2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Theoretical Research on Language Change of Modern German
| Project/Area Number |
13610633
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
独語・独文学
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| Research Institution | Musashi University |
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Principal Investigator |
NITTA Haruo Musashi University, Faculty of Humanities, Professor, 人文学部, 教授 (00012443)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2001 – 2004
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| Keywords | Social History / Modern Germany / Language Change / Sociolinguistics / History of German / Early New High German / Written Language / Spoken Language |
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| Research Abstract |
In the modern age the German language strengthened the charater of a written language, which seems to be because in the early modern society the communication by means of documents became more important. In this research I tried to prove this hypothesis from the viewpoint of sociolinguistics by analysing document materials. The results are :
1.The study of theories of language change and the analysis of materials grounding on it demonstrated that a sociolinguistic point of view related to social change is very effective in the research of language change.
2.The analysis of writings of grammarians such as J.Schottel or J.Gottsched and the inquiry into the consciousness of norm of language in the early modern German society made it clear that the language in writings of these grammarians and that of religious thinkers like as M.Luther or J.Eck had a great influence on language change, while there were many dialects reflecting the German society, in which there was no political unity.
3.It was confirmed that at the Reformation in the 16th century the ‘Flugblotter'(leaflets) played a big role in language enlightment of common people.
4.The analysis of style in writings of M.Luther, H.Sachs, J.Eck, and J.Emser brougth out that they made use of various rheotoric technique aiming for lightening of common people but the style of their writings was very concise and easy to understand by hearing, which reflects the illiterate situation at the majority of common people in those days.
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Research Products
(16 results)
