In der Wirtschaft vernetzt kommunizieren – Hypertextstrukturen bei der Mitarbeiteranwerbung im deutsch-polnischen Kontrast

By dissolving the linear reception of texts, the recipient becomes a co-author intervening in the textual process (cf., Hess-Lüttich 1997: 134), who creates intertextual links, according to his or her reading strategy. This is how hypertexts and text networks arecreated, which still represent a linguistically under-researched area. What seems to be interesting here is the question of the differences between the two phenomena. The new trends can be particularly observed in business communication. For this reason, the present paper focuses on business-related texts to better illustrate the new linguistic phenomenon of text networking. The analysis is based on the Internet career pages of selected Polish and German public companies. The author attempts to find an answer to the question of the linguistic status of these websites, whether they should be defined as hypertexts or as components of larger networks of texts (textual genres). Furthermore, the aim of the paper is to point out relevant cultural and industryrelateddifferences based on the analysis of the frequency and specificity of text linking in the context of employee recruitment in Polish and German professional contexts.