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Corpus approaches to sociolinguistic variation and semantic change: parce que bon'''because well

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Title: Corpus approaches to sociolinguistic variation and semantic change: parce que bon'''because well


1
Corpus approaches to sociolinguistic variation
and semantic change parce que bon...(because
well)
  • Kate Beeching, Reader, Linguistics and French
  • Head, International Corpus Linguistics Research
    Unit (ICLRU)
  • University of the West of England, Bristol

2
Bon, quand même, quoi ! Yeah but
all the same, like
  • A sociolinguistic survey of semantic change.
  • An investigation of the impact of daily
    interactional activity on the meanings of words
    and how sociolinguistic factors affect the way in
    which new meanings are propagated.
  •  .the real entities of language are utterances
    and speakers  grammars. Language change occurs
    via replication of these entities not through
    inherent change of an abstract system  Croft,
    20004

3
Overview of the talk 1
  • What do sociolinguists study?
  • The relationship between diastratic, diaphasic
    and diachronic variation
  • What are discourse/pragmatic markers?
  • Are they a suitable case for (sociolinguistic)
    treatment?
  • PISC - politeness induced semantic change

4
Overview of the talk 2
  • Case-studies
  • quand même 1500-2000
  • bon
  • quoi

5
What is sociolinguistics?
  • The relationship between language and society
  • Variationism traditionally phonological
  • a linguistic variable such as /t/ may have two
    variants /t/ and glottal stop butter
    distributional frequencies vary across
    populations (and indeed individuals)

6
Variation The four dias
  • Diatopic variation
  • Diastratic variation (age, sex, social class)
  • Diaphasic variation
  • Diachronic variation

7
Studies in real time and apparent time
  • Studies in real time investigate differences
    observed in the speech of comparable groups of
    speakers separated by a significant period of
    time
  • Studies in apparent time investigate
    differences observed in the speech of different
    generations existing at the same time

8
Synchronic and diachronic variation
  • For a while, the start and end-point of the
    change co-exist in the form of two different
    stylistic layers.... A change is, therefore, in
    the beginning, a synchronic phenomenon.
  • Jakobson, 1952/196337 (KB translation).
  • There are no pure varieties of contemporary
    French, merely quantitative differences in the
    distribution of key language variables. Lodge,
    1993 232.
  • Grammaticalization has to be conceived of as a
    panchronic process that presents both a
    diachronic perspective, since it involves change,
    and a synchronic perspective, since it implies
    variation that can be described as a system
    without reference to time. Heine, Claudi
    Hünnemeyer, 1991261

9
What are pragmatic particles?
  • Like, sort of, kind of, well, yknow, I mean,
    anyway, eh? Glasgow but
  • aber, ja, doch, eigentlich, eben, einmal, schon,
    mal
  • bon, enfin, hein, quand même, quoi
  • very frequent but tend not to appear in
    dictionaries and grammars

10
Defining pragmatic particles
  • Brinton (1996 33-35) highlights the following
    characteristics of pragmatic markers
  • marginal forms, difficult to place in a word
    class
  • little or no propositional meaning
  • multifunctional, operating on several linguistic
    levels
  • feature of oral, rather than written discourse,
  • associated with informality, often
    stigmatised
  • appear with high frequency
  • gender-specific? More typical of womens speech?

11
Variationism and the use of particles
  • Variationism is traditionally focused on
    phonology
  • Recent studies (e.g. Fleischmann Yaguello,
    2004) suggest that certain DMs can be identity
    markers, and can function like phonological
    features

12
To sum up
  • Distributional frequencies of a small sub-set of
    frequently occurring DMs in French
  • Investigating their correlation with demographic
    factors such as the age, sex, educational
    background and date of birth
  • Investigating their etymology and the extent to
    which the hypothesis of PISC can be sustained.

13
Corpus Data
  • FRANTEXT literary corpus contains 210 million
    words in 3,737 texts from the 16th. to the 20th.
    century
  • Orléans (ESLO) Corpus (1966-1970)
    http//bacharts.kuleuven.ac.be/elicop . 109 hours
    of spoken French (902,755 words transcribed)
  • Beeching Corpus (1988-1990) http//www.uwe.ac.uk
    //hlss/llas/iclru/corpus.pdf. 17.5 hours of
    spoken French, (155,000 words transcribed), 95
    speakers.
  • Corpus de Référence du Français Parlé "CRFP"
    (2002)http//www.up.univ-mrs.fr/delic/crfp/ 40
    towns in France, 400,000 words. See Véronis
    (2005).

14
Quand même 1500-2000
  • The coalesced form quand même appears to have
    started life as a strengthened form of quand -
    at the very moment when
  • The conjunction acquired a concessive force (cf.
    while) from at least 1500
  • In the 19th. Century, it appears as an adverb -
    and begins to lose its strong adversative or
    concessive sense
  • In 20th./21st. Century spoken French, it is
    exclusively adverbial and may be either
    adversative or expressive (hedging/boosting)

15
From concessive conjunctiongtadverb
  • Je prépare un discours qui la pourroit toucher
  • Quand mesme au lieu dun coeur elle auroit un
    rocher.
  • (Du Ryer, Pierre, Les vendanges de Suresne, 1636,
    page 62, Acte 1, scène iv (vi))
  • Im preparing a speech which should tear her
    apart
  • Even though shed a stone where she should have a
    heart.

16
Conjunction to adverb
  • Et quand même nous ne réussirions pas, nos
    petites-filles réussiront. (Marivaux, La Colonie,
    1750, page 1851/Scène première).
  • And even though we might not succeed, our
    grand-daughters will.
  • Si je meurs, ce sera en tadorant quand même,
    ainsi que jai vécu! (STENDHAL La Chartreuse de
    Parme, II, XXIII).
  • If I die, Ill go on loving you all the same,
    just as I did when I was alive.

17
Grammatical and semantic change
  • Period CONJUNCTIONS ADVERBS
  • Concessive Temporal
  • or contrastive Adversative Relational
  • N N N N
  • 1500-1599 4 100 - - - - - -
  • 1600-1699 47 92 1 2 - - - -
  • 1700-1799 19 95 1 5 - - - -
  • 1800-1899 14 54 - - 11 42 - -
  • 1900-1949 9 8 - - 61 55 36 32
  • 1950-2000 8 0.5 - - 64 44 72 50
  • Table 1 Number and relative percentage rates of
    occurrence of Quand mesme/quand même in
    theatrical
  • works in FRANTEXT, used as conjunctions with a
    concessive vs. temporal function or adverbs with
    an
  • adversative vs. relational function, from
    1500-2000

18
Spoken data adverbgtparticle
  • ce nest pas une ville qui bouge cest une ville
    qui a quand même un cinéma la saison estivale
    pendant la saison estivale et deux boîtes de nuit
    deux discothèques
  • (Beeching Corpus, 4, 35-36)
  • its not exactly leaping, as towns go, but it
    does have a cinema in the summer season during
    the summer season and two night clubs, two
    discotheques
  • ça a lair dêtre une famille quand même assez
    riche
  • (Beeching Corpus, 1, 647)
  • It seems to be quite a rich family really.

19
An excuse or apology
  • This mode has a familiar tone, more spoken than
    the first. Roberts definition is Il faut avouer,
    à vrai dire, on en conviendra. To that list, one
    should probably add je ne devrais pas le dire
    mais... In speech it is a tactical gambit which,
    by sketching an apparent attenuation of what
    might be sensed as the impropriety of an
    affirmation, can enable the reinforcement of the
    latter. ..it offers a justification for the
    statement it accompanies, even a sort of excuse
    or apology for it. But thereby it too has an
    adversative quality, faint and implicit, in that
    it hints at contradicting an assumed objection.
    (Grieve, 1996 417, my emphasis).

20
Semantic bleaching/pragmatic enrichment
  • Continuum M1 gt M1/M2 gt M2
  • Propositional(concession)?explicit adversative
    ?implicit adversative ?Hedging/Boosting
    Expression
  • Conjunction ? Adverb ?Particle

21
BonHansen (1998)  Acceptance 
  • Hansen (1998  253) claims that the discourse
    marker bon is, of course, derived from the
    corresponding adjective she adds that it is
    clear that the adjective and the DM are
    different the DM is invariable (uninflected) and
    behaves like an adverb.
  • Hansen suggests that adjectival bon indicates a
    positive evaluation of something and that the DM
    also marks acceptance in a rather wide sense of
    the word. She gives examples (1998  253-254) of
    interjective and turn-initial uses which can be
    interpreted in this way.

