Der Gau

Posted on 9. July 2014 by schaefew

In einem wunderbaren Radiobeitrag wird die Entscheidung des ADAC, das Wort Gau aus seiner Satzung zu streichen, kritisch unter die Lupe genommen. Es ist unglaublich, was man über das Wort Gau so alles nicht weiß. Es klingt für viele von uns nach Nationalsozialismus (Gauleiter), und das ist wohl auch der Grund, warum der ADAC, als Teil der Strategie zur Aufbesserung seines Images (die aus ganz anderen Gründen nötig ist), das Wort jetzt verbannen will. Das ist aber viel zu kurz gedacht. Das Wort ist natürlich viel älter als die Nazis. Es war schon vor dem 1. Weltkrieg en vogue, als der ADAC gegründet wurde. Und es war ganz und gar passend, denn durch die Gaue, reichbewässerte, fruchtbare Gegenden, fuhren die frühen ADAC-Mitglieder (die ja Motorradfahrer, nicht Autofahrer waren) mit ihren Krafträdern. Schon damals hatte das Wort eine kontroverse Geschichte hinter sich. Es war im 18. Jahrhundert verschmäht, wurde dann aber von Romantikern und Revolutionären wiederentdeckt. Besonders Burschenschaftler, Wandervögel und Turner gliederten sich in Gaue. Der Begriff klang mittelalterlich, und gerade das machte ihn modern. Etymologisch hängt der Gau mit der Au zusammen und findet sich in geographischen Bezeichnungen wie Breisgau und Allgäu. In der Schweiz heißt der Kanton, durch die die Aare fließt, Aargau, und der Kanton, durch die die Thur fließt, Thurgau. (Müller-Ullrich, Burkhard: “Beim ADAC wird der “Gau” zur “Region”, in: Deutschlandfunk: Kultur Heute: 02.07.2014)

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Brooklynese

Posted on 7. July 2014 by schaefew

Many Americans look down on the speech of New Yorkers, and many New Yorkers themselves don’t like they way they talk. As a matter of fact, until a few decades ago students of Manhattan High Schools were given diagnostic exams and, if needed, speech classes to get rid of their accent, and many New York colleges required voice and diction courses targeted at certain local particularities. The best known of the features which characterise what is often called Brooklynese (more because of Brooklyn’s status as an icon of city life than for any specific linguistic reason) is the vowel of words like coffee, caught, talked, saw, which makes coffee rather sound like cu-uhfee. A similar process applies to the short a in cab or pass or avenue, which makes a New Yorker speak of ki-ubbs which pi-uhss on Fifth i-uhvenue. (Whereas in the surrounding areas all words with a short a are pronounced i-uh, in New York this does not affect the short a in pat, cap, average, etc. – this is the so-called “short a split” of New York). However, there is also one aspect of their dialect of which New Yorkers seem to be proud, and that is their vocabulary: stickball, schlep, salugi, like a dradel and what a schmuck! are all typical of New York. The appeal of these words lies in their invocation of immigrant roots, and this makes the New York dialect, and the city itself, something of a counterpoint to mainstream Anglo America. This is where the disparagement comes from. Today, however, speaking like a New Yorker is no longer a social and professional handicap. Many middle-class New Yorkers of all ethnicities use the dialect, to say nothing of billionaires like Donald Trump. In assuming a New York middle-class dialect, these speakers leave behind a speech commonly associated with their ethnic communities. This working class minority speech has taken on the outsider status the classic Brooklynese has left behind. (Newman, Michael: “New York Tawk”, in: Wolfram, W. & Ward, B. (eds.): American Voices: How Dialects Differ from Coast to Coast. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006: 82-7).

