Language acquisition

The noun this whole field is named after leads a second life outside it. In this list der Erwerb is acquisition in the psychologist’s sense: what gets into a head, often without anybody deciding that it should. At a notary’s the same noun is a purchase — der Erwerb eines Grundstücks is buying a plot of land, and the buyer is der Erwerber. A third sense runs through the labour market: erwerbstätig means in paid work, and die Erwerbsminderung is a reduced capacity to earn a living. The compounds on this page stay on the first side, so das Erwerbsalter is the age at which a language starts to go in, whatever a reader who knows only the job centre might expect. Where a German sentence could mean either, the object decides: a language, a skill or a habit is acquired; a house, a share or a company changes hands.