Variation in German : a critical approach to German sociolinguistics / Stephen Barbour and Patrick Stevenson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barbour, Stephen.

Contributor:

Stevenson, Patrick.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

German language--Variation.

German language.

German language--Social aspects.

Sociolinguistics.

Physical Description:

xiii, 308 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Summary:

An examination of the interrelations between language and society in the German-speaking countries.

Contents:

1.1 What is German and who speaks it? 1

1.1.1 Problems of definition 1

1.1.2 The scope of variation in German 3

1.1.3 Fuzzy and discrete language boundaries 8

1.2 Languages in society 14

1.2.1 Language contact and language change 14

1.2.2 Multilingual speech communities 16

1.3 Approaches to the study of variation in language 18

1.3.1 Dialectology and sociolinguistics 18

1.3.2 Sociolinguistics and sociolinguistics 21

1.4 Outline of following chapters 21

2 The historical background 23

2.1 German as an Indo-European language and as a Germanic language 23

2.1.1 German as an Indo-European language 23

2.1.2 German as a Germanic language 25

2.1.3 Relationships between German and other Germanic languages 29

2.2 The development of a distinct German language 36

2.2.1 The fragmentation of continental West Germanic 38

2.2.2 Factors favouring the unity of German 40

2.3 The rise of standard German 45

2.3.1 The rise of standard written forms 45

2.3.2 The acceptance of a single written standard 47

2.3.3 The rise of a standard spoken variety 49

2.3.4 The emergence of the modern continuum 51

2.4 Currents of change in contemporary German 53

2.4.1 The influence of German on other languages 53

2.4.2 German influenced by other languages 54

2.4.3 The influence of standard German on other varieties 54

3 The German tradition of dialectology 55

3.1 Definitions and the object of study 55

3.2 Interests in dialect study 57

3.2.1 Attitudes to dialect variation 57

3.2.2 Types of interest 58

3.3 Background to the development of German dialectology 59

3.4 Dialect geography: the Marburg School 61

3.5 Explanations in traditional dialectology 65

3.5.1 Interpreting data 65

3.5.2 The extralinguistic approach 67

3.5.3 The linguistic approach 72

3.5.4 Explanations in dialectology and sociolinguistics 74

3.6 The contemporary relevance of the findings of traditional dialectology 75

3.7 The dialect boundaries within German 77

3.8 The north-central-south division based on the High German sound shift 78

3.8.1 Low German and Dutch dialects 79

3.8.2 Upper German dialects 80

3.8.3 Middle German dialects 80

3.8.4 The importance of the north-central-south division 81

3.9 Other isoglosses dividing northern from southern dialects 82

3.9.1 Older north-south divisions 82

3.9.2 Newer north-south divisions 83

3.10 Major divisions within the three principal dialect areas 85

3.10.1 Divisions within Low German-Dutch 85

3.10.2 Divisions within Middle German 87

3.10.3 Divisions within Upper German 88

3.11 Other important isoglosses 90

3.11.1 Diphthongization 90

3.11.2 Unrounding 91

3.11.3 Lenition 92

3.12 Dialect vocabulary 96

3.12.1 Categories of lexical variation 96

3.12.2 Regional lexical variation in both dialect and standard 97

3.12.3 Dialect variation and stylistic variation in standard German 98

4 Language and society: urban speech, urbanization and 'new dialectology' 100

4.1 From rural to urban dialectology 100

4.2 Social change: 'modernization' and its implications for linguistic study 101

4.2.1 Changing theoretical perspectives 101

4.2.2 Changes in methodology 103

4.3 New approaches to dialectology 104

4.3.1 Departing from tradition: Nauborn 104

4.3.2 Variation and social groups 106

4.3.3 Variation and individuals 108

4.4 Berlin: portrait of a divided city 112

4.4.1 The social meaning of Berlinisch 112

