Indexing authenticity: sociolinguistic perspectives

The concept of authenticity has received some attention in recent academic discourse, yet it has often been left under-defined from a sociolinguistic perspective. This volume presents the contributions of a wide range of scholars who exchanged their views on the topic at a conference in Freiburg, Germany, in November 2011. The authors address three leading questions: What are the local meanings of authenticity embedded in large cultural and social structures? What is the meaning of linguistic authenticity in delocalised and/or deterritorialised settings? How is authenticity indexed in other contexts of language expression (e.g. in writing or in political discourse)? These questions are tackled by recognised experts in the fields of sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and contact linguistics. While by no means exhaustive, the volume offers a large array of case studies that contribute significantly to our understanding of the meaning of authenticity in language production and perception.

The linguae& litterae series, edited by Peter Auer, Gesa von Essen and Werner Frick, documents the research activities of the School of Languageand Literature of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS). These research activities in literary studies and linguistics are characterized by an approach that is theoretically and methodologically "state of the art" and interdisciplinarily open. In linguistics the accent is on the corpus-based, quantitative and qualitative investigation of language; in literary studies the focus is on the comparative, transdisciplinary analysis of literary phenomena in their cultural contexts. At the same time the series deals with the productive interfaces and synergies between modern linguistics and literary studies (as well as the humanities, social and natural sciences with which they interact). It seeks a new, contemporary reformulation of the humanities research curriculum and its problem and concept orientation for the future. The series has a clear international orientation - each volume is multilingual, containing German, English and French contributions and, depending on the volume, articles in Italian or Spanish as well. Each individual volume is peer reviewed by an international editorial board. Each year 2-4 volumes are published.

What does it mean to be authentic? How is authenticity indexed in contexts of language expression? Authenticity is considered a driving force of individuals' behaviour and is evaluated according to cultural contexts and mediated by and expressed in language. This volume examines the meanings of linguistic authenticity and problematises the authentic speaker as reflecting a complex and dynamic deployment of sociolinguistic and pragmatic resources. Véronique Lacoste and Jakob Leimgruber, University of Freiburg, Germany; Thiemo Breyer, University of Cologne, Germany.