THE DEUTSCHE ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: COMMENTS ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE KAZAKHSTAN-GERMAN PRESS

Abstract

The study presents some principal linguistic features of the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (DAZ) in Kazakhstan and analyses culturally relevant elements in intercultural media discourse. Within the framework of intercultural linguistics, the approach used has been descriptive, primarily variation and contact-oriented. The newspaper analyzed is unique in that it is practically monolingual German, while culturally it is embedded in a predominantly Kazakh and Russian context. Language use in DAZ was examined on the basis of the salience concept. In the evaluated corpus of the 2017 volume, language-related saliences were found at almost all levels, above all in lexis and phraseology, grammar, style, and typography. Those findings result from three typological different processes: (1) prototypical mechanisms of language contact, therefore transfers or imitations of elements, structures and models of the involved languages in contact, Russian and Kazakh; (2) alienation processes, e.g. contrast shifts or exaggerations resulting from insecure proficiency of the target language German, for instance due to overgeneralization of the language system; (3) norm infringements as a result of inadvertency, meaning careless mistakes and problematic or borderline wordings, which occur even in text producers with excellent (native) language proficiency. It has been demonstrated that saliences due to multilingualism, contact and/or competence prevail, with the linguistic interference from Russian shown to be greater than that of Kazakh. On the basis of these findings, DAZ can be described as a cross-border newspaper, which is in many ways culturally asymmetrical, reflecting the multiliteracy of its text producers.