'Knowledge telling‘ in ecological fiction for children - an interdisciplinarily informed model for linguistic analysis

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Nina Janich
• Subject Area: Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 525993724

The project is a continuation of the DFG project "Linguistic Strategies of Knowledge and Science Communication in Text Types and Media Formats for Children". While in the former project non-fiction texts, i.e. primarily explicative texts such as non-fiction books/magazines, TV knowledge magazines and children's university lectures, were analysed for their knowledge transfer strategies, the focus is now on fiction and thus primarily narrative children's literature. Using the example of ecological topics of environmental, nature and climate protection, the question is how knowledge is 'told' and, if necessary, explained in these stories. The object of investigation are 20 fictional stories with factual (ecology-related) content, published 2019-2022 for children aged 6-12. The initial hypothesis of the project is that in ecological fiction for children there is a particular tension between narration (content offered as a story) and explication (explanation of ecological knowledge). However, this is not dichotomous but polar and allows the integration of both types of text patterns as well as the embedding of further patterns (e.g. description, instruction, argumentation). Based on the results of the previous project and going beyond them, the aim of the project is to develop an integrative linguistic analysis model on a categorically different genre group. Whereas the previous project focused on a broad analysis based on media comparisons, the proposed project is dedicated to an in-depth text analysis: the focus is on methodological approaches that have not yet or hardly been used, which are to be systematically related to the already proven categories of popularisation research and media linguistics from the previous project. These novel approaches include - for the text pattern ‚explaining‘ - the analysis of explanatory ambition, examined on the basis of the explanatory depth of occurring technical terms and associated frames. For the text pattern ‚narrative‘, the analyses focus on the offer of identity spaces and the development of figures resulting from identity navigation. In addition, a pragma- and text stylistic approach will enable a form- and content-aesthetic text evaluation. A final validation through the selective examination of five current children's non-fiction books on comparable topics will ensure the transferability and sustainability of the new analysis model. In summary, the proposed project thus pursues two goals, namely the interdisciplinarily informed development of methodological standards for the linguistic analysis of knowledge-transmitting children's media and the long overdue inclusion of children's fiction as a research object of linguistic popularisation and knowledge transformation research. The central focus is on the tense relationship between knowledge telling and knowledge explaining, using the example of current ecological topics.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants