LFU:online

Competence to independently develop, analyze, present and further develop complex methodological and theoretical (perceptual-)dialectological relationships and questions. Ability to write a presentation of the results achieved in the context of a seminar paper in accordance with the scientific standards and the tradition of German linguistic studies.

Perceptual dialectology as a young sub-discipline of areal linguistics has established itself in German-speaking countries since the 10s of the 21st century. For the first time, laypersons and their knowledge, perceptions and attitudes to dialect(s) are the focus of linguistic interest. In this context, dialect is no longer regarded primarily as a linguistic phenomenon (as is the case in dialectography). Nor are areal and social components the focus of interest (as is the case in dialect geography and dialect sociology respectively). Perceptional dialectology is about dialect as a cognitive phenomenon. Questions like the following are of relevance:

• What ideas do lay people have about the spatial extension of individual dialects?
• What do they consider to be part of their own dialect, what not?
• Which different dialect features do laypersons perceive? What do they associate with it?
• Which attitudes do they have towards individual dialects?
  
  

These questions are of interest because perception, categorization and evaluation ultimately control our actions. This means, for example, that positive attitudes towards a dialect result in positive attitudes towards the speakers of this dialect due to the perceived characteristics. Another example is that phenomena of language change are, up to a certain degree, also linked with the subjective dialect boundaries of a language community.

These and similar phenomena will be explored in the seminar. We will create corpora ourselves, get to know (new) survey and evaluation methods and compare the results with those of the still young discipline.

input from the lecturer, preparatory reading and discussions, own research guided by the lecturer, presentations

preparatory reading, active participation in class, presentation, term paper

Anders, Christina Ada/Hundt, Markus/Lasch, Alexander (Hrsg.) (2010): Perceptual dialectology. Neue Wege der Dialektologie (= Linguistik – Impulse & Tendenzen 38). Berlin/New York: de Gruyter.

Hundt, Markus (2018): Wahrnehmungsdialektologie – quo vadis? In: Lenz, Alexandra N./Plewnia, Albrecht (Hrsg.): Variation – Normen – Identitäten (= Germanistische Sprachwissenschaft um 2020, 4). Berlin, Boston: de Gruyter, 99 – 126.

Purschke, Christoph (2011): Regionalsprache und Hörerurteil. Grundzüge einer perzeptiven Variationslinguistik (= ZDL Beihefte 149). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.

Sauer, Verena/Hoffmeister, Toke (2021): Wahrnehmungsdialektologie. Eine Einführung. (= Germanistische Arbeitshefte 50). Berlin: de Gruyter. [The book will be published by the end of October 2021)

Cf. Curriculum