Attitudes to French online

the internet has increased potential for global interaction - can go online and see how people speak

monologic: give insight into only one perspective, not of those reading these guides

dialogic: people ask questions and get a response, both are published

language commentary online in C21 is dialogic

audience for prescriptive texts has evolved since C17/18

in C21, almost all adults educated in France have been exposed to standard French

internet has made access to, creation of and interaction with metalinguistic texts easier

blogs = new form of metalinguistic commentary in C21

Langue sauce piquante: blog run by editors from Le Monde. discuss correct language. run by lay people. people can engage in comment section

Bescherelle ta mère: photo blog, put up memes about language, run by a random lay person. make jokes out of mistakes.

dire, ne pas dire: run by Académie Française. short articles related to a question. has some institutional heft.

no longer limited to texts that have been published professionally - anyone can discuss language online

much more accessible and instantaneous

in the past - write in to Courrier and wait for a response

can go online to judge good usage / language norms

DIRE, NE PAS DIRE

dire, ne pas dire: has tagline ‘L’Académie répond’. sporadic responses. 5000-7000 queries per year

display a prescriptive attitude towards French

expressions to give advice: il faut dire, il ne faut pas dire/écrire (deontic modals)

correction: fautif/correct, faute, erreur, in.correct

clearly recommending certain forms and condemning others

out of 278 responses, terms correct and incorrect are used 49 times - less than expected

sometimes say all are correct, but one is better. Vaugelas also did this

long history of use of metaphor and imagery in metalinguistic texts

relies on the personification of a language

in C20/21 texts imagery: aesthetic, political, pseudo-linguistic and metaphorical arguments

nationalism can play an important role in linguistic purism

metaphors = reinforce idea that usages can be good or bad

demonstrate some very similar metalinguistic devices to earlier texts

new perspective for the study of both lay and expert approaches