Francisation of Sponsor, Coach, and Start-up – the Perspective of the French Linguistic Policy

Abstract

The article concerns one of the important elements of the cultural policies implemented in France and Quebec, that is, their linguistic policies. Although they are two distinct, French-speaking territories on two sides of the Atlantic, their policies share some important elements. The article focuses on one of them – the approach to foreign terms, which today are mostly American terms, permeating into the French language and the French terms recommended by special governmental organisations in France and Quebec that are supposed to replace these foreign terms. After a brief outline of the two policies and general principles of francisation of foreign terms, the work-ings of the process of francisation are analysed. The object of analysis are terms recommended as equi-valents of three English terms from the area of management and marketing: sponsor, coach, and start-up. Adopting the linguistic point of view, it is shown that francisation involves a reference to many di-verse dimensions – involving both the structural, cultural, and conceptual level.