So far we have concentrated our discussion on the more traditional areas of linguistic description – phonology, morphology, and syntax, lexicon and semantics. With recent advances in pragmatics beyond the theoretical level and in discourse analysis, more studies will provide information in an area of language that is very intricately bound to cultural values systems. We have referred, in Chapter 3, to research indicating how the sociopolitical differences between the GDR and the Federal Republic affected the pragmatic and discourse levels and to the difficulties this is causing East Germans in the post-unification era. This is the tip of the iceberg; this chapter will focus on national and regional variation at these levels.

Some national and regional specifics in communication rules

Coulmas (1979) has argued that the pragmatic conditions for the appropriate usage and communicative function of routine formulae relate to cognitive systems of beliefs, preferences, norms and values. He demonstrates that a proper analysis needs to be reached by a contrastive approach. This applies to both national and regional differences.

If, as has been suggested in Chapter 2, there are national cultural differences between the German-language countries, they will be reflected in the communication patterns of the language. The variations in cultural values systems displayed by the regions of each of the countries can be expressed in pragmatic and discourse rules. The same applies to differences resulting from social structures. Communication patterns, often relating to issues of politeness (see Brown and Levinson 1987), will affect the success of communication as well as attitudes to other German-language groups.