Doctoral projects
Current doctoral theses
Sievert von Stülpnagel
Working title: ‘The Light Tone in Taiwanese Southern Min’
The tones of Taiwanese Southern Min (Bân-lâm-gí 閩南語) are notorious for their complexity. The reason for this lies not only in the sheer number of tone categories, but above all in the complicated system of tone sandhi rules to which they are subject. As a result of this system, each tone category has two different pronunciations (sandhi states). In addition, there are two variants of the so-called light tone (khin-siann 輕聲), which represent a loss of tonal features. The question of which of these four possible pronunciation variants (two sandhi states and two variants of the light tone) must be used for each individual syllable depends on the syntactic and prosodic environment of the syllable in question. The alternation between the two sandhi states is now largely understood, but the mechanisms that control the behavior of light tones remain largely unexplored. The aim of the dissertation is to close this gap. In addition to a detailed description of the phonetic characteristics of the different types of light tone, it will focus on the question of under what circumstances which type of light tone is used. The results will be used to derive a general rule for the use of light tones, which will fit into the existing theoretical framework of tone sandhi. A field study will be conducted on site for the purpose of data collection.
Juliane Weber
Working title: ‘The development of Sinology in Germany with a special focus on classical Chinese language teaching’
In recent decades, demand for Chinese language skills has grown rapidly, with a strong emphasis on communication skills. Classical Chinese and the reading of classical texts have increasingly taken a back seat at many German universities. In this regard, the project aims to examine the academic history of German Sinology and the dynamics of the subject of Chinese. The focus will be on systematic data collection and analysis of the disciplinary history and didactics of classical Chinese in order to assess the interaction between institutional, personnel and subject-specific factors, both historically and in the present day.
Completed doctoral theses
Shuo Teng
‘Translating metaphors from modern Chinese literature into German: A corpus-based study of translation problems and possible solutions’
Defence on 25 June 2018
Julia Wasserfall
‘Prestige and Presumption: The English Language in Taiwan and Singapore’
Defense: September 23, 2019
English has long been widespread in the Chinese-speaking world, and the resulting language contact between English and Mandarin has attracted considerable academic interest in recent decades. Since the status and functions of English range from official language and language of instruction in Singapore to foreign language in Taiwan, both regions offer different contexts for contact between English and Mandarin and are therefore assumed to produce different outcomes. Based on this hypothesis, the current project systematically describes and compares language contact phenomena and outcomes in Taiwan and Singapore, with a focus on natural and spontaneous language. In addition, factors influencing the outcome of English-Mandarin contact (e.g., language attitudes, language planning and policy, etc.) are identified and evaluated through a comparative analysis of the sociolinguistic contexts.
Martin Mellech
‘Code-switching in Taiwanese daily talk shows as multimodal staging. A corpus-based investigation’
Defense: December 16, 2019
This dissertation project addresses the phenomenon of code-switching (hereinafter referred to as CS) in Taiwan, focusing on media discussions/TV talk shows, and examines it on the basis of an audio-visual language corpus. Talk shows are understood here by definition as staged and at the same time naturally arranged public conversations. The project addresses the issue of why participants in Taiwanese talk shows change their expression preferences by frequently using CS between Guóyǔ (as the base language) and TH (as the embedded language) in Guóyǔ conversation situations in order to subjectively achieve situational action goals in the best possible way. Furthermore, it examines how this manifests itself not only verbally, but also para- and nonverbally. The central thesis of the project is therefore: In order to optimally achieve situational communicative action goals in Guóyǔ conversation situations on Taiwanese daily talk shows, speakers in Taiwan act rationally in accordance with the rational choice model by means of TH-CS, with additional support from paraverbal and nonverbal means. To this end, the following two research questions will be investigated:
Research question 1: What are the functions of TH-CS in Guóyǔ conversation situations in the context of Taiwanese talk shows?
Research question 2: To what extent do paraverbal and nonverbal parameters support the functions of TH-CS on the verbal level?