Saugera Valérie - Remade in France

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Saugera, Valrie, author.

Title: Remade in France : Anglicisms in the lexicon and morphology of French/ Valrie Saugera.

Description: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016019835 | ISBN 9780190625542 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780190625566 (epub) | ISBN 9780190625573 (online)

Subjects: LCSH: English languageGallicisms. | English languageForeign wordsFrench. | French languageInfluence on English. | French languageMorphology. | French languageLexicology.

Classification: LCC PE1582.F5 S38 2016 | DDC 442/.421dc23

For Albane, Batrice, and ric.

In the solitary process of data collection, research, and writing on the heated, creative, and constantly changing topic of French Anglicisms, I have benefited from the help of many.

Patricia V. Lunn read every word of every draft. A friend and a linguist, I owe her this book for her rigorous editing, critical comments, and indomitable encouragement.

The following people have very much contributed to this book as well. I list them alphabeticallyFeray J. Baskin (FJB), Yohan Boniface, Alice Bowsher, Alexander Croxton, Amanda Dalola, John Humbley, Debbie Hunt, Louise Larchbourne, Olivia Levasseur, Christopher L. Rhodes, Stphanie Roulon, Jean-Pierre Rousseau, Albane Saugera, Batrice Saugera, ric Saugera, Hallie Stebbins, and two anonymous reviewers. I am also grateful to the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute for its grant support.

Quand ltat franais rinvente le what the fuck

(When the French state reinvents the what the fuck)

Slate.fr, January 19, 2010

Language being an affair of state in France, the Acadmie franaise has not failed to engage with the latest supply of English words in the French lexicon, and its arbiters periodically propose native equivalents for unwanted foreign items: liseuse, not e-book; syndrome dpuisement professionnel, not burn-out; and acharnement contre Hollande, not Hollande bashing. E-book, burn-out, and bashing illustrate the lexical imports from the period of vigorous contact beginning in the 1990s between French and English (as the global language). Although Anglicisms from this period have received scholarly attention, over the last twenty years the academicians have followed this dynamic more closely than have the linguists. This book examines the appearance and behavior of English-origin items in the lexicon and morphology of French from the first phase of this contact period, and explains them in the context of French neology and lexical activity/renewal. It records and chronicles the status of these borrowed words and phrases, based on data collected from primary sourcesa large online newspaper corpus (for unofficial Anglicisms) and the dictionary (for official Anglicisms)and secondary sources.

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Emblematic works of the current opposition to the alleged Anglicization of the French lexicon serve to contextualize protectionist concerns. The report of the Commission gnrale de terminologie et de nologie (2013) and the entries in the Dire, ne pas dire (Say, dont say) section of the Acadmie franaises website represent the state view, while

The Commission gnrale de terminologie et de nologie, founded in 1996, aims to limit lexical inflation and supply specialized terminology to take the place of foreign, mostly English, loanwords under the rallying cry of enrichment of the French language. The declared long-term objective of the Commission is to protect the status of the French language as both the language of the Republic and an international language. Subsequent to the Acadmie franaises approval, the proposed French equivalents appear in the Journal officiel, which guarantees their compulsory use in all public and administrative spheres.

The Dire, ne pas dire section on the Acadmies website exemplifies another expression of linguistic purism. It is a new space for academicians to post standards related to both dictionary-sanctioned and -unsanctioned Anglicisms. Periodic posts since 2011 may include a short etymology but essentially fuel the argument that French counterparts should be used instead: the entry for adjectival cash, a colloquial false Anglicism, suggests the native paraphrase dune franchise un peu brutale (of a slightly harsh honesty); the entry for the borrowed compound X-friendly (vlo-friendly (bike-friendly), conjoint-friendly (partner-friendly)), patterned on gay-friendly, promotes the substitute sympathisant employed by seventeenth-century poet La Fontaine in one of his fables. The academicians invariably consider the Anglicisms and the proposed French replacements to be perfect synonyms. In addition to the Anglicisms being considered unnecessary, another recurrent criticism in the posts is that they are modish or snobbish: Ces termes [look, touch] ont connu une grande fortune, tant il semble important aux yeux de certains de se donner un air de modernit en empruntant langlais mots et expressions la mode. (These terms [look, touch] have achieved such popularity, that it seems important in the eyes of some to give themselves an air of modernity by borrowing trendy words and expressions from English.) This sample of items discussed in the Acadmies