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In her discussion of the Japanese adversative passive, Anna Wierzbicka writes (1988: 260): “The problem is extremely interesting and important both for intrinsic reasons and because of its wider methodological implications. It can be formulated like this: if one form can be used in a number of different ways, are we entitled to postulate for it a number of different meanings or should we rather search for one semantic common denominator (regarded as the MEANING of the form in question) and attribute the variety of uses to the interaction between this meaning and the linguistic or extralinguistic context?” Though it “may seem obvious” that the second stand is “methodologically preferable” (261), she takes the first position and concludes that “the Japanese passive has to be recognized as multiply ambiguous” (286). In the following I intend to show that this view is both wrong and fruitful.
The publication of Mallory’s book (1989) has rendered much of what I had to say in the present contribution superfluous. The author presents a carefully argued and very well written account of a balanced view on almost every aspect of the problem. Against this background, I shall limit myself to a few points which have not received sufficient attention in the discussion. ...
The Germanic weak preterit
(2007)
The main difficulty with the Germanic weak preterit is that one cannot endeavor an explanation of its origin without taking into account almost every aspect of the historical phonology and morphology of the Germanic languages. In the following I intend to show how a number of problems receive a natural explanation in a unified treatment on the basis of earlier studies. The theory presented here is not revolutionary, but aims at integrating earlier findings into a coherent whole. There is no reason to give a detailed account of the scholarly literature, which is easily accessible (cf. Tops 1974, Bammesberger 1986).
Polabian accentuation
(2007)
From a synchronic point of view, the accentuation of Late Polabian has been clarified by Trubetzkoy (1929) and Olesch (1973, 1974). The stress fell on the last full vowel of a word form, which was found either in the final or in the penulti-mate syllable. In the latter instance, the final syllable contained a reduced vowel. This rule was challenged by Kurylowicz (1955), who maintained that the stress was fixed on the initial syllable of the word. The latter theory has the advantage of accounting for the absence of reduced vowels in initial syllables.
1. There are two classes of theories of Universal Grammar: (1) Formalist theories, such as the widespread varieties of generative grammar. These theories start from the assumption that certain strings of linguistic forms are grammatical while other strings are ungrammatical. A grammar of this type produces grammatical strings and does not produce ungrammatical ones. All theories of this class fail in the same respect: they do not account for the meaning of the strings. (2) Semiotactic theories, which describe the meaning of a string in terms of the meanings of its constituent forms and their interrelations. The only elaborate formalized theory of this class presently available is the one advanced by C.L. Ebeling (Syntax and Semantics, Leiden: Brill, 1978). I shall discuss some of its mathematical properties here.
Aramaic is not among the oldest Semitic languages in a strictly chronological sense, but among those languages which are still spoken today, it has the longest continuous written tradition. The existing written documents span a period of three millennia and thus enable us to study language history in a long-term perspective. It is very important, in this respect, that the latest stage of development of Aramaic, Neo-Aramaic, still exists in a multitude of spoken varieties which can be studied in vivo. We can thus describe the phonetics and phonology of the modern varieties with more precision than is possible for the older language stages, which in turn enables us to draw conclusions on diachronic sound change. Likewise, we can study morphology and syntax not only from recorded texts, but we also have recourse to native speakers in order to clarify doubtful points. Thus the latest stage of Aramaic casts a strong light back into the past. It is therefore most unfortunate that many Aramaicists and Syrologists show so little interest in this living heritage.