22
Jayez (2004)  mot de la fin 
  • The utterance of bon by an agent a mediates the
    following conventional implicature a believes
    or desires that a process in train is or should
    be ended.
  • (Jayez, 2004 4 KB translates).

23
Bon
  • Marks the stages in a narrative
  • j'avais perdu mon père à douze ans et je ne
    connaissais pas tellement la fabrication ma
    mère a fait tout ce qu'elle a pu mais eh eh
    elle était pas du métier bon alors /j'ai
    cherché, je cherchais/ à ayant deux frè- deux
    frères et une soeur à leur laisser la place
    pour t- avoir une profession CRFP PRI-AMI-3
  • Marks a reformulation
  • frère aîné qui avait quatre ans de plus que moi
    était très gâté parce qu'il passait de de fille
    en fille vous comprenez tandis que moi j'ai été
    élevé de bon il a servi de brouillon pour moi or
    j'étais apparemment mieux réussi que que

24
Bon - restriction/concession and hedge
  • Marks a restriction or concession (bon.mais)
  • prend ses fleurs en Hollande mais nous c'est que
    des fleurs de France on (n') en prend pas en
    Hollande bon il y en a qui viennent de Hollande
    mais c'est un fournisseur en particulier qui
    fait des cultivations euh en France (CRFP,
    PRI-BES-2)
  • Hesitatory or hedging
  • Oui alors bon oui je bon ma fille a bon elle a
    pas poursuivi ses études pour la bonne raison
    cest quon la foutue dehors à lâge de seize
    ans(from Jayez, 2004)

25
Brémond (2004)
  • With respect to dialogic situations, Brémond
    (20047) notes that (KB translates)
  • The (very frequent) use of the little mark bon
    in spoken exchanges rarely indicates agreement,
    or, at least, it never indicates agreement
    without indicating at the same time traces of
    disagreement the use of this mark seems rather,
    perhaps by giving the surface appearance of
    agreement, to indicate the management of
    intersubjective heterogeneity the use of the
    little mark seems to indicate an ongoing
    negotiation . bon might be seen as playing a
    role in the cooperative management of the
    exchange.

26
Bon a (surface) agreement marker masking what
is actually a disagreement
  • Ca ya des haricots verts dans votre plat ?
  • E oui
  • Ca bon
  • Mar ben cest-à-dire que si on met pas les
    haricots verts on peut mettre de la laitue
  • E ten veux pas dharicots verts ?
  • Ca Non ? j(e ) veux pas dharicots verts ?

27
Bon a (surface) agreement marker masking what
is actually a disagreement
  • Ca are there green beans in your dish?
  • E yes
  • Ca bon (OK)
  • Mar well thats to say that if you dont have
    green beans you can have lettuce
  • E you dont want green beans ?
  • Ca No ? I dont want green beans?

28
Linguistic change in progress
  • Hypothesis
  • In spontaneous spoken contexts, the acceptance 
    and mot de la fin usages are gradually being
    superseded by a new sense which includes
    concession or what Brémond 2004 calls traces de
    désaccord /négociation
  • Would support Traugott s (1982) thesis that
    semantic change follows a unidirectional path
  • Propositional gtTextualgtExpressive
    (Intersubjective)

29
Generalization
  • As it becomes semantically bleached, it can be
    used in more contexts and can thus increase in
    frequency.
  • As Haspelmath (1999 1062) remarks
  • Semantic generalization or bleaching is usually
    a prerequisite for use in a basic discourse
    function, that is, for the increase in frequency
    that triggers the other changes.

