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.
Author(s): Véronique Lacoste (editor), Jakob Leimgruber (editor), Thiemo Breyer (editor)
Series: Linguae & Litterae, volume 39
Publisher: De Gruyter
Year: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 370
Contents
Authenticity: A view from inside and outside sociolinguistics
Language, society and authenticity: Themes and perspectives
Section I: Indexing local meanings of authenticity
The trouble with authenticity
Chinese social practice and San Franciscan authenticity
Being more alternative and less Brit-pop: The quest for originality in three urban styles in Athens
“100 % Authentic Pittsburgh”: Sociolinguistic authenticity and the linguistics of particularity
‘Oh boy, ¿hablas español?’ – Salsa and the multiple value of authenticity in late capitalism
The commodification of authenticity
Section 2: Indexing authenticity in delocalised settings
The race from place: Dialect eradication vs. the linguistic “authenticity” of terroir
Reported Speech as an authentication tactic in computer-mediated communication
Authenticity in dialect performance? A case study of “Cyber-Jamaican”
From vernacular to digital ethnolinguistic repertoire: The case of Nigerian Pidgin
Hybridity as authenticity in Nigerian hip-hop lyrics
Section 3: Authenticity construction in other mediatised contexts
Authentic writing
Lexical variation at the internationalized university: Are indexicality and authenticity always relevant?
“Real communities”, rhetorical borders: Authenticating British identity in political discourse and on-line debate
What’s in a promesse authentique? Doubting and confirming authenticity in 17th-century French diplomacy
Index
