Pragmatique de la néologie appellative en situation plurilingue : le cas camerounais

Abstract

Previous research has sufficiently highlighted the small number of nominal address forms in Standard French – a situation which Kerbrat-Orecchioni [Kerbrat-Orecchion, Cathérine, 1992. Les interactions verbales, t. 2. Armand Colin, Paris : 54] refers to as a “crisis of nominal terms of address in contemporary French” (my translation). Reinforcing this conclusion, Charaudeau and Maingueneau [Charaudeau, Patrick, Maingueneau, Dominique (ed.), 2002] give the example of kinship terms which have “limited usage in French, whereas they are very recurrent in many languages like Vietnamese, where these terms have literal as well as metaphorical meanings” (my translation). Due to the absence of some nominal address forms in Standard French or/and the fact that the existing terms cannot be accurately used in the expression and negotiation of social relations in Cameroon, francophone Cameroonians have to create new terms of address in order to satisfy some specific communication needs. This article presents the various linguistic procedures used to create new forms of address (language creativity) and gives an account of some functions of the new address patterns in the management of social relations.