The social versus the regional

Vergeiner, Philip C. ; Bülow, Lars und Elspaß, Stephan (2025): The social versus the regional. A multivariate analysis of (morpho-)syntactic variation in Austria's rural dialects. In: Stratton, James M. und Beaman, Karen V. (eds.) : Expanding Variationist Sociolinguistic Research in Varieties of German. New York: Routledge. pp. 35-60

Abstract

This chapter investigates (morpho-)syntactic variation in varieties of German in Austria, examining to what extent social factors constrain variation. Based on data from an extensive survey of rural varieties in Austria, the variation of 18 (morpho-)syntactic variables is investigated in relation to gender, age, and dialect region. Results from descriptive statistics as well as multivariate and univariate statistical comparisons indicate that region is the most important factor, followed by age. Gender, in contrast, has only a marginal effect. Furthermore, there are no significant interactions between the three factors. The non-significant effect of gender can be explained by the fact that (morpho-)syntactic variables do not seem to lend themselves easily to social indexicalisation, especially in rural dialect communities. Age-related variation, revealing potential ongoing change, seems to particularly affect linguistic variables located at the interface of morphology and syntax.

• Item Type: Book Section
• Faculties: Languages and Literatures > Department 1
• Subjects: 400 Language > 430 German and related languages
• ISBN: 978-1-003-37970-6 ; 978-1-03-246011-6
• Place of Publication: New York