Fundamentals of a general theory of pluricentric languages
This book is the result of my long-standing involvement with pluricentric languages, which for me personally began in 1980. Since then, I have been able to observe and, to some extent, help shape all phases of the development of the con-cept of the pluricentricity of languages. While the aim in the 1980s and 1990s was still to overcome the prevailing concept of monocentricity, which was predomi-nant in German and many other languages, this changed in the 1990s.
It was mainly the many works by Michael Clyne that brought about a lasting change and helped the concept of pluricentricity to break through. This applied to German in general and to Austrian German in particular, where a positive change in reputation and usage has been observed since then. This also applied to other pluricentric languages, notably to English.
Encouraged by Michael Clyne’s support, the ‘International Working Group on Non-dominant Varieties of Pluricentric Languages’ (WGNV) was founded in 2010 at the Pluricentric Conference organised by Augusto da Silva in Braga, Portu-gal. In 2011 I organised the first WGNV conference, the papers of which were pub-lished in an edited volume. A total of 11 WGNV conferences have been held since 2011, and the 12th conference will take place in May 2025 in Lisbon. Since 2011, 214 papers by 299 authors have been published.
This book is an attempt to summarise the theory of pluricentricity and to re-flect the current state of the discussion. In doing so, I rely on my own work as well as on that published in the context of the WGNDV conferences and others. Of course, relevant work by other researchers has also been included.
I would like to sincerely thank Juan Thomas, Maria Eugênia L. Duarte, and Gerhard Edelmann for reviewing the manuscript and feedback.
The book is intended to help clarify key questions of pluricentricity and promote the further development of the concept. I hope that the book will inspire readers and help them with their research.
Wie man mit fehlerhaften Korpusdaten Sprachpolitik macht: Der Fall der Variantengrammatik des Deutschen
Dieses Buch präsentiert die Analysen von 200/969 Einträgen der Variantengrammatik (VARGR) des Deutschen anhand eines Vergleichskorpus von 19 Milliarden Wörtern. 60% der Einträge (581) sind demnach falsch bzw. nicht bestätigt. Die Informationen auf der VARGR-Website sind daher äußerst unzuverlässig und oft irreführend. Die VARGR hat eine Reihe sprachpolitischer Ziele. Es sollte bewiesen werden, dass das Standardmodell der Plurizentrik durch die empirischen Daten der Variantengrammatik widerlegt und stattdessen das Modell der Pluriarealität des Deutschen für das Deutsche gültig ist. Dieses Ziel wurde verfehlt und auch das Argument, dass es keine nationalen Varietäten des Deutschen gibt, wurde widerlegt. Die Analysen zeigen ganz eindeutig, dass Deutsch eine plurizentrische Sprache ist.
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This book presents the analysis of 200/969 entries of the Variantengrammar (VARGR) of German using a comparative corpus of 19 million words. 60% of the VARGR entries (581) turned out to be incorrect or unconfirmed. The information on the VARGR website is therefore extremely unreliable and often misleading. The VARGR has a number of language policy objectives. The aim was to prove that the standard model of pluricentricity is refuted by the data of the VARGR and instead the model of the pluriareality of German is proved. This goal was not achieved and the argument that there are no national varieties of German was also refuted. The analyses clearly show that German is a pluricentric language.
Pluricentricity in foreign language teaching: The case of English and German in the Hungarian educational system
This book investigates the role of the pluricentricity of English and German in the Hungarian education system. The basis of the study is the research question: What role does the linguistic diversity play in language education in Hungary?
Pluricentric languages in different theoretical and educational contexts
This is the second of two volumes that presents part of the outcome 9th World Conference on Pluricentric Languages that took place from August 26-28 2021. The volume contains eight contributions. Seven of them were presented at the conference. A further paper was included for topicality reasons. The conference was organised by the “Working Group on Non-Dominant Varieties of Pluricentric Lan-guages (WGNDV), this time hosted by the Austrian German Research Centre in Graz. Due to the pandemic and ensuing complications for travelling, the conference was held online via ZOOM much to the satisfaction of all participants.
The conference had three focal points: (1) Pluricentric languages in the Americas; (2) The localisation of global audiovisual and print media in pluricentric language areas; (There will be an extra publication on this theme envisaged by the end of 2022); (3) General section – Pluricentric languages worldwide. The papers of this volume refer to the topics and (3) while the papers of theme (1) are pub-lished in volume (1). A separate volume concerning topic (2) is planned to be published at the end of 2022. The articles of this volume deal with theoretical and educational matters.
Pluricentric Theory beyond Dominance and Non-dominance: A Critical View
The present volume contains ten contributions. Six of them were presented in Stockholm at the workshop “The Theory and Description of Pluricentric Languages- Beyond Concepts of Dominance and Non-Dominance, which was hosted at the conference “The Languages, Nations, Cultures: Pluricentric Languages in Context(s) Conference was held at Stockholm University in May 2019. Four other contributions have been accepted because some of the papers presented at the workshop could not be delivered because of difficulties beyond the control of the authors.
Although many of these papers still utilize the concepts of dominance and non-dominance, they are used to advance the theory of pluricentricity in general or are used as tools to explain other linguistic or social phenomena. Each contribution, in its own way, is a testimony to the usefulness of pluricentricity as a theoretical framework. And, they show that the alternative concept of “pluriareality” that is favoured by some linguists working on German has no theoretical basis and cannot describe pluricentric languages correctly.