analysis of English and German, with a focus on pragmatic and stylistic differences. By investigating these contrasts, I aim to shed light on the distinct communicative strategies employed in each language. Grammaticalization is a phenomenon through which words or phrases evolve into grammatical elements. I delve into this intriguing process, examining how words transform into grammatical structures and investigating the factors that drive this evolution.

Finally, translation is a complex interplay of linguistic and cultural elements. I delve into the world of translation studies, exploring the challenges and nuances of transferring meaning from one language to another. My work seeks to enhance our understanding of effective translation techniques. 

Through my research and teaching, I aspire to instill a passion for linguistics in my students, fostering an environment of intellectual curiosity and critical thinking. My commitment to the field of linguistics is unwavering, and I am dedicated to advancing our understanding of language and its ever-evolving nature. Join me on this fascinating journey through the intricate world of linguistics, where the possibilities for discovery are boundless.

Avatar Kranich

Prof. Dr. Svenja Kranich

Chair

2.019

Rabinstraße 9

53111 Bonn

Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie
Lerhstuhl für Linguistics of English and Translation Studies
TRA4 - Demokratie und Machtstrukturen


Curriculum Vitae

Intercultural Communication (MA)
Corpus Linguistics (BA/BEd)
Language Structures and Functions (BA/BEd)
English Linguistics (MEd)
Translation Studies (MA)
Language Acquisition (MA)

since 2016
Full Professor for English Linguistics, University of Bonn
2013-2016
Associate Professor (Juniorprofessor), University of Mainz
2013
Senior Lecturer, University of Salzburg
2007-2012
Researcher at the Research Centre on Multilingualism, University of Hamburg (2010-2011 Parental leave)
2005-2007
Lecturer (Lehrbeauftragte), Freie Universität Berlin
2004
Lecturer (Lehrbeauftragte), University of Potsdam

2016
Habilitation, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
2008
Dr. phil. English Linguistics, Freie Universität Berlin
2003
M.A. English Studies and French Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
1996-2003
English Studies and French Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, Université Lille III (Lille, France), and Tulane University (New Orleans, USA)
 

ISLE (International Society of English)
SLE (Societas Linguistica Europea)
IPra (International Pragmatics Association)
Deutscher Anglistenverband
Deutscher Hochschulverband


Projects

Demokratisierung und Machtstrukturen

Duration:

since 2021

Lead:

Prof. Dr. Svenja Kranich, Dr. Simone Knewitz, Prof. Dr. Daniela Pirazzini

Sponsor::

TRA4



Prizes

Young Scholars Award - Third Late Modern English Conference

Year:

2007

For:

Outstanding paper by PhD student 



Monographs and edited volumes

Contrastive pragmatics and translation
© John Benjamins Publishing

Contrastive pragmatics and translation: Evaluation, epistemic modality and communicative style in English and German

Kranich, Svenja (2016)

Pragmatics and Beyond, New Series 261. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.


The progressive in Modern English
© Cambridge University Press

The progressive in Modern English: A corpus-based study of grammaticalization and related changes

Kranich, Svenja (2010)

Language and Computers – Studies in Practical Linguistics 72. Amsterdam: Rodopi.


Lost in Change
© John Benjamins Publishing

Lost in Change: Causes and processes in the loss of grammatical elements and constructions  

Kranich, Svenja; Breban, Tine (2021)

 Studies in Language Companion Series 218. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.


Multilingual discourse production: Synchronic and diachronic perspectives
© John Benjamins Publishing

Multilingual discourse production: Synchronic and diachronic perspectives 

Kranich, S., Becher, V., Höder, St., & House, J. (Eds.). (2011)

Hamburg Studies on Multilingualism 12. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.


what happens after grammaticalization?
© Science Direct

What happens after grammaticalization? Secondary grammaticalization and other late stage processes

Kranich, Svenja; Breban, Tine (2015)

Language Sciences, Volume 47, Part B,Pages 129-228.


Articles 

2022
Bruns, H., & Kranich, S. (2022). Terms of address: A contrastive investigation of ongoing changes in British, American and Indian English and in German. Journal of Contrastive Pragmatics, 3(1), 112-143.

2021
Kranich, S., Bruns, H., & Hampel, E. (2021). Requests across varieties and cultures: Norms are changing (but not everywhere in the same way). Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies, 32(1), 91-114.

Kranich, S., & Breban, T. (2021). Introduction: Lost in change. In S. Kranich & T. Breban (eds.), Lost in change: Causes and processes in the loss of grammatical elements and constructions [Studies in Language Companion Series 218] (pp. 1-18). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins

Kranich, S. (2021). Decline and loss in the modal domain in recent English. In S. Kranich & T. Breban (eds.), Lost in change: Causes and processes in the loss of grammatical elements and constructions [Studies in Language Companion Series 218] (pp. 261-290). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins

2020
Kranich, S., Hampel, E., & Bruns, H. (2020). Changes in the modal domain in different varieties of English as potential effects of democratization. Language Sciences, 79, 1–15.

2019
Kranich, S. (2019). Contrastive approaches to pragmatics and translation. In R. Tipton, & L. Desilla (Eds.), Routledge handbook of translation and pragmatics (pp. 115–130). London: Routledge.

2018
Kranich, S., & Pankova, V. (2018). 'Und dabei stellen sich wichtige Fragen': Linking constructions in translation. trans-kom, 11(2), 265–284.

2015
Kranich, S. (2015). The impact of input and output domains: Towards a function-based categorization of types of grammaticalization. In T. Breben & S. Kranich (Eds.), What happens after grammaticalization? Secondary grammaticalization and other late stage processes in grammaticalization. Special Issue. Language Sciences, 47(B), 172–187.

Kranich, S., & Gast, V. (2015). Explicitness of epistemic modal marking: Recent changes in British and American English. In J. R. Zamorano-Mansilla, C. Maíz, E. Domínguez & M. V. Martín de la Rosa (Eds.), Thinking modally: English and contrastive studies on modality (pp. 3–22). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

2014
Kranich, S. (2014). Translation as a locus of language contact. In J. House (Ed.), Translation: A multidisciplinary approach (pp. 96–115). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

2013
Kranich, S. (2013). Functional layering and the English progressive. Linguistics, 51(1), 1–32.

2012
Kranich, S., & Bicsár, A. (2012). 'These forecasts may be substantially different from actual results.' The use of epistemic modal markers in English and German original letters to shareholders and in English-German translations. Linguistik Online, 55(5), 41–55.

Kranich, S., House, J., & Becher, V. (2012). Changing conventions in English-German translations of popular scientific texts. In K. Braunmüller & C. Gabriel (Eds.), Multilingual individuals and multilingual societies [Hamburg Studies on Multilingualism 13] (pp. 315–334). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

2011
Kranich, S. (2011). To hedge or not to hedge: The use of epistemic modal expressions in popular science in English texts, English-German translations and German original texts. Text & Talk, 31(1), 77–99.

Kranich, S. (2011). L’emploi des expressions épistémiques dans des lettres aux actionnaires en France, aux États Unis et en Allemagne. Langage et Société, 137, 115–134.

Kranich, S., Becher, V., & Höder, S. (2011). A tentative typology of translation-induced language change. In S. Kranich, V. Becher, S. Höder & J. House (Eds.), Multilingual discourse production: Synchronic and diachronic perspectives [Hamburg Studies on Multilingualism 12] (pp. 11–44). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Becher, V., Höder, S., House, J., & Kranich, S. (2011). Introduction. In S. Kranich, V. Becher, S. Höder & J. House (Eds.), Multilingual discourse production: Synchronic and diachronic perspectives [Hamburg Studies on Multilingualism 12) (pp. 1–8]. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

2010
Kranich, S. (2010). Grammaticalization, subjectification and objectification. In K. Stathi, E. Gehweiler & E. König (Eds.), Grammaticalization: Current views and issues [Studies in Language Companion Series 119] (pp. 101–122). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

2009
Kranich, S. (2009). Epistemic modality in English popular scientific articles and their German translations. trans-kom, 2(1), 26–41.

Kranich, S. (2009). Interpretative progressives in Late Modern English. In I. Tieken-Boon van Ostade & W. van der Wurff (Eds.), Current issues in Late Modern English [Linguistic Insights: Studies in Language and Communication 77] (pp. 331–357). Bern: Peter Lang.

Becher, V., House, J., & Kranich, S. (2009). Convergence and divergence of communicative norms through language contact in translation. In K. Braunmüller & J. House (Eds.), Convergence and divergence in language contact situations [Hamburg Studies on Multilingualism 8] (pp. 125–151). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

2008
Kranich, S. (2008). Subjective progressives in seventeenth and eighteenth century English: Secondary grammaticalization as a process of objectification. In M. Gotti, M. Dossena & R. Dury (Eds.), English historical linguistics 2006. Volume 1: Syntax and morphology [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 295] (pp. 241–256). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

2007
Kranich, S. (2007). Subjectification and the English progressive: The history of ALWAYS + progressive constructions. York Papers in Linguistics [Series 2], 8, 120–137.

