German Abroad

"German Abroad 3" Conference 2018: Contact varieties of the German abroad

The fact that language (variety) can exert manifold influences on each other as a result of interaction between members of different communication communities can be proven by their numerous manifestations on different linguistic levels and is to be understood as a natural product of inter- or transcultural social processes. In the field of linguistics - both from a diachronic and a synchronic perspective - several fields of research (such as sociolinguistics, contact linguistics, semantics, or pragmatics) have already addressed such contact manifestations using interdisciplinary methodological inventories, which points to the diversity and multidimensionality of possible analytical perspectives. This complexity of linguistic approaches is to play a constitutive role at the next German Abroad conference, which will be organized by the International Research Network for Intercultural German Studies (IFNIG) at the Chair of German Linguistics at the University of Erfurt. A central goal is to identify and describe characteristic features of contact varieties of the German language, with the aspect of interculturality playing a primary role. Thus, for example, the communication behavior of German-speaking groups/minorities outside of the coherent German language area in traditional "language islands" and in other inter- or transcultural configurations (such as in migration contexts) is of high relevance - with special regard to language structures, language use aspects and social psychological factors.

The description of German learning varieties and their possible applications in German/German as foreign language/German as second language lessons is also welcomed. The subject of the lectures can also be other languages and their varieties, which are under the contact influence of German and appear in different interaction situations, media, etc.

Against this background, lectures are expected to focus on contact processes and results in various oral or written language behavior domains on the morphosyntactic, lexical-semantic or pragmatic level and can be assigned to one of the following thematic focuses

• Language contact situations and phenomena as well as bilingual communicative practices in their dynamics with regard to German-speaking groups outside the German-speaking area;
• Contact-induced variation or contact variety as a theme or as a factor in German/German as foreign language/German as second language lessons or in German-language lessons abroad;
• Language settings and language perceptions with regard to contact varieties of German.