FOR 5182:  Controversial discourses: Language history as contemporary history since 1990

• Subject Area: Humanities
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 441142207

The research group began its work three and a half years ago with the aim of examining and presenting the recent linguistic history of German. The objective was to build upon existing, but largely scattered, discourse-linguistic studies – such as those on climate protection, economic crises or migration – by systematically extending the scope to additional areas. The long-term goal is to produce an empirically grounded, comprehensive account of German linguistic history as discourse history since 1990. The central aim of the research group rests on the theoretical conviction that language has a constitutive role in shaping reality. From this perspective, an inquiry into how different “realities” have been discursively constructed and legitimized across thematic fields offers an important complement to contemporary historiography, which too often neglects the linguistic and discursive dimensions of events. For example, in accounts of economic crises, the role of discursive constructions that make such “crises” perceptible in the first place is frequently overlooked. Given the scope of this endeavor, the project was conceived as a collaborative research initiative spanning two funding phases, designed to address a wide range of thematically interwoven fields over a period of roughly thirty years each. In preparing the initial proposal, the group developed hypotheses concerning funda-mental discourse-semantic figures, which allow thematic clusters – and with them project pairings. During the first funding phase, discourses on social security, bioethics, the environment, and external security (particularly military interventions) were examined. Drawing on a large corpus of print media and parliamentary debates and employing a variety of methods, these studies explored the role of core figures such as Participation & Equality, Human & Technology, Individual & Society, and Freedom & Security. In the second funding phase, these analyses will be extended to include discourses on diversity and digitalization, education, and internal security. The group has also actively engaged with methodological debates in discourse linguistics over the past decades. In particular, it has sought to overcome the dichotomy between quantitative and qualitative methods. This approach requires substantial effort in corpus construction and analysis, drawing especially on corpus-linguistic methods that have proven increasingly valuable for discourse analysis in recent years. By combining digital techniques of text preparation, annotation, analysis, and visualization with statistical methods, discourse linguistics can be applied to the growing volume of ac-accessible texts in new and productive ways. One of the group’s key contributions, therefore, is the development of a collaborative methodology for interpretive discourse history, supported by shared digital infrastructure. The groundwork laid in the first funding phase will be taken up and advanced in the second.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• International Connection: Switzerland

Projects

• Coordination Funds (Applicant Wengeler, Martin )
• "Germany's freedom and security are now also being defended in the Hindu Kush”. Discourses on internal and external security in Germany since 1990 (Applicant Wengeler, Martin )
• Human and Technology. Controversial discourses on the mechanisation of the living world (TP 2: Human and Technology, Phase 2: Digitisation) (Applicants Müller, Marcus ;  Spieß, Constanze )
• Individual freedom and social norms – Sustainability and responsibility discourses on the environment and education since 1990 (Subproject 3: Individual and society, Phase 2: Educational discourse) (Applicants Janich, Nina ;  Kilian, Jörg )
• Methodology and Reflection: Linguistic Discourse Historiography as Digitally Supported Group Research (TP 5: Methodological Cross-Sectional Project, Phase 2) (Applicant Müller, Marcus )
• Participation and Equality – Discourses on Inclusion and Solidarity as well as Diversity and Equity since 1990 (SP 1: Participation and Equality, Phase 2: Discourses on Diversity and Equity) (Applicants Bubenhofer, Noah ;  Schröter, Juliane )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Martin Wengeler