Dr. Dina Serova

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Institut für Archäologie

Dr. Dina Serova is a junior principlal investigator in the CRC project “Register knowledge in Ancient Egypt” (B03) at the Department of “Archaeology and Cultural History of Northeast Africa” at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Dina conducts research on ancient Egyptian language and texts in their respective archaeological contexts, applying not only sociological, cultural, art historical, and theological approaches, but also drawing on theories of multimodal communication. In the context of her register research in the CRC, she investigates text-external and text-internal features of ancient Egyptian narratives as well as narrative text passages in potentially non-narrative texts. The current focus is on the recording and description of the respective situation characteristics that exert a direct influence on the communication between author / commissioner / speaker and addressee / model listener / model reader and thus on the generation and realization of the text. The characteristics of the communication situation are thereby correlated with the linguistic features of a text (lexis, morphosyntax, semantics, pragmatics). In a synchronic and diachronic perspective applied to Egyptian Coptic texts, different situation-specific or -adapted strategies of language use can be identified.

Projects

MGK Integrated Graduate School
B03 Register variation and asymmetric communication in Ancient Egypt

Contact

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin

d.serova@hu-berlin.deWebsite https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8201-0696

Publications & Presentations

    Publications

  • Serova, Dina  (2025) Social Cohesion and the Use of Space: A Miniature Chapel from the Late Middle Kingdom  In: Spaces and Meaning: Multimodality in Ancient Egypt [ViVo]
  • Lüdeling, Anke; Szucsich, Luka; Zeige, Lars Erik; Adli, Aria; Alexiadou, Artemis; Belz, Malte; Bouzouita, Miriam; Adli, Aria; Dreyer, Malte; Egg, Markus; Feulner, Anna Helene; Fleischer, Jürg; Gagarina, Natalia; Hirschmann , Hagen; Jannedy, Stefanie; Knoeferle, Pia; Krause, Thomas; Kutscher, Silvia; Liu, Mingya; Lütke, Beate; Machicao y Priemer, Antonio; Meyer, Roland; Mooshammer, Christine; Müller, Stefan; Sauerland, Uli; Sauermann, Antje; Schmitt, Viola; Schumacher, Nicole; Serova, Dina; Solt, Stephanie; Vander Klok, Jozina; Verhoeven, Elisabeth; Waltereit, Richard; Weirich, Melanie  (2024) Register: Language Users’ Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation. Frame text of the Second Phase Proposal for the CRC 1412 [DOI] [ViVo]
  • Serova, Dina  (2024) Problematizing linguistic variation in the Coffin Texts: A case-study on spell CT 335  In: Variability in the Earlier Egyptian Mortuary Texts and related materials [DOI] [ViVo]
    Register choices in Ancient Egyptian mortuary texts have not been studied so far and are a promising research area. This article tentatively explores the option of understanding instances of linguistic variation observed in Coffin Texts as diaphasic rather than as diatopic or diastratic choices. This is undertaken on the basis of spell CT 335 by keeping the temporal and spatial parameters as stable as possible. In considering only examples of this text originating from Middle Kingdom Thebes, variational parameters and situational-functional factors of two text pairs of this Coffin Text spell, namely T1Ca and T1Cb as well as T1Be and T2Be, are investigated in a case-study.
  • Serova, Dina; Hutter, K.  (2023) "Erzählte Räume" in nicht-narrativen Texten: Der Schauplatz als Erzählkategorie am Beispiel von PT 412  In: Narrative and narrativity in ancient Egypt: Case studies on narrative difference in various media [DOI] [ViVo]
  • Pescuma, Valentina Nicole; Serova, Dina; Lukassek, Julia; Sauermann, Antje; Schäfer, Roland; Adli, Aria; Bildhauer, Felix; Egg, Markus; Hülk, Kristina; Ito, Aine; Jannedy, Stefanie; Kordoni, Valia; Kühnast, Milena; Kutscher, Silvia; Lange, Robert; Lehmann, Nico; Liu, Mingya; Lütke, Beate; Maquate, Katja; Mooshammer, Christine; Mortezapour, Vahid; Müller, Stefan; Norde, Muriel; Pankratz, Elizabeth; Patarroyo, Angela Giovanna; Plesca, Ana-Maria; Ronderos, Camilo R.; Rotter, Stephanie; Sauerland, Uli; Schulte, Britta; Schüppenhauer, Gediminas; Sell, Bianca Maria; Solt, Stephanie; Terada, Megumi; Tsiapou, Dimitra; Verhoeven, Elisabeth; Weirich, Melanie; Wiese, Heike; Zaruba, Kathy; Zeige, Lars Erik; Lüdeling, Anke; Knoeferle, Pia; Schnelle, Gohar  (2023) Situating language register across the ages, languages, modalities, and cultural aspects: Evidence from complementary methods  In: Frontiers in Psychology [DOI] [PDF] [ViVo]
    In the present review paper by members of the collaborative research center ‘Register: Language Users’ Knowledge of SituationalFunctional Variation’ (CRC 1412), we assess the pervasiveness of register phenomena across different time periods, languages, modalities, and cultures. We define ‘register’ as recurring variation in language use depending on the function of language and on the social situation. Informed by rich data, we aim to better understand and model the knowledge involved in situation- and function-based use of language register. In order to achieve this goal, we are using complementary methods and measures. In the review, we start by clarifying the concept of ‘register’, by reviewing the state of the art, and by setting out our methods and modeling goals. Against this background, we discuss three key challenges, two at the methodological level and one at the theoretical level: 1. To better uncover registers in text and spoken corpora, we propose changes to established analytical approaches. 2. To tease apart between-subject variability from the linguistic variability at issue (intra-individual situation based register variability), we use within-subject designs and the modeling of individuals’ social, language, and educational background. 3. We highlight a gap in cognitive modeling, viz. modeling the mental representations of register (processing), and present our first attempts at filling this gap. We argue that the targeted use of multiple complementary methods and measures supports investigating the pervasiveness of register phenomena and yields comprehensive insights into the cross-methodological robustness of register-related language variability. These comprehensive insights in turn provide a solid foundation for associated cognitive modeling.
  • Lehmann, Nico; Serova, Dina; Lukassek, Julia; Döring, Sophia; Goymann, Frank; Lüdeling, Anke; Akbari, Roodabeh  (2023) Guidelines for the annotation of parameters of narration.  In: REALIS: Register Aspects of Language in Situation [DOI] [PDF] [ViVo]
    The present guidelines describe the annotation of narrative phenomena on the clause level, using a combination of ideas and methods from linguistics and lit- erary studies. The main categories marking the discourse strategy “narration” in stretches of text have been narrowed down to mediacy, i. e. involving a narrator, and sequentiality of events. This document specifies how to define mediacy, and in turn determine whether a narrator is present, as well as how to identify events and their sequential ordering. Lastly, a functional layer annotation is proposed which allows researchers to compare different types of narrative instances. This offers a basis for investigating a potential narrative register which is said to be important for many kinds of register studies.

    • Presentations

  • Serova, Dina  (2024) The miniature chapel Vienna ÄS 186 as a case study for multimodality research  In: CENTRAL Joint Workshop: Mosaics of Details. From Little Pieces to the Big Picture within an Interdisciplinary Framework [ViVo]
  • Serova, Dina  (2023) Linguistic choices in dialogue representations in funerary texts: A case study on BD 78  In: ICE XII, International Congress of Egyptology [ViVo]
  • Schnelle, Gohar; Serova, Dina  (2023) Poster session of the participants of the Berlin University Alliance X-Student Research Group ‘Berlin epitaphs as source for historical register research’  In: Kolloquium SFB1412 (2023) [ViVo]
    The participants of the Berlin University Alliance X-Student Research Group ‘Berlin epitaphs as source for historical register research‘ present their results during a poster session. Their will be an introductory summary of the addressed research questions in English, the posters are prepared in German. organized by Gohar Schnelle and Dina Serova Our students will present their research results featuring the following topics: “Todesreferenzen in Grabinschriften des 17. Jahrhunderts” Franziska Groth, Stephanie Jandt “Darstellung stereotyper Putten im Hauptschiff der Berliner Marienkirche” Tom Liese “Orte und Mobilität auf Epitaphien des 17. Jahrhunderts der Berliner Marienkirche” Marthe Küster “V1 als Registermerkmal?” Elisabeth Eberle “Außertheologische Poesie auf Epitaphien” Luise Bensmann “Vergänglichkeit im 17. Jahrhundert am Beispiel von Epitaphien in der St. Marienkirche zu Berlin” Yasmin Altmann “Gedächtnis und Emotion. Die Rolle von Emotionen im barocken Totengedenken.” Clara Skrippek “Multimodalität und Rezeptionsbedingungen” Ladina Soubeyrand “Epitaphe als biographische Quelle” Svenja Kautz “Personenattribution auf Grabinschriften” Lola Hajnal Berg “Biographische Informationen auf Doppelepitaphien” Bastian Ilgner
  • Serova, Dina  (2022) 'Erzählte Räume' und Interaktion  In: Arbeitskreis Multimodalität im Alten Ägypten und Sudan, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin [ViVo]
  • Serova, Dina  (2022) Semantic Perspectives on the Nude/Naked Body in Ancient Egyptian Texts  In: Egyptology in dialogue: Historical bodies in relations of comparisons and negotiations, Emory University, zoom [ViVo]
  • Serova, Dina  (2022) Deformiert und diffamiert. Körperstrafen in Grabdarstellungen des Alten Reiches  In: Jahrestagung des Clusters "Körper und Tod", DAI Berlin [ViVo]
  • Serova, Dina  (2022) Register variation in Ancient Egyptian narrative texts: A case-study on 'Wenamun'  In: Current Research in Egyptology, Montpellier [ViVo]
  • Serova, Dina  (2022) Area B on modeling of register knowledge in Historical Linguistics  In: CRC 1412 – Spring Retreat 2022 [ViVo]
  • Serova, Dina  (2022) Problematizing linguistic variation in the Coffin Texts: A case-study on spell CT 335  In: MORTEXVAR - Individuals, Groups, Tracers, Universidad de Alcala, zoom [ViVo]
  • Serova, Dina  (2021) Pain and punishment. New Perspectives on Selected Iconographic Motifs in Old Kingdom Tomb Decoration  In: Ninth European Conference of Egyptologists (ECE IX), Triest, zoom [ViVo]
  • Serova, Dina  (2021) Klassifikatoren in Bewegung. Eine Fallstudie zum Verb kfi/kfA 'entblößen; offenbaren; vertreiben; berauben; öffnen'  In: 16. Internationaler Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Semiotik (DGS): "Transformationen: Zeichen und ihre Obkjekte im Wandel", zoom [ViVo]
  • Serova, Dina  (2020) Tracing down register variation in the 'Journey of Wenamun'  In: SFB 1412 Klausurtagung, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin [ViVo]