In der arabischen Welt herrscht eine sehr alte und stabile Situation der Diglossie, d.h. des funktional geregelten Nebeneinanders von zwei historischen Entwicklungsstufen der gleichen Sprache. Das Moderne Hocharabisch ist eine konservierte Form des Klassischen Arabisch. Es genießt hohes Ansehen und dient als Schriftsprache, wird aber nicht muttersprachlich erworben, sondern durch Unterricht erlernt. Im mündlichen und informellen Bereich werden die jeweiligen Dialekte verwendet; sie sind die natürliche Muttersprache der Bevölkerung, genießen jedoch keinerlei Ansehen. Da die Hochsprache in ihrer äußeren Form nicht verändert werden darf, aber auch die Dialekte sich nicht zu modernen geschriebenen Volkssprachen entwickeln dürfen, scheint die Diglossiesituation für alle Zeit festgeschrieben. Dadurch ist das Überleben der Dialekte gesichert, obgleich sie sich untereinander stärker annähern. Die Geringschätzung der Dialekte in der arabischen Welt bedingt auch eine Ablehnung der Dialektologie. Deshalb war die arabische Dialektologie immer eine Domäne westlicher Forscher, doch nun deutet sich auch im Westen ihr Niedergang an.
The genetic code, the primary manifestation of life, and, on the other hand, language, the universal endowment of humanity and its momentous leap from genetics to civilization, are the two fundamental stores of information transmissible from the ancestry to the progeny, the molecular succession, which ensures the transfer of hereditary messages from the cells of one generation to the next generation, and the verbal legacy as a necessary prerequisite of cultural tradition. Divergent terminologies direct attention to different pattemings; and finding a logically convincing test, acceptable all around, that can determine whether one such system of terms is superior to its rivals, is often impossible. Yet the slow processes of evolution presumably apply to human societies and their symbolic systems as much as to human bodies, so that when logic cannot decide, survival eventually will.
A correct evaluation of the Slavic evidence for the reconstruction of the Indo- European proto-language requires an extensive knowledge of a considerable body of data. While the segmental features of the Slavic material are generally of corroborative value only, the prosodic evidence is crucial for the reconstruction of PIE. phonology. Due to the complicated nature of Slavic historical accentology, this has come to be realized quite recently.1 As a result, much of the earlier literature has become obsolete to the extent that it is based upon an interpretation which does not take the multifarious accentual developments into account. I shall give one example.
The large majority of the isoglosses which can be established in the South Slavic dialectal area date from the time of the disintegration of Common Slavic and from more recent periods (e.g., Ivi´c 1958: 25ff). The isoglosses have often shifted in the course of the centuries, so that their original position cannot always be determined. In this study I shall concentrate upon the dialectal differences which originated before the 10th century. At that time, Slavic was still a largely uniform language, though it was certainly not completely homogeneous.
In his magnum opus (Syntax and Semantics, Leiden 1978, henceforth: S&S) C.L. Ebeling makes a distinction between temporal gradation (pp 301-308 and 337-339) and temporal limitation (pp 311-315). In the case of temporal gradation “p , q”, the meaning “q” specifies the time during which the referent carries the mean-ing “p”.
A correct interpretation of the genitive plural forms in Slavic and related languages requires a detailed chronological analysis of the material. At every stage of development we have to reckon with both phonetically regular and analogical forms. Analogy operates quite often along the same lines in different periods. Explaining an analogic change amounts to indicating a model, a motivation, and a stage of development for its effectuation. If one of these cannot be indicated, we must look for a phonetic explanation.
Indo-European is a branch of Indo-Uralic which was radically transformed under the influence of a North Caucasian substratum when its speakers moved from the area north of the Caspian Sea to the area north of the Black Sea (cf. Kortlandt 2007b). As a result, Indo-European developed a minimal vowel system combined with a very large consonant inventory including glottalized stops, also grammatical gender and adjectival agreement, an ergative construction which was lost again but has left its traces in the grammatical system, especially in the nominal inflection, a construction with a dative subject which was partly preserved in the historical languages and is reflected in the verbal morphology and syntax, where it gave rise to new categories, and a heterogeneous lexicon. The Indo-Uralic elements of Indo-European include pronouns, case endings, verbal endings, participles and derivational suffixes. In the following I shall give an overview of the grammar of Proto-Indo-European as it may have been spoken around 4000 BC in the eastern Ukraine, shortly after the ancestors of the Anatolians left for the Balkans (for more recent developments I refer to Beekes 1995).
