Thanking in Cameroon French

This chapter discusses aspects of Cameroon French pragmatics, with focus on gratitude expressions. The chapter presents the taxonomy of patterns employed by Cameroon French speakers to express their gratitude to friends, strangers, and superiors/professors. Cameroon French speakers are found to express their gratitude directly or indirectly using a wide range of linguistic and pragmatic strategies, and the expressions employed mostly occur in speech act sets, which generally involve combinations of direct and indirect gratitude expressions and supportive acts. The results also reveal the use of nominal address terms to modify the illocutionary force of gratitude expressions. Overall, the linguistic and pragmatic choices made by Cameroon French speakers vary according to degree of familiarity and power distance between the interlocutors. The study adds to a growing body of research on Cameroon French pragmatics

Kreativität und Formelhaftigkeit in der Realisierung von Komplimenten: Ein deutsch-kamerunischer Vergleich

The large literature on compliments so far reveals that the way these speech acts are uttered depends on languages, countries or cultures. A look at the compliment behaviour of Germans and Americans for instance shows that they are fond of formulaic expressions. The present paper aims at underscoring that most Cameroonians, unlike most Germans, use variable, complex and imaginative structures to express praise or admiration. The study particularly focuses on stylistic and lexical devices

Speech acts and regional variations in french: the case of compliments on skills in cameroon and canadian french

Abstract The present study examines differences and similarities in the realization of compliments on skills in Cameroon and Canadian French. The data were collected by the means of a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) administered to 55 participants in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and 39 respondents in Montréal (Canada). The 278 compliments collected were analyzed according to the three super-strategies identified in the corpus, namely direct compliments, indirect compliments and compliments with external modification, i.e. supporting acts. The results show a strong preference for direct compliments in both sub-cultures. While the Cameroonian participants most frequently used double head acts, i.e. the combination of two direct compliments, the Canadian informants mostly favoured single head acts, i.e. single direct compliment. Differences in terms of situational distribution of the direct compliments were also identified. Moreover, the Cameroonian informants used six indirect compliments, while there was no occurrence of indirect compliments in the Canadian data. With regard to the use of supportive moves to modify the compliments, the results reveal that ‘gratitude’, ‘wish’, ‘apology’ and ‘comment’ were largely used in both data sets, while some external modifiers such as ‘greeting’ and ‘self-introductions’ only appeared in the Cameroonian responses. Rezumat În articol, autorul analizează diferenţele şi asemănările în receptarea complimentelor în limba franceză, în Camerun şi Canada. Faptele de limbă analizate în articol au fost obţinute în urma unei testări a 55 de persoane din Yaoundé (Camerun) şi a 39 de persoane din Montreal (Canada). Testul se baza pe completarea unui discurs cu unităţi eliptice, cu caracter de compliment. În urma testării, au fost înregistrate 278 de unităţi de acest fel. Acestea au fost analizate, ţinându-se cont de cele trei strategii majore care au permis identificarea unităţilor cu sens de compliment direct, indirect şi celor cu modificare externă, adică cu caracter de unităţi de justificare. Analiza efectuată atestă faptul că vorbitorii de limbă franceză din Camerun şi Canada preferă să întrebuinţeze unităţi cu sens de compliment direct. Persoanele supuse testării din Camerun au utilizat mai frecvent două unităţi cu sens de compliment direct, în timp ce canadienii au preferat să întrebuinţeze, în bună parte, o singură unitate cu sens de compliment direct. Studiul în cauză a identificat şi diferenţele în ceea ce priveşte distribuirea unităţilor cu sens de compliment direct. Mai mult decât atât, participanţii la testare din Camerun au folosit şase unităţi cu sens de compliment indirect, în timp ce canadienii nu au întrebuinţat nici una. În ceea ce priveşte folosirea unităţilor cu scopul de a modifica sensul unor complimente, rezultatele testării arată că „recunoştinţa”, „dorinţa”, „scuza” şi „comentariul” au fost, în mare măsură, întrebuinţate în discursurile propuse de ambele părţi, în timp ce unităţile cu sens de „salut” şi „auto-prezentare” au apărut numai în răspunsurile camerunenilor

Offer Refusals in L2 French

This study examines the production of offer refusals in native and non-native French. Data were obtained through written discourse completion tasks by a group of Canadian learners of French as a second language, a group of L1 French speakers, and a group of English native speakers. The aim was to compare offer refusal strategies in French L1, French L2, and English L1 and to locate traces of pragmatic transfer in L2 French refusal behavior. Significant differences were found between the French L1 speakers and the French L2 learners with respect to the use of direct refusals, indirect refusals, and adjuncts to refusals. For instance, it was found that the French L2 learners use a very limited repertoire of linguistic realizations to express the inability to accept offers. At the level of indirect refusals, the results reveal some similarities between the L2 French learners, the L1 French speakers, and the L1 English speakers: the three groups use reasons more often than any other strategy in their refusal utterances. Differences emerge, however, in the linguistic realization of this pragmatic category. Implications of the findings for L2 French pedagogy were also discussed

Apologies in L2 French in Canadian Context

This article presents the results of an analysis of apology strategies in native and non-native French in Canadian context. The data used were obtained through a Discourse Completion Task questionnaire that was completed by a group of native French speakers (FL1) and a group of learners of French as a second language (FL2). The goal was to identify and compare pragmatic and linguistic choices made by both groups when apologizing in three different situations. Several differences and similarities emerged between the two groups regarding the use of exclamations to introduce apologies, direct apologies, indirect apologies, and supportive acts. For instance, it was found that the FL1 speakers used “expressions of regret”, “offers of apology” 15 and “requests for forgiveness” to apologize directly, while the FL2 speaking informants used 16 only “expressions of regret” and “offers of apology”. While the respondents of both groups 17 mostly chose “offers of repair” to apologize indirectly, they displayed divergent preferences 18 regarding the use of other indirect apology strategies. Differences were also documented 19 with respect to the use of intensification devices in direct apologies and the use of supportive acts. Implications of the findings for L2 French pedagogy were also discussed

L' acceptation du compliment: un (Macro- )acte de Discours Hybride et Ambigu

This research analyzes the acceptance of compliments in Cameroun French,showing, first, that it is a macro-act of hybrid discourse, generally composedof a principle act, the expression of thanks, and of one or more accompanyingmicro-acts of either an expressive type (compliment or declaration), a directivetype (advice), or a commitment (promise), etc. Secondly, we show that thehybrid macro-act is essentially ambiguous, since it carries varied implications,positive or negative, for the face of the speakers. In general, the global interactional value of the macro-act depends on the importance accorded the different constituent micro-acts in the discourse of acceptance. But there is no guarantee that the interpretation of the complirnenter will coincide with the communicative goal of the complimentee. If the act of accepting seems to involve positive politeness, the examples analyzed here show hybrid macro. strategies in which and through which threat and approval are expressed concurrently

Décliner une offre en français au Cameroun

Abstract – This study sets to examine strategies employed by Cameroonian French speakers to decline a friend's offer to lend them money, a lift from an unknown driver and a Full-time job from the boss. Using Brown and Levinson's politeness framework and data produced by a group of Cameroonian students, the study reveals offer refusal to be perceived by most of the respondents as a face-threatening act. This explains the abundant use of face-work strategies such as indirect refusals, complex structures and combinations of politeness strategies in the corpus. The study also highlights the impact of situational variables such as types of offer, social and power distance, etc., on the choice of refusal strategies as well as their functions and combinations. Abstract - Cette étude se propose de mettre en lumière les stratégies discursives déployées par les locuteurs camerounais du français lorsqu’ils déclinent (a) une offre de prêt d’argent faite par un(e) ami(e) ; (b) une offre d’être raccompagné par un(e) automobiliste inconnu(e) et (c) une offre d’un emploi à temps plein faite par le patron. L’étude s’appuie sur la théorie de la politesse de Brown et Levinson et se fonde sur des données recueillies auprès d’une centaine d’étudiants camerounais. Les analyses montrent que le refus est perçu par la plupart des enquêtés comme un acte menaçant. Ce qui explique un grand recours aux précautions oratoires et au travail relationnel se manifestant par l’emploi de formulations indirectes, d’énoncés complexes et de cumul de procédés de politesse. L’étude révèle aussi l’impact des variables situationnelles (types d’offres, degré de familiarité, distance hiérarchique, etc.) sur les types, fonctions et combinaisons des stratégies de refus

DE DOCTEUR A DOCTA: CRÉATIVITÉ LEXICALE ET ADRESSE NOMINALE EN FRANÇAIS CAMEROUNAIS

Le système de I'adresse en français central n'est pas toujours pourvu d'appellatifs adéquats pour traduire fidèlement toutes les intentions communicatives et sociales des interactants camerounais (francophones). Pour combler ce manque, l'élargissement du répertoire appellatif s'avère donc «obligatoire». On assiste alors à plusieurs cas de « néologies appellatives ». Notre article décrit aussi bien les différents procédés de création lexicale mis en ceuvre par les locuteurs camerounais pour «fabriquer» des noms d'adresse que dictent les facteurs qui déterminent l'emploi de ces appellatifs dans la gestion des relations sociales

Formes d'expression et d'atténuation de l'évaluation dans les comptes rendus d'ouvrages en