Corporate language: the blind spot of language policy? Reflections on France's Loi Toubon

Abstract

This article looks at France's Loi Toubon, which mandates the use of French in private companies, to illustrate how macro-level language planning reaches a dead end if it fails to consider local contexts and involve micro-level agents. The motivations, limitations and contradictions of France's language policy in relation to companies are discussed in view of the language planner's self-legitimizing discourse, which hinges on three themes: customer protection, employee protection and economic performance. Companies, we conclude, should be made to take responsibility for particular language issues rather than be coerced into complying with context-blind legislation. Drawing on this, we suggest an approach based on stakeholders' involvement and acknowledgement of what we propose to call a company's sociolinguistic responsibility.