Peter Auer

Peter Auer (born 1954) is a German linguist and Professor Emeritus of Germanic Linguistics at the University of Freiburg. He is known for his work in sociolinguistics, code-switching, multilingualism, dialectology, and conversation analysis.

Auer was born in 1954 in Regensburg, West Germany. He studied General Linguistics, German Linguistics, Sociology, and Psychology at the Universities of Cologne, Constance, and Manchester.^[1]

He completed his doctoral dissertation (Promotion) at the University of Constance in 1983, titled "Zweisprachige Konversationen. Code-Switching und Transfer bei italienischen Migrantenkindern in Konstanz" (Bilingual Conversations: Code-Switching and Transfer among Italian Migrant Children in Constance). He subsequently completed his post-doctoral dissertation (Habilitation) at the same institution in 1988.^[1]

From 1980 to 1989, Auer worked as a researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Constance. In 1989, he became a Heisenberg Scholar and later accepted a position as professor of German Linguistics at the University of Hamburg.^[1]

In 1998, Auer joined the University of Freiburg as a full professor of Germanic Philology (Linguistics), where he remained until his retirement. He declined professorships at the universities of Munich, Mainz, and Bangor (Wales).^[1]

From 2007 to 2013, Auer served as co-director of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) School of Language and Literature.^[1]

Auer has held several significant administrative positions in the field of linguistics:

• Elected referee of the German Research Foundation (DFG) for General Linguistics (2000–2008)^[2]
• Co-director of the European Science Foundation Network on "Convergence and Divergence of Dialects in a Changing Europe"^[1]
• Member of editorial boards of various national and international academic journals^[1]

Auer's research spans multiple areas of linguistics, with particular focus on sociolinguistics, bilingualism, and dialectology. According to Google Scholar, his work has been cited over 72,000 times.^[3]

Auer's scholarly contributions include work in the following areas:

• Code-switching and bilingualism: His research on code-switching in conversation has been influential in understanding how bilingual speakers alternate between languages in social interaction.^[2]
• Dialectology: He has conducted extensive work on German dialects, particularly Alemannic varieties in southwestern Germany, examining how regional language varieties change through societal development.^[4]
• Conversation analysis: His studies on spoken interaction have contributed to discourse research, including work on turn-taking, prosody, and the temporal organization of talk.^[4]
• Language contact and multilingualism: Research on mixed languages and fused varieties emerging in multilingual contact situations.^[5]
• Online syntax: Pioneering work analyzing the psychological and interactional processes involved in real-time language production.^[4]

Auer has served as principal investigator on 15 externally funded research projects supported by organizations including the German Research Foundation (DFG), Volkswagen Foundation (VW-Stiftung), and Thyssen Foundation (Thyssen-Stiftung).^[1]

In 2011, Auer received the Baden-Württemberg State Research Prize for his work on regional language varieties.^[4] The prize recognized his innovative approaches combining traditional dialectology with modern theories of variational dynamics, migration, language contact, stereotype research, globalization, and urbanization.^[4]

Auer has authored six monographs, edited thirteen books and journal issues, and written approximately 100 research articles.^[1]

• Auer, Peter (1984). Bilingual Conversation. John Benjamins. ISBN 978-90-272-2541-2.
• Auer, Peter; di Luzio, Aldo (1992). The Contextualization of Language. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-90-272-5034-6.
• Auer, Peter (1998). Code-Switching in Conversation: Language, Interaction and Identity. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-60673-3.
• Auer, Peter; Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth; Muller, Frank (1999). Language in Time: The Rhythm and Tempo of Spoken Interaction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-535516-1.
• Auer, Peter (2007). Style and Social Identities: Alternative Approaches to Linguistic Heterogeneity. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-019081-6.
• Auer, Peter; Pfänder, Stefan (2011). Constructions: Emerging and Emergent. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-022908-0.

• Peter Auer at ResearchGate
• Peter Auer at Google Scholar
• Profile at Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies