German and German Disunity: an Investigation Into The
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
GERMAN AND GERMAN DISUNITY: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE COGNITIVE PATTERNS AND PERCEPTIONS OF LANGUAGE IN POST-UNIFIED GERMANY by KEITH E. KENNETZ (Under the Direction of William A. Kretzschmar, Jr.) ABSTRACT This study investigates folk perceptions of speech in post-reunified Germany, exploring how such perceptions are cognitively created, organized, and maintained. Using a modified form of Tamasi’s pile-sorting methodology (2003), this study specifically examines how German political disunity (i.e. “Mauer in den Köpfen” or “wall of the mind”) is manifested in speech evaluations and further explores the cognitive factors involved in spatial perceptions of regional speech varieties. A total of sixty-one informants from two locations (Dresden, Saxony, and Bamberg, Bavaria) took part in a four-part interview designed to elicit their perceptions of variation in German. Informants were given cards with the names of German cities printed on them. They were asked to sort and divide the cards into piles according to where they think people speak differently. They were then given a set of social and linguistic descriptors with which they could describe and evaluate the dialect piles they had made. The third task asked participants to recognize and evaluate female and male voices from three locations within Germany (Dresden, Bamberg, and Hanover) using the same descriptors they used in the pile-sorting task. Lastly, informants were asked to answer a series of brief questions to clarify and substantiate quantitative results obtained in the previous tasks. Results from this study show that a “linguistic wall” clearly exists in the perceptions of West German respondents as revealed in their negative evaluation of eastern (Saxon) dialects. In contrast, Saxon informants do not maintain a perceptual ‘wall’ based on negative evaluations of western speech varieties; while they are aware of the negative linguistic stereotypes associated with their own dialect, Saxon informants perceive Saxon German to be just as pleasant as other regional varieties. Additional data show that informants’ spatial perceptions of speech are not only significantly influenced by non-speech information such as geographical or cultural knowledge but also by a lack of linguistic knowledge. INDEX WORDS: Language Attitudes, Perceptual Dialectology, Folk Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Saxon German, Language Variation GERMAN AND GERMAN DISUNITY: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE COGNITIVE PATTERNS AND PERCEPTIONS OF LANGUAGE IN POST-UNIFIED GERMANY by KEITH E. KENNETZ B.A. Southern Illinois University, 1995 M.A. Southern Illinois University, 1999 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2008 © 2008 Keith E. Kennetz All Rights Reserved GERMAN AND GERMAN DISUNITY: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE COGNITIVE PATTERNS AND PERCEPTIONS OF LANGUAGE IN POST-UNIFIED GERMANY by KEITH E. KENNETZ Approved: Major Professor: William A. Kretzschmar, Jr. Committee: Renate Born Brigitte Rossbacher Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2008 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the past five years I seem to have forgotten that “half the fun is just gettin’ there.” I have been so focused on the light at the end of the tunnel that I often failed to contemplate just what an amazing journey it has been. As with all lengthy projects this one could never have been completed, indeed even begun, without an immense amount of support from a very large group of people. Foremost, I would like to thank Dr. William Kretzschmar for encouraging me to pursue a PhD in Linguistics and for persuading me to come to Athens, Georgia, to do it. As he put it, “It’s too cold in Michigan for graduate studies anyway.” More importantly, I am extremely grateful for the time and energy he invested in this project: his guidance and inspiration were essential to its completion. I’m not sure how many times I walked away from his office feeling like I could accomplish the impossible (even if this brief flash of empowerment only lasted to the end of the hallway!). I am also grateful to the other members of my committee both past and present – Dr. Ben Blount, Dr. Peter Jorgensen, Dr. Renate Born, and Dr. Brigitte Rossbacher. I benefited immensely from the assistance I received from this team and I am thankful for their patience and for extending themselves when I needed it most. I would like to thank the many members of the UGA German and Slavic Studies department – both faculty and students, for their support. Special thanks go to department secretaries, Lynnette Lang and Betty Hill, both of whom became trusted confidants and friends during the long hours I spent on campus. iv Many thanks and hugs also go out to my graduate “partners-in-crime” – especially Cati Brown, “Viking” Kate Anderson, Marcie McHugh, Ian “The Map” Ennis, Iulia Pittmann, Keith Winkler, Lamont Antieau, Knut Wösterhoff, Dan Habeck, and “Big”Joe Neikirk who made my life in Georgia remarkable and kept graduate school bearable. It is also essential to thank my part-time landlord and full-time friend, Chris Peterson, for providing me with a roof over my head (even if it was his own roof). I am greatly indebted to the Fulbright Commission, which funded the field research for this project and gave me the opportunity to rub shoulders and shake hands with so many inspirational scholars. My fellowship year in Dresden (2004-2005) will remain a true highlight in my life. I would also like to thank Dr. Markus Hundt, who sponsored my Fulbright application and provided valuable advice in the early stages of this project; I also need to thank him for introducing me to his assistant Christina Anders – she quickly became my trusted friend and colleague and provided much needed local assistance during my stay in Dresden. And, oh yes, the field work! It is hard for me to express in words my gratitude to all the people who helped me in innumerable ways to obtain the data for this study. In Bamberg, thanks to Kenneth and Ruth Wynne, Dr. Heinrich Ramisch, Dr. Gabi Knappe, Shane Walsh, Maria Gerstner, Frauke Scheben, Karolin Deutel, Nora Gömringer, Stefanie Bauer and her lovely grandmother, Dr. Helmut Glück, Holger Klatte, Barbara Heger, Hildegund Streit, Andreas Weber and Johanna Schlicht, Café Müller, and Brauerei Spezial, and of course my Bamberg Street Team – Roman Berth, Uwe Gundermann, and Tobias Vetter. In the fair city of Dresden – Sabine Doerry, Alan Fortuna, Chad Robertson, Wulf Grunert, Eckhardt “für die Wissenschaft!” Müller, Benela, “Kampfsport“ Gunnar, Katja Zehrfeldt, Torsten Lunze, Christian Kirvel, Horst Brzytwa, Thomas Walther, Andrea Löwendorf, Nadine Ranft, and all the members of the” v Drehst’ den Deckel“ Dresden Ultimate Frisbee Club who had to suffer both my barrage of questions about Dresden dialect and my bad overhead throws. In Hanover – Cordula Backe and her family; special thanks goes to Ingo Gowin for his very lengthy interview and field recording. In Hamburg – a huge thank you to Akram Baker, Daniel “The Nail” Nagel, and Johnny Prohl and family for their generous friendship and never-ending encouragement. Finally, deep thanks go to all the informants for generously giving me their time and inviting me into their homes; as one Bamberger told me, “Des muss fei g’mochd werd’n!” To all of them – Vielen Dank! Once the interviews were done the data still needed to be analyzed. To this end, heartfelt thanks go to Dr. Jaxk Reeves and his assistants Gabriele Tonsil and Brian Claggett. Thanks also go to Susan Tamasi for her time and suggestions, and to Dorothea Riffert and Doreen Thierauf for their help in transcribing portions of my interviews. For the inspiration that blasted me through five long years of graduate school, a large measure of gratitude goes to Dr. Helmut Liedloff, Manuela Schubert, Dr. Thomas Keller, Dr. Janet Fuller, Dr. Colleen Brice, Dr. Glen Gilbert, Karen Manno, and the inscrutable Mr. William McWilliams. These people influenced me more than they will ever know. Finally, I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my family, especially to my mother, Irene Kennetz-Kowalski, who ignited my imagination with books and always encouraged me to follow wherever those books took me. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................................ xii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... xvi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 2 LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................15 Folk Linguistics.......................................................................................................15 Attitudes ..................................................................................................................17 Stereotypes ..............................................................................................................21 Creation and Justification of Language Attitudes ...................................................25 Methods...................................................................................................................27