A Summary Of The Expansion Of Houdebine's Model Of A

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THE MODEL

This thesis is based on the work of Anne-Marie Houdebine-Gravaud, the French linguist who conceptualize the model of Imaginaire Linguistique. It emerged during the 1970’s to study of phonological variations in French, as researchers observed difficulties and inhibitions among speakers regarding their relationship with both their language and the linguistic practices of the others. Thus, The primary interest of the research was the meta-linguistic function of language and the speakers’ capacity of distantiation allowing for recursion in the discourse (Houdebine-Gravaud 2002: 9-10).

1. A Model in Constant Evolution

An Expanding Scope of Applicability

A summary of the expansion of Houdebine’s model is an arduous task, which will …show more content…

Indeed, if forums belong to written communication, there is no denying of the similarities they share with oral communication, which is especially true for recent social networks such as Facebook and YouTube (see chapter 2). This inclusion of social network as a source of attitudes is particularly enthralling in the frame of linguistic imaginary because of the blend of potential for attitudinal variations among speakers, the constructed projection of the self to an audience, and the wide set of possibilities offered by online communities to modulate one’s attitudes.

2. The Linguistic Imaginary – Questions of Terminology

This section aims at providing the readers with the theoretical framework necessary to understand the later analysis. It discusses the terminology by explaining the motivations behind the choice of specific terms and their meaning. The two justifications for the attention given to the clarification of both the denomination and the definition of each concept is (1) the fact that the model was developed in French with its cultural connotations and antecedents, and (2) the polysemy of most the terms both in French and in English which necessitates a clear description to avoid confusion.

2.1. Linguistic …show more content…

Houdebine identifies two objective norms: the systemic and the statistical norms.

Systemic Norms

These norms are arguments relative to the language as a system, that is as a code structured at different levels (semantic, morphological, grammatical, etc.) (Remysen 2011: 55). Houdebine adds that in order to determine them, one needs to perform a clinical study of productions of one or two idiolects (2002: 20).

Statistical Norms

As indicated by their denomination, these norms are arguments relative to the frequency of use of a word (Remysen 2011: 55). It is laying the structure of the language as a co-occurrence of usage thanks to survey analysis realized on a group of speakers. By doing so, it becomes possible to bring to light convergent, divergent, and peripheral behaviors (Houdebine 2002: 20).

2.2.3. Subjective

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