Lidia Becker (PhD, University of Trier) is professor in the area of Romanic and Hispanic Linguistics at the University of Hannover (Germany). She studied Hispanic and Romanic linguistics at the Universities of Voronezh (Russia), Mainz and Trier (Germany) with stays in Siena (Italy), Lisbon, Buenos Aires and Mexico City. She currently works in the fields of glotopolitics, the sociology of language, the linguistics of discourse and the historiography of linguistics.

Publications (selection)

Books

2021. Ed. with Elvira Narvaja de Arnoux and José del Valle. Reflexiones glotopolíticas desde y hacia América y Europa, Bern et al.: Lang

2016. Sprachnationalistische Bewegungen in der Romania, Hamburg: Buske.

Articles

2020. “Lenguaje claro / llano / ciudadano y lectura fácil: ¿nuevas variedades de comunicación digital de masas más allá del español general / común / total o internacional / neutro?”, in: Greußlich, Sebastian / Lebsanft, Franz (eds.),  El español, lengua pluricéntrica. Discurso, gramática, léxico y medios de comunicación masiva, Göttingen: V&R unipress / Bonn University Press, 223-249.

2020. “‘Immigrants’ as recipients of Easy-to-Read in Spain”, in: Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 41.1 [Migration and glottopolitics in the Spanish-speaking world], 59-71.

2019. “Glotopolítica del sexismo: Ideologemas de la argumentación de Ignacio Bosque y Concepción Company Company contra el lenguaje inclusivo de género”, in: Theory Now. Journal of Literature, Critique and Thought 2.2 [Crítica cultural y Glotopolítica], 4-25.

Journalistic Publications

2020 (with Elvira Narvaja de Arnoux). “Es muss nicht immer Englisch sein” [‘It does not have to be English’], en: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 10.02.2020.

Research Project

Title: Current trends in linguistic simplification in Latin America between demand for democratization and growing inequality

Abstract: The project proposes to investigate the various current trends of linguistic simplification such as "simple language" (simplified administrative language for "citizens"), “easy reading " (simplified styles for people with disabilities) and simplified journalistic style in different countries of Latin America (Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Chile). The simplified styles are, on the one hand, expressions of a greater linguistic democratization propagated for decades by grassroots movements. On the other hand, these styles carry the danger of being constructed as a new restricted "standard" for vulnerable groups (e.g. immigrants or ethnic minorities) or of being instrumentalized as a justification for apparently "transparent" government actions. In the latter sense, simplified styles can exhibit significant differences between democratizing intentions and practice and, as such, have the potential to increase inequality in the distribution of language-related capital rather than reduce it. The contradictions and tensions associated with linguistic simplification that seem to define the almost global discursive Zeitgeist will be explored from the perspectives of language sociology, glotopolitics and critical discourse analysis. In addition, the study pays to the economic pressure towards greater linguistic simplification exerted by digital technologies, especially artificial intelligence.