LINGUIST List 14.3429

Thu Dec 11 2003

Diss: Socioling/Phonology: Lenz: 'Struktur...'

Editor for this issue: Takako Matsui <takolinguistlist.org>

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  • lenza, Struktur und Dynamik des Substandards

    Message 1: Struktur und Dynamik des Substandards

     Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 09:30:40 -0500 (EST)
    From: lenza <lenzastaff.uni-marburg.de>
    Subject: Struktur und Dynamik des Substandards


    Institution: University of Marburg (Germany) Program: Faculty of Germanistics and Art studies Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2002

    Author: Alexandra N. Lenz

    Dissertation Title: Struktur und Dynamik des Substandards. Eine Studie zum Westmitteldeutschen (Wittlich/Eifel).

    Linguistic Field: Sociolinguistics, Phonology, Phonetics

    Subject Language: German, Standard (code: GER)

    Dissertation Director 1: Klaus J. Mattheier Dissertation Director 2: Joachim Herrgen Dissertation Director 3: J�rgen E. Schmidt

    Dissertation Abstract:

    The study is focused on an object which has only in recent decades come within the ambit of Germanistic linguistic variation research: the nonstandard, i.e., the entire spoken-language spectrum outside of the normative standard. The small town region of Wittlich in the Eifel mountains (southwestern Germany) provides the basis for the analysis, a multivariate investigation,which takes into account the areal, social, and situational/pragmatic dimensions of variation. Both "objective" linguistic data and "subjective" attitudinal data were collected, and both sets of data were subjected to qualitative and quantitative/statistical analyses. The result is a representative overview, which makes it possible to formulate substantiated statements on the current linguistic situation in - beyond the immediate region - the West Middle German area and on the processes of change observable there. Crystallizing out as the central finding of the study is a structure of the nonstandard described in terms of a language-dynamically recast concept of variety. Whilst up until now discussion of linguistic variation has been caught on the horns of the dilemma between a discrete variety model and one of variative continuum, this study succeeds in reconciling the approaches for the first time. Against the background of an empirically validated continuum, distinct varieties emerge in both speaker awareness and in objective linguistic behavior and system-level data. This hypothesis is supported in no little measure by an analysis of hyperforms (hypercorrections and hyperdialectalisms), which are interepreted as superficial reflections of underlying variety boundaries.

    [Published as: LENZ, Alexandra N. (2003): Struktur und Dynamik des Substandards. Eine Studie zum Westmitteldeutschen (Wittlich /Eifel). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag (Zeitschrift f�r Dialektologie und Linguistik des Deutschen. Beihefte. 125).]