LINGUIST List 15.1454

Fri May 7 2004

Diss: Sociolinguistics: Lameli: 'Standard und...'

Editor for this issue: Tomoko Okuno <tomokolinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. lameli, Standard und Substandard. Regionalismen im diachronen...

Marburg University: Marburg University
Program: Standard und Substandard
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2003

Author: Alfred Lameli

Dissertation Title:
Standard und Substandard. Regionalismen im diachronen L�ngsschnitt

Dissertation URL: http://www.lameli.net/lfdProjekte.htm

Linguistic Field: Phonetics, Phonology & Sociolinguistics

Subject Language: German, Standard (code: GER)

Dissertation Director 1: J�rgen Erich Schmidt
Dissertation Director 2: Joachim Herrgen


Dissertation Abstract:

This book is dedicated to the diachronic exploration of intended
standard language in German. The real-time study analyses linguistic
changes over 40 years in the course of the twentieth century. It is
based on covertly recorded speech data from German municipal
councillors acting in an authentic context, and sets out to examine
regional influences on linguistic phenomena. Geographically, the study
is focussed on the Rhine-Franconian city of Mainz, with the Low German
city of Neum�nster providing a secondary reference point.

A complex of different methods is employed to show that, viewed
diachronically, the speech of councillors from Mainz is closely
approaching that of German television newsreaders in phonological and
phonetic terms. In contrast, speakers from Neum�nster demonstrate no
such diachronic change, remaining at a level equivalent to that found
in Mainz in the 1990s. Further analyses reveal correlations between
linguistic and social and attitudinal data. In addition, the study
explores the implicational relations of typical speech patterns and
how the latter can be ordered into a hierarchy of decline in dialect
features. Drawing on a survey of linguistically naive judgments of
typical speech samples, a perceptual boundary to standard language is
proposed. This enables not just an explanation of the linguistic and
metalinguistic results, but also a dating of the accelerated
convergence on standard language and, further, a prediction as to
future developments.