Lay Linguists' perspective on German regional varieties: Reconstructing Lay linguistic conceptualizations of German in a perceptual dialectology approach

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Markus Ernst Hundt
• Subject Area: Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
• Term: from 2010 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 183625862

The project aims at conducting basic research concerning lay-linguistic speech perceptions and the investigation of lay-linguistic knowledge. One major desideratum is the elicitation of data on lay-linguistic conceptions of space and "dialect".Goals of the project1. Macro-level cartographic documentation of mental maps2. Micro-level cartographic documentation of mental maps3. Lay-linguistic concepts4. Attitudes towards German dialects5. Salience of single features and feature bundles6. Lay-linguistic knowledge vs. expert knowledgeIn order to meet these goals, the project uses quantitative and qualitative analyses based on lay-linguistic assessments of speech samples. The results are to be aligned with control measures, i.e. the geographical knowledge and the spatial perception of the informants. By comparing ethnographic and cognitive lay-linguistic data with expert knowledge, it is possible to conclude the informants' attitudes and language behavior. The project thus not only aims to fill important research gaps, but also combines theoretical and methodological approaches of empirical social research, perceptual dialectology, sociolinguistics, social and perceptual geography and cognitive sciences.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants