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In:“You can say you to me”: Address in German
Edited by Heinz L. Kretzenbacher, Horst J. Simon and Christa Dürscheid
[Topics in Address Research 7] 2026
► pp. 93–114

Chapter 5
Address in metapragmatic discourse

Stereotypical forms, evaluations, and attitudes

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Abstract
Stereotypes are socially constructed knowledge resulting from cognitive mechanisms that ascribe properties to social groups. I analyse stereotypical representations of forms of address in metapragmatic discourse. The study is empirically based on manually selected and coded excerpts from Austrian, German, and Swiss etiquette guides, advice literature and online user comments to newspaper articles. Focusing on accounts about the use of T/V pronouns, names and titles, I discuss social and geographic categories (e.g., female superior, Swabia), typical attitudes, and evaluations that discourse participants associate with forms of address. By applying concepts from cognitive science, I aim to contribute to the development of an interdisciplinary methodology for the emerging domain of variational metapragmatics.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Address in German and (im)politeness
    • 2.2Research objectives
  • 3.Materials and methods
    • 3.1Data collection
    • 3.2Coding and analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Overview: EGAL and CONA data
    • 4.2Forms of address: Usage, function, and evaluations
      • 4.2.1Negotiating forms of address, expressing hierarchies
      • 4.2.2V forms: Functions and associations
      • 4.2.3T forms: Functions and associations
      • 4.2.4Using titles, names, and pronouns
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Author queries
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (58)
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