Normes, urbanités et émergences plurilingues: parlers (de) jeunes francophones ed. by Thierry Bulot, Valentin Feussi (review)

Reviews 227 Bulot, Thierry, et Valentin Feussi, éd. Normes, urbanités et émergences plurilingues: parlers (de) jeunes francophones. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2012. ISBN 978-2-29699802 -5. Pp. 264. 26,50 a. This collection of ten empirical studies interrogates the dynamic exchange between normative French and competing linguistic varieties among young people in urban, Francophone settings, the outcome of a research project undertaken in cooperation with the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF). The case studies draw from a range of disciplines and methodologies, including pragmatics, conversational analysis, socio-cultural history,and synchronic descriptions of contact-induced language change. Such theoretical frameworks generate larger social and political discourses of identity construction, political affiliation, and power relationships. The geographical scope is wide and source of linguistic corpora diverse. Two works are devoted to Hexagonal social spaces: the inter-generational use of gallo in a hospital setting in Brittany and the lexical innovations popularized by rap in the Val-de-Marne.Another chapter examines hip-hop as a marker of social boundaries in Madagascar, while other contributions reflect on the significance of “@ languages” (SMS, emoticons, orthographic variants, and code-switching) in Réunion and contact linguistics in Cameroun (le camfranglais). The best of the articles avoid obfuscating jargon and self-reflexive linguistic indulgences. Such an example is the study of the alternation of Reunionese creole and French in the context of language acquisition, pedagogy, social class, and family discursive practice. Regrettably, such articles are in the minority. Too many authors seek to vaunt their academic bona fides through linguistic and rhetorical excesses: what is signified by the expression subjectivation objective (11)? Why must the sociologist Pecqueux’s term oscillation populo-misérabiliste (93) be invoked to characterize rap? Does the use of neologisms (glossonymisation) or infrequent lexical items (la polylectalité) serve to clarify or mystify? Finally, one finds the fetishistic use of parentheses: parlers (de) jeunes francophones; pour (ne pas) conclure. In fact, such formulations signify belonging to a disciplinary culture and are obligatory moves given the genesis of this volume. Nonetheless , this insider code erects a boundary between the specialist and a more generalized readership, limiting the diffusion of fascinating data and rigorous analysis that record the highly divergent and dynamic state of la francophonie. Despite the reception concerns I have raised, I do recommend sustained attention to this volume.As scholars of French language and literature, we must draw upon research-based models of ideology and usage and present a nuanced construction of la francophonie to our students. Far too often, our teaching materials merely tot up the sum of states where French is the official language and emphasize their geographic dispersedness, failing to foreground the linguistic heterogeneity generated by diverse age,social setting,and media. It is incumbent upon us to repair this simplified (nostalgic?) version of la francophonie based on data gathered from methodologically valid instruments rather than the idiosyncratic, non-contextualized observations contained in many of our textbooks. Cabrillo College/Graduate Theological Union (CA) H. Jay Siskin ...