Language(s) in Germany
This project works on the elicitation, description and analysis of speaker attitudes towards German, other languages, language varieties and also language questions in general. Another aim is to analyse laymen’s knowledge about linguistic matters as well as the resulting implications for the public language discourse. Part of this analysis are questions about the standard, non-standard and sub-standard, as well as questions about language norms on various levels. Above all, representative surveys are used for the elicitation of the relevant data, giving the large, available amount of data representative validity for the whole German population. Up to now, two big representative surveys have been conducted in 2008 and 2016, as well as some additional studies. As of now (autumn / winter 2017) another representative survey is being conducted. The scale of the unique data collection on language attitudes allows us – through various statistical analyses – to detect patterns and connections between the opinions and attitudes.
Project management:
Dr. Astrid Adler
Staff:
Dr. Albrecht Plewnia
Maria Ribeiro Silveira M.Sc.
Dr. Karolina Hansen (currently on maternity leave)
Former staff member:
Dr. Andrea Kleene
Research assistants:
Amelie Ewald
