How have communicative patterns developed in German, and what areal characteristics and differences have there been or are there? Especially areal differences and developments have not yet been systematically investigated.

The subproject P4 at PLUS Salzburg has set itself the goal of investigating the development of communicative patterns in the recent history of German. In order to identify and analyze such patterns, corpora of handwritten letters written between the beginning of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th century are used. The basis for the study therefore consists of a large number of letters written in different contexts. They range from emigrants' letters and soldiers' letters to letters from patients and letters of petition from miners and their relatives.

On the basis of these texts, the use of routine formulas in informal and formal contexts and in connection with various writing occasions will be examined. On the other hand, the use of selected speech acts (e.g., requests) and the use of particles will be analyzed. The findings obtained using quantitative and qualitative methods will also be compared with contemporary advice literature (so-called “letter writers”) in order to determine whether they had an influence on written communication and, if so, what form this took.

Project director:

• Prof. Dr. Stephan Elspaß (PLUS Salzburg)

Researcher:

• Laura Fischlhammer (PLUS Salzburg)