Der Däne[NGr Nom] ist[Vfin] gemütlich[ADJGr] Nationale Stereotype aus dem SMiK-Projekt und Kritische Grammatik im Deutschunterricht

Abstract

One of the most frequently used grammatical structures to express national stereotypes in German is the sentence pattern X [NGr Nom] ist [Vfin] Y [ADJGr]. Within the framework of linguistic research on stereotypes this structure has been described in great detail so that its syntactic, semantic, and socio-pragmatic dimensions are known rather well. Results of the SMiK-project confirm the important role this pattern plays in expressing stereotypes. As to grammar teaching at school, however, this grammatical structure is rarely discussed in textbooks and, assumingly, in classrooms. This paper presents an approach to make this structure a subject of classroom discussion. The approach is based on a didactic concept of “critical grammar” in German lessons and aims at making school students aware that explicit knowledge about grammatical structures is not only (if at all) knowledge about linguistic categories for the purpose of filing language into scientific regulations or rules but an instrument to discover and to elucidate “pictures in our heads”.