Linguistic history of discourse Introduction to the analysis of public-political language use after 1945

The workbook "Linguistische Diskursgeschichte" ("Linguistic Discourse History") represents a variety of discourse analysis for students of German studies and related subjects that has been established for thirty years. First, the theoretical foundations of discourse linguistics based on linguistic constructivism, the concept of the 'public sphere' and the basics of narrative linguistic historiography are clarified and discussed. Subsequently, the methodological three-step analysis of the public-political vocabulary, metaphor fields and argumentation patterns or topoi is presented. In the empirical part of the book, the main features of the discourse-historical development of the topics of foreign security and the military, migration and economic crises are presented. The discourse on conspiracy theories, on the other hand, is more recent. The analysis of solidarity can be seen as an example of a conceptual history using linguistic means. A final focus is the historical presentation of language-related discourses, which are often subsumed under the label of political correctness. With this volume, students learn from concrete examples how our social "reality" is linguistically constituted.

• Recent linguistic history is closely interlinked with contemporary history
• Clarifies the linguistic construction of heterogeneous realities since 1945
• Democratic language culture becomes recognizable in practice, which contributes to increased language sensitivity

Information on authors / editors

Martin Wengeler, University of Trier; David Römer, University of Kassel.

Further information can be found here.