Annika Labrenz

Annika Labrenz is a doctoral research fellow who has been part of the Research Unit Emerging Grammars in Language Contact Situations for the past few years. Her PhD project explores the use of discourse-pragmatic markers across different language contact situations and registers, including informal digital writing. Her broader research interests include language variation, multilingualism, discourse structure and organisation, as well as language ideologies and policies that contribute to social inequalities.

Projects

MGK Integrated Graduate School
C07 The impact of language ideologies on register distinctions in multilingual contexts

Contact

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin

030 2093 70673

annika.labrenz@hu-berlin.de https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6235-9321 

Publications & Presentations

    Publications

  • Katsika, Kalliopi; Labrenz, Annika; Iefremenko, Kateryna; Allen, Shanley E. M.  (2025) Discourse openings and closings across languages in contact  In: Linguistic dynamics in heritage speakers: Insights from the RUEG group. (Current Issues in Bilingualism 4) [ViVo]
  • Schroeder, Christoph; Iefremenko, Kateryna; Katsika, Kalliopi; Labrenz, Annika; Allen, Shanley E. M.  (2025) Clause combining in narrative discourse. A contrastive analysis across heritage and majority languages  In: Linguistic dynamics in heritage speakers: Insights from the RUEG group. (Current Issues in Bilingualism 4) [ViVo]
  • Labrenz, Annika; Katsika, Kalliopi; Iefremenko, Kateryna; Allen, Shanley E. M.; Schroeder, Christoph; Wiese, Heike  (2025) Dynamics of discourse markers in language contact  In: Linguistic dynamics in heritage speakers: Insights from the RUEG group. (Current Issues in Bilingualism 4) [ViVo]
  • Wiese, Heike; Labrenz, Annika; Roy, Albrun  (2025) Tapping into speaker’s repertoires: Elicitation of register-differentiated productions across groups  In: Dynamics of discourse markers in language contact [ViVo]
  • Labrenz, Annika  (2024) Die RUEG-Korpora: Ein Blick auf Design, Aufbau, Infrastruktur und Nachnutzung multilingualer Forschungsdaten  In: Zeitschrift für germanistische Linguistik [DOI] [ViVo]
    Abstract The article presents the RUEG corpora. We begin by describing the basic principles and research questions, that influenced and shaped the corpora and introduce the method of data generation. We proceed by describing the fundamental components of the building process and the overall outcome. Said outcome provides interfaces for new researchers, who wish to conduct their own research using the RUEG corpora. Options for such research are discussed by showing that it can succeed within the range of re-using exisiting annotations and metadata up to building entirely new, but comparable corpora.
  • Labrenz, Annika  (2023) Functional Variation of German Also across Registers and Speaker Groups  In: Contrastive Pragmatics [DOI] [ViVo]
    Abstract This study investigates the variation of the polyfunctional linguistic item also across registers and language contact settings. I present findings from a corpus study using the corpus of the Research Unit Emerging Grammars, RUEG for short (Wiese et al., 2019), which provides comparable, register-differentiated data of bilingual and monolingual speakers of German in Germany and bilingual heritage speakers of German in the US. The data suggest that functional variation of a specific lexical item reflects the use of functional features in specific communicative situations. The data further indicate an impact of the societal status that a language occupies in the larger society (majority vs. heritage language) on the distribution of such functions.
  • Labrenz, Annika  (2022) The three-dot sign in language contact  In: Pragmatics & Cognition [DOI] [ViVo]
    Abstract In this study, we investigate the three-dot sign as a discourse marker (DM) with textual, subjective and intersubjective discourse functions. As a graphical marker that is used across languages, the three-dot sign is especially suitable for comparative studies and dynamics in language contact. Our corpus study targeting instant messages of different languages (English, German, Greek, Russian, Turkish) and speaker groups (monolinguals and bilingual heritage speakers) suggests that graphical DMs are prone to cross-linguistic influence. This depends on the specific contact situation and does not seem to be a general effect of bilingualism. The societal status of a language might further influence the use of such markers in digital informal writing. Language-specific developments that relate to emerging functions indicate that functional versatility promotes frequent use of (graphical) DMs.
  • Wiese, Heike; Labrenz, Annika  (2021) Emoji as graphic discourse markers  In: Pragmatics & Beyond New Series [DOI] [ViVo]
    Abstract We investigate emoji as graphic discourse markers in German WhatsApp® messages. As comparably novel devices in the rapidly evolving domain of digital messenging, emoji provide an interesting example to observe change in progress. We present a corpus study and an experimental study. Main results are (i) an overall salience of subjective and intersubjective discourse meanings for emoji, with (ii) a general advantage for the former, especially for emoji that iconically include more active elements, while (iii) dominance relations can be modulated by left- vs. right-peripheral positions in favor of subjective vs. intersubjective meanings, respectively. By approaching emoji as discourse markers, the studies contribute to our understanding of their pragmatic contribution and provide novel evidence on positional-functional associations for pragmatic markers.

    • Presentations

  • Labrenz, Annika  (2024) Discourse markers and stance expressions across situational and speaker-related factors  In: Sprachwissenschaftliches Kolloquium des Instituts für Linguistik und Phonetik,Christian-Albrecht Universität Kiel [ViVo]