The Representation of Work in German Grammar Books
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Representation of Work in German Grammar Books Angela Leahy B.A. M.A. Ph.D Dublin City University School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies Supervisor: Prof. Jenny Williams August 2004 I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award o f PhD, is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: jKyift. ID No, W W J 5 1 Acknowledgements I would like to thank, first and foremost, my supervisor. Prof. Jenny Williams, whose excellent guidance and input made my research journey not only a stimulating and challenging one but also a most enjoyable experience. Her unfailing enthusiasm and thoughtful feedback and support right from my initial ‘research idea phase' through to writing-up were very much appreciated and I am most grateful to her. My gratitude to the School of Applied language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS) and Dublin City University for granting me the sabbatical which facilitated the development o f the corpus and methodology used for this study. Dr. Dorothy Kenny, SALIS, deserves special thanks for being so generous with her time when answering my WordSmith Tools queries and for passing on many useful references to me. Her enthusiasm for my research encouraged me greatly. I very much appreciated the assistance given by colleagues in DCU library during the course of this study. In particular, I would like to thank Ms. Mags Lehane in Inter- Library Loans for all of her help. I am grateful to the publishers of each of the grammar books analysed in this study for their cooperation and their prompt replies to my queries and requests. The cooperation of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, Braunschweig, Germany and the Goethe Institute, Dublin was essential for much of my research and I thank each sincerely for their assistance. I would like to sincerely thank my friends and colleagues in the German Section of the SALIS for always being so very helpful and supportive. My fellow kDaF-ler', Dr. Aine McGillicuddy, Ms. Elke Kastner, Dr. Heinz Lechleiter, Dr. Jenny Bruen, Mr. Thomas Wagner and especially Dr. Annette Simon were never short of encouraging words, interesting questions, native-speaker advice and offers of practical help. Dr. Barbara Freitag and Dr. Tony Coulson assisted me greatly during the writing-up stage of this thesis and I appreciated their help very much. Vielen Dank! My thanks too to my former colleagues, Ms. Eva Molby and Ms. Patricia Raffelt, who shared a fondness for all-things-grammatical with me and with whom I have had many stimulating discussions on the teaching of German, particularly German grammar. My (former) fellow PhD students, Dr. Catherine Spencer, Dr. Niamh Chape lie and Dr. Fernando Prieto, shared stages of this research journey with and together we encouraged each other, exchanged ideas and had many interesting discussions on text and discourse analysis. Many other colleagues in SALIS shared enthusiasm for this project with me and showed me support for which I am very grateful. In particular, I would like to say a special thanks to Dr. Maggie Gibbon, Ms. Francoise Blin and Dr. Aileen Pearson- Evans. On a personal note, 1 thank my housemate and my friends for their great moral support and for bearing with me in my less sociable phases! Ruth, in particular, was a brilliant ‘coach’ across the miles and Paula’s PC skills were very much appreciated. Many thanks to Feargal and Siobhan for the much-needed new desk! Last but by no means least; I would like to thank my family for their never-failing support. Very special thanks to my father who has always supported me in my studies and to Helen and Edel who helped me in many different ways while I completed this dissertation. Table of Contents A bstract i Abbreviations li List of Tables iii CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 Introduction 2 1.2 The research question 2 1.3 Background to this study 3 1.4 W hy the textbook? Its enduring importance in language learning. 6 1.5 Findings of textbook analyses in general 9 1.6 The foreign language textbook 12 1.7 Related studies specific to German language textbooks 13 1.7.1 Related studies specific to German grammar books 18 1.8 The linguist and textbook analysis 19 1.8.1 The ‘Colony Text’ and the Grammar Book 21 1.9 The Grammar Book and its characteristics 24 1.10 Sum m ary 27 CH APTER 2 Methodology 2.1 Overview of methodology 30 2.2 Assumptions regarding the limitations on linguistic choices in grammar books 30 2.3 The selection of the grammar books for this study 33 2.4 The content of the corpus 34 2.5 The creation of the corpus 36 2.6 Linguistics of representation 36 2.7 The use of corpus linguistics analytical methods outside of corpus linguistics 38 2.8 Borrowing the tools of corpus linguistics 41 2.9 Initial analysis - Looking for leads and finding a focus 43 2.10 Initial analysis and frequency 44 2.11 The human activity ‘work’ in the grammar book corpus 48 2.12 ‘work’ concordances and deduction/induction 50 CHAPTER 3 Analysis 1 - Occupations 3.1 Introduction 54 3.2 Desirable occupations 55 3 J Choices of study and training 57 3.4 Popular occupations and choice of study 59 3.5 Most common occupations 61 3.5.1 Evaluative versus non-evaluative concordances 63 3.5.2 The generic agent ‘man’ and occupations 64 3.6 Doctors 65 3.6.1 Positive portrayal of doctors 65 3.6.2 Negative portrayal of doctors 68 3.6.3 Doctors as a collective 69 3.6.4 Gender in the medical profession 70 3.6.5 Conclusion for portrayal of doctors 70 3.7 Teachers 71 3.7.1 Negative portrayal of teachers 71 3.7.2 Positive portrayal of teachers 73 3.7.3 Teaching-an occupation that has not changed over time 74 3.7.4 Conclusion for portrayal of teachers 75 3.8 Farm ers 75 3.8.1 Conclusion for portrayal of farmers 80 3.9 Conclusion 80 CH A PTER 4 Analysis 2 - H ierarchy 4.1 Introduction 85 4.2 Positions of A uthority 86 4.3 The ‘C hef7‘C hcfin’ 86 4.3.1 Positive portrayal of the ‘C h e r 87 4J.2 Negative portrayal of the ‘Chef 91 4.3.3 Non-evaluative but informative references to the ‘Ch-ef 96 4.4 The ‘D irektor’ 98 4.4.1 Positive portrayal of the ‘Direktur' 99 4.4.2 Negative portrayal of the ‘Direktor’ 101 CHAPTER 4 cont'dL 4 .4 J Non-evaluative but informative references to the ‘Direktor’ 103 4.5 The ‘Betriebsleiter* 104 4.6 The ‘Abteilungsleiter’/* Abteilungsleiterin’ 105 4.7 The ‘Professor7‘die ‘Professorin’ 106 4.8 The ‘S e k re tirin ’ n o 4.9 The ‘Sekretär* 114 4.10 The ‘Arbeiter’ 115 4.11 Conclusion 118 CHAPTER 5 Analysis 3 - Attitudes and Approaches to Work 5.1 Introduction 122 5.2 General attitudes and reactions to work 123 5.2.1 W ork and compulsion 123 5.2.2 Prioritisation of work 125 5 .2 J Q uantity of work 129 5.3 Negative attitudes and approaches to work 131 5J.1 Negative attitudes to work 132 5.3.2 Negative approaches to work 135 5.4 Positive attitudes and approaches to work 138 5.4.1 Positive attitudes to work 138 5.4.2 Positive approaches to work 140 5.5 Conclusion 144 CHAPTER 6 Conclusions 6.1 Introduction 147 6.2 Representations of work in the grammar books 147 6.3 The grammar book and the German language learner 149 6.4 The role of the grammar book colony teits in reflecting cultural norms 150 6.5 Definitions of narrative text 152 6.6 Implications for further research projects 153 6.7 The role of the computer in studies outside of corpus linguistics 154 6.8 Overall conclusion 154 REFERENCES 155 APPENDICES Appendix A 1-3 Appendix B Most frequently occurring terms in the corpus 1 Appendix C Desirable occupations 1-3 Appendix D Choices of study and training 1-5 Appendix E Doctors 1-8 Appendix F Teachers 1-4 Appendix G Farmers 1-7 Appendix H ‘C hefm ’ 1 Appendix I ‘C h e f 1-11 Appendix J ‘Direktorin’ 1 Appendix K ‘Direktor’ 1-4 Appendix L ‘Betriebsleiter’ 1 Appendix M ‘Abteilungsleiter’ 1 Appendix N ‘Abteilungsleiterin’ 1 Appendix O *Professor’/‘Professorin’ 1-6 Appendix P ‘Sekretärin’ 1-4 Appendix Q ‘Sekretär’ 1 Appendix R ‘Arbeiter’ 1-4 Appendix S General attitudes and reactions to work 1-12 Appendix T Negative attitudes and approaches to work 1-6 Appendix U Positive attitudes and approaches to work 1-6 Abstract The Representation of Work in German Grammar Books This dissertation explores the language of three German grammar books and accompanying exercise books which are produced in Germany for international students of German. It examines how the examples and exercises presented in these books constitute ‘colony texts’ which convey different representations of human activity to the reader. Analysis of the language used in the German grammar books centres on the Linguistics of Representation and borrows techniques used normally in Corpus Linguistics. By using WordSmith Tools this study shows how particular terms (nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives) occur with greater frequency than others in the books under analysis thereby representing certain human activities more strongly than others.