Spruchbänder der Fußballfans im Lichte der Sprechakttheorie

Abstract

This article is part of the research on football linguistics. Its goal is to analyse and compare the banners appearing in German and Polish football stadiums in the light of speech act theory. The aim is to show that not only football matches take place in a football stadium, but also social or political concerns are addressed and processed. The following questions serve as a criterion for the analysis: In which aspects are the German and Polish banners similar? What are the differences between them? With what linguistic intention do the authors of these texts act and how should they be classified according to the emotional charge? After the theoretical introduction, which briefly describes the conceptual foundations of text linguistics and refers to football and its language, the analysis of the collected corpus is presented. The corpus consists first and foremost of texts published on banners, transcribed according to the original spelling, as well as precise details of the respective matches. One or more speech act types are assigned to each text, although their number is limited to 26. The assignment is based on Searle’s speech act theory. Furthermore, each text is evaluated axiologically. For this, in most cases it is indispensable to know the exact context in which the banner is embedded, and the vocabulary and the addressee group also play an important role. The results of the analysis are summarised numerically. Their discussion is rounded off by conclusions which refer, among other things, to the fact that the language of football fans is very masculine in character, direct, sometimes vulgar and brutal. In the stands, the collective clearly stands above the individual. However, values such as dignity, honour and respect also come to the fore. This analysis is not only a linguistic examination of a linguistic phenomenon, but also an overview of a diverse and multifaceted culture that is part of society.

Keywords

• football linguistics
• act of speech
• banner
• text