Im Zeitalter der Globalisierung ist die Migration zu einem Ereignis geworden, das immer mehr Menschen betrifft. So machen sich einige auf der Suche nach besseren Lebensbedingungen und aus Gründen der Selbstverwirklichung freiwillig auf den Weg in ein neues Land, während andere durch Krieg oder Armut zum Verlassen ihrer Heimat gezwungen werden. Im Zielland treffen die Migranten notwendigerweise auf andere Menschen, mit denen sie sich austauschen, mit denen sie kommunizieren müssen – möglichst im Medium der Sprache. In den meisten Fällen ist die Sprache des Ziellandes jedoch eine andere als die des Herkunftslandes, so dass eine längerfristige Migration häufig, allerdings in ganz unterschiedlichem Ausmaße, zur Mehrsprachigkeit der Migranten führt.
Friedrich Schlegel's lasting contribution to linguistics is usually seen in the impact that his book "Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier" from 1808 left on comparative linguistics and on the study of Sanskrit. Schlegel was one of the first European scholars to have studied Sanskrit extensively and he made a number of translations of Sanskrit literature into German which make up one third of "Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier". Schlegel's book is widely regarded as a founding document both of comparative linguistics and of indology, a fact which is quite remarkable in light of the development of Schlegel's thought after this text. His interest in Indian studies ceased more or less directly with the publication of this work, while his thoughts on language became more and more suffused by transcendental philosophy.
"Den Frauen", schreibt Otto Weininger 1903 in Geschlecht und Charakter, "ist zwar die Gabe der Sprache, aber nicht so die der Rede verliehen; eine Frau konversiert (kokettiert), oder schnattert, aber sie redet nicht." Diese Ab- und Ausgrenzung 'weiblicher' Redeformen von der ernsthaften 'männlichen' Rede provoziert die Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Rhetorik und Geschlecht dem sich ein an der Universität Münster arbeitendes Forschungsprojekt unter der Überschrift "Weibliche Rede - Rhetorik der Weiblichkeit" widmet.
Im Juni 2001, wenige Wochen vor der Tagung, die dieser Band dokumentiert, traten im deutschen Fernsehen zwei Frauen auf, deren Zusammentreffen bereits Wochen zuvor von den Medien intensiv vorbereitet und kommentiert worden war. Auf ein »TV-Duell« der besonderen Art hatte man die ZuschauerInnen eingestimmt, die ihr Interesse denn auch durch hohe Einschaltquoten bekundeten. Was machte die Begegnung von Alice Schwarzer und Verona Feldbusch in einer Talkshow zu einem solchen Medienereignis? Was stand in diesem Duell auf dem Spiel, in dem es offensichtlich nicht um die Entscheidung für oder gegen eine Regierung ging wie etwa in dem ebenfalls traditionell als Duell inszenierten amerikanischen Präsidentschaftswahlkampf oder in den nach diesem Vorbild auch in Deutschland erstmals veranstalteten TV-Duellen zwischen Gerhard Schröder und Edmund Stoiber vor der Bundestagswahl 2002?
The argument that I tried to elaborate on in this paper is that the conceptual problem behind the traditional competence/performance distinction does not go away, even if we abandon its original Chomskyan formulation. It returns as the question about the relation between the model of the grammar and the results of empirical investigations – the question of empirical verification The theoretical concept of markedness is argued to be an ideal correlate of gradience. Optimality Theory, being based on markedness, is a promising framework for the task of bridging the gap between model and empirical world. However, this task not only requires a model of grammar, but also a theory of the methods that are chosen in empirical investigations and how their results are interpreted, and a theory of how to derive predictions for these particular empirical investigations from the model. Stochastic Optimality Theory is one possible formulation of a proposal that derives empirical predictions from an OT model. However, I hope to have shown that it is not enough to take frequency distributions and relative acceptabilities at face value, and simply construe some Stochastic OT model that fits the facts. These facts first of all need to be interpreted, and those factors that the grammar has to account for must be sorted out from those about which grammar should have nothing to say. This task, to my mind, is more complicated than the picture that a simplistic application of (not only) Stochastic OT might draw.
