1st Edition
Expanding Variationist Sociolinguistic Research in Varieties of German
This collection provides a broad account of variationist sociolinguistic research on varieties of German, with the goals to encourage greater geolinguistic diversity in the field and to expand our understanding of language variation and change.
The book illustrates that incorporating a wider variety of language data in sociolinguistic studies provides a broader, more holistic picture of variation and change. On the one hand, the book examines how variationist methods can contribute to the study of varieties of German, with each chapter following the principles of variationist sociolinguistics. On the other hand, the chapters examine how both intra- and extra-linguistic factors can influence variation and change. The volume also seeks to provide a broader understanding of German variation and change across time and space. The book highlights how the study of varieties of German through a variationist lens can offer new insights into language change more broadly, with applications for further research to other languages.
This volume will be of most interest to scholars in language change, sociolinguistics, dialectology, and historical linguistics.
Contents
List of Contributors
Foreword
Sali A. Tagliamonte
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Variationist sociolinguistics: Theoretical and methodological foundations
James M. Stratton and Karen V. Beaman
SECTION 1: Bridging German dialectology and German variationist sociolinguistics
Chapter 2
The social versus the regional: A multivariate analysis of (morpho-)syntactic variation in Austria’s rural dialects
Philip C. Vergeiner, Lars Bülow, and Stephan Elspaß
Chapter 3
Dialect maintenance in German Alemannic and the role of pro-Alsatian attitudes and orientations
Peter Auer, Martin Pfeiffer, Göz Kaufmann, and Julia Breuninger
Chapter 4
Sociolinguistic variation in a non-native variety of Swiss German: Romansh migrants in the city of Berne
Andrin Büchler
SECTION 2: Diving into social-discursive functions
Chapter 5
Fei schee: The social meaning of intensifier use in Swabian
James M. Stratton and Karen V. Beaman
Chapter 6
Subjunctive and diminutive use as politeness strategies in German in Austria: Comparative evidence from sociolinguistic interviews and conversations among friends
Katharina Korecky-Kröll and Anja Wittibschlager
Chapter 7
A socio-stylistic analysis of variation in support verb constructions in a corpus of spoken German
John D. Sundquist and Colleen Neary-Sundquist
Chapter 8
Sociolinguistic variation in German: The case of the modal particles halt and eben
Oliver Bunk, Antje Sauermann, and Fynn Raphael Dobler
SECTION 3: Merging historical and sociolinguistic perspectives
Chapter 9
Variation in an Austrian winegrower’s nineteenth-century chronicle
Anna D. Havinga and Simon Pickl
Chapter 10
Socio-historical data and the need for representative historical corpora
Katrin Fuchs
AFTERWORD
Chapter 11
Looking forward: German-centered variationist sociolinguistics in the 21st century
Barbara Soukup
Index
Biography
James M. Stratton is an Assistant Professor of German and Linguistics at Pennsylvania State University. He specializes in language variation and change in Germanic languages, both past and present, with a particular emphasis on lexis and discourse-pragmatics.
Karen V. Beaman is a lecturer and post-doctoral fellow and lecturer in sociolinguistics at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Her research interests concern language variation, coherence, and change, with particular focus on how factors of identity, mobility and social networks affect change.
