In a society characterized by ever-increasing 'internationalization', it is striking to discover that research into lexical internationalisms is still highly propaedeutic. To account for this, the authors offer a threefold explanation. Firstly: the study of so-called internationalisms covers many different linguistic subdisciplines, each of which regards it as peripheral and treats it accordingly. Secondly: modern linguistics uses the linguistic competence of the native speaker as its starting point, and almost totally neglects intersystemic, i.e. interlinguistic mechanisms. Thirdly: in many linguistic communities there still exists a strong tendency towards purism, and disapproval of internationalisms—which may explain the scientific neglect of these Fremdkörper. German offers a perfect example of this aspiration towards linguistic purity.

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