Band 2020, Heft 73

Easy-to-read (ETR) German aims to reduce communication barriers by simplifying both language and content as much as possible. For that purpose, a rigid rule-based practice is commonly used. The main target group are usually people with intellectual disability (ID) but other groups, e. g. functional illiterates, are also often intended addressees. The comprehensibility of ETR German texts, however, still awaits systematic empirical testing. The aim of the present study is to investigate macrotypography as a factor of text comprehensibility across different text types. A sample of individuals with ID and functional illiterates participated in qualitative interviews and was given a multiple-choice procedure in which typical ETR macrotypography and conventional text type macrotypography were compared. The results showed an advantage of the conventional macrotypographic design. In one case the text type was almost as easily recognized when ETR macrotypography was used. The analysis of the qualitative data, however, showed that it was primarily the participants with ID who were able to recognise the text type in this case. The outcome of the study therefore argues that conventional macrotypography may be more advantageous than the macrotypographic practice associated with ETR German.

This article discusses marginalisation in internet forums and blogging platforms using the example of asexuality blogs and discussion threads. While large corpora of both English and German, such as COCA and DeReKo, contain hardly any mention of asexuality and these few instances of asexuality and related expressions typically refer to plant biology, online communities do discuss aspects of life as an asexual person and their experiences of marginalization even within the LGBTQ community. Definitions of asexuality, including its delineation from other identities, and how asexual people articulate conflicts and other issues on these online platforms are discussed in detail. Particular attention is paid to how this particular group is constructed by others, how they construct themselves as not being part of the mainstream, and the role (self-)marginalisation plays in this context.

This article examines language and local identity in an urban space analysing the enregisterment of a local variety at one of the most relevant dialect borders in Germany: the Bavarian city of Augsburg which is in close proximity to both Upper Bavaria and Bavaria’s capital Munich. The local dialect of Augsburg mixes Swabian-Alemannic and Bavarian features and it is because of this mix that Swabians, the group to which the Augsburgians are generally deemed to belong to, are often regarded not to be ‘proper’ Bavarian speakers. Augschburgerisch has become a stylized register with authenticated sociolinguistic features and can thus be employed to construct local identity and index a stereotyped group of speakers, e. g. that local dialect speakers are down-to-earth but grumpy and close-lipped towards strangers. This study examines Augsburgian on social media by qualitatively analysing posts from a local Facebook group. In these posts, authentification practices are used to resolve the ambiguous nature of what it means to be ‘Bavarian’ and the intricacies imposed on the speakers by the border situation while also highlighting the users’ creativity via ironic role alignments.

The interaction between midwifes or other medical professionals and pregnant women in the last trimester of pregnancy plays an important role during antenatal care and birth. The partners of the pregnant women are often present for these conversations and can affect the interaction with their contributions, e. g. their input to the birth plan and their experiences during pregnancy. In this interactional work, triadic interactions during antenatal care consultations were analysed. Using examples from a corpus of 37 primary consultations between midwifes, pregnant women and doctors in an obstetric ward, it is shown that partners can affect the information exchange during these interactions. With their utterances, partners can provide various information, such as facts about previous deliveries, information about the pregnant woman, own pregnancy experiences, information about past abortions and miscarriages as well as information about congenital diseases. In doing so, they enriched the conversation and provided emotional support for the pregnant woman. Only very few partners acted in the role of ‘critic’ or ‘opponent’ and controlled the informational exchange between midwife and pregnant woman or focused solely on themselves during these interactions.