Julia Schlüter | Otto-Friedrich University Bamberg (original) (raw)
Papers by Julia Schlüter
NOWELE. North-Western European Language Evolution, Dec 11, 2023
Otto-Friedrich-Universität eBooks, 2019
Zwar besteht Konsens, dass Muttersprachlerinnen und Muttersprachler eine bessere Intuition für ih... more Zwar besteht Konsens, dass Muttersprachlerinnen und Muttersprachler eine bessere Intuition für ihre eigene(n) Sprache(n) besitzen als Sprecherinnen und Sprecher, die die Sprache als Zweit-oder Drittsprache erlernt haben. Doch kann wohl jeder, der Unterricht in einer Fremdsprache erlebt oder eine neue Sprache in einem anderssprachigen Umfeld erlernt hat, Goethes Aussage bestätigen: Wir wissen erst dann richtig etwas über eine Sprache -und damit auch über die eigene und über Sprache an sich, wenn wir nach den ersten Lebensjahren, die wir in der oder den Muttersprache(n) zugebracht haben, eine fremde Sprache erlernen. Wir kämpfen mit ihren Eigenheiten, mühen uns mit ihren Unregelmäßigkeiten ab, treffen immer wieder Ausprägungen an, von denen im Lehrbuch keine Rede war, die uns verunsichern und deren Verwendung wir nicht richtig einschätzen können, oder gebrauchen versuchsweise eine neu gelernte Ausdrucksweise, mit der wir Stirnrunzeln, Missverständnis oder ungewollte Erheiterung ernten. Dieser Beitrag setzt sich zum Ziel, die Bedeutung des Wissens über Sprache und der aktuellen linguistischen Forschung -so wie sie (nicht nur) am Lehrstuhl für Englische Sprachwissenschaft in Bamberg betrieben wird und sich auch in der Lehre widerspiegelt -im Hinblick auf die 1
Journal of Data Mining and Digital Humanities, Dec 22, 2020
Using the re-emergence of the /h/ onset from Early Modern to Present-Day English as a case study,... more Using the re-emergence of the /h/ onset from Early Modern to Present-Day English as a case study, we illustrate the making and the functions of a purpose-built web application named (an:a)-lyzer for the interactive visualization of the raw n-gram data provided by Google Books Ngrams (GBN). The database has been compiled from the full text of over 4.5 million books in English, totalling over 468 billion words and covering roughly five centuries. We focus on bigrams consisting of words beginning with graphic preceded by the indefinite article allomorphs a and an, which serve as a diagnostic of the consonantal strength of the initial /h/. The sheer size of this database affords us the possibility to attain a maximal diachronic resolution, to distinguish highly specific groups of -initial lexical items, and even to trace the diffusion of the observed changes across individual lexical units. The functions programmed into the app enable us to explore the data interactively by filtering, selecting and viewing them according to various parameters that were manually annotated into the data frame. We also discuss limitations of the database, of the app and of the explorative data analysis. The app is publicly accessible online at .
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Mar 2, 2020
HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific r... more HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.
Language Variation and Change, Jul 1, 2001
In Early Modern English, double comparatives were often encountered in both spoken and written la... more In Early Modern English, double comparatives were often encountered in both spoken and written language. The present article investigates the redundantly marked comparative worser in relation to its irregular, but etymologically justified, counterpart worse. My aim is to examine the diachronic development of the form as well as its distribution in the written language of the 16th and 17th centuries. Two detailed corpus studies are used to reveal the set of parameters underlying the variation between worse and worser, which include system congruity, semantics, and standardization effects. However, the focus here is on the tendency to maintain an alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables, known as the Principle of Rhythmic Alternation. This prosodic principle (which has been argued to be particularly influential in English) turns out to be responsible for most of the results obtained in the analysis of the corpus data.
Routledge eBooks, Nov 14, 2023
This chapter investigates the role that varieties play in the education of future teachers of Eng... more This chapter investigates the role that varieties play in the education of future teachers of English at German universities. The pluricentric and international nature of English affords many examples where varieties differ substantially at a level below the awareness even of experienced practitioners. I report major results from a questionnaire study carried out among native-speaking lectors of English teaching at German universities. Competing prepositional variants were subjected to acceptability judgements by 76 participants. The quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design seeks, firstly, to examine their tolerance of variant forms, and secondly, to foster the view that corpora can be leveraged to handle variability. The results demonstrate that native speakers are indeed inherently limited by the habits formed by their native varieties. However, direct exposure to displays of corpus data testifying to the existence of diverging standards turns out to be inadequate to increase participants’ acceptance of the variants they are less familiar with. To overcome these limitations, the discussion suggests that a new mindset, embracing English as an International Language, will only succeed with the support of a new skillset: corpus literacy, and specifically the use of international corpora as referencing tools.
Data and Methods in Corpus Linguistics
Data and Methods in Corpus Linguistics
Sprachwissenschaft auf dem Weg in das dritte Jahrtausend : Akten des 34. Linguistischen Kolloquiums in Germersheim 1999, 2002
Phonological Weakness in English, 2009
Rhythm in Cognition and Grammar
Journal of Data Mining & Digital Humanities
Using the re-emergence of the /h/ onset from Early Modern to Present-Day English as a case study,... more Using the re-emergence of the /h/ onset from Early Modern to Present-Day English as a case study, we illustrate the making and the functions of a purpose-built web application named (an:a) lyzer for the interactive visualization of the raw n-gram data provided by Google Books Ngrams (GBN). The database has been compiled from the full text of over 4.5 million books in English, totalling over 468 billion words and covering roughly five centuries. We focus on bigrams consisting of words beginning with graphic preceded by the indefinite article allomorphs a and an, which serve as a diagnostic of the consonantal strength of the initial /h/. The sheer size of this database affords us the possibility to attain a maximal diachronic resolution, to distinguish highly specific groups of -initial lexical items, and even to trace the diffusion of the observed changes across individual lexical units. The functions programmed into the app enable us to explore the data interactively by filtering, s...
English and American Studies in German
... and enjoy-able. Thanks are further due to our student assistants, in particular Julia Hilker,... more ... and enjoy-able. Thanks are further due to our student assistants, in particular Julia Hilker, Mareike Ibrom, Andreas Mankel, Andre Schaefer and Christian Voss, who helped with countless favours, large or small. Stefan Thomas ...
Das Vorhandensein von Variation in der Sprache ist eines ihrer wesentlichen Merkmale, auch wenn v... more Das Vorhandensein von Variation in der Sprache ist eines ihrer wesentlichen Merkmale, auch wenn von Sprachkritikern, normativen Grammatikern und Hobbylinguisten gern das Gegenteil propagiert wird. Schon zu einer Zeit, als eine solche Einsicht alles andere als selbstverständlich war, beschreiben Weinreich, Labov und Herzog in einem mittlerweile klassischen Aufsatz Sprache als gekennzeichnet durch »orderly heterogeneity«, deren Fehlen unnatürlich und »dysfunctional« wäre. Gemeint ist, dass eine Sprache ohne Heterogenität und Variation eines Teils ihrer Funktionen beraubt wäre, die sie in einer ebenfalls komplex gegliederten Sprechergemeinschaft erfüllt. 4 So könnten Sprecherinnen und Sprecher beispielsweise sprachlich nicht zwischen formellen und informellen Situationen differenzieren oder gegenüber ihrem Gesprächspartner nicht zwischen höflicher und persönlicher Redeweise unterscheiden. Poetische und sachliche Schilderung würden sich derselben sprachlichen Mittel bedienen. Es gäbe weder Dialekte noch Sprachkontaktphänomene. Jugendliche müssten sich so äußern wie ihre Eltern und 3
Corpora and Lexis, 2018
In this paper we argue that (near) synonymy can result in syntactic specialization, and we test t... more In this paper we argue that (near) synonymy can result in syntactic specialization, and we test the hypothesis that one major factor underlying such fixation may be rhythmic in nature. Thus, the analysis extends the study of the preference for alternating stressed and unstressed syllables (Schlüter, 2005) to lexical choices. We investigate the syntactic distribution of the (near-)synonymous adjective pairs rich vs. wealthy, fast/quick vs. rapid, glad vs. happy and shut vs. closed, showing that the monosyllabic members-or the one with a short syllable as opposed to a long syllable-tend to be underrepresented in prenominal position. Our hypothesis is that, due to the pervasiveness of initial stress in English nouns, monosyllabic adjectives tend to be avoided in prenominal position if they can be replaced by disyllabic equivalents. By extension, in the absence of such equivalents, other kinds of temporal spacing between stresses, such as long instead of short syllables, can satisfy the rhythmic requirement. Drawing on large historical as well as present-day corpora covering the 19 th and 20 th centuries (mainly COHA and COCA), we portray some relatively stable asymmetrical diachronic and synchronic distributions of these synonym pairs and triplets across attributive and predicative uses. The analysis will also point to potentially interacting factors, such as concomitant semantic specialization resulting from this syntactic fixation and the status of (fixed) collocations. The latter will be analysed in more diachronic depth on the basis of EEBO.
NOWELE. North-Western European Language Evolution, Dec 11, 2023
Otto-Friedrich-Universität eBooks, 2019
Zwar besteht Konsens, dass Muttersprachlerinnen und Muttersprachler eine bessere Intuition für ih... more Zwar besteht Konsens, dass Muttersprachlerinnen und Muttersprachler eine bessere Intuition für ihre eigene(n) Sprache(n) besitzen als Sprecherinnen und Sprecher, die die Sprache als Zweit-oder Drittsprache erlernt haben. Doch kann wohl jeder, der Unterricht in einer Fremdsprache erlebt oder eine neue Sprache in einem anderssprachigen Umfeld erlernt hat, Goethes Aussage bestätigen: Wir wissen erst dann richtig etwas über eine Sprache -und damit auch über die eigene und über Sprache an sich, wenn wir nach den ersten Lebensjahren, die wir in der oder den Muttersprache(n) zugebracht haben, eine fremde Sprache erlernen. Wir kämpfen mit ihren Eigenheiten, mühen uns mit ihren Unregelmäßigkeiten ab, treffen immer wieder Ausprägungen an, von denen im Lehrbuch keine Rede war, die uns verunsichern und deren Verwendung wir nicht richtig einschätzen können, oder gebrauchen versuchsweise eine neu gelernte Ausdrucksweise, mit der wir Stirnrunzeln, Missverständnis oder ungewollte Erheiterung ernten. Dieser Beitrag setzt sich zum Ziel, die Bedeutung des Wissens über Sprache und der aktuellen linguistischen Forschung -so wie sie (nicht nur) am Lehrstuhl für Englische Sprachwissenschaft in Bamberg betrieben wird und sich auch in der Lehre widerspiegelt -im Hinblick auf die 1
Journal of Data Mining and Digital Humanities, Dec 22, 2020
Using the re-emergence of the /h/ onset from Early Modern to Present-Day English as a case study,... more Using the re-emergence of the /h/ onset from Early Modern to Present-Day English as a case study, we illustrate the making and the functions of a purpose-built web application named (an:a)-lyzer for the interactive visualization of the raw n-gram data provided by Google Books Ngrams (GBN). The database has been compiled from the full text of over 4.5 million books in English, totalling over 468 billion words and covering roughly five centuries. We focus on bigrams consisting of words beginning with graphic preceded by the indefinite article allomorphs a and an, which serve as a diagnostic of the consonantal strength of the initial /h/. The sheer size of this database affords us the possibility to attain a maximal diachronic resolution, to distinguish highly specific groups of -initial lexical items, and even to trace the diffusion of the observed changes across individual lexical units. The functions programmed into the app enable us to explore the data interactively by filtering, selecting and viewing them according to various parameters that were manually annotated into the data frame. We also discuss limitations of the database, of the app and of the explorative data analysis. The app is publicly accessible online at .
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Mar 2, 2020
HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific r... more HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.
Language Variation and Change, Jul 1, 2001
In Early Modern English, double comparatives were often encountered in both spoken and written la... more In Early Modern English, double comparatives were often encountered in both spoken and written language. The present article investigates the redundantly marked comparative worser in relation to its irregular, but etymologically justified, counterpart worse. My aim is to examine the diachronic development of the form as well as its distribution in the written language of the 16th and 17th centuries. Two detailed corpus studies are used to reveal the set of parameters underlying the variation between worse and worser, which include system congruity, semantics, and standardization effects. However, the focus here is on the tendency to maintain an alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables, known as the Principle of Rhythmic Alternation. This prosodic principle (which has been argued to be particularly influential in English) turns out to be responsible for most of the results obtained in the analysis of the corpus data.
Routledge eBooks, Nov 14, 2023
This chapter investigates the role that varieties play in the education of future teachers of Eng... more This chapter investigates the role that varieties play in the education of future teachers of English at German universities. The pluricentric and international nature of English affords many examples where varieties differ substantially at a level below the awareness even of experienced practitioners. I report major results from a questionnaire study carried out among native-speaking lectors of English teaching at German universities. Competing prepositional variants were subjected to acceptability judgements by 76 participants. The quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design seeks, firstly, to examine their tolerance of variant forms, and secondly, to foster the view that corpora can be leveraged to handle variability. The results demonstrate that native speakers are indeed inherently limited by the habits formed by their native varieties. However, direct exposure to displays of corpus data testifying to the existence of diverging standards turns out to be inadequate to increase participants’ acceptance of the variants they are less familiar with. To overcome these limitations, the discussion suggests that a new mindset, embracing English as an International Language, will only succeed with the support of a new skillset: corpus literacy, and specifically the use of international corpora as referencing tools.
Data and Methods in Corpus Linguistics
Data and Methods in Corpus Linguistics
Sprachwissenschaft auf dem Weg in das dritte Jahrtausend : Akten des 34. Linguistischen Kolloquiums in Germersheim 1999, 2002
Phonological Weakness in English, 2009
Rhythm in Cognition and Grammar
Journal of Data Mining & Digital Humanities
Using the re-emergence of the /h/ onset from Early Modern to Present-Day English as a case study,... more Using the re-emergence of the /h/ onset from Early Modern to Present-Day English as a case study, we illustrate the making and the functions of a purpose-built web application named (an:a) lyzer for the interactive visualization of the raw n-gram data provided by Google Books Ngrams (GBN). The database has been compiled from the full text of over 4.5 million books in English, totalling over 468 billion words and covering roughly five centuries. We focus on bigrams consisting of words beginning with graphic preceded by the indefinite article allomorphs a and an, which serve as a diagnostic of the consonantal strength of the initial /h/. The sheer size of this database affords us the possibility to attain a maximal diachronic resolution, to distinguish highly specific groups of -initial lexical items, and even to trace the diffusion of the observed changes across individual lexical units. The functions programmed into the app enable us to explore the data interactively by filtering, s...
English and American Studies in German
... and enjoy-able. Thanks are further due to our student assistants, in particular Julia Hilker,... more ... and enjoy-able. Thanks are further due to our student assistants, in particular Julia Hilker, Mareike Ibrom, Andreas Mankel, Andre Schaefer and Christian Voss, who helped with countless favours, large or small. Stefan Thomas ...
Das Vorhandensein von Variation in der Sprache ist eines ihrer wesentlichen Merkmale, auch wenn v... more Das Vorhandensein von Variation in der Sprache ist eines ihrer wesentlichen Merkmale, auch wenn von Sprachkritikern, normativen Grammatikern und Hobbylinguisten gern das Gegenteil propagiert wird. Schon zu einer Zeit, als eine solche Einsicht alles andere als selbstverständlich war, beschreiben Weinreich, Labov und Herzog in einem mittlerweile klassischen Aufsatz Sprache als gekennzeichnet durch »orderly heterogeneity«, deren Fehlen unnatürlich und »dysfunctional« wäre. Gemeint ist, dass eine Sprache ohne Heterogenität und Variation eines Teils ihrer Funktionen beraubt wäre, die sie in einer ebenfalls komplex gegliederten Sprechergemeinschaft erfüllt. 4 So könnten Sprecherinnen und Sprecher beispielsweise sprachlich nicht zwischen formellen und informellen Situationen differenzieren oder gegenüber ihrem Gesprächspartner nicht zwischen höflicher und persönlicher Redeweise unterscheiden. Poetische und sachliche Schilderung würden sich derselben sprachlichen Mittel bedienen. Es gäbe weder Dialekte noch Sprachkontaktphänomene. Jugendliche müssten sich so äußern wie ihre Eltern und 3
Corpora and Lexis, 2018
In this paper we argue that (near) synonymy can result in syntactic specialization, and we test t... more In this paper we argue that (near) synonymy can result in syntactic specialization, and we test the hypothesis that one major factor underlying such fixation may be rhythmic in nature. Thus, the analysis extends the study of the preference for alternating stressed and unstressed syllables (Schlüter, 2005) to lexical choices. We investigate the syntactic distribution of the (near-)synonymous adjective pairs rich vs. wealthy, fast/quick vs. rapid, glad vs. happy and shut vs. closed, showing that the monosyllabic members-or the one with a short syllable as opposed to a long syllable-tend to be underrepresented in prenominal position. Our hypothesis is that, due to the pervasiveness of initial stress in English nouns, monosyllabic adjectives tend to be avoided in prenominal position if they can be replaced by disyllabic equivalents. By extension, in the absence of such equivalents, other kinds of temporal spacing between stresses, such as long instead of short syllables, can satisfy the rhythmic requirement. Drawing on large historical as well as present-day corpora covering the 19 th and 20 th centuries (mainly COHA and COCA), we portray some relatively stable asymmetrical diachronic and synchronic distributions of these synonym pairs and triplets across attributive and predicative uses. The analysis will also point to potentially interacting factors, such as concomitant semantic specialization resulting from this syntactic fixation and the status of (fixed) collocations. The latter will be analysed in more diachronic depth on the basis of EEBO.