Project description

For urban language studies in Austria, synchronic corpus-based studies in which quantitative and qualitative empirical methods are applied systematically and linguistic variation is taken into account are entirely lacking. The general aim of PP04 is to gain a holistic insight into the complex diversity of urban varieties by way of: 1. Analyses of discourse data of current language use (of speakers with and without migration background) in the cities of Vienna and Graz as well as in their agglomeration areas; 2. Analyses of preferred variants or groups of variants with respect to the interaction of various speaking styles and varieties; 3. Analyses of connections between spatial and social mobility and language behaviour. From a variationist and a socio-pragmatic point of view the main research questions are: Which linguistic differences can be determined between Vienna and Graz? What constitutes urban varieties as opposed to varieties in rural settings and is there evidence of an urban influence on surrounding communities? What kinds of correlations with extra-linguistic factors can be established? What influences individual language behaviour and the choice of varieties or variants used by speakers in urban centres in specific contexts?

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