Au bonheur des fautes: confessions d'une dompteuse de mots by Muriel Gilbert

Abstract

Reviewed by: Au bonheur des fautes: confessions d'une dompteuse de mots by Muriel Gilbert Harley Jay Siskin Gilbert, Muriel. Au bonheur des fautes: confessions d'une dompteuse de mots. Vuibert, 2017. ISBN 978-2-311-10154-6. Pp. 256. What could be more boring than an elaboration of the responsibilities of a proofreader? Unless that proofreader begins her reflections during a session of aquagym, coiffed with a flowered rubber bathing cap. Gilbert's interlocutor—her aquacollègue—poses a question that inspires the author with dread, out of breath from her exertions. How is it possible to explain simply the function of a proofreader, a profession that is sadly diminishing in prestige and numbers? Is it even conceivable that a corrector of spelling, grammar, and content still exists? Gilbert undertakes her apologia with humor, quirkiness, and linguistic charm. Her playfulness begins as she seeks to stall her aquapote, consciously using a mix of registers to signal her openness to linguistic variation. From inverted verbs in the first-person present tense (gagnéje) and the more formal/written car, she moves to the familiar c'est pas encore and produces a neologism, the adjective pâquerettale, playing on the expression"au ras des pâquerettes." Gilbert takes great pleasure in pushing the expressive boundaries of language. She cites an official document with four errors, the series being condemned with a parenthesized rereresic. She adores creating hyphenated compound adjectives such as maternello-élémentaire. She indulges in representations of medieval usage. In a more pragmatic vein, Gilbert bemoans the reflex to look for technological"solutions" to replace the proofreader. This money-saving move, imposed by the print media that has survived electronic publication, reduces the potential income of a professional proofreader and results in poorer quality. Fewer publishers have a robust cassetin. On the other hand, there are fewer readers who are able to make an informed judgment on linguistic precision. The imperative to communicate rapidly has subordinated spelling to an economy of language. Coincidently, but not necessarily causally, spelling instruction has deteriorated. Mistakes abound in the electronic media. "Globish" has further blurred correct usage, creating calques and troublesome borrowings. Moreover, proofreaders must be content experts, correcting errors in description or context, a competence that requires more than a decontextualized Google translation. In a less [End Page 249] despairing shift of focus, Gilbert offers useful chapters on the evolution of French as well as the language's future. Despite her language play, Gilbert has not abandoned a prescriptive approach, which is after all a job requirement! The intermittent textbox entitled Un bonbon sur la langue offers rules and explanations for opaque cases of grammar and usage as well as entertaining language trivia. While privileging correct usage, Gilbert's linguistic virtuosity inspires a renewed appreciation of the expressive tools that validate the good health of French. From a pedagogical perspective, this book will do little to answer our questions about techniques of error correction or the delicate balance between communicative pragmatics and accuracy. Yet, Gilbert's rich professional autobiography commands our attention. So, when do we write bohème vs. Bohême? Should we ask Rodolfo or Mimi (pace Murger/Puccini)? No, better to consult Muriel Gilbert! Harley Jay Siskin University of California, Santa Cruz Copyright © 2019 American Association of Teachers of French