Linguistic Conflict and Language Laws: Understanding the Quebec Question by Pierre Larrivée

Abstract

MLR, IOI.2, 2006 533 on the uses speakers of different social groups make of words. Lemaire's book focuses on the first, i.e. on the linguistic mechanisms of semantic change or what he calls the 'intrinsic functioning of (a) language' ('De la langue', p. 7). What are these 'linguistic' factors of semantic change? Lemaire distinguishes be tween three general categories: (i) those having to do with semantic links between words, such as synonymy and borrowing; (2) those having to do with the (phonetic or graphic) form of lexical units or their 'identity' (as in the case of homonymy) or their 'parent&' (kinship) (as in the case of paronymy-words that have the same derivation); (3) and finally, those factors that have to do with the presence of aword in a syntag matic unit, which can contribute to semantic change and the loss of meaning (p. 7). Following the introduction, the rest of the book reviews these various mechanisms of semantic change and illustrates them with lists of examples. Those who share Lemaire' sobvious enthusiasm for collecting examples of semantic change will find plenty to chew on in this book. Those who want to find a theoretically more grounded overview of themechanisms of semantic change in French might find it less palatable. I have not systematically checked the whole book for printing errors, but on page 38 awhole paragraph seems to have been cut short inmid-flow. UNIVERSITYOFNOTTINGHAM BRIGITTENERLICH Linguistic Conflict and Language Laws: Understanding the Quebec Question. Ed. by PIERRE LARRIVEE. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 2003. x+204 pp. ?45. ISBN 0-333-96899-4. The essays in this edited volume address the complex language question inQuebec, drawing on expertise from several disciplines, including linguistics and political sci ence. Its objective is 'to tell the story behind the existence of the linguistic legislations inQuebec' (p. ix); this it does comprehensively and in away that is accessible to a wide audience. Chapter i, by Colin H. Williams, contextualizes the situation inQuebec by analys ing itwithin the general framework of language planning, making reference to awide range of examples from various international linguistic contexts. This chapter makes absorbing reading and is very valuable in terms of theorizing the subject-matter, though the section dealing with examples of language planning as an instrument of development inAfrica and Asia (pp. 26-39) seems a little lengthier than necessary in a book concerned primarily with language policy and planning inQuebec. The historical background is treated in Chapter 2 by Jean-Philippe Warren, who discusses some of the defining moments in the 400-year history of the presence of French in Quebec, with a particularly interesting analysis of the economic factors involved. A list of references and further reading would have been a useful addition. The material covered in Chapters 3 and 4, by C. Michael MacMillan and Marc Chevrier respectively, overlaps to some extent. The authors deal with the interplay between federal and provincial legislation, albeit with varying opinions on their com patibility. Both chapters are very informative on legislative provisions such as the federal Official Languages Act (I969) and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Free doms (I982), and give extensive treatment to the Quebec Charter of the French Language, Bill IOI (I977). Chevrier provides a very detailed and pertinent analysis of the impact of the Quebec Charter in areas which have been particularly controver sial, such as public signs and language of instruction. In Chapter 5 Pierre Larrivee focuses on the language concerns of the anglophone community inQuebec. On the issue of anglophone reaction to Bill 101, he draws the interesting conclusion that 'there now exists a general acceptance of the legitimacy to 534 Reviews make the language of themajority [French] the common medium of communication. I... .]This acceptance has paradoxically leftmore public space for radical discourses in certain sectors of the Anglo-Quebecois group' (p. I84). A corpus of newspaper articles collected in I999 from the Montreal anglophone newspaper The Gazette is analysed as an illustration of such public discourse. One of Larrivee's conclusions on this corpus critiques the portrayal of those who refuse to comply with legislation as 'freedom fighters' (p. i8 i). The final chapter, also by Larrivee, examines...