Ein Lothar Matthäus braucht keine dritte Person . Personennamen mit Indefinitartikel als Stancemarker in Politikerreden und Fußballblogs

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a corpus study of political debates and soccer blogs, illustrating that personal names can be combined with indefinite articles, particularly when referring to prominent figures (e.g., ein Donald Trump or ein Lothar Matthäus). The pattern frequently carries a generic meaning, indicating a reading to the effect of ‘someone like Donald Trump’. Additionally, there are instances in which the pattern denotes a specific and even definite referent. These definite-specific usages regularly occur in both genres but are particularly prevalent in soccer blogs, especially in sections featuring discussions among soccer fans who are not professional writers. The usage of ein + personal name is so common and strongly associated with the language of soccer fans that it functions as a variant of bare personal names, serving as a contextualization cue. By utilizing the pattern ein + personal name, speakers can signal their belonging to the group of soccer fans (doing being a soccer fan) and, in doing so, take a stance on the same group (style stance). Furthermore, all usages have in common that they convey an affective stance toward the person bearing the name, who is either positively or negatively evaluated depending on the context.