Of Nonpersons and Human Defective Specimens: On the Linguistic Construction of Childhood and Disability (F05 (ehem.C01))

• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 442261292

The continuation project examines linguistic asymmetries and marginalizations in discourses on children and people with disabilities. Through specific linguistic practices, these groups are marked as deviant specimens and thereby pushed toward the conceptual margins of the human. The project aims to a) comparatively analyze the specific nature of deviations perceived as deficits in the two case studies, b) trace in how these linguistic practices have developed diachronically from the 19th to the 21st century, and c) examine the linguistic levels at which such distinctions manifest. It combines quantitative and qualitative approaches, drawing on corpus linguistic and lexicographic tools.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1482: Studies in Human Differentiation
• Applicant Institution: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
• Project Head: Professorin Dr. Damaris Nübling