Dissertations
Dissertations
The doctoral candidates in linguistics
The following page informs you about the current dissertation projects in linguistics at the Institute for German Studies.
Marina Frank, M.A.
Phoneme collapse in spoken Standard German? Experimental phonetic studies on /eː/ and /εː/ in German (working title)
The coincidence of the phonemes /εː/ (as in bear, salle) and /eː/ (as in berry, soul) in Standard German and especially in North German is one of the most controversial issues in the phonology of German and is frequently discussed in the research literature. However, the question arises as to whether the postulated merger of /eː/ and /ɛː/ is actually a complete merger or a perceptual merger with retained distinction in sound production (near-merger). The planned dissertation aims to investigate the production and auditory and neural perception of the two phonemes on an empirical basis in order to help clarify this question. To this end, three studies will be conducted: Study I is an acoustic analysis of an existing corpus that covers the entire German language area and is thus suitable for variationist linguistic questions. In Study II, the production and perception of the two sounds are linked in an experiment. Finally, in Study III, a neurophonetic study is carried out. The dissertation will thus provide a comprehensive investigation on a broad data basis using various methods and taking various influencing factors into account.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr Jörg Peters
Fallon bag
Sociocultural Influence on Sound Change among Mennonite Plautdietsch-speakers in the Central Chaco (working title)
Historically, Plautdietsch speaking Mennonite communities are insular and maintain their language and traditional way of life. Although the Mennonites of Paraguay's Central Chaco are geographically insular, many of them embrace modern technology and are open to change. Their close contact with external communities and changing cultural ideologies enable contact-induced sound changes to occur. This research aims to shed light on how communities with the same mother tongue and exposure to the same foreign languages undergo distinct linguistic changes owing to their individual histories, sociocultural ideologies and linguistic practices. The focus of the research is on phonetic and phonological aspects of linguistic change as influenced by the languages with which the Plautdietsch-speakers in the Central Chaco have had extensive contact. Audio recordings in the form of interviews were collected from over 70 participants among three communities in Paraguay. The interviews were designed to elicit sociocultural information and specific phonemes in Plautdietsch. The phonologies of the languages involved, esp. High German and Spanish, as well as the sociocultural contexts of the speakers and communities are consulted in conjunction with the phonetic and phonological analyses of the collected data. To this end, the study is conducted and analysed from a sociocultural linguistics perspective, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative approaches.