LEXICON AS LOOKING GLASS OF SOCIETY

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LEXICON ASLOOKING GLASS OF SOCIETY
CORAL (Orléans Centre for Research in
Anthropology and Linguistics Diachronic Analysis
of socio-linguistic variations from two Orleans
corpora

• TWO DATES
• 1968-1972 / 2005-2006

Annie Vaslin-Chesneau
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ESLO (Socio-linguistic Survey in Orléans)

• ESLO1 Reminder
• 156 individual interviews in interviewees homes
• Socio-linguistic survey
• Semi open-ended interview

• ESLO2 Same project
• A small part of ESLO2 interviews with the same
  participants

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Corpus Participants

• Same people at two different dates
• 2 Women / 8 men
• Age range
• ESLO1 from 22 to 40
• ESLO2 from 59 to 76

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Corpus Participants

• Socio-economic class

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Formation of Corpus

• Audio recording
• Questionnaire same categories for ESLO2 as for
  ESLO1 work, hobbies, language, culture,
  education
• Transcription using Transcriber software

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Using the Corpus

• Objectives
• Lexical variation morphosyntactic and
  phonological in diachrony for the same
  participants

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Using the Corpus

• Two tests using audio extracts
• Recognition of the same voice
• Recognition of two different eras
• Results of these tests intimate a variation for
  the same participant. Yet, this variation is
  dependant on changes in society

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Test

• How is ESLO1 distinguished from ESLO2?
• Answers to Women at work question
• from the lexicon
• from the evolution of ideas

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Test

• How are the same participants identified ?
• Answers to How do you make an omelette question
  
• from the intonation, a southern accent
• from certain lexical terms cholesterol, fat
• Mistakes

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LEXICONthe looking glass of society

• Words used for old people
• ESLO1 les petits vieux old folk
• ESLO2  les personnes âgées Elderly

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LEXICONthe looking glass of society

• Words used for children ESLO 1

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LEXICONthe looking glass of society

• Words used for children ESLO2

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Lexicon,the looking glass of society

• Words used for children ESLO1/ESLO2

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Social class groupings
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Language register

• The aim of ESLO is to record spontaneous
  interaction.
• 7 interviewees belonging to group A
• ESLO1- used standard if not affected French
• ESLO2- used standard if not affected French. Yet
  also used colloquial if not vulgar French such as
  ils me lont sucré (they taken it off me),
  Ils emmerdent (piss me off), se foutre du
  monde (taking the piss), engueuler (to give a
  bollocking to), etc.

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Neologisms

• Loan words
• Some appeared le mail (but le courriel is
  also used), le self, le footing, mixer,
  etc.
• Some have disappeared le dancing, la
  speakerine, le software (le logiciel is
  used), etc.
• Some have become French words le foot, le
  basket, stresser, etc.

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Neologisms

• Changes in society
• Changes in technology informatique,
  numérique, portable, disquettes, etc.
• No time to waste
• Truncation télé, vélo, prof, instit,
  labo, foot, etc.
• Acronyms DRH, SDF, CFDT, etc.

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The Omelette Recipe Stability?

• The question has changed
• ESLO1 How do you make an omelette?
• ESLO2 Can you give me the recipe for an
  omelette?
• Reaction of speakers differs
• Laughter (ESLO1)
• Yes, its easy (ESLO2)

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Stability in the recipe

• Different steps of recipe
• Lexicon
• Words used

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Society and recipe

• Personal pronouns
• ESLO1 women, wives cooked omelette
• ESLO2 both men and women cooked

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Conclusion

• There is a clear diachronic variation for each
  interviewee. It includes
• Lexicon, but also
• Syntax (double negation, etc.),
• Phonology (liaisons, etc.).