Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
1.8
1.2
Journals
Languages
Special Issues
Advances in Variationist Linguistics on German—Focus on Lexis and Pragmatics
share announcement

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

A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 December 2025) | Viewed by 5567

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Alexandra Lenz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
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

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-blind 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.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • German
  • lexical variation
  • pragmatic variation

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (5 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

34 pages, 4114 KB  
Article
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 211
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 [...] Read more.
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)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

27 pages, 2775 KB  
Article
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
Viewed by 576
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 [...] Read more.
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)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

27 pages, 5252 KB  
Article
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 845
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 [...] Read more.
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)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

29 pages, 3995 KB  
Article
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 727
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 [...] Read more.
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)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

25 pages, 1627 KB  
Article
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 1798
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 [...] Read more.
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)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-5
Back to TopTop