Fulst, Fabienne
Together with Ms Agnes Hilger
PhD spokesperson since 27 March 2025.
Dissertation topic:
" Between Criticism and Comedy - Attitudes and Positioning towards Linguistic Errors."
Contact address at the University of Würzburg:
Chair of German Linguistics
Am Hubland
97074 Würzburg
First supervisor: Prof. Dr Wolf-Peter Klein
Second supervisor:
Prof. Dr Angelika Wöllstein (Univ. Mannheim)
Class in the graduate school: "Philosophy, Languages, Arts"
Doctorate in the Graduate School from SS 2024.
Abstract:
The dissertation project is dedicated to lay linguistic attitudes towards language and linguistic errors. While meta-linguistic discourses in the 20th century were still predominantly reflected in the medium of books, the changed media conditions of the 21st century are increasingly creating spaces for the exchange of linguistic laypersons about language on the Internet. Pointing out and criticising the linguistic errors of other language participants is often linked to an entertaining function that has so far received little attention in research. Statements about what are particularly typical linguistic errors in German are often linked to associations such as pain or disgust about the supposedly incorrect use of the language, which can be seen in the explicit linguistic, but also implicit figurative positioning of the language participants. In this dissertation project, a corpus-based approach will be used to systematise both the errors considered typical and the positioning of the language participants in relation to them. In order to give the analysis a diachronic dimension, content from 20th century language glosses and criticism will also be used. This will make it possible to uncover the perennial themes of language criticism and the public discourse on errors and to reveal how native speakers have positioned themselves in relation to the German language over time.
