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. This 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, this 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. This 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 into other languages. This volume will be of most interest to scholars in language change, sociolinguistics, dialectology, and historical linguistics.

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 in sociolinguistics at the University of Tubingen, Germany. Her research interests concern language variation, coherence, and change, with particular focus on how factors of identity, mobility, and social networks affect change.

List of contributors Foreword - Sali A. Tagliamonte Acknowledgements 1. Variationist sociolinguistics: theoretical and methodological foundations James M. Stratton and Karen V. Beaman PART I: Bridging German dialectology and variationist sociolinguistics 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 3. Dialect maintenance in German Alemannic and the role of pro-Alsatian attitudes and orientations Peter Auer, Martin Pfeiffer, Göz Kaufmann, and Julia Breuninger 4. Sociolinguistic variation in a non-native variety of Swiss German: Romansh migrants in the city of Berne Andrin Büchler PART II : Diving into social-discursive functions 5. Fei schee: the social meaning of intensifier use in Swabian James M. Stratton and Karen V. Beaman 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 7. A socio-stylistic analysis of variation in support verb constructions in a corpus of spoken German Colleen Neary-Sundquist and John D. Sundquist 8. Sociolinguistic variation in German: the case of the modal particles halt and eben Oliver Bunk, Antje Sauermann, and Fynn Raphael Dobler PART III: Merging historical and sociolinguistic perspectives 9. Variation in an Austrian winegrower's 19th-century chronicle Anna D. Havinga and Simon Pickl 10. Socio-historical data and the need for representative historical corpora Katrin Fuchs Afterword Index