Following the Labovian paradigm, the present study uses variationist quantitative methods to examine the linguistic and social factors influencing adjective choices in German. By focusing on adjectives of positive evaluation (such as cool ‘cool’, toll/geil ‘great’), an analysis of over 3,000 tokens reveals that the choice of using one adjective over a competing counterpart is structured systematically. This choice is heavily constrained by the social factor age, with gender also influencing variation to varying degrees. The syntactic position of the adjective also conditions use, with some adjectives favoring predicative position and others favoring attributive or stand-alone position. Comparisons across apparent time, as well as with previous research, indicate that the semantic field of positive evaluation is a perpetually changing locus of variation. By applying variationist methods to German data, the present study illustrates how German lexis can index social meaning, paving the way for future research on German lexical variation. More broadly speaking, this study also contributes to ongoing variationist sociolinguistic research on German language variation and change.*

遵循 Labovian 范式，本研究使用变异定量方法来检查影响德语形容词选择的语言和社会因素。通过关注积极评价的形容词（例如酷“酷”、toll / geil “伟大”），对 3,000 多个标记的分析表明，使用一个形容词而不是竞争对应词的选择是系统化的。这种选择受到社会因素年龄、性别的严重制约。也不同程度地影响变异。形容词的句法位置也有条件使用，一些形容词偏爱表语位置，而另一些形容词偏爱定语或独立位置。跨表观时间以及与先前研究的比较表明，积极评价的语义领域是一个不断变化的变异点。通过将变体方法应用于德语数据，本研究说明了德语词汇如何索引社会意义，为未来德语词汇变化的研究铺平了道路。更广泛地说，这项研究还有助于正在进行的关于德语变异和变化的变异主义社会语言学研究。*