Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 275

Part of Session 181: Folk linguistics and society (Other abstracts in this session)

City boys and Country bumpkins: What films tell us about the folk linguistics of accented varieties

Authors: Planchenault, Gaelle
Submitted by: Planchenault, Gaelle (Simon Fraser University, Canada)

The aim of this paper is twofold: first, it will demonstrate how the study of films and, more specifically, of stylised performances of accents, can permit to highlight commonly circulated folk linguistic views of non-standard varieties. Secondly, it will examine one specific trait that is used to discriminate such varieties and to confine stigmatised vernaculars to the margins (the suburbs) or the outside of the city (the countryside).

My research on the use of accented French in films has shown that actors, even when belonging to the community that they portray, tend to stylise their parts in order to fit the general audience’s language expectations. Studying sociolectal and dialectal stylisations displayed in French films, such as L’Esquive (Kechiche, 2003)and Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (Dany Boon, 2008), I found that one salient linguistic stereotype relates to articulation. Characters who speak in non-standard varieties are depicted as inaudible, either because of the speed of their speech, either for what is seen as a looseness of articulation. The latter is a French topos that links ‘good’ articulation to control of oneself and to a polished elocution. Traditionally, French standard language has been seen as guided by reason, so much so as not displaying a mastery of the norm would be linked to a lack of intellect: to not articulate is taken as not being articulated. In this vein, speakers of non-standard varieties have commonly been described as uncivilised. For example, a council estate’s social worker commented on the youthspeak in this way: « Ces jeunes donnent l'impression d'être de véritables friches. On dirait que rien n'a été cultivé chez eux, qu'ils se sont constitués tous seuls »[1] (In: Le Figaro, ‘Vivre avec 400 mots’, 2005).

According to Boughton (2006: 284), ‘perceptions [of accents] are organised with regards to two main axes, plus/minus rural and plus/minus socially marked’. In this paper, I will argue that articulation is a discriminating criterion on both social and geographical axes. In addition, I will highlight a phenomenon of fractal recursivity (Gal and Irvine, 1995), which projects an opposition that firstly divides urban and rural varieties, and, secondly, urban and suburban varieties.

Boughton, Zoë (2006). When perception isn’t reality: accent identification and perceptual dialectology in French. Journal of French Language Studies 16: 277-304.

Gal, Susan & Judith Irvine. 1995. The Boundaries of Languages and Disciplines: How Ideologies Construct Difference. Social research 62(4): 967–1001.

[1] “These young people are like a wild land. It seems that nothing has been cultivated in them, that they formed themselves on their own”

Sociolinguistics Symposium 19

Programme: accepted abstracts

City boys and Country bumpkins: What films tell us about the folk linguistics of accented varieties