 

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Scheidung international

Posted on 7. July 2014 by schaefew

In Russland ist es ganz und gar normal, sich scheiden zu lassen. Russland hat die höchste Scheidungsrate der Welt. Frühere Ehepartner bleiben oft freundschaftlich miteinander verbunden. In Indien gibt es kaum Scheidungen. Und wenn es eine Scheidung gibt, kann sich der Prozess bis zu zwölf Jahre hinziehen. Wenn ein Paar geschieden wird, werden gleichzeitig zwei Familien geschieden, und geschäftliche Beziehungen und die Familienehre werden in Mitleidenschaft gezogen. In Südafrika gab es früher nur in besonderen Fällen Scheidungen. Heute ist das Scheidungsrecht gelockert worden, und nicht zuletzt haben zwei Präsidenten dazu beigetragen, die Scheidung akzeptabler zu machen. Nelson Mandela war geschieden, und der jetzige Präsident, Jacob Zuma, hat schon sechs Scheidungen hinter sich. Inzwischen ist die Scheidungsrate bei Schwarzen höher als bei Weißen. In Shanghai werden inzwischen mehr Ehen geschieden als geschlossen. Viele Paare lassen sich scheiden, weil sie als Paar nur Anrecht auf eine Wohnung haben. Da sie ihr Geld gerne in Immobilien anlegen, lassen sie sich scheiden, kaufen sich eine zweite Wohnung, leben aber weiter zusammen. (Baxmann, Matthias, Eckoldt, Matthias: “Alltag Anders”, in Deutschlandradio Kultur: 04.07.201)

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Kein Akrobatik-Sex für Brasilianer

Posted on 19. June 2014 by schaefew

Verletzungsgefahren lauern für Fußballer überall: Paolo Guerrero verkrampfte sich einst aus Flugangst so sehr, dass eine alte Muskelverletzung aufbrach. Eine Bordkarte traf Milan Rapaić am Auge, ein Getränkewägelchen Jerome Boateng am Knie – beide fielen wochenlang aus. Charles Akonnor bohrte sich die Antenne seines Autos in die Nase. Mark Statham klemmte sich den Schädel in der Tür ein. Eine Seifenschale im heimischen Bad verletzte Oliver Reck, Kevin Keegan blieb mit dem Zeh im Badewannenabfluss stecken, Robbie Keane riss sich mehrere Bänder bei dem Versuch, den Fernseher per Fuß fernzubedienen. Alessandro Nesta daddelte an der Playstation, bis eine Sehne im linken Daumen riss. Kirk Broadfoot wollte sich Frühstückseier in der Mikrowelle zubereiten – bei der Explosion verbrühte er sich im Gesicht. Lars Hirschfeld hobelte Käse – und seine Daumenkuppe. Kasey Keller schlug sich die Vorderzähne aus, als er seine Golfschläger aus dem Kofferraum nehmen wollte. Der Argentinier Julio Arca verbrannte sich schwimmend die Brust an einer Feuerqualle. Die Statistik ist eindeutig: Auf dem Platz droht zwar die Blutgrätsche des Gegners – aber es ist der einzige Ort, wo Fußballer einigermaßen sicher sind. Felipe Scolari zog jetzt daraus die Konsequenzen und verbot seinen Spielern Akrobatik-Sex während der Weltmeisterschaft. (Willmann, Urs: “Leben ist gefährlich”, in: Die Zeit 20/2014:)

 

 

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Glocalisation

Posted on 7. June 2014 by schaefew

This term – a blend of globasation and localisation – describes the way in which practices that spread around the world will be “nativised” by local cultures. Multinational corporations take local practices and preferences into consideration. McDonald’s, for example, uses Asterix instead of Ronald McDonald in its advertising campaign in France. Imported cultural trends get adopted in a modified form by the local populations, resulting in phenomena like Korean hip-hop or Japanese R&B. The flow is not always only in one direction. US comic-book culture, for example, had a strong influence on post-war Japanese culture, this was then transferred into an indigenous Japanese art form, manga, which in turn has been exported back to the US. (Seargeant, Philip: “English and linguistic globalisation”, in: Seargeant, Philip & Swann, Joan (ed.): English in the World. History, Diversity, Change. Abingdon: Routledge, 2012: 179-80)

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Ebonics

Posted on 6. June 2014 by schaefew

It is well known that intelligibility is not enough to decide whether a variety is to be considered a language of its own or not. It leaves out of consideration linguistic attitudes, in particular the question of identity. Norway, Sweden and Denmark speak different languages, notwithstanding the considerable amount of intelligibility which exists between them. If the community wishes its way of speaking to be considered a language then it is one. Two criteria are required: to have a community with a single mind about the question and with enough power to make this decision respected by outsiders. Neither of these criteria was fulfilled in the case of Ebonics (a blend of Ebony and phonics), proposed for the variety of English formerly known as Black Vernacular English or African-American Vernacular English.  The intentions to give it language status were noble, but it was denounced by people from across the political spectrum, including individuals as the education secretary Richard W. Riley, the black civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and the writer Maya Angelou. Quite evidently, the two criteria above did not apply. (Crystal, David: “A global language”, in: Seargeant, Philip & Swann, Joan (ed.): English in the World. History, Diversity, Change. Abingdon: Routledge, 2012: 173)

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Global English

Posted on 5. June 2014 by schaefew

English has emerged as a world language for extrinsic reasons, not for intrinsic reasons. Popular ideas that English is easy to learn – few inflections, absence of lexical tones, grammatical gender and honorifics – disregard the fact that English is other respects is quite difficult. Besides, languages which do not have these characterstics such as Latin and French have been international languages in their day. It is the extrinsic factors which count: political power, technological power, economic power, cultural power. The British Empire and the two world wars, the Industrial Revolution and the Communications Revolution, the newspapers and the news agencies, broadcasting, television, the cinema, the advertising industry, popular music, international travel and education are at stake, not word order or morphology. (Crystal, David: “A global language”, in: Seargeant, Philip & Swann, Joan (ed.): English in the World. History, Diversity, Change. Abingdon: Routledge, 2012: 156-64)

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Do you speak English?

Posted on 5. June 2014 by schaefew

How many native speakers of English are there altogether? Perhaps surprisingly, this is not so easy to decide. The figures cited vary between 400 and 500 million – a considerable difference. This is probably chiefly due to differences of opinion as to what should be included. Are pidgins and creoles derived from English considered to be varieties of English and included? Or are they languages of their own? It is even more difficult to be sure about the total for non-native speakers of English. Is native-speaker-like fluency the criterion, or is every beginner to be included? And even if we take a middle-of-the-road course, some small deviation may have considerable effects. In India, for example, the figures vary between 3% and 33%, in real terms between 30 million and 330 million. So all figures have to be taken with caution, including the relatively informed survey of the British Council, according to which one billion people (i.e. one thousand million) are engaged in learning English. This includes all learners. If we take, as a criterion, a medium level of conversational competence in handling domestic subject matters, we can take between one half and two thirds of these as non-native speakers of English. Taking averages of the most recent estimates, we can assume that about one third of the world’s population can now communicate in English. This is a lot, but it also means that two thirds of the world’s population cannot communicate in English. One does not have to travel far into the hinterland of a country to find reality. Populist claims about the universal spread of English have to be kept in perspective. The second important factor is that the ratio of native to non-native speakers of English keeps changing. It is not estimated to be about 1:4. The proportion of the world’s population with English as a first language will decline further in the years to come.  (Crystal, David: “A global language”, in: Seargeant, Philip & Swann, Joan (ed.): English in the World. History, Diversity, Change. Abingdon: Routledge, 2012: 154-6)

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Nichts Neues, bitte!

Posted on 5. June 2014 by schaefew

Einer im Journal of the American Medical Association veröffentlichen Studie zufolge verschreiben Ärzte in den USA bei einer akuten Bronchitis immer noch Antibiotika, obwohl längst klar ist, dass die dabei keinen Nutzen haben. In offiziellen Leitlinien und Aufklärungsprogrammen wird darauf hingewiesen, und dennoch verordnen 70% der Ärzte weiterhin diese nutzlosen Medikamente.

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Passende Namen?

Posted on 5. June 2014 by schaefew

Da lacht das Herz des Linguisten: Der BVB hat eine italienische Neuverpflichtung, Immobile. Ein perfekter Name für einen Fußballspieler. Demnächst gibt es in den BVB gegen Bayern nicht nur Dante gegen Sokrates, sondern auch Lahm gegen Immobile. Jetzt heißt es, der BVB habe auch Interesse an Blind. (Schieber soll dagegen gehen, aber sie haben ja noch Großkreuz).

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English vs. Chinese

Posted on 5. June 2014 by schaefew

Which is the top language on the internet? The obvious answer seems to be: English. But Chinese seems to be catching up quickly. The question is, of course, what to count: users, sites, clicks, texts? And: what is a text? And what about multilingual websites?

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Welche Qual!

Posted on 1. June 2014 by schaefew

Bei einem Volkslauf in Luxemburg sah man aus der Ferne eine Bushaltestelle, die QUAL 3 hieß. Als ich mich über die überaus passende Namenswahl wunderte und der Haltestelle näher kam, konnte ich das Schild besser lesen. Darauf stand: QUAI 3

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Just talk!?

Posted on 1. June 2014 by schaefew

What happens if you get language learners to just talk? This was done in an experiment in which three learners were asked to do just that: talk. The result was a highly illuminating dialogue. The three learners talked about Tina Turner, asked each other how they were, where they lived, what the time was, what they did last week and what the weather was like. In other words: a highly incoherent dialogue. That is not surprising, as the learners did not have a reason to talk nor a topic to talk about. A closer analysis shows how this dialogues deviates from other, everyday dialogues: topic changes were abrupt, the speakers did not seem to be interested in what the others were saying, the interaction was mainly based on question – answer units, without the common third turn, the follow-up. There were basically no repetitions, no place holders or acknowledgements like well, erm, I see, no false starts, no self-corrections, no informal language, no hedges like you know, like, sort of, etc. A totally artificial dialogue. It is precisely this abnormal sample of language which makes us see what is normal. (Bygate, Martin: “TESOL and linguistics”, in: Culpeper, Jonathan, Katamba, Francis, et. al. (eds): English Language. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009: 644-645)

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Story and plot

Posted on 1. June 2014 by schaefew

Although they contain the same elements, and the same information, plot is not the same as story. The story reports events in their chronological order, the plot is the order in which the text presents them. They frequently do not coincide. Events are not usually reported in the order in which they occur. They are scrambled. This can be done to create dramatic suspense or to highlight certain events. In reading a text, we form a mental model of the sequence of events being reported. (Chilton, Paul: “Text Linguistics”, in: Culpeper, Jonathan, Katamba, Francis, et. al. (eds): English Language. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009: 183)

 

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Sentences? Utterances!

Posted on 1. June 2014 by schaefew

Sentences may contain the same proposition and still be different. As an evident case, a sentence in English and its equivalent in Polish are two different sentences containing the same proposition. A sentence may also contain elements which do not form part of the proposition: “Adam is still waiting for Roz” contains the same proposition as the same sentence without still. Finally, the same proposition can be expressed by different grammatical forms of different words: “The man patted the dog” and “The dog was patted by the man” contain the same proposition. What we usually produce is not sentences (unless we are in a language class, for instance) but utterances, i.e. instantations of sentences. The sentence “We’ve bought a new car” does not refer to any new car. Speakers use it to refer to a car. The same sentence produced by me this year and twenty years ago or produced by my neighbour refers to different cars. So strictly speaking, linguistics expressions do not by themselves refer, they can only be used by speakers to refer. (Siewierska, Anna: “Semantics”, in: Culpeper, Jonathan, Katamba, Francis, et. al. (eds): English Language. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009: 188-201)

 

 

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