Marriage for all (‘Ehe fuer alle’)?! A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of the marriage equality debate in Germany

Figures & data

Table 1. Overview of publications included in the corpora.

Title	Type of publication	Frequency	Circulation 4/2000	Circulation 4/2016
Welt	broadsheet	daily except Sunday	265,728	184,193
Welt am Sonntag	broadsheet	every Sunday	446,838	398,574
Taz	broadsheet	daily except Sunday	58,593	53,029
Der Spiegel	magazine, broadsheet	every Sunday	1.024,927	787,330
Bunte	magazine, tabloid	every Monday	728,392	468,141

Table 2. Overview of corpus I and II.

Newspaper/magazine	Corpus I		Corpus II
	articles	words	articles	words
Welt	37	25,684	26	26,526
Welt am Sonntag	17	19,116	4	3601
Taz	54	47,018	40	49,861
Der Spiegel	10	18,436	5	14,160
Bunte	1	1207	1	768
subtotals	119	111,461	76	94,148

Table 3. Shared keywords (corpus I and II, reference corpus PAROLE), categorised into thematic groups^a.

	Keyword (English translation, ranking corpus I; ranking corpus II)
Referring to relationships and their labelling	Lebenspartnerschaft (life-partnership, 5; 5), Lebenspartnerschaften (life-partnerships, 14; 22), Homoehe (homo-marriage, 6; 9), Schwulenehe (gay marriage, 17; 12), gleichgeschlechtlich (same-sex, 119; 91), gleichgeschlechtlichen (same-sex, 137; 91), gleichgeschlechtliche (same-sex, 144; 102), eingetragene (registered, 155; 109)
Referring to people and their identities	Homosexualitaet (Homosexuality, 27; 212), homosexuell (homosexual, 142; 96), Maenner (men, 33; 444), queer (87; 35), Heterosexuellen (heterosexuals, 139; 107), Heterosexuelle (heterosexuals, 141; 115), Lesben (lesbians, 150; 103), lesbischen (lesbian, 163; 128), Schwule (gays, 152; 119), schwul (gay, 157; 108)
Legislation (and implications)	Adoptionsrecht (adoption rights, 43; 16), Ehegattensplitting (tax benefits for married couples, 209; 134)
Referring to people/parties/organisations involved in the debate	Gruenen (Greens, 8; 392), Gruene (Greens, 23; 408), Gruen (green, 128; 394), Wowereit (30; 46), Schwulenverband (gay federation, 147; 88)
Other	Gefuehl (emotion, 77; 375), Anlass (occasion, 94; 23), Schluss (end/conclusion, 86; 42)

^aThematic groups adapted from Bachmann (2011). Boldface refers to items that have a higher keyness ranking in corpus I, while underlined items have a higher keyness ranking in corpus II (with a difference in the Log Ratio score of at least 1, indicating at least ‘a doubling in size of the difference between the two corpora, for the keyword under consideration’ [Hardie, 2014]).

Table 4. List of terms for legally recognised same-sex unions.

	Corpus I		Corpus II
	n	frequency per million^a	n	frequency per million
Homo-Ehe*/Homoehe* (‘homo-marriage’)	229	2055	64	678
Homosexuellen-Ehe*/Homosexuellenehe (‘homosexual-marriage’)	13	117	1	11
‘homosexuelle* Ehe*’ (‘homosexual marriage’)	2	18	1	11
Lebenspartnerschaft* (‘life partnership’)	101	906	60	637
eingetragene* ∼ (‘registered’ ∼)	39	350	35	372
gleichgeschlechtliche* ∼ (‘same-sex’ ∼)	9	81	3	32
homosexuelle* ∼ (‘homosexual’ ∼)	10	90	3	32
Schwulen-Ehe*/Schwulenehe* (‘gay marriage’)	2	18	4	42
Gleichgeschlechtliche* Ehe* (‘same-sex marriage’)	6	54	3	32
Ehe light (‘marriage light’)	5	45	0	0
Ehe fuer alle (‘marriage for all’)	0	0	145	1540

^aRounded to the nearest whole number.

Table 5. Lexical collocates of Homo-Ehe* and Homoehe*.

	Corpus I	Corpus II
Shared collocates (English translation, n corpus I; n corpus II)	gegen (against, 21; 4) fuer (for/in favour of, 17; 3)
Unique collocates (English translation, n)	so genannte(n) (so-called, 24) begruesst (welcome, 3) ermoeglicht (made possible, 2) lehnt [ab] (reject, 5) gescheitert (failed, 2) Konflikt (conflict, 3) Kampf (3) Luftschloss (pipe dream, 2) Debatte (debate, 4) spiessige (old-fashioned, 2) Aktionen (actions, 2) Kampagne (campaign, 3) Gesetz (law, 7) Sondergesetz (special law, 3) Verfassungsgerichts (constitutional court, 2) Schwule (gays, 6) Gesellschaft (society, 5) Sachsen (saxony, 5) Bremen (2) August (August, 9)	pro (2) eingefuehrt (introduced, 2) zeugt (von) (testify to, 2) Klage (lawsuit, 2) drohenden (threatening, 2) Pflicht- (mandatory-, 6) Beispiel (example, 2) Themen (topics, 2) Abstimmung (ballot, 2) Bundestag (2) Deutschland (Germany, 3)

Table 6. Lexical collocates of Lebenspartnerschaft*.

	Corpus I	Corpus II
Shared collocates (English translation, n corpus I; n corpus II)	Ehe (marriage, 9; 12) Paare (couples, 6; 2) Einfuehrung (introduction, 4; 2) so genannte (so-called, 3, 2)
Unique collocates (English translation, n)	Fuer (for/in favour of, 9) Eintragung (registration, 6) geschlossen (entered into, 5) Umsetzung (implementation, 3) Inkrafttreten (coming into force, 2) Gesetz(es) (law, 12) Gesetzentwurf (draft law, 5) Rechtsinstitut (legal institution, 2) Standesamt (registrar’s office, 3) Regierungskoalition (coalition, 2) August (August, 6)	Institution (institution, 3) eingehen (enter into, 5) Moeglichkeit (possibility, 2) Respekt (entgegenzubringen) (pay respect to, 2)

Table 7. Lexical collocates of ‘Ehe fuer alle’.

Corpus II

Collocates (English translation, n)

fuer (for/in favour of, 14); kaempfen (fight, 2); fordert (demand (v), 2); Forderung (demand (n), 3); feiern (celebrate, 2), (Sektkorken) knallen (pop the corks, 2) ‘gay pride’ (2); Initiative (initiative, 4); Zentralorgan (key organisation, 2); Drittel (a third, 2), Gleichberechtigung (equality, 2); Oeffnung (opening, 2) protestiert (protest, 2); Gegner (opponent, 2); Opposition (opposition, 2) koennte (could, 3); jetzt (now, 3); beschloss (decided, 2), geben (give, 4), erklaert (explain, 3) Koalitionsvertrag (coalition agreement, 2); Gesetz (law, 3); Bundesrat (3); Bundestag (3); FDP (Free Democratic Party, 2), Partei (political party, 2) Juni (3 June); Montag (Monday, 2)

Bachmann, I. (2011). Civil partnership – “gay marriage in all but name”: A corpus-driven analysis of discourses of same-sex relationships in the UK Parliament. Corpora, 6(1), 77–105. doi: 10.3366/cor.2011.0005

 Google Scholar

Hardie, A. (2014). Log ratio – an informal introduction. Retrieved from http://cass.lancs.ac.uk/?p=1133

 Google Scholar