Les mots-caresses: petit inventaire affectueux by Marie Treps (review)

Reviews 293 appliquée depuis le milieu du vingtième siècle qui, contrairement à l’approche normative de la langue jusque là dominante, valorise les formes non-standard des langues puisqu’elle a comme objet d’étude la langue dans son contexte. Comme le rappelle l’auteur en conclusion, ce livre met en lumière les échos historiques entre pouvoir et langue et l’impact que ces deux notions ont encore aujourd’hui sur la manière dont on enseigne les langues. University of Massachusetts, Lowell Carole Salmon Treps, Marie. Les mots-caresses: petit inventaire affectueux. Paris: CNRS, 2011. ISBN 978-2-271-06911-5. Pp. 433. 14,90 a. As is clear from the abundant literature on code-switching, bilinguals often turn to their mother tongue to express strong emotions. It is as if only the native language is capable of capturing one’s true feelings. Treps’s journey into the particular speech act served by hypocoristic words, or terms of endearment, turns out to be an exploration of language from numerous perspectives: culturally and sociolinguistically certainly, but also through literary and historical texts. In this new and greatly expanded version of Le dico des mots-caresses (Seuil, 1997), the reader is invited to discover how the broad repertoire of terms of endearment is equally matched by the range of emotions, relationships , and situations that hypocoristic words serve to express. The opening commentary sets an easy and engaging tone,suggesting the author’s affection for her subject, but also defining the approach, the method of investigation, and the diverse functions and situations within which such terms originate and occur. The author directly addresses the reader, speaking, as it were, with an appropriate tone of familiarity, complicity, and informality. The subject is cleverly defined in both a formal and informal manner; the technical term, hypocoristique, is presented along with its etymology, tying in the coinage “mots-caresses.” By itself, the commentary is interesting and relevant for the student of French, whether the draw is literary, linguistic, or cultural. The writing style is aligned with the topic: colloquial, personal, and contemporary. The text invites the reader to visit its contents randomly and to be happily surprised by the outcome. The hunt for terms of endearment is conducted within a broad terrain: classic and modern literature,an Internet student forum,newspaper personal advertisements forValentine’s Day,movie scripts,and so on.No topic is off limits,and the récolte is impressive. In the textual resources referenced at the end of the book, literary texts are neatly organized by centuries.Following this list,an index provides a guide for picking and choosing expressions to explore, so that one could go, for instance, from abeille (“La vie se fait chaque jour, mon abeille,” taken from Chabrol’s 1967 film Je t’aimerai sans vergogne) to canaille (an affective insult used frequently in Serge Gainsbourg’s and Eddy Mitchell’s well-known 1985 duo) or to the very French kiki, as in “C’est parti, mon kiki!” Treps does a particularly good job of contextualizing her examples. Each expression is followed by a brief but accurate reading of its meaning in context, such as the potential of mes agneaux to express “une certaine ironie à l’adresse de ceux qui, en apparence, sont la douceur, l’innocence mêmes” (37). With a well-conceived thematic organization, this volume is enjoyable and instructive. It will enrich in an entertaining manner classes geared toward discovering language within its sociocultural setting,including advanced (spoken) language,sociolinguistics,civilization,and literary courses with a broad focus. Wake Forest University (NC) Stéphanie Pellet 294 FRENCH REVIEW 87.1 ...