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As recent findings on language attitude research in Austria indicate, the situational adequacy and social prestige of different standard and non-standard varieties in Austria is highly complex and strongly context-bound. Regarding standard language usage in particular, a multitude of factors (like for example the (perceived) origin of both speaker and listener) influence when and by whom such varieties are deemed appropriate by other language users (cf. for example Koppensteiner/Lenz 2021; Soukup/Moosmüller 2011). In order to deepen these findings, especially towards revealing broader attitudinal patterns within Austrian society from a diachronic perspective, investigations of publicly accessible media texts in the sense of societal treatment studies (Garrett 2010) remain an important research desideratum.
Press corpora in particular represent a hitherto little-studied but valuable data source for questions related to language attitudes. Through the analysis of print media texts that are addressed to the wider population, macro-level insights into the conceptual meaning of and underlying attitudes to standard varieties can be gained by examining how specific linguistic varieties are negotiated within the corpus. In this regard, the operationalization of frames (cf. Scholz/Ziem 2015; Ziem 2008) offers a methodological basis for examining attitudinal and discourse related aspects of standard language in press texts.
In the study presented, all 1916 instances of the lemma Hochdeutsch ‘High German’ (the most common term for a standard variety outside of linguistic discourse; cf. Koppensteiner/Lenz 2020) from the last 27 years found within four Austrian daily newspapers of supra-regional relevance (Der Standard, Die Presse, Kronen Zeitung, Wiener Zeitung) were subjected to a frame-based analysis. Following this approach generalized associations with the concept of standard language in Austria can be unveiled, such as typical groups of speakers, situations, or even broader fields of discourse within which standard language (or more specifically High German) is discussed.
The proposed paper will address the following questions:
How is the term High German negotiated in Austrian newspapers in the 21st century?
Which speakers are commonly associated with High German within Austrian print media texts and what level of competence is attributed to those speakers?
Which situational contexts can be identified as prototypical standard language domains within Austria based on the print media analysis?
Early results show that domains that are usually associated with standard language in the academic literature, such as national television or the education sector, also play a major role for the negotiation of standard language concepts within a print media context. Within these domains, however, the focus is less on model speakers (such as newsreaders) and more on contexts in which the usage of standard and non-standard varieties varies according to the specific situation, as is the case with actors or athletes.