The aim of this paper is the exploration of an optimality theoretic architecture for syntax that is guided by the concept of "correspondence": syntax is understood as the mechanism of "translating" underlying representations into a surface form. In minimalism, this surface form is called "Phonological Form" (PF). Both semantic and abstract syntactic information are reflected by the surface form. The empirical domain where this architecture is tested are minimal link effects, especially in the case of "wh"-movement. The OT constraints require the surface form to reflect the underlying semantic and syntactic representations as maximally as possible. The means by which underlying relations and properties are encoded are precedence, adjacency, surface morphology and prosodic structure. Information that is not encoded in one of these ways remains unexpressed, and gets lost unless it is recoverable via the context. Different kinds of information are often expressed by the same means. The resulting conflicts are resolved by the relative ranking of the relevant correspondence constraints.
This paper argues for a particular architecture of OT syntax. This architecture hasthree core features: i) it is bidirectional, the usual production-oriented optimisation (called ‘first optimisation’ here) is accompanied by a second step that checks the recoverability of an underlying form; ii) this underlying form already contains a full-fledged syntactic specification; iii) especially the procedure checking for recoverability makes crucial use of semantic and pragmatic factors. The first section motivates the basic architecture. The second section shows with two examples, how contextual factors are integrated. The third section examines its implications for learning theory, and the fourth section concludes with a broader discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed model.
Weak function word shift
(2004)
The fact that object shift only affects weak pronouns in mainland Scandinavian is seen as an instance of a more general observation that can be made in all Germanic languages: weak function words tend to avoid the edges of larger prosodic domains. This generalisation has been formulated within Optimality Theory in terms of alignment constraints on prosodic structure by Selkirk (1996) in explaining thedistribution of prosodically strong and weak forms of English functionwords, especially modal verbs, prepositions and pronouns. But a purely phonological account fails to integrate the syntactic licensing conditions for object shift in an appropriate way. The standard semantico-syntactic accounts of object shift, onthe other hand, fail to explain why it is only weak pronouns that undergo object shift. This paper develops an Optimality theoretic model of the syntax-phonology interface which is based on the interaction of syntactic and prosodic factors. The account can successfully be applied to further related phenomena in English and German.
This paper is part of a research project on OT Syntax and the typology of the free relative (FR) construction. It concentrates on the details of an OT analysis and some of its consequences for OT syntax. I will not present a general discussion of the phenomenon and the many controversial issues it is famous for in generative syntax.
Sprachwahl und Sprachwahrnehmung sind im Deutschen unabdingbar geprägt durch das Wissen von einer Standardsprache. Dieses Wissen basiert für die meisten Sprecher auf der Erfahrung, dass in der Schule manche sprachliche Formen als korrekt, andere als falsch bewertet werden, außerdem auf der Tatsache, dass es Fixierungen der Regeln des Standards in Lexika und Grammatiken gibt. Wissen und Anerkennung dieses Standards sind unabhängig davon, dass keine dieser Kodifikationen unumstritten ist, dass viele Sprecher die Regeln nicht genau kennen und dass als Vorbilder anerkannte Personen (Nachrichtensprecher, Journalisten bestimmter Zeitschriften, Lehrer, Literaten u.a.) keineswegs einheitliche Regeln verfolgen. Der Standard ist fest assoziiert mit der Erfahrung einer legitimen Regelhaftigkeit, also mit Ordnung. Verwendung von Nonstandard wird mit Bezug auf diese Ordnung und von ihr unterschieden wahrgenommen. Diese relationale Sicht der Dinge ist sowohl subjektiv als auch intersubjektiv.
