Mateusz Bialas - handout

Central European Conference in Linguistics for Graduate StudentsPéter Pázmány Catholic University (PPCU), HungaryMateusz Białas August, 2011University of WarsawUniversity Paris Diderot Paris 7Nicolas Sarkozy – a French celebrity macho man who fell fromfavour a long time ago?In speaking or in writing, the President of France multiplies mistakes.On purpose? Does he want to get closer to the people?Fusion of shifted (inverted) rhetorical concepts:ETHOS↓LOGOS + PREPON ≥ PATHOS + KAIROSI. Principal phases of mediatisation• Major image alterations made by means of a language: a verbalfusion of inverted rhetorical concepts

• How is his political ethos designed and re-designed, and then puton display?II. Mechanisms of communication• Staging devices used in the contemporary political discourse• How, through the language, his speeches are designed anddelivered in public?III. Evolution of rhetorical effectiveness• Orator est vir bonus, dicendi peritus• Shall we ‘pardon his French’? Is (his) French really in tatters now?CONCLUSION: To what extent has he changed a discursive landscape in therealm of politics, and yet not only in this one?ORIGINAL VERSION‘J'écoute, mais je tienspas compte.’'Casse-toi, pov' con!' (enparlant à un agriculteur)TRANSLATION INTOENGLISH‘I listen but I don’t takenotice / I listen but don’ttake account.’‘P*ss off, poor sod!’(speaking to a farmer)COMMENTS ONLANGUAGEOmission of one part ofnegation (ne), typical ofinformal register; slightlydisapproving tone.Slang expressions andextremely contemptuoustone.‘Si y en a que ça les If there’s any what’s Informal register:

démange d'augmenter lesimpôts.’(en s’adressant auxouvriers)itching to raise taxes. / Ifthere is this to the itchingto raise taxes. [=If theonly thing they do fancydoing is raise taxes.](talking to factoryworkers)incomplete expressions(double ellipsis) andconvoluted style.‘A tout le monde qui estimportant ici, bonjour!’‘To everyone who’simportant here, goodmorning!’Prepon is broken in theopening formula(salutation):inappropriate registerand slightlycontemptuous tone.‘Ch’ais pa.’ ‘I dunno.’ Inappropriate register:sloppy pronunciation,incomplete negation.‘Ch’uis (J'suis) quelqu'unqui dit ce qui pense.’‘Ce que j'ai découvert,c'est que, alors que noussommes dans l'Otan, carnous y sommes, y a bienpeu de personnes qui lesavent.’‘On se demande c'est àquoi ça leur a servi.’(à propos des études desélites).‘I’m someone who sayswhat thinks.’'What I discovered is thatwhile we are in NATO,because we're at it, arevery few people thatknow this.’You wonder this is whathas served them./Youwonder wot good it did‘em. (talking aboutstudies of the elite).Inappropriate registerand syntax: sloppypronunciation,incomplete negation, nosubject present.Inappropriate register:incomplete expressionand circumlocutory style.Informal register (çainstead of cela); syntacticerror: incompleteemphatic structure.‘Qu’est-ce que je ‘What am I becoming Grammatical mistakes

m’aperçois?’ aware?’ (semantic andmorphosyntactic at thesame time): he mistookverbs: apercevoir (=tosee) for s’apercevoir de(=to be aware of); thelatter is not only areflexive verb (needs areflexive pronoun), butalso follows a special verbpattern (takes an indirectobject, and thereforeneeds a preposition).‘On a choisi stratégieéconomique.’‘Mon but est de fairevenir en France des genscomme l’argent.’‘Faut changer le systèmede jeu.’‘Il y a des trucs difficiles,mais ça, c’est vraimentdifficile.’ (à propos de laréforme hospitalière)‘Ç’a pas été de m’enoccuper de ça.’‘L’écologie, c’est pas qu’ily a que des jardins.’‘Was chosen economicstrategy.’‘My goal is to makepeople like money cometo France.’‘Must change the systemof play.’‘There are things difficult,but it is reallydifficult.’(about thehealth sector reform)‘It hasn’t been me takecare of that.’‘Ecology doesn’t meanthere are only gardens.’‘C’est bon pour les trains.’ ‘It’s good for the trains.’Grammatical clanger: noindefinite article andinappropriate register: awrong form of a subject.Unjustified ellipsis: thesecond part of a sentenceis ambiguous; a slightlydisdainful tone.Subject omission,colloquial expression: noclarity and accuracy.Informal vocabulary,simplistic syntax.Incomplete negation,wrong verb pattern,inappropriate ellipsis: noprecision.Incomplete negation,incomplete expression,simplistic syntax.Simplistic vocabulary andsyntax.

‘On commence par lesinfirmières (…) parcequ’ils sont les plusnombreux.’‘J’ai pas été élu pourrester des bras croisés(…).’‘Je me souviens, moi, cequ’il disait, le PrésidentMittérand. J’avais durespect pour lui.’‘Pourquoi tu es là-haut?’(en s’adressant auprésident)‘Non, mais faut parlersimple, mais parler juste.’‘Ah ben oui, ils étaientcolère, les gens. C’estnormal.’‘J’ai rien contre, m’enfin,m’enfin, c’est parce quej’avais beaucoup souffertsur elle.’ (elle = LaPrincesse de Clèves)‘Let’s start with thenurses (…) because theyare in a majority.’‘I wasn’t elected toremain idle (…).’'I do remember what hesaid, President Mittérand.I had respect for him.’‘Why are you there?’(while talking to thePresident)'No, but must speaksimple, but say what istrue.'Oh yeah, they wereanger, people. This isnormal.’‘I’ve got nothing against,but still, still… Because Ihad a really hard time onher.’ (NS is willing to lift aban on the Princess ofCleves, the first novel inmodern French literature,written by a woman)Wrong personal pronoun(no gender concord withthe anaphoric reference)and no noun-adjectiveagreement (in gender).Incomplete negation,wrong article, triteidiomatic expression.Informal word order(strong form of a personalpronoun), wrong verbpattern, simplistic syntax.Inappropriate register: awrong personal pronoun,inappropriate expression.No subject, no logic, asentence pretending tobe a kind of a slogan orwords of wisdom.Informal exclamation,omission of a preposition:grammatical error,informal word order,simplistic syntax.Simplistic syntax,colloquial expressions,incomplete negation;regarded by some as afrenzied act of disdain forthe French culturalheritage, teachers ofliterature, etc.‘Vous savez, les symboles,ça compte.’ (en vantant letravail des bénévoles)‘You know, the symbols,it matters.’ (praising thework of volunteers)Simplistic syntax, informalregister.

‘Vous adhérer à cettestratégie offensive.’‘You are stick to thisoffensive strategy.’Grammatical mistake: noS-V concord (infinitiveused instead of aconjugated verb, both ofwhich sound the same,but their spelling isdifferent).‘Je remercie à chacun.’ ‘Thanks to everybody’. No preposition should beused with the verbremercier.‘Je me rappelle dequelque chose.’‘Le Premier minister, il adit…’‘J’aurais aimé qu’il restât.’‘I recall of something’. No preposition should beused with the verb serappeler.‘The Prime Minister, hesaid…’‘I would have liked him tohave stayed.’Redundant anaphoricreference.Formal register: literarystyle (two grammaticalmoods: past conditionaland imperfectsubjunctive).