On the Intersection between Variational and Contrastive Pragmatics: An Analysis of Requests for Repair in Complaints by German-Speaking Belgians

Abstract

Abstract Most research on German as a pluricentric language to date has focused on differences between the standard varieties in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. Moreover, the focus in these studies is mainly on linguistic-structural features, with pragmatic differences (if any) only briefly touched upon. In Belgium, German is a minority language within a region, where French is the dominant language, resulting in both individual and societal language contact. By looking at the realisation of requests for repair in complaints across varieties of the same language on the one hand and different languages on the other, the present study wants to identify whether there are variety specific pragmatic features of Belgian German as opposed to German in Germany and Belgian French. Researching both intra- and interlingual pragmatic differences, the present study can be situated at the interface between variational and contrastive pragmatics.