The present paper is devoted to the old and always vexing problem of the linguistical ethnogenesis of the Slavs. The theme of the fate of the Indo-Europeans ancestors of the Slavic people is by its very nature broad and complex, too broad actually for a short essay. That is the reason why we have resigned ourselves to a detailed regular treatment, while presenting only some of the more interesting results and observations based mostly on new etymological studies of words and proper names. The major purpose is to combine linguistic and ethnic history and to proceed to its (fragmentary) reconstruction. Accordingly, our purpose is as simple as it can be for such a wide scope topic: to reconstruct the form, meaning and origin of the Old Slavic lexicon and to extract, if possible, more information about the history of the Slavic people from these linguistic data. The work of reconstructing the Common Slavic lexicon is being carried out in Moscow and Cracow, as far as the major new etymological dictionaries are concerned. A considerably larger number of scholars are concerned with these problems in Russia than in other countries. A reliable reconstruction of words and meanings is the key to any reconstruction of the culture. Why did the Slavs replace the IE name of the 'harrow' by a new word? How did the Ancient Slavs get a term for the process of 'paying'? What are we to think about the case of 'the Slavs and the sea'? How did a word for 'ship' appear among the Slavs? We now know how to answer these and many other questions (we shall revert later to the case of the sea), but the motivation of many other words remains as obscure as before. Others have fallen into oblivion and survive at best on the onomastic level - hence, our keen interest for onomastics and such new works as the Dictionary of Ukrainian waternames [2] that expand our knowledge of the Old Slavic common lexicon and provide new insights into onomastics proper, e.g. the Slavic toponymic 'superdialect,' the existence of genuine Slavic waternames (i.e. those without appellative stage, e.g. *morica and its continuations in different areas of Slavic hydronymy). It is not possible to determine the earliest area the Slavs occupied or, at least, their original homeland without studying etymology and onomastics. How can this question be solved? There are straightforward ways to do it (e.g. by marking off an area with many or only purely Slavic placenames and waternames), but there must also be subtler, more accurate ways. What happened to the lexicon and the onomastics of an ancient people at the time of migration? Did it name only what it saw and knew itself? Our studies show that "a people's vocabulary transcends its actual experience" [3, p. XLVII] ; thus, it preserves not only its own fossilized experience, but a foreign "hearsay" experience as well. The Slavic written tradition begins at a relatively late date - from the IXth century. But any Slavic word or name, although unwritten, can be a record, a memento reflected at some time in another language. Thus, the personal name of a king of the Antae - rex Boz. (in Jordanes [Vlth century] usually interpreted as Bozi 'God's), reflects an early Slavic vozi or vozi, Russian dial. voz (a calque of rex = voh), learned vozd?'chief, leader', already palatalized in the IVth century (the time of the described events and of the person named) - practically an up-to-date form!
The boundaries between Semantics and Pragmatics still deserve to be investigated, since they remain unclear for many linguists, and since the word "pragmatics" has quite often been used among Brazilian linguists in an unscientific, rhetorical way, to enhance the importance of some approaches to meaning and interpretation. This paper claims that a theoretically sound boundary can be drawn between semantical and pragmatical approaches if we look at the way they deliver interpretations. Semantic interpretations are typically the result of some kind of calculus, whereas pragmatic interpretations are typically the result of some working out where no calculus intervenes, rather a highly specific solution is sought in order to integrate some unexpected fact into a coherent story. Thus defined, Semantics and Pragmatics can be referred to as deduction and abduction, respectively. In the light of the distinction just described, I revisit some of the phenomena that were pointed out in the last decades as best examples of the pragmatic functioning of natural language. I argue that presupposition, deixis and speech acts, highly predictable from lexicon and grammar, are semantical in nature; on dle contrary, implicature, since it depends on abductive thinking and it is not predictable from linguistic form, is described as a pragmatic phenomenon par excellence.
Nominalreferenz, Zeitkonstitution, Aspekt, Aktionsart : eine semantische Erklärung ihrer Interaktion
(1989)
In der vorliegenden Arbeit berichte ich über den Erklärungsansatz, den ich im Rahmen einer modelltheoretischen Semantik zur Beschreibung dieses Phänomens entwickelt habe. Ich konzentriere mich hierbei auf die zugrundeliegende Motivation und die intuitive Charakterisierung dieser Theorie. Leser, die an den Einzelheiten der Durchführung und an weiteren Anwendungsmöglichkeiten der Theorie interessiert sind, seien auf Krifka (1987, 1989) verwiesen: ein forschungshistorischer Abriß zu alternativen Theorien findet sich in Krifka (1986).
It is by now a weIl-known topic in semantics that there are striking similarities between the meanings of nominal and verbal expressions, insofar as the mass:count distinction in the nominal domain is reflected in the atelic:telic distinction in the verbal domain (cf. Leisi 1953, Taylor 1977, Bach 1986, to cite just a few authors). However, these supposed similarities have not be made explicit in formal representations.
Es ist aus mindestens zwei Gründen interessant, sich mit Phänomenen der Fokussierung und Topikalisierung zu beschäftigen: zum einen um der Fokussierung und Topikalisierung selbst willen, zum anderen aber auch, um aus den Beobachtungen hierzu Erkenntnisse für andere Bereiche der Grammatik zu gewinnen. In diesem Aufsatz geht es mir vor allem um dieses zweite Ziel.
Unter “Kasussynkretismus” versteht man den Wegfall von morphologischen Unterscheidungen im Kasussystem einer Sprache. Hier will ich über den Synkretismus sprechen, der im Deutschen im Femininum stattgefunden hat. Im Gegensatz zum Maskulinum, aber ebenso wie im Neutrum, unterscheidet das Deutsche systematisch nicht zwischen der Nominativform und der Akkusativform.
Eine Einführung in eine Reihe von linguistischen Phänomenen von Phonetik bis Pragmatik, einige theoretische Ansätze zur Beschreibung/für diese Phänomene, mit einem Blick auf Phänomene und Ansätze, die für kognitive Linguisten und Neurologen interessant sind. Der Begriff "Schnittstelle" ist in der Linguistik ein technischer Terminus, der beschreibt, wie verschiedene Typen von Phänomenen miteinander in einer Beziehung stehen, aber der Terminus soll auch beschreiben, wie linguistische und außerlinguistische Phänomene ineinandergreifen.
In this paper we provide an account of the historical development of Polish and Russian sibilants. The arguments provided here are of theoretical interest because they show that (i) certain allophonic rules are driven by the need to keep contrasts perceptually distinct, (ii) (unconditioned) sound changes result from needs of perceptual distinctiveness, and (iii) perceptual distinctiveness can be extended to a dass of consonants, i.e. the sibilants. The analysis is cast within Dispersion Theory by providing phonetic and typological data supporting the perceptual distinctiveness claims we make.
In this article I reanalyze sibilant inventories of Slavic languages by taking into consideration acoustic, perceptive and phonological evidence. The main goal of this study is to show that perception is an important factor which determines the shape of sibilant inventories. The improvement of perceptual contrast essentially contributes to creating new sibilant inventories by (i) changing the place of articulation of the existing phonemes (ii) merging sibilants that are perceptually very close or (iii) deleting them. It has also been shown that the symbol š traditionally used in Slavic linguistics corresponds to two sounds in the IPA systemsystem: it stands for a postalveolar sibilant (ʃ) in some Slavic languages, as e.g. Bulgarian, Czech, Slovak, some Serbian and Croatian dialects, whereas in others like Polish, Russian, Lower Sorbian it functions as a retroflex (s). This discrepancy is motivated by the fact that ʃ is not optimal in terms of maintaining sufficient perceptual contrast to other sibilants such as s and ç. If ʃ occurs together with s and sj there is a considerable perceptual distance between them but if it occurs with ç in an inventory, the distance is much smaller. Therefore, the strategy most languages follow is the change from a postalveolar to a retroflex sibilant.
In this paper it is argued that several typologically unrelated languages share the tendency to avoid voiced sibilant affricates. This tendency is explained by appealing to the phonetic properties of the sounds, and in particular to their aerodynamic characteristics. On the basis of experimental evidence it is shown that conflicting air pressure requirements for maintaining voicing and frication are responsible for the avoidance of voiced affricates. In particular, the air pressure released from the stop phase of the affricate is too high to maintain voicing which in consequence leads to a devoicing of the frication part.
