Prescriptive Norms In French Walloon

PRESCRIPTIVE NORMS

According to Darwin, prescriptive norms are arguments relying on linguistic authorities such as dictionaries, grammar books, and well-known authors, his definition differs slightly from Houdebine’s original concept, which put the emphasis on an ideal language or a purist ideal, supported by grammatical traditions or scholarly prescriptions. Moreover, it is paramount to remember that, even though this thesis focuses on attitudes regarding Walloon, its speakers are all French-Walloon bilingual, and are under the influence of the French linguistic culture, which is known for its strong prescriptive approach and its idealization of the speaking subject under the influence of the French Academy.

In order to apprehend the question

Nevertheless, only a minority of them could claim to an actual mastery of Walloon. Indeed, what we witness is the emergence of an alternative code where French and Walloon blend together to generate an interlanguage. Even though the topic of this thesis is not determine how languages in contact influence each other, we shall consider a selection of typical linguistic creativity because it translates a desire from members of the Walloon community to express themselves in the minority language, and thereby to reinvigorate it, to replace it in the linguistic landscape of Wallonia. Furthermore, in order to do so they are willing to infringe the orthographic and grammatical rules, and the prescriptive norms disappear in favor of visibility. Besides the intra- and inter-sentential code-switching previously discussed, we can find various strategies to mimic Walloon in the spelling, the vocabulary, and the grammar. Note that, contrary to code-switching, speakers believe they actually write in proper

Indeed, instances of hybrid language where people do not use what could be described as the “correct” puristic grammar or orthography can still be considered a legitimate and as a reflection that language is not an engraved entity, but is a social construction constantly evolving. Moreover, this issue is to be framed within the larger issue of minority language revitalization and purism, where puristic attitudes promote the revival of a language as close as possible to how it was once spoken, even though actual practices of the community of speaker might refuse to abide by the prescriptive discourses of institutions. Yet, one should be deceived to think that all these linguistic accommodations go unsanctioned in the community, this reminds us of the comments made about translations, where attempts at translating Walloon into French entailed risks of criticism. A notable difference when considering the prescriptive norms is the speakers’ tendency to embrace a constructive approach (x). Indeed, the majority of the prescriptive debates aim at the improvement of each other knowledge, whereas the criticism of translation was limited to derogatory and unhelpful remarks. Nevertheless, demeaning appreciations still occur