RESEARCH

One of the key questions in linguistics is how different varieties or lects such as dialects and standard languages can be defined (‘internal unity’) and distinguished from each other. For example, should varieties be identified solely on the distribution and frequencies of linguistic variants or should they be distinguished based on differing constraint hierarchies and weights (e.g., Bellmann 1983; Auer 1986, 1990; Macha 1991; Scheutz 1999; Lenz 2003; Berruto 2004; Lameli 2004; Knöbl 2012; Kehrein 2012; Möller 2013; Lanwer 2015; Ghyselen 2016; Ghyselen & de Vogelaer 2018; Vergeiner 2019; Lameli & Schönberg 2023)? The proposed DFG Research Unit aims to answer this question under the concept of lectal coherence (cf. e.g., Beaman 2024; Beaman & Sering 2022; Vergeiner et al. 2022), which asks what defines and characterises a variety linguistically, socially, geographically, and cognitively. It should be noted that in the following we use the term lect as in lectal coherence and the term variety as in standard variety interchangeably.

Lectal coherence is often associated with one of the most fundamental principles in modern (socio-)linguistics, i.e., the concept of “ordered heterogeneity” or “structured variation” (Weinreich et al. 1968), which links language variation to spatially, socially, and temporally bound speech communities. The concept of orderly heterogeneity presupposes lectal coherence. In the words of Guy & Hinskens (2016: 2), “the orderly variables that define the community should collectively behave in parallel: variants (or rates of use of variants) that index a given style, status, or a social characteristic should co-occur”. Orderly heterogeneity means that “speakers’ choices between variable linguistic forms are systematically constrained by multiple linguistic and social factors that reflect underlying grammatical systems and that both reflect and partially constitute the social organization of the communities to which users of the language belong” (Bayley 2013: 85).
Given the concept of orderly heterogeneity, varieties such as dialects, sociolects, standard languages, etc. are often defined as comprising specific sets of linguistic structures/units. It is assumed that each variety shows specific patterns of cooccurrence at all linguistic levels (although research thus far has focused strongly on the phonetic-phonological level), i.e., that each variety is defined by a specific configuration and distribution of variants that frequently occur together. However, as Beaman and Guy (2022:1) point out, “the boundaries and internal unity of all such lects are known to be problematic. Frontiers between lects are fuzzy, definitional characteristics are often scalar, and usage is not uniform across all speakers”. Thus, referring to the so-called ‘unity dilemma’, an unresolved question is to what extent varieties form coherent units (on this question see also Lameli & Schönberg 2023). This applies both to the use of varieties and to the perceptions of (and attitudes toward) them.

One of the key issues related to the unity dilemma is that of variation and change. Because linguistic variation is constrained by various factors (e.g., social, geographic, cognitive, and linguistic) and because of the potential influence of “free” variation, it is both difficult to model varieties as unified wholes and to draw boundaries between them. Additional complications arise because language is in a state of constant change, i.e., the variant configurations that define a variety at one point in time can change over time. The unity dilemma is also evident in the geographical and/or social definition or differentiation of varieties (e.g., Heeringa & Nerbonne 2001; Pickl 2016; Lameli & Schönberg 2023), for example, if the speakers come from regions where several dialects play a role in everyday life or if speakers are confronted with different varieties in their professional lives than in their private lives.

Lectal coherence can be particularly well studied in regional varieties of German. The German language area and its dialect landscape offers a solid foundation for research because of its rich regional variation, as well as its social differentiation. Although much research in the German-speaking world has already addressed the question on how to distinguish different varieties (e.g., Bellmann 1983; Auer 1986, 1990; Scheutz 1999; Lenz 2003; Lameli 2004; Kehrein 2012; Möller 2013; Lanwer 2015), there have been very few empirical studies to date focusing on the internal unity of varieties drawing on the concept of lectal coherence (exceptions are e.g., Beaman 2022, 2024; Vergeiner et al. 2022; Lameli & Schönberg 2023; for research related to other languages, see also Beaman & Guy 2022). 

While the focus of the envisaged DFG Research Unit on lectal coherence is on varieties of German, our intention is to obtain results relevant beyond the German-speaking area. Specifically, we aim to answer the question of how the concept of lectal coherence can be empirically operationalised and statistically tested and, more broadly, what insights the comparison of different levels of the linguistic architecture (e.g., phonological, morphosyntactic, prosodic) and different types of coherence (e.g., co-occurrence, implicational, scalar) can contribute to our overall knowledge of variation and change in (socio-)linguistic systems.

Quantitative Linguistics, Psycholinguistics

Prof. Dr. Harald Baayen
University Of Tübingen

Variationist Sociolinguistics And Dialectology

Dr. Karen V. Beaman
University Of Tübingen

Variationist Sociolinguistics And Dialectology

Prof. Dr. Lars Bülow
University Of Munich

Researchers	University/Affiliation	University/Affiliation
Prof. Dr. Harald Baayen	University of Tübingen	Quantitative Linguistics, Psycholinguistics
Dr. Karen V. Beaman	University of Tübingen	Variationist Sociolinguistics and Dialectology
Prof. Dr. Lars Bülow	University of Munich	Variationist Sociolinguistics and Dialectology
Prof. Dr. Lucie Flek	University of Bonn	Computational Linguistics, NLP, AI
Dr. Michele Gubian	University of Munich, IPS	Phonetics and Speech Processing
Prof. Dr. Adriana Hanulíková	University of Freiburg	Psycholinguistics
Prof. Dr. Jonathan Harrington	University of Munich, IPS	Phonetics and Speech Processing
PD Dr. Felicitas Kleber	University of Munich, IPS	Phonetics and Speech Processing
Prof. Dr. Alfred Lameli	University of Marburg, Research Center Deutscher Sprachatlas	Variationist Sociolinguistics and Dialectology
Prof. Dr. Barbara Plank	University of Munich, CIS	Computational Linguistics, NLP, AI
Prof. Dr. Sarah Schimke	University of Munich	Psycholinguistics
Dr. Konstantin Sering	University of Tübingen	Quantitative Linguistics, Psycholinguistics
Prof. Dr. Barbara Sonnenhauser	University of Munich	Contact Linguistics
Dr. Philip C. Vergeiner	University of Munich	Variationist Sociolinguistics and Dialectology