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Project A2 - Dynamics and stability in regional language variation spectra of German

PI and Ko-PI: Prof. Dr. H. Fischer und Prof. Dr. Mathias Scharinger

Research Context

The scientific subject of the project is the difference or identity structures that determine the regional language variation spectra in German. Based on the fact that the variation space in German is characterized by spectra of varieties and speech registers that vary greatly from area to area, the aim is to examine how these spectra are structured in detail. In particular, it should be investigated to what extent these different variation spectra correspond to different sound representations on the part of speakers and listeners and which communicative characteristics result from this. The question can also be whether the dynamics of the variation structures found in previous studies are controlled by synchronization processes taking place at the micro level, i.e. between individual speakers. To this end, the differing neuro-physiological processing signatures within different variation spectra can be systematically recorded and compared with each other.

The dissertation projects are aimed at doctoral students with interdisciplinary interests in variationists linguistics, especially neurodialectology. The extensive corpora of the DSA as well as the neuro- and psycholinguistic laboratories can be used for this purpose.

Exemplary topics:

• Comprehension and evaluation structures in the variation spectra of different regional languages of German.
• Perception and neurolinguistic processing of variety boundaries.