This paper evaluates trills [r] and their palatalized counterparts [rj] from the point of view of markedness. It is argued that [r]s are unmarked sounds in comparison to [rj]s which follows from the examination of the following parameters: (a) frequency of occurrence, (b) articulatory and aerodynamic characteristics, (c) perceptual features, (d) emergence in the process of language acquisition, (e) stability from a diachronic point of view, (f) phonotactic distribution, and (g) implications. Several markedness aspects of [r]s and [rj] are analyzed on the basis of Slavic languages which offer excellent material for the evaluation of trills. Their phonetic characteristics incorporated into phonetically grounded constraints are employed for a phonological OT-analysis of r-palatalization in two selected languages: Polish and Czech.
In the German-speaking regions of Switzerland, dialect is spoken by all social groups in most communicative situations, Standard German being used only when prescribed. Swiss dialects rarely appeared in written form before the 1980s, apart from the genre of dialect literature. Due to the growing acceptance of informal writing styles in many European languages, dialect is increasingly employed for written personal communication, in particular in computer-mediated communication (CMC). In Swiss Internet Relay Chat (IRC) rooms, varieties of German are used side by side as all chatters have a command of both standard and dialectal varieties. Depending on the channel, the proportion of dialectal contributions can be as high as 90 percent. The choice of a particular variety depends on both individual preference and on the predominant variety used within a specific thread. In this paper I take a quantitative approach to language variation in IRC and demonstrate how such an approach can help embed qualitative research on code-switching in CMC.
Bern, bis ins 18. Jh. Zentrum der regionalen Großmacht, heute mit nicht ganz 130.000 Einwohnern die viertgrößte Stadt der Schweiz und seit 1848 die Hauptstadt der Schweiz. Auf Grund dieser Ausgangslage würde man erwarten, dass Bern wie andere Städte eine sprachliche Strahlungskraft in die unmittelbare Umgebung aufweist. Entgegen der allgemeinen Vorstellung zeigt sich jedoch in den Karten des Sprachatlas der deutschen Schweiz (SDS) kaum eine der für die Umgebung von Städten typischen sprachgeographische Verbreitungsbilder. So finden sich viele Isoglossen in unmittelbarer Nähe der Stadt Bern: trichter-, keil- oder gar kreisförmige Bündelungen von Isoglossen, die auf eine sprachliche Wirkung der Stadt hindeuten würde, lassen sich kaum nachweisen.
Quantitative approaches to linguistic variation in IRC : implications for qualitative research
(2008)
Qualitative analysis of code choice, code switching, and language style in Internet Relay Chat (IRC) can shed light on functional-pragmatic aspects of the use of different linguistic varieties. However, in a qualitative analysis, the status of varieties within a channel or for a single chatter can only be guessed at. Moreover, qualitative research on linguistic variation in IRC often fails to generalize its findings due to a restricted database or a restricted view of a database. This article introduces an approach that allows for embedding of qualitative research within a quantitative research design. The quantitative method presented here enables general statements to be made about the use of varieties or the usage of certain chatters in a chat channel. The approach is exemplified with data from Swiss IRC channels, in which Swiss German dialects and standard German are used side by side. A large corpus is analyzed for static and dynamic aspects of dialect share. It is argued that this quantitative approach can provide a background for qualitative analysis and facilitate the selection process of relevant data required for qualitative analysis.
In der deutschsprachigen Schweiz stehen sich gesprochene Mundarten und geschriebene Standardsprache gegenüber. Außer in formellen Situationen wird Mundart gesprochen, und bis vor kurzem wurde nur selten Mundart geschrieben, sondern die hochdeutsche Schriftsprache. Die Chat-Kommunikation zeigt einerseits durch die nicht-zeitversetzte quasi-direkte Kommunikation wesentliche Züge von Mündlichkeit, die zusammen mit der Informalität im Chat den Mundartgebrauch fördert. Andererseits ist das Medium immer noch die Schrift, welche die Domäne der Standardsprache darstellt. Mundart und Standardsprache stehen sich also in Chaträumen in direkter Konkurrenz gegenüber. Der folgende Beitrag analysiert quantitativ und qualitativ das Neben- und Miteinander der beiden Varietäten in Schweizer Chaträumen und untersucht das Vorkommen und die Bedingungen von Code-Alternation und Code-Switches.
Die Sprachen der Städte
(2008)
Die frühen Sprachkarten, für die Georg Wenker Ende des 19. Jh. in über 40.000 Schulorten des deutschen Reiches schriftliche Übersetzungen in die Mundart gesammelt hatte, dokumentieren die Sonderstellung vieler Städte im sprachlichen Raum. Zum Beispiel zeigen Berlin und die nähere Umgebung sprachliche Formen, die sonst erst weiter südlich oder in der Schriftsprache gelten.
Wenn Deutsch geschrieben wird, wird im Allgemeinen die standardsprachliche Form gewählt. King: nei nei nöd eso Häx ..... verschtasch mi wieder falsch :-( *sniff (bluewin.ch, #flirt60plus, 1.10.2004) Elle: HeinEr: öhm jez versteh ich gar nix mehr (Antenne Bayern #flirten40, 16.9.2005) Big: Mu auch niemand verstehen (IRCnet, #mannheim,9.2.2003) Tezo: verstehe (IRCnet, #linux, 7.1.2003) In Büchern, Zeitungen, Zeitschriften und auch im Internet ist die deutsche Standardsprache Standard. Sie ist die für die Schriftlichkeit normierte Varietät, die überregional verständlich sein soll. Diese Standardsprache ist zwar überall ähnlich, aber nicht gleich. So zeigen sich Besonderheiten im Lexikon, in der Wortbildung und vereinzelt in der Grammatik, welche in einer Region üblich sind, in der anderen jedoch nicht, oder die da eine andere Bedeutung tragen. Diese Besonderheiten sind aber nicht an einem Ort einfach falsch, sondern sie stellen regionale Ausprägungen des Standards dar (vgl. dazu das Variantenwörterbuch; Ammon u. a. 2004). ...
Die 15. Arbeitstagung zur alemannischen Dialektologie, zu der die Vorarlberger Landesregierung vom 18.–21.Septemer auf Schloss Hofen im vorarlbergischen Lochau bei Bregenz eingeladen hatte, hat wiederum einen Einblick in unterschiedliche aktuelle Forschungsaspekte der Dialektologie im Südwesten des deutschen Sprachgebiets geboten. Im dicht gedrängten Programm mit einer öffentlichen Präsentation des VALTS und des Tonarchivs der Mundarten Vorarlbergs von EUGEN GABRIEL und ARNO RUOF folgen sich an drei Tagen insgesamt 18 Vorträge, 10 Kurzvorträge, 14 Arbeitsberichte und ein dialektologischer Ausflug in den Bregenzer Wald. Im Folgenden werden die Vorträge in der präsentierten Reihenfolge referiert, während die zahlreichen Arbeitsberichte von Sprachatlanten, Wörter- und Namenbüchern sowie Tondokumentationsstellen nur pauschal erwähnt werden, welche einerseits einen Blick in die laufenden großen und größeren Projekte der alemannischen Dialektologie öffnen und andererseits die Finanzknappheit als übergreifendes Element der Dialektologie offenbaren.
Der folgende Text betrachtet die Varietätenverwendung von Schweizer ChatterInnen und rückt dabei altersspezifische Fragen in den Vordergrund. Im Gegensatz zu vielen Versuchen, an die Sprache Jugendlicher heranzugehen, kommt hier ein quantitativer Ansatz zur Anwendung, der die Sprache der jugendlichen ChatterInnen mit der Sprache von ChatterInnen anderer Generationen vergleicht.