Advances in Cognitive Sociolinguistics (Cognitive Linguistic Research)

Mental models of linguistic varieties 273

Table 2. The three most frequently mapped bubbles and the verbal attributes (N>1)
for the two most frequently described varieties. Figures in brackets
represent absolute numbers of occurrences

Berndeutsch (Bern dialect) Standard High German

Bubbles:

10 (14, 36%)

6 (9, 23%)

3 (4, 10%)

Bubbles:

7 (15, 43%)

1 (6, 17%)

12 (4, 12%)

soft (7)

bloomy (5)

slow (5)

broad (4)

homey, homelike (3)

calm (3)

self-contained (2)

warm-hearted (2)

clear (2)

big, large (2)

round (2)

beautiful (2)

clear (10)

fast (5)

jagged/chiseled/angled (6)

complex (4)

sharp, pointy (3)

verbose (3)

rule-governed/regular (5)

minute (3)

impersonal (2)

real language (2)

cragged (2)

The attributes listed in Table 2 now allow a more fine-grained analysis of
the mental models that seem to be related to the two varieties: The Bern
dialect on the one hand seems to be construed as a cozy, warm, and estheti-
cally pleasant variety. The standard, on the other hand, is not only sharp
and chiseled, but also much more clearly structured and more than once
explicitly labeled “a real language”. In the visual domain, there is a rather
systematic correspondence to the European topos of the ‘good’ standard
language being rule-governed, logical, and optimal for communication
given its precise nature: participants clearly tend to chose clear and precise-
ly drawn, sharp figures. Thus, we can confirm the finding from other stu-
dies (e.g. Niedzielski and Preston 1999: 22) that the standard is appraised
as a well-structured and rule-governed system, whereas the dialect does not
have or does not need any such clear norms, is rather unstructured, sponta-
neous and somehow “authentic” in its uncultivated state. It thus seems that
we can indeed find reflections of the romantic and the rationalist models.