Kranich, S. (2007). Some problems connected with the analysis of gerunds with direct objects in Middle English. In W. Rudolf, T. Honneger & A. J. Johnston (Eds.), Clerks, wives and historians: Essays on medieval English language and literature [Variations 8] (pp. 213–240). Bern: Lang.

2006
Kranich, S. (2006). The origin of English gerundial constructions - a case of French influence? In A. J. Johnston, F. von Mengden & S. Thim (Eds.), Language and text: Current perspectives on English and Germanic historical linguistics and philology [Anglistische Forschungen 359] (pp. 179–195). Heidelberg: Winter.

2011
Kranich, S. (2011). Yaron Matras (2009): Language contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Languages in Contrast, 11(1), 136–143.

2010
Kranich, S. (2010). Ingrid Tieken-Boon Van Ostade (2009): An introduction to Late Modern English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. The Linguist List, issue 21.2452.  

 

Talks

2023
"Auswirkungen soziokultureller Veränderungen auf den Sprachgebrauch - eine kontrastive Perspektive". Guest lecture presented at Free University of Berlin, Germany, 28 June 2023.

"Recent changes in communicative norms - effects of democratization?". Guest lecture presented at University of Augsburg, Germany, 08 May 2023.

2022
"Pragmatic Contrasts and the Use of the Cultural Filter in Translation". Guest lecture presented at University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, 07 October 2022. (PDF)

2021
"Complexity, translation and the explicitation debate". Guest lecture in the lecture series Aktuelle Fragen der Sprach- und Translationswissenschaft, Heidelberg University, Germany, 08 July 2021.

2020
“English-German contrasts in pragmatics and text conventions”. Guest lecture presented at University of Hildesheim, Germany, 20 January 2020.

2019
“Grammaticalization in English”. Lecture given at the CUSO (Conférence Universitaire De Suisse Occidentale) Workshop on “Grammaticalisation, pragmaticalisation, et (inter-)subjectivisation: vers de nouvelles approches théorétiques et méthodologiques“ (Grammaticalization, pragmaticalization, and (inter-)subjectivization: Towards new theoretical and methodological approaches). Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 01-02 October 2019.

2017
"Changes in the modal system in recent English: Attempts to solve the mystery." Keynote talk at the workshop Grammatical Variation and Change in English, University of Leuven, Belgium, 04–05 April 2017.

2015
"Epistemic modality in English and German: Systemic and pragmatic contrasts and their consequences for translation." Guest lecture, University of Liverpool, UK, 18 February 2015. 

"The mystery of the modals in recent English." Guest lecture, University of Manchester, UK, 17 February 2015.

2014
"Intercultural contact through translation: “Shining through” of pragmatic and stylistic features." Talk at the Sociolinguistics and Multilingualism (SoMu) Symposium, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, 15–16 May 2014.

2013
"Translation as language contact: Language variation and change through translation." Plenary at the symposium Language contacts at the crossroads of disciplines, University of Joensuu, Finland, 28 February – 01 March 2013 (with Viktor Becher).

2012
"Wie evidentiell sind die englischen Modalverben?" Talk at the Linguistisches Kolloquium, University of Würzburg, Germany, 24 April 2012.

2010
"Evidentielle Ausdrücke als Übersetzungen epistemischer Ausdrücke: Eine Korpusanalyse populärwissenschaftlicher Übersetzungen aus dem Englischen." Talk at the workshop Modalität und Evidentialität, University of Hannover, Germany, 31 May – 02 June 2010.

2008
"Interkulturelle Kommunikation in der Übersetzung." Guest lecture at the lecture series Interkulturelle Kommunikation, Centre for Language Diversity and Multilingualism, University of Cologne, Germany, 27 October 2008.

"Grammaticalization and subjectification in the development of the progressive: evidence from ARCHER-2." Talk at the symposium Corpora and the history of English: ARCHER 3 and beyond, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, Freiburg, Germany, 12 December 2008.

  

2023
“Democratization effects on nominal address terms – Sir and Guys in 20th and 21st century American English”. Talk presented at the 18th International Pragmatics Conference (IPrA 18), Brussels, Belgium, 09–14 July 2023 (with Hanna Bruns).

2021
“Epistemic and evidential expressions in English over time: Some insights on the role of interactional processes and social change”. Talk presented for the Workshop "Epistemic and evidential stance in English past and present: Interaction and (social) change“ at the International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL-21), Universiteit Leiden, Netherlands, 07-11 June 2021 (with Elisabeth Reber).

"‘What we may conclude‘– The demise of a hedging construction in 20th-century English“. Talk presented at the 17th International Pragmatics Conference (IPra 17), Winterthur, Switzerland, 27 June-02 July 2021 (with Anna-Katharina Scholz).

2020
“ExiT: Towards a multifactorial perspective on explicitation”. Talk presented at the Translation Research in Corpora, Keystroke Logging and Eye Tracking Colloquium (TRICKLET), RWTH Aachen, Germany, 07 February 2020 (with Gaby Axer and Veronika Pankova).

2019
“Asking politely? Changing norms concerning directness levels in requests”. Talk presented at 12th International Conference on (Im)politeness (SymPol 12), Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, England, 17-19 July 2019 (with Hanna Bruns).

"Complexity and explicitation in translation." Talk at the Second Translation Studies Day (TraSt2), University of Bonn, Germany, 27 March 2019.

2018
"Effects of democratization on language use." Talk at the symposium English as a Global Language, University of Bonn, 10 December 2018 (with Hanna Bruns).

"Requests across varieties and cultures: Norms are changing (but not everywhere in the same way)". Talk at the Anglistentag (Annual Conference of the German Association for the Study of English), University of Bonn, Germany, 23–26 Septemeber 2018 (with Elisabeth Hampel and Hanna Bruns).

"'We may say that...' Do we still say that?" Talk at the 5th international conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English (ISLE 5), London, UK, 17–20 July 2018.

"Changes in the modal domain in recent English: Effects of democratization?" Talk at the workshop Democratization of English(es): Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives (Organizers Turo Hiltunen & Lucia Loureiro Porto) at the 39th Annual Conference of the International Computer Archive for Modern and Medieval English (ICAME 39), Tampere, Finland, 30 May – 03 June 2018 (with Elisabeth Hampel and Hanna Bruns).

"Lost in change: Processes and causes in the loss of constructions and categories." Introduction to the workshop at the 40th Meeting of the DGfS (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft), Stuttgart, Germany, 07–09 March 2018 (with Tine Breban).

2017
"Some effects of democratization on the performance of face-threatening acts in expert-layman communication." Talk at the 15th International Pragmatics conference (IPrA 15), Belfast, UK, 16–21 July 2017 (together with Wera Neuhäuser).

2016
"Language contact through translation: The impact of historical and socio-cultural factors." Talk at the Historical Sociolinguistics and Socio-Cultural Change (HiSoN) conference, Helsinki, Finland, 10–11 March 2016 (with Qiurong Zhao).

"Translation-induced language variation and change: A case study of the impact of English-Chinese translations on the use of the Chinese Preposition Zai." Talk at the 8th International Conference on Corpus Linguistics (CILC), Malaga, Spain, 02–04 March 2016 (with Qiurong Zhao).

2015
"Changes in communicative style in recent German: More interactional, less direct." Talk at 14th International Pragmatics conference (IPrA 14), Antwerpen, 26–31 July 2015 (with Sarina Schramm).

2014
"Recent changes in epistemic modal marking in written English." Talk at the 3rd international conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English (ISLE 3), Zürich, Switzerland, 24–27 August 2014.

"The modals in recent English: A closer look at may and must. Work-in-progress-report." Talk at the 35th Annual Conference of the International Computer Archive for Modern and Medieval English (ICAME 35), Nottingham, UK, 30 April – 04 May 2014.

2013
"Types of meaning change in secondary grammaticalization and other later stages of grammaticalization." Talk at the workshop Secondary grammaticalization and other late stage processes of grammaticalization at the 21st International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL 21), Oslo, Norway, 05–09 August 2013.

"Secondary grammaticalization and other late stage processes of grammaticalization." Introduction to the workshop at the 21st International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL 21), Oslo, Norway, 05–09 August 2013 (with Tine Breban).

2012
"Translating evaluation: A corpus-based study of business communication." Talk at the 33rd Annual Conference of the International Computer Archive for Modern and Medieval English (ICAME 33), Leuven, Belgium, 30 May – 03 June 2012 (with Victorina González Díaz).

2010
"How translations from English shape the genre of popular scientific writing in German." Talk at the workshop Language Contact through Written Discourse at the international conference on Multilingual Individuals and Multilingual Societies (MIMS), Research Centre on Multilingualism, Hamburg, Germany, 06–08 October 2010 (with Viktor Becher and Juliane House)

"Explicitness of epistemic marking: Recent changes in British and American English." Talk at the conference Modality in English IV, Madrid, Spain, 08–11 September 2010 (with Volker Gast).

"'I feel I am understanding it more now.' A web-based study of stative verbs in the progressive in present-day English." Talk at the 16th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL 16), Pécs, Hungary, 23–27 August 2010.

"Good, great or remarkable? Evaluation in English, German and Spanish letters to shareholders." Talk at the conference New Challenges for Multilingualism in Europe, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 11–15 April 2010 (with Victorina Gonzalez Díaz) .

2009
"'These forecasts may be substantially different from actual results'. The use of epistemic modal markers in letters to shareholders in English compared to their German translations and original German letters to shareholders." Talk at the workshop Multilingual Discourse Production, Hamburg, Germany, 06–07 November 2009 (with Andrea Biscár).

"A tentative typology of translation-induced language change." Talk at the workshop Multilingual Discourse Production, Hamburg, Germany, 06–07 November 2009 (with Viktor Becher and Steffen Höder).

"Translations as locus of language change: Establishing general tendencies and principles." Talk at the 19th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL 19), Nijmegen, the Netherlands, 10–15 August 2009.

"Epistemic modality between marker of true uncertainty and politeness strategy: Evidence from English and German popular scientific writing." Talk at the 11th International Pragmatics conference (IPrA 11), Melbourne, Australia, 12–17 July 2009.

"Textlinguistic methods in contrastive corpus studies: The use of epistemic modal marking in English and German texts. Work-in-progress-report." Talk at the 30th Annual Conference of the International Computer Archive for Modern and Medieval English (ICAME 30), Lancaster, UK, 27–31 May 2009.

2008
"The use of the English progressive – what’s new?" Poster presentation at the 1st international conference of the International Society of the Linguistics of English (ISLE 1), Freiburg, Germany, 08–11 October 2008.

"The origin of the English progressive." Talk at the 15th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL 15), Munich, Germany, 25–29 August 2008.

"Grammaticalization, subjectification and the layering of meanin: How to deal with the semantics of the present-day English progressive." Talk at the 4th New Reflections on Grammaticalization conference (NRG 4), Leuven, Belgium, 16–19 July 2008.

"Application of the cultural filter in German covert translations of English popular scientific texts: Evidence from the use of epistemic modal markers." Talk at the satellite symposium Native and non-native mediated discourse and the changing English language, GlobEng (Global English), Verona, Italy, 14–16 February 2008.

2007
"Interpretative progressives in Late Modern English." Talk at the 3rd Late Modern English Conference (LModE), Leiden, Belgium, 30 August – 01 September 2007.

"The grammaticalization of the progressive function in Modern English: Evidence from ARCHER-2." Talk at the 28th Annual Conference of the International Computer Archive for Modern and Medieval English (ICAME 28), Stratford-upon-Avon, UK, 23–27 May 2007.

"Grammaticalization, subjectification and ‘objectification’." Talk at the workshop What’s new in grammaticalization?, the Free University Berlin, Germany, 11–12 May 2007.

2006
"Subjective progressives in seventeenth and eighteenth century English: Subjectification and ‘objectification’ as evidenced in a (secondary) grammaticalization process." Talk at the 14th International Conference on the History of the English Language (ICEHL 14), Bergamo, Italy, 21–25 August 2006.

"Subjectification and the English progressive: The history of ALWAYS + progressive constructions." Talk at the Symposium on the History of English Syntax (SHES), York, UK, 20–21 May 2006.

2023
"English address terms in a globalized world: Socio-cultural impact on recent language variation and change" Panel at the 18th International Pragmatics conference (IPrA 18), Brussels, Belgium, 09–14 July 2023 (with Anke Lensch).

2021
"Epistemic and evidential stance in English past and present: Interaction and (social) change." Workshop, Universiteit Leiden, Netherlands, 07-11 June 2021 (with Elisabeth Reber).

2018
"Lost in Change: Causes and processes in the loss of grammatical constructions and categories." Workshop, Stuttgart, Germany, 07–09 March 2018 (with Tine Breban).

2013
"Secondary Grammaticalization and Other Later Stage Processes in Grammaticalization." Workshop at the 21st International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL 21), Oslo, Norway, 05–09 August 2013 (with Tine Breban).

2010
"Language Contact through Written Discourse: Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives." Workshop at the international conference on Multilingual Individuals and Multilingual Societies (MIMS), Research Centre on Multilingualism, Hamburg, Germany, 06–08 October 2010. (with Silvia Hansen-Schirra and Viktor Becher).

2009
"Multilingual Discourse Production." Workshop, Hamburg, Germany, 06–07 November 2009 (with Viktor Becher, Steffen Höder and Juliane House).

"Subjectivity in Discourse." Panel at the 11th International Pragmatics conference (IPrA 11), Melbourne, Australia, 12–17 July 2009 (with Nicole Baumgarten and Inke Du Bois).

 

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