Remade in France: Anglicisms in the Lexicon and Morphology of French by Valérie Saugera

Abstract

Reviewed by: Remade in France: Anglicisms in the Lexicon and Morphology of French by Valérie Saugera Michael D. Picone Saugera, Valérie. Remade in France: Anglicisms in the Lexicon and Morphology of French. Oxford UP, 2017. ISBN 9780190625542. Pp. xv + 205. Based on its frequent appearance on products in France—and, figuratively, in French media and advertising—the international Anglicism made in, conjoined with USA / France / Europe / Moscou / space / tricot ad infinitum, lends itself to an apt riff for a book title prefiguring two of the unifying themes of this study. First, the profusion of uninflected Anglicisms in French (citing journalistic examples culled from an exhaustive online search of all issues of the neologically-friendly daily Libération in 2010) does not announce the impending collapse of the integrity of the French morphological system—contrary opinions of some pundits notwithstanding—but rather corresponds to a well-circumscribed subsystem consistent with French usage. Secondly, though increasingly profuse, most journalistic Anglicisms, whether words or phrases, are actually fleeting devices for purposes of local-color allusions, style, stance, or humor, usually time-sensitive, leaving only a very small minority destined to have any permanence. Those that do will inevitably take on a life of their own in French due to differing sociocultural context and creative departures. Serving as a poster-Anglicism is people (117–20, 140, 168–69). A probable reduction of English the beautiful people, the now frequent people, sometimes graphologically assimilated (pipeule, pipole), has filled an available lexical slot in French to indicate celebrities of notoriety in the heavily mediatized world of entertainment gossip. Unlike English, French people can be used not only as a cumulative or plural reference but also to designate one individual, and lends itself to improvised derivations (pipeulaire, peoplisation, peoplelisé). Though a noun, it can be recruited to function adjectivally (la presse people). This last example, [End Page 205] however, points to a growing phenomenon of considerable import that has not been developed by Saugera and that compromises somewhat the assurances that English is having no lasting morphosyntactic impact on French. It can be demonstrated that such [noun + noun] constructions, incorporating an ellipsis of the representation of subordination joining the two nouns, have been given a boost, in part, by virtue of contact with English (Anglicisms, Neologisms and Dynamic French, Picone, 1996). This one lacuna notwithstanding, Saugera reasons insightfully to decode the behavior of Anglicisms. Indeed, in a globalized environment thick with Anglicisms, some knowledge of their use is now essential for any educated consumer of French culture, and this is one of the reasons that this book can be recommended to a wide spectrum of readers, both professionals and casual observers, interested in the contemporary profile and future trajectory of the French lexicon. At the same time, Saugera has presented hard data to demonstrate that French journalists are adept at using Anglicisms to advantage without undermining the morphological integrity of the language. Any language must either totally isolate itself or else successfully adapt to its changing environment in order to survive. The former is now virtually impossible, particularly for a global language like French; the latter is the only viable way forward, and Saugera has provided compelling evidence that journalistic handlers of French have successfully embarked upon it. Michael D. Picone University of Alabama Copyright © 2018 American Association of Teachers of French