Welcome!

I am a linguist working on the variational pragmatics of German. My goal is to empirically investigate regional differences in the realization of politeness-sensitive speech acts (e.g., requests) in the German-speaking world. Since January 2023, I have joined the DFG-funded variprag.net project as a doctoral candidate at Freie Universität Berlin.

I obtained my M.A. in Linguistics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Besides my studies, I worked as a research assistant at Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics (ZAS) as well as the SPA Lab at the University of Potsdam.

Upcoming talks

Pragmatische Variation von höflichkeitssensitiven Sprechakten: Die Faktoren 'Region' und 'Nation' in der geostatischen Analyse. Research colloquium on German linguistics (FoGeL), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 11 June 2024.

Pragmatische Variation im deutschsprachigen Raum: Regionale Unterschiede in der Realisierung von höflichkeitssensitiven Sprechakten. Linguistic colloquium, Research Center Deutscher Sprachatlas, Philipps-Universität Marburg, 26 June 2024.

Variational pragmatics of German: The effect of 'region' and other micro- and macro-social factors. [with Janel Zoske, Tanja Ackermann, & Horst Simon]. 12th International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE), Austrian Academy of Sciences & University of Vienna, 08-11 July 2024.

Curriculum vitae

Please find my full CV here.

Output

Recently, I have worked on the following papers and talks.

  • Papers

    • Discher, Henrik & Janel Zoske. 2023. Variationspragmatik: Bericht zur Tagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Linguistische Pragmatik (ALP e.V.) an der Universität zu Köln am 07. März 2023. Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik 51(3). 551-560. https://doi.org/10.1515/zgl-2023-2026

    Alexandropoulou, Stavroula, Henrik Discher, Marisha Herb, & Nicole Gotzner. 2022. Incremental pragmatic interpretation of gradable adjectives: The role of standards of comparison. Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 32. 481-497. https://doi.org/10.3765/salt.v1i0.5399

  • Talks and posters

    • Wen befragen wir? Auswirkungen von (sprachlicher) Mobilität für die Untersuchung von regionaler Sprachvariation. [with Janel Zoske]. Research colloquium by Ferdinand von Mengden, Freie Universität Berlin, 29. November 2023.

    Wie können wir linguistische Mobilität messen? Herangehensweisen und Herausforderungen. [with Janel Zoske]. Colloquium of the linguistics research groups at TU Dortmund University, University of Münster, University of Osnabrück, & Freie Universität Berlin, Oerlinghausen, 10-12 November 2023.

    The impact of the factors 'nation' and 'region' on pragmatic variation in pluricentric German: First results. [with Tanja Ackermann]. 18th International Pragmatics Conference (IPrA), Université Libre de Bruxelles, 09-14 July 2023.

Contact

Do you have questions or comments? Get in touch with me at henrik.discher@fu-berlin.de.

Office address:
Freie Universität Berlin
Institut für Deutsche und Niederländische Philologie
Habelschwerdter Allee 45
Room JK 28/121
14195 Berlin