“We are in a completely different place today” – a corner of contemporary culture mirrored in the rapid spread of a phrase.

Beskrivelse

The subject of this contribution is a diachronic study of the phrase “we are in a completely different place today”. In the Danish context, this phrase has undergone a development over the past 20 years that in several respects exemplifies key processes in phraseological evolution. As a phraseological unit, the object of study also gives rise to discussion of classifications such as “satzwertiges propositionales Phrasem” (Stein&Stumpf 2019: 74), as “Klischee” “mit schlagwortartigen und modewortähnlichen Wortverbindungen” (ibid. 76), or as “idiomatischer Satz” (ibid. 78). From being used only sporadically in the Danish context before 2010, a steep quantitative increase in the use of the phrase can be seen from 2010. This is mainly due to the phrase establishing itself in the economic domain, in the apology genre of corporate CEOs, namely as an obligatory constituent of this genre's “declaration of repentance” (Lewicki/Polin/Lount 2016: 183). The Danish companies that use the phrase as part of their “response strategy” (Benoit 1997: 179) in their crisis communication, buy into an international financial narrative of money laundering, bribery, and corruption. As such, the evolution of the phrase in the Danish context reflects a cultural development that is international. But is it only in the economic domain that the phrase appears as a signpost for possible alleged radical change? The contribution examines the use of the phrase in the Danish press in the period 2000-2022. The study analyzes the variation of the phrase in terms of lexical fixedness, thematic domain, style level, discourse practice and mediality (cf. Dalmas et al. 2015). The Danish corpus Infomedia (https://infomedia.dk), a media archive with news from a very wide range of Danish media back to 1990, is used to study the phrase. German and English examples of the use of the phrase are included for comparison.
Benoit, William L. (1997). “Image Repair Discourse and Crisis Communication”. Public Relations Review (2), s. 177-186.
Dalmas, Martine/Dobrovol’skij, Dmitrij/ Goldhahn, Dirk/Quasthoff, Uwe (2015): “Bewertung durch Adjektive“. Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 45. Jg., 177. 12-29.
Lewicki, Roy J., Polin, Beth, & Lount, Robert B. (2016): “An Exploration of the Structure of Effective Apologies”. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 9(2). 177-196. doi: 10.1111/ncmr.12073
Stein, Stephan/Stumpf, Sören (2019): Muster in Sprache und Kommunikation. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag.

Periode	29. maj 2023
Begivenhedstitel	Europhras 2023. New Trends in Phraseology: Languages and Cultures in Comparison
Begivenhedstype	Konference
Placering	Milano, ItalienVis på kort
Grad af anerkendelse	International