30
Quantitative survey - real time
31
Quantitative survey - apparent time
32
Example 1 a 92 year-oldwoman
  • L1 en contact avec euh l'Ecole normale alors
    tant sur le plan de l'art tout seul que sur le
    plan du langage
  • L2 hum hum
  • L1 bon et je me suis toujours attachée à ce que
    les enfants parlent bien juste construisent
    une phrase et réfléchissent réfléchissent bon
    vous voyez la formation de l'esprit à l'école
    maternelle c'est important il y a la la
    formation du langage il y a la lecture c'est
    évident bon il y a un minimum de calcul c'est
    bien évident mais l'art euh fait à mon avis
    beaucoup l'art et la musique hein la peinture et
    la musique cest ça
  • CRFP PRI-BEL-2

33
Example 2 a 20 year-old woman
  • je suis rentrée dans cette entreprise pour un
    mois /donc, bon/ c'était court mais bon euh
    ça m'a permis de voir un peu ce que c'était et
    euh donc j'ai travaillé en collaboration avec le
    D.R.H. et ça ça m'a plu on a on a fait un tas
    de trucs et euh j'ai je me suis occupée de
    formation informatique pour euh les salariés je
    me suis occupée des des détachés qui étaient à
    l'étranger euh avec les missions les ordres de
    euh des exportés etc. donc euh donc ça ça m'a
    permis et puis bon j'étais euh j'étais assez
    autonome dans le sens où il y avait personne à
    côté de moi pour me dire tu fais ci tu fais ça
    j'avais ça à faire je le savais et il fallait que
    je me débrouille mais bon euh sa- sachant
    toujours que si j'avais un problème euh il y
    avait quelqu'un tu peux m'aider euh oui donc ça
    posait pas ça posait pas de problème puis il y
    a eu une bonne ambiance bon c'était dur
    forcément c'était la première fois que je
    travaillais donc euh mais bon ça ça m'a
    vachement plu et euh et voilà ..
  • CRFP PRI-PNE-1

34
Compound Forms
  • Rate of occurrence of bon ben, mais bon and
    parce que bon in the ESLO Corpus (1968), the
    Beeching Corpus (1988) and the CRFP (2002)

35
Bon ben, mais bon, parce que bon
36
Educational background
37
Change in the sense of bon
  • Most occurrences of bon can be classified as
     mots de la fin  as textual, structuring usages
  • Textual  bon  is often associated metonymically
    with contexts to do with restriction or as a
    hesitation marker
  • The  acceptance sense gt  acceptance up to a
    point, demurral
  • Far from being a mot de la fin , bon opens the
    door to co-construction of meaning and
    negotiation.

38
Cest superbe quoi!
  • Examples from spoken corpora
  • je suis de nationalité française mais je suis
    très contente dêtre bretonne je suis fière
    dêtre bretonne quand même quoi (Beeching Corpus,
    77, 211-12).
  • Im of French nationality but I am very happy to
    be Breton I am really kind of proud to be Breton
  • ah oui moi je, j'ai un travail qui me plaît
    beaucoup quoi.(Beeching Corpus, 16, 312)
  • Ah yes I I have a job which I kind of love.
  • cest superbe quoi! (Beeching Corpus, 5, 126-128)
  • Its kind of fantastic!

39
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40
Politeness markers
  • bon, quand même and quoi, in their different
    syntactic positions, work together to oil the
    wheels of social interaction
  • These usages are associated with spoken, informal
    contexts quoi, in particular, is highly demotic
    (stigmatised)
  • Wheeler (1994) suggests that speakers adopt a
    casual style in order to implement Positive
    Politeness
  • Social payoff in being informal gt Positive
    feedback loop

41
Apparent time data intergenerational usage in
the CRFP
42
Language and identity
  • Linguistic identity appears to conform more to
    generational norms than to class or sex
  • Older speakers tend to make a restrained use of
    particles and adopt a formal mode of speech
  • All speakers use deferent markers, this is a
    default position and is stable across time
  • Younger speakers tend to use camaraderie
    markers such as quoi, enfin and bon

43
Diaphasic and Diachronic Variation
  • Through strategic use or non-use of particular
    particles, speakers can adapt to circumstance,
    and their role in the conversation, appearing
    more formal (expert), young/old, deferent or
    friendly
  • Younger people appear to be moving towards a less
    formal mode of politeness - a type of
    democratisation their speech is solidary yet
    deferent, warm yet hedged, characterised in
    particular by a plethora of PPs

44
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45
The question remains...
  • To what can we attribute the increased
    distributional frequency of bon and quoi?
  • Metonymic concomitance?
  • Semantic bleaching?
  • A change in society?
  • Wheelers positive feedback loop? (Yesterdays
    informal is todays formal.)
  • Face redress is a powerful functional pressure
    on any linguistic system. B L 1987 255.

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