Sprachliche Zweifelsfälle – ein zweifellos interessantes Phänomen
Linguistic Cases of Doubt – An Undoubtedly Interesting Phenomenon

Summary/Abstract: The review article discusses the book by Renata Szczepaniak, „Sprachliche Zweifelsfälle. Definition, Betrachtungsdimensionen und Erforschung“. The 240-page monograph is an introduction to the study of linguistic cases of doubt in German and is intended primarily as a basis for university courses on this topic. After presenting several examples of linguistic cases of doubt, the introductory section of this article defines the term linguistic case of doubt. It highlights the particular role of the concepts of standard language and linguistic competence in this context. The research on linguistic cases of doubt over the past decades is then briefly outlined. In the next part of this article, the content of the book under review is discussed. The first chapter introduces the topic by referring to possible everyday situations in which one mightencounter linguistic ambiguities. This section also presents the aim and structure of the monograph under review. Chapter 2 discusses the relationship between linguistic cases of doubt and language competence. The concepts of linguistic cases of doubt and linguistic competence are examined. The classification of linguistic cases of doubt is also addressed. The author divides the remaining eight chapters into Part A, „Dimensions of Linguistic Cases of Doubt“ (comprising chapters 3 to 6), and Part B, „Perspectives for Investigating Linguistic Cases of Doubt“ (chapters 7 to 10). Part A discusses the grammatical dimension, the sociolinguistic dimension, and the dimension of language awareness, without which the linguistic analysis of linguistic cases of doubt is impossible. Part B describes four selected cases of doubt using the dimensions presented in Part A. The concluding section of this article presents some general remarks about the monograph under discussion.

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