Discourse-pragmatic variation in Paris French and London English: Insights from general extenders

Gardner‐Chloros

Atangana

2018

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We report on a survey of language attitudes carried out as part of a project comparing youth language in Paris and London.1As in similar studies carried out in London (Cheshire et al., 2008), Berlin (Wiese, 2009) and elsewhere (Boyd et al., 2015), the focus was on features considered typical of ‘contemporary urban vernaculars’ (Rampton, 2015).The respondents were pupils aged 15–18 in two secondary schools in a working-class northern suburb of Paris. The survey included (1) a written questionnaire containing examples of features potentially undergoing change in contemporary French; (2) an analysis of reactions to extracts from the project data: participants were asked to comment on the speakers and the features identified.Quantitative analysis had shown that some of these features are more widespread than others and are used by certain categories of speaker more than others (Gardner-Chloros and Secova, this volume). This study provides a qualitative dimension, showing that different features have different degrees of perceptual salience and acceptability. It demonstrates that youth varieties do not involve characteristic features being used as a ‘package’, and that such changes interact in a complex manner with attitudinal factors. The study also provides material for reflection on the role of attitude studies within sociolinguistic surveys.

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

supporting

confidence: 90%

‘Il parle normal, il parle comme nous’: self-reported usage and attitudes in a banlieue

Gardner‐Chloros

Atangana

2018

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“…Most scholars assume that the earliest uses of genre are as a noun (e.g. Danon-Boileau & Morel 1997; Fleischman & Yaguello 2004:130; Secova 2011; Davidse et al 2013; Dufaye 2016; Isambert 2016). For the seven older age groups in CFPP2000 this is by far the most frequent use of genre .…”

Section: Quotative Genre As An Independent Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 2 At present, the two less frequent similarity quotatives seem to have specialised functions that relate to their uses as discourse markers. Secova (2011: 141) notes that as a discourse marker en mode is associated with descriptions of a state of mind or mood. In our data the quotative en mode , similarly, introduces imagined speech or thought associated with a state of mind or mood, as in the example below.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The origins of new quotative expressions: the case of Paris French

Cheshire

2018

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We analyse genre in the speech of young people with multi-ethnic friendship groups in Paris in order to address the as yet unresolved question of whether new quotatives equivalent in meaning to English BE LIKE result from simultaneous independent parallel developments in languages other than English or from a process of calquing.We conclude that French quotative genre results from independent internal developments but that it enters the French quotative system in the same way that BE LIKE entered the English system, driven by the meanings of 'similarity' or 'approximation' that are shared by the lexical item genre in a range of syntactic categories. We propose that in order for a new similarity quotative to emerge, a lexical item with a meaning of 'similarity' or 'approximation' must become syntactically multifunctional, and that the use of that lexical item must reach a critical frequency threshold. In the case of genre we suggest that the necessary increase in frequency results from the development of the lexical item into a discourse marker.We also analyse another new French quotative, ETRE LA, a sequence that we find is used to highlight activity of many kinds (including, but not confined to, spoken behaviour). The trajectory followed by each of the new quotative expressions conforms to De Smet's proposals about how linguistic innovations spread through the grammar. , 15:151-198. Clark, H. and Gerrig, R. (1990). Quotations as demonstrations. Language, 66: Journal of Sociolinguistics 764-895.Danon-Boileau, L. and Morel, M-A. (1997). "Question, point de vue, genre, style: les noms prépositionnels en français contemporain." Faits de langue, 9:192-200.

“…The in situ form is, in fact, the only variable that displays significant gender differences in the quantitative analyses of the MPF corpus. It is important to note that if we compare grammatical with discourse-pragmatic innovations (see Secova, 2017 for general extenders and Cheshire and Secova, this volume, for quotatives), we find that they do not pattern in the same way. While innovative discourse features overall are used more often by female speakers, gender was not significant for individual variants.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 81%

Grammatical change in Paris French:in situquestion words in embedded contexts

Gardner‐Chloros

2018

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This article will review the parameters of a grammatical variable within the putative variety ‘Multicultural Paris French’, i.e. its distribution and use within a group of young banlieue speakers. The structure in question stands out as it has rarely been found in previous corpora in France: indirect questions following verbs like savoir, where the question word is post-verb (je sais pas il a dit quoi). We discuss which groups use the new forms in Paris, referring briefly to some comparable changes in London. This structure appears to be an instance of ‘change from below’ (Labov, 2007), which seems to have emerged in the speech of young people of immigrant background. It might also, on the other hand, be a long-standing vernacular variant, which has re-emerged, with specific identity-related significance, in this particular group of speakers. Its exceptional character in the Paris context highlights a lack of evidence for the emergence of a more wide-ranging, distinct multiethnolect, as found in London and other European capitals.