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Advances in Variationist Linguistics on German—Focus on Lexis and Pragmatics

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A Special Issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 December 2025) | Viewed by 13458

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Prof. Dr. Alexandra Lenz

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1. Department of German Studies, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria
2. Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1010 Vienna, Austria
Interests: language variation (focus on syntax, lexis, and phonology); language change; language history; research into language attitudes

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Variationist linguistics in German can now look back on 50 years of intensive research. The “Erp project” at the beginning of the 1970s under the direction of Werner Besch and Klaus J. Mattheier, in the course of which 356 working local males of the Erp community were surveyed and analyzed with regard to their language variation and attitudinal patterns, marked a striking beginning. For the first time, approaches from the Labovian school were used in this project and were not only transferred to German-speaking areas but also further developed (cf. Mattheier 1980 in particular). In the last 50 years, a wealth of empirically supported and sociolinguistically oriented studies on language variation in German have emerged (cf. e.g., cf. Lenz 2003, Lameli 2004, Kehrein 2012, Lanwer 2015, Fanta-Jende 2021), which—according to Barbour&Stevenson (1998: 2)—“is probably the most varied language in Europe”.

As can also be observed with regard to other languages, variationist linguistics on German is characterized by research on specific system levels, of which phonetics/phonology has been the most popular from the outset. Only in the last 20 years have studies on morphology and syntax followed with some delay (cf. Kortmann 2010, Lenz 2019). Interestingly, however, lexis and pragmatics are neglected system levels, even though they in particular offer significant situational-pragmatic and socio-semiotic possibilities for communicative organization (in the full sense). “Dialectologists and philologists have always been deeply interested in variation in the lexicon, […]. It is slightly anomalous, therefore, that sociolinguists, in the Labovian tradition at least, should have tended hitherto to keep lexical [as well as pragmatic!; ANL] variation at arm’s length”. (Lodge 2004: 228) Especially with regard to intra-individual variation, studies on lexis and pragmatics form an astonishing desideratum (cf. Schiegg & Freund 2019).

As far as German is concerned, lexical and pragmatic variation is slowly but increasingly coming into the focus of research. This Special Issue will explore lexical and pragmatic variation within variationist linguistics on German and at the same time will uncover ungoing dynamics of lexical and pragmatic variation. It aims at expanding our empirical and theoretical understanding of lexical and pragmatic variation in German. Contributions should consider at least some of the following questions:

What does lexical and pragmatic variation look like in German? Which situational-pragmatic and socio-semiotic functions are associated with lexical and pragmatic variation? Which linguistic and extra-linguistic factors explain lexical and pragmatic variation? What is the relationship between intra-individual and inter-individual variation across speakers?
To what extent is lexical and/or pragmatic variation in German different or parallel from variation on other linguistic levels (e.g., phonology)? Do lexis and pragmatics and other system levels (phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax) exhibit similar structures regarding patterns of variation in German? Which features (from which levels) correlate with each other?
What hypotheses—on the basis of lexical and pragmatic variation in German—can be postulated as a result of the synchronic variation ‘in vivo’ with regard to processes of language change in the future? Which (types of) phenomena show what degree of stability or sensitivity to change?
How do speakers of German perceive lexical and/or pragmatic variants, and how do they cognitively structure and evaluate them? Which attitudinal-affective values are ascribed to lexical and/or pragmatic features? What about the salience of lexical and/or pragmatic variants in comparison to variants of other linguistic levels? How do laypersons’ concepts of lexical and/or pragmatic variants correspond to linguistic findings?
What can variationist linguistics learn from research on lexical and pragmatic variation in German? Which ‘traditional’ concepts of variationist linguistics would need to be adapted or expanded in the context of lexical and pragmatic research?

Contributions with a focus on lexical and/or pragmatic variation in German (in any country or region and from any theoretical or empirical approach) are welcome.

Tentative Completion Schedule

Abstract submission deadline: 15 March 2025
Notification of abstract acceptance: 15 June 2025
Full manuscript deadline: 15 December 2025

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200-400 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor (alexandra.lenz@univie.ac.at) or to Languages editorial office (languages@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

References

Barbour, S., & P. Stevenson. 1990. Variation in German. A critical approach to German sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press.

Cheshire, J. 2005. Syntactic variation and beyond: Gender and social class variation in the use of discourse-new markers. Journal of Sociolinguistics 9(4), 479– 508.

Fanta-Jende, J. 2021. Situational effects on intra-individual variation in German. Reflexes of Middle High German ei in Austrian speech repertoires. In Werth, A., L. Bülow, S. E. Pfenninger & M. Schiegg (eds.). Intra-individual Variation in Language. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 87–125.

Kehrein, R. 2012. Regionalsprachliche Spektren im Raum – Zur linguistischen Struktur der Vertikale. Stuttgart: Steiner (Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik 152).

Kortmann, Bernd. 2010. Areal Variation in Syntax. In Auer, P. & J. E. Schmidt (eds.). Language and Space. An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation. Vol. 1: Theories and Methods. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter Mouton, 837–864.

Lameli, A. 2004. Standard und Substandard. Regionalismen im diachronen Längsschnitt. Stuttgart: Steiner (Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik 128).

Lanwer, J. Ph. 2015. Regionale Alltagssprache. Theorie, Methodologie und Empirie einer gebrauchsbasierten Areallinguistik. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter (Empirical Linguistics 4).

Lenz, A. N. 2003. Struktur und Dynamik des Substandards. Eine Studie zum Westmitteldeutschen (Wittlich/Eifel) Stuttgart: Steiner (Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik 125).

Lenz, A. N., L. M. Breuer, M. Fingerhuth, A. Wittibschlager & M. Seltmann. 2019. Exploring syntactic variation by means of “Language Production Experiments”- Methods from and analyses on German in Austria. Journal of Linguistic Geography 7/2, 63-81.

Lodge, R. A. 2004. A Sociolinguistic History of Parisian French. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mattheier, K. J. 1980. Pragmatik und Soziologie der Dialekte. Einführung in die kommunikative Dialektologie des Deutschen. Quelle & Meyer: Heidelberg.

Schiegg, M. & S. Freund. 2019. Intraindividuelle Variation auf lexikalisch-semantischer Ebene bei unroutinierten Schreibern des 19. Jahrhunderts. Linguistik online 99/6, 51–76.

Prof. Dr. Alexandra Lenz
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

German
lexical variation
pragmatic variation

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Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

34 pages, 2305 KB

Open AccessArticle

Pragmatic Variation in Greeting and Farewell Formulae in Rural Austria

by Katharina Korecky-Kröll, Anja Wittibschlager and Amelie Dorn

Languages 2026, 11(9), 179; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11090179 - 28 Aug 2026

Viewed by 289

Abstract

Greeting and farewell formulae are highly conventionalized routines that index social relations, regional norms and situational formality. This paper investigates pragmatic variation in greetings and farewells in rural Austria, focusing on age, region, setting and prosodic design. We analyze greeting and farewell formulae and metalinguistic comments produced by 152 adults from 13 rural locations across two project phases. The dataset combines spontaneous interactions with controlled elicitations in two greeting experiments contrasting a formal urban service encounter and an informal local dialect encounter. In spontaneous greetings, the supraregional call formula hallo predominates and is significantly rarer among older speakers. Across age groups, participants strongly preferred grüß Gott in the formal urban store scenario and griaß di in the informal local bakery scenario. Pronominal address is largely avoided, with T forms restricted mainly to western locations and familiar contexts. Prosodically, participants use [ˈhalo] and [haˈloː] at similar rates, whereas interviewers strongly favor the marked variant [haˈloː], suggesting different interactional roles in greeting management. Older speakers produce significantly more metalinguistic comments, revealing a mismatch between politeness ideologies and recorded practice. Overall, the findings reveal age-graded and context-dependent patterns of pragmatic variation in rural Austria. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Variationist Linguistics on German—Focus on Lexis and Pragmatics)

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23 pages, 1744 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Structure of Lexical Variation in Austrian Varieties: A Quantitative Analysis

by Philipp Stöckle and Markus Pluschkovits

Languages 2026, 11(8), 165; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11080165 - 7 Aug 2026

Viewed by 458

Abstract

This paper investigates variation on the level of lexis in Austrian German across registers with an apparent-time approach, drawing on data from a large-scale online survey of lexical variation conducted across Austria between 2021 and 2023, comprising 45 lexical concepts elicited from over 1900 respondents. We utilize Shannon entropy as a proxy to model lexical diversity across different registers in young and old speakers and investigate the influence of area, age group, phenomenon and register. We use ANOVA, multi-dimensional scaling and generalized additive modelling and find that the lexical concept under investigation exerts by far the strongest influence on lexical diversity, followed by a small but significant regional effect—one that, however, disappears when modelled at the level of individual localities rather than aggregated regions. While area influences lexical diversity, we do not find evidence of clearly distinguished lexical isoglosses in our data but rather broad east–west distinctions. While we find more diversity in older speakers in their nonstandard, we observe more pronounced east–west distinctions in younger speakers. We interpret this as a levelling of standard and nonstandard forms in younger speakers but along broader regional lines. This is corroborated by the reduced diversity in younger speakers in nonstandard varieties but slightly higher diversity in standard registers, pointing towards a levelling process. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Variationist Linguistics on German—Focus on Lexis and Pragmatics)

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45 pages, 9878 KB

Open AccessArticle

Diatopic Lexical Variation in Modern German: A Comparison of Linguistic Maps from the Atlas zur deutschen Alltagssprache with Lexical Frequency Data from DWDS Corpora

by Andreas Nolda and Alexander Geyken

Languages 2026, 11(7), 151; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11070151 - 22 Jul 2026

Viewed by 1476

Abstract

This article investigates methodological questions of diatopic lexical variation in Modern German through a comparative study of empirical data sources. We contrast lexical frequency data from three written corpora on the DWDS corpus query platform—the ZDL-Regionalkorpus, the Webmonitor-Korpus, and the Regionalliteratur-Korpus—with linguistic maps from the Atlas zur deutschen Alltagssprache (AdA), a resource that documents speaker attitudes towards spoken German every-day language. Our goal is to determine to what extent regional distributions of lexical variants in the AdA compare to the DWDS corpora, and to analyse where these distributions converge and diverge based on data and text type. This is demonstrated through four empirical case studies examining synonyms for ‘Saturday’ (“Samstag”/“Sonnabend”), ‘comma’ (“Komma”/“Beistrich”), ‘bicycle’ (“Fahrrad”/“Radl”/“Velo”), and ‘lift’ (“Aufzug”/“Fahrstuhl”/“Lift”). The results indicate that the general regional distribution of lexical variants in the AdA is largely replicated in the DWDS corpora. Moreover, the corpus data typically show the co-occurrence of several variants in the same region, while speaker attitudes documented in the AdA tend to be more uniform. Finally, different text types represented in the corpora can yield different frequency ratios in specific regions, a finding explained by presumed differences in target audiences and the variable use of regiolectal or dialectal language. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Variationist Linguistics on German—Focus on Lexis and Pragmatics)

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25 pages, 5120 KB

Open AccessArticle

Lexical Variation and Change in the Bavarian, Franconian and Swabian Dialects of Bavaria: A Combined Real- and Apparent-Time Analysis

by Lars Bülow, Philip C. Vergeiner and Oliver Schallert

Languages 2026, 11(7), 148; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11070148 - 16 Jul 2026

Viewed by 551

Abstract

This study provides the first systematic combined real- and apparent-time analysis of onomasiological lexical variation and change in the Bavarian, Franconian, and Swabian dialects of Bavaria (Germany). Drawing on two large-scale indirect surveys—the Maurer questionnaires (collected in 1934), and the DaBay dialect app (2025–ongoing)—we examine five lexical concepts (ant, apple core, rooster, potato, and ladybug) using descriptive mapping and Generalised Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs). The results reveal three main patterns: (i) stability in long-established heteronyms (in apple core), (ii) real-time convergence toward Standard German (in ant, potato, and ladybug), and (iii) concept-specific areal realignments driven by competing dialect-internal and standard-influenced variants (in rooster). Dialect geography consistently conditions lexical choices, while social factors play a comparatively minor role. Together, the findings demonstrate that lexical variation and change in Bavaria is systematic, regionally differentiated, and empirically tractable through large-scale historical and contemporary survey data. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Variationist Linguistics on German—Focus on Lexis and Pragmatics)

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20 pages, 4191 KB

Open AccessArticle

Does Variation in Lexical Sentiment Scores Reflect Emotional Polysemy and Ambivalence?

by Andreas Baumann

Languages 2026, 11(6), 118; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11060118 - 11 Jun 2026

