Planen, fahren, travel...: Die Sprache der Reisenden in Foren über Zugreisen

In: Sociolinguistica: European journal of sociolinguistics, Band 32, Heft 1, S. 201-212

Abstract

Abstract
The present paper analyses language used in forums about journeys by train, in particular focusing on their thematic and linguistic-functional characteristics. The choice of this type of forum is due to the fact that travelers are more and more interested in travelling by train because of various factors such as economy, environmental protection and the desire for a comfortable means of transport. The paper focuses on the forum https://rail.cc/de/forum and it examines 100 German and 100 English postings, offering a contrastive analysis. The main questions of the investigation are as follows: 1) How are German and English postings structured according to their topics? 2) What kind of relationship exists between the language used and linguistic functions of the postings?