4.4.2 Vocabulary 113

4.4.3 Phonology 114

4.4.4 Pragmatics: Berliner Schnauze 118

4.4.5 Attitudes to variation 122

4.5 Erp: suburban dialectology 125

4.5.1 The speech community 125

4.5.2 Composing a communication profile 127

4.5.3 Identifying speech varieties 129

4.5.4 Re-assessing variation 132

5 Sociolinguistic variation and the continuum of colloquial speech 133

5.1 Differing views of variation in German 133

5.1.1 Standard German 133

5.1.2 Traditional German dialects 136

5.1.3 The continuum of colloquial speech 139

5.2 The nature and study of variation in German 141

5.2.1 The relationship between colloquial speech, formal standard German and traditional dialect 141

5.2.2 The relative neglect of colloquial speech 142

5.2.3 The neglect of the continuum 143

5.2.4 The neglect of divisions within the continuum 143

5.2.5 The users of the various types of German 144

5.3 The linguistic characteristics of colloquial German 146

5.3.1 A social rather than a geographical view of variation in German 146

5.3.2 The standard of comparison 147

5.4 Phonetic and phonological variation within German 148

5.4.1 Categories of phonetic and phonological variation 148

5.4.2 Phonological accent deviations from DH 151

5.4.3 Phonological dialect differences from standard German 155

5.5 Grammatical variation in German 159

5.5.1 Typological differences between varieties of German 159

5.5.2 The nominal systems of varieties of German 160

5.5.3 The verb systems of varieties of German 164

5.6 Lexical variation in German 168

5.6.1 Lexical variation in perspective 169

5.6.2 National varieties of German 169

5.6.3 Formal and informal lexicon 170

5.6.4 Regional variation in lexicon 172

5.7 German in East and West 174

5.7.1 Differing views of the East

West linguistic divide 175

5.7.2 The extent of East

West variation 176

5.7.3 East

West variation in context 179

6 Standard and non-standard German: their role in society 181

6.1 The political and social correlates of variation in German 181

6.2 The social effects of variation in German in the Federal Republic 183

6.2.1 The assumed linguistic disadvantage of the working class 183

6.2.2 Restricted and elaborated codes 184

6.2.3 Suggested linguistic causes of disadvantage 185

6.2.4 Linguistic problems facing all social groups 189

6.3 The social effects of variation in other German-speaking countries 190

7 Language in multilingual societies: the Federal Republic and Switzerland 192

7.2 Multilingualism in the Federal Republic 193

7.3 Gastarbeiterdeutsch 195

7.4 Accounting for uniformity and variation in Gastarbeiterdeutsch 197

7.4.1 The process of acquisition 197

7.4.2 The transfer hypothesis 199

7.4.3 The pidgin hypothesis 200

7.4.4 Foreigner Talk and the universal simplification hypothesis 201

7.5 Linguistic pluralism in Switzerland 204

7.5.1 Maintaining social and linguistic stability 204

7.5.2 Areas of potential conflict 210

7.6 Diglossia and the status of Swiss German 212

7.6.1 The 'classic example' of German-speaking Switzerland 212

7.6.2 Diglossia reconsidered 214

8 Contact and conflict 218

8.1 Approaches to the study of language contact 218

8.2 Analytical apparatus 219

8.2.1 Sociological and psychological factors 219

8.2.2 Sociopolitical factors 221

8.2.3 Economic and demographic factors 222

8.2.4 Sociocultural factors 223

8.3 German in competition with other languages 224

8.3.1 Eastern Belgium 224

8.3.2 Luxembourg 230

8.3.3 Alsace-Lorraine 234

8.3.4 South Tyrol 237

8.4 Language decline and language shift 242

8.4.1 Schleswig 243

8.4.2 South-east Austria 246

8.5 Specific linguistic consequences of contact 250

8.5.1 Lexical transfer 251

8.5.2 Morphological/syntactic transfer 254

8.6 German in contact with English 255

8.6.1 English influence in context 255

8.6.2 Examples of English influence on German 257.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0521353971

0521357047

OCLC:

19671316