Mixed, Scare, or a Secret Third Thing? The Hybrid Quotation Continuum in German-Language Newspapers

This study investigates mixed quotation (MQ) and scare quotation (ScQ) in contemporary German-language newspapers, with a particular focus on how to distinguish between them for the purposes of corpus annotation within a broader project on the history of reported discourse. The analysis draws on a corpus of 800 articles from four Austrian newspapers published on 31 January and 1 February 2025. Its aim is to develop a taxonomy of ambiguous cases lying between MQ and ScQ. The results confirm that MQ and ScQ are best conceived as poles of a continuum. At one end are clear cases of MQ, where words are attributed to a definite speaker; at the other are clear cases of ScQ, where quotation marks signal unusual wording, irony, or authorial stance without attribution. Between these extremes lie ambiguous cases, where attribution is uncertain or context-dependent, and gradual shifts from quoting an identifiable speaker to referencing discourse more generally. For annotation purposes, I propose a pragmatic solution: all instances that can be attributed to a speaker, even indefinite or hearsay, should be annotated as MQ; the last steps on the continuum belong to ScQ; truly ambiguous cases should be excluded. Future research, with larger and more balanced corpora, should refine this taxonomy and explore production and reception, including how journalists and readers perceive or exploit the MQ–ScQ continuum.