Language criticism in Austrian daily newspapers
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Letters to the editors of daily newspapers are often used to criticize linguistic phenomena. This paper presents an analysis of the language criticism in letters to the editors of three Austrian daily newspapers (Kronen Zeitung, Kleine Zeitung, and Die Presse), focusing on the argumentative topoi used in letters expressing negative attitudes towards the linguistic phenomena discussed. The analysis includes letters on two examples of natural language change (anglicisms, teutonisms) and on two cases of imposed language change (gender-fair language, political correctness). It is shown that while a number of topoi are used in both cases (mainly general topoi that consider any language change as bad), there are also a number of specific topoi especially in the case of imposed language change, typically claiming that most people are against those changes and that we have other, more important problems to worry about than making the language gender-fair or politically correct.
Source: Nota Bene
DOI: 10.1075/nb.00003.sch
Author: Steven Schoonjans
Institutions: University of Klagenfurt, KU Leuven
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4404718894