Viewed by 538

Abstract

To measure the emotional meaning of words, numerical sentiment scores are ascribed to them. However, within individual words these scores show variation: within and across annotation surveys, across linguistic contexts, and across semantic neighbors. While such variation could be set aside as undesirable noise, this study examines to what extent variation in lexical sentiment scores is in fact informative of the degree of the emotional ambiguity of words. Four different ways of estimating emotional polysemy and ambivalence are employed to analyze a set of 117 German words. Data from 16 sentiment dictionaries, an additional sentiment survey conducted for this study, automatically annotated contexts drawn from a contemporary German corpus, and pre-trained word embeddings were used for this purpose. These estimates are compared against subjectively rated ambivalence collected through crowdsourcing. It is shown that only variation within and across surveys robustly relates to subjective ambivalence. Context and neighborhood-based estimates, both of which are inherently sensitive to lexical frequency, cannot be shown to be related to ambivalence. This suggests, (i) that variation in lexical sentiment scores across dictionaries and annotators, but not across semantic neighbors and contexts, carries information about emotional meaning, and is hence valuable for cognitive-variationist research, and (ii) that speakers’ retrieval of positive and negative senses of words, in judging the degree of ambivalence, is not strongly affected by frequency, which is fundamental to NLP methods that build on distributional semantics. This implicitly challenges usage-based approaches to semantics that consider frequency as a predominant factor. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Variationist Linguistics on German—Focus on Lexis and Pragmatics)

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34 pages, 4114 KB

Open AccessArticle

Austriacisms and Their Co-Variants—Short-Term Diachrony in the 21st Century

by Alexandra N. Lenz, Andreas Baumann, Wolfgang Koppensteiner, Claudia Mattes, Theresa Ziegler and Amelie Dorn

Languages 2026, 11(5), 102; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11050102 - 13 May 2026

Viewed by 1750

Abstract

The focus of our contribution is on lexical Austriacisms, i.e., lexical features of the Austrian standard language. Whereas in previous studies, only a small set of Austriacisms has been examined, with food terms being particularly popular, this contribution considers 76 lexical variables with 205 variants (Austriacisms and their co-variants), which are examined through complex variationist corpus analyses. The data is provided by the Austrian Media Corpus (amc), which represents the language use of the Austrian print media landscape in the 21st century. The analyses are both (short-term) diachronic and synchronic, taking into account the variation in vivo. Irrespective of the frequency-based “starting point” of a variant at the beginning of the 21st century, its relative frequency remains at comparable levels in the course of the observation period. Contrary to the threat scenarios of previous studies, our corpus analyses indicate the relative stability of the majority of Austriacisms over the 23 years studied (2001–2023). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Variationist Linguistics on German—Focus on Lexis and Pragmatics)

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27 pages, 2775 KB

Open AccessArticle

Social Relationship Marking in German from a Variationist Perspective: Inter- and Intra-Individual Variation in the Use of Vocatives and Vocative-like NPs

by Janel Zoske and Tanja Ackermann

Languages 2026, 11(5), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11050082 - 23 Apr 2026

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1178

Abstract

In this article, we address the issue of the sometimes indeterminate grammatical and functional status of vocatives and vocative-like NPs by proposing a prototype-based approach to their classification. We then explore the socio-pragmatic functions of these vocative types, adopting a variationist perspective that considers both macro- and micro-social factors to determine when the different types of vocatives occur and how they contribute to managing interpersonal relationships. This exploratory analysis is based on data from an online questionnaire featuring Discourse Completion Tasks of over 3000 participants in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The findings show that different vocative types fulfill distinct socio-pragmatic functions, ranging from signaling positive politeness to heightening the face-threatening potential of an utterance, depending on the communicative task performed. In addition, their use varies between participants, based on the speakers’ regional background, gender, age, or personality traits. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Variationist Linguistics on German—Focus on Lexis and Pragmatics)

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27 pages, 5252 KB

Open AccessArticle

Beyond Sociodemographics: Attitudinal and Personality Predictors of Lexical Change

by Adrian Leemann, Simon Kistler and Fabian Tomaschek

Languages 2026, 11(3), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11030061 - 23 Mar 2026

Viewed by 1465

Abstract

Moving beyond traditional sociodemographic models, this study investigates the psychometric drivers of lexical change. Using Swiss German as a case study, we compare historical data from the Sprachatlas der deutschen Schweiz (1939–1958) with a recent large-scale app-based survey (N = 1013) to quantify trajectories over the past century. We identify four distinct mechanisms: exogenous convergence (Schmetterling), endo-normative leveling (Rande), endogenous innovation and divergence (schlittschuhlaufen), and diachronic persistence (Stäge). For the locally rooted speakers in our dataset, structural analysis indicates that traditional variables carry less weight than expected. While age remains the primary vertical predictor, psychological factors outperform traditional variables (e.g., gender, social networks) in this environment of ubiquitous exposure. Multivariate models demonstrate that lexical choices are strongly influenced by individual disposition: traits such as agreeableness accelerate the adoption of supraregional forms, whereas a strong local identity functions as a “brake” against standardization. Ultimately, while macro-factors create the pressure for change, individual micro-factors determine whether it takes hold. A speaker’s attitude acts as a “filter” and their personality as a “gate,” deciding whether they accept or resist new forms. These findings challenge purely structural accounts, suggesting that for these locally rooter speakers, even without high physical mobility, lexical change is shaped by a psychometric architecture. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Variationist Linguistics on German—Focus on Lexis and Pragmatics)

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29 pages, 3995 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Geography of Meaning: Investigating Semantic Differences Across German Dialects

by Alfred Lameli and Matthias Hahn

Languages 2026, 11(3), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11030056 - 16 Mar 2026

Viewed by 1423

Abstract

This study reconstructs the geography of meaning of the German perception verb schmecken on the basis of 30 major dialect dictionaries, treating them as a distributed semantic corpus and coding attestations as binary variables reflecting the presence or absence of semantic options. Combining a construal-based framework with spatial modeling, the analysis shows that the polysemy of schmecken is structured by three mutually reinforcing forces: embodied sensory organization, construal-based perspectivization, and regionally patterned areal dynamics. The gustatory–olfactory axis forms the semantic core of the verb, from which tactile, visual, affective, and epistemic extensions emerge. These extensions align with systematic pathways constrained by agentive, experiential, emissive, and evaluative construals, demonstrating that semantic extension is channeled through specific construal modes—notably emissive and agentive—rather than determined by sensory modality alone. A detailed areal analysis reveals a pronounced north–south divide. While Low German dialects conform to the cross-linguistically more common tendency to avoid colexifying taste and smekk—itself the outcome of historical change rather than uninterrupted differentiation—Upper German varieties preserve a typologically rare gustatory–olfactory cluster and exhibit the richest range of cross-modal and abstract extensions. The resulting semantic graph formalizes how regional varieties activate different subsets of a lexeme’s semantic potential and demonstrates that semantic networks themselves display spatial organization. The study thus provides an empirically grounded reconstruction of a German geography of meaning and illustrates how dialect data illuminate the interplay between embodied cognition, construal-based lexical architecture, and areal dynamics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Variationist Linguistics on German—Focus on Lexis and Pragmatics)

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25 pages, 1627 KB

Open AccessArticle

Reconciling Inter- and Intra-Individual Variation in L2 Socio-Pragmatic Development: Intensifier Variation in Spoken German

by Mason A. Wirtz

Languages 2025, 10(6), 139; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10060139 - 12 Jun 2025

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2310

Abstract

This study is the first to scrutinize the rates of, and the lexical diversity in, adjective intensification in second language (L2) German. We additionally attend to the issue concerning whether sociodemographic variables (i.e., length of residence, age, and gender) and individual learner differences (i.e., L2 proficiency, intensity of exposure to the L2, and L2 socioaffect) can predict (a) the inter-individual variation in syntactic adjective intensification, and (b) the observed intra-individual variation based on a weighted measure of intensifier lexical diversity. We analyzed spoken data collected via virtual reality (VR) elicitation tasks from 40 learners of L2 German (first language [L1] English). We found that learners engaged in adjective intensification at similar rates as those reported in the literature, despite some cases of overshooting the target; learners also preferred markers of intensification consistent with the lexical choices of L1 German speakers. Sociodemographic variables did not predict different rates of adjective intensification; rather, individual learner differences such as those relating to L2 proficiency and L2 exposure correlated with more target-like use of intensifiers, though the correlations were weak. The diversity in adjective intensification was also only marginally related to demographic factors and individual learner differences. Our findings suggest that L2 learners indeed engage in similar intensification practices as do L1 speakers; however, systematically predicting more ‘successful’ adoption of target-like sociopragmatic norms among L2 learners remains challenging. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Variationist Linguistics on German—Focus on Lexis and Pragmatics)

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