Linguistic Practices of Decolonization? The Renaming of Colonial Street Names

• Applicant: Dr. Verena Ebert
• Subject Area: Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics ; Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 492996932

This project aims to contribute to our understanding of the decolonization of public space by examining the renaming of streets in Germany which have names linked to the country’s former colonial empire. The question of how to deal with colonial street names is being discussed with increasing intensity by various groups of actors across the country (administrative decision-makers as well as non-administrative groups) and features prominently in debates about racism (e.g. Black Lives Matters). This project contributes to the elaboration of decolonial knowledge-concepts as it takes on a decidedly linguistic point of view on the topic in question for the first time. Using a linguistic-analytical approach and working out the linguistic processes at play in the renaming process and the discourses surrounding it a much discussed (and emotionally laden) topic can be addressed scientifically.In order to address the research question adequately the work is divided into three modules: In Module I, object-language and meta-language data we collected is categorized and analyzed according to linguistic categories. Particularly for more recent renaming discourses and practices, prototypical argumentation patterns must be developed, which are produced by different groups of actors (Module II). Then, the various types of text that appear in the context of renaming are identified and described (Module III).In this way, name inventories (Module I), different complex decision scenarios, interests and motivations (Module II) as well as attitudes and socially shared knowledge (Module III) are identified and analysed from a comparative perspective.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants