Morphological and Syntactic Variation Across the DACH(L) Borders – Similarities and Differences

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Diminutives show considerable regional variation in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (Seebold 1983, Schirmunski 22010),
- first concerning the form of the respective suffixes (e.g., ke(n)/che(n)/ing in the north vs. -lein/-le/-li/-la/-i/-l/-erl in the south) and other formal markers (e.g., umlaut, attributive adjectives such as klein ‘little’ etc.)
- second with respect to frequencies of use and productivity on the dialect-standard axis (Wrede 1908; Elmentaler 2013; Korecky-Kröll 2022, 2023a)
- and third for the semantic-functional load, which is register-dependent and historical variable (Lameli 2018a, b).
While diminutives are used for the semantic designation of small objects and for the pragmatic expression of endearment for animals and persons, especially children (including hypocoristics of proper names such as Hansi ‘Johnny’, see e.g., Jurafsky 1996; Dressler / Merlini Barbaresi 1994), pejoration has emerged as another semantic-pragmatic dimension of diminutive use, particularly for designations of persons (vgl. Pustka 2015; Technau 2018).
Our contribution is based on all morphological and syntactic diminutive forms found in several swear word dictionaries from the three countries, e.g., Low German Babbelgüütje ‘Goblin, chatterbox‘, Begintje ‘old maid, prayer sister‘, Bieske ‘excited silly girl‘, Biligger/ske ‘extramarital bedmate, whore‘ (Schuster 1997), Austrian Bavarian: aungriats Wiaschtl ‘huffy sausage-DIM’, auszahts Gagauheidl ‘stretched cocoa skin-DIM’, Bemmerl ‘(animal) pellet-DIM’, Brodl ‘pussy, slut’, Burli ‘boy-DIM’ (Ahorner 2021). We aim at shedding light on the regional variety spectra in the German-speaking area of Central Europe, at defining sources of pejorative diminutivized designations of persons and their properties (including gender differences) and at comparing forms and functions of these words across dialect regions.
In a second step, we test the predictions of the dictionaries on the basis of actual naturalistic language production data from Austria: one oral corpus of formal sociolinguistic interviews and informal conversations among friends (Lenz 2023; Korecky-Kröll / Wittibschlager accepted) and one written corpus of user forum postings from an Austrian online newspaper on the COVID-19 pandemic (Korecky-Kröll 2023b).
Preliminary research suggests a regional difference in the use of diminutives as pejorative morphemes. Diminutives also appear more frequently in swear word dictionaries to devalue women and children. However, the statistical and regional distribution of the characteristics described/invoked in the swear words such as laziness, weakness, and promiscuity, need to be studied more closely. Further results show more differences than similarities between the dictionaries and the naturalistic corpora; however, they also show recurring formal patterns (e.g., with -l diminutives used more frequently as pejoratives only, whereas -erl and -li diminutives more often have an ironic connotation, indicating different degrees of pejoration).
We will discuss our results within the linguistics dynamics approach (Schmidt / Herrgen 2011) as well as within the theory of morphopragmatics (Dressler / Merlini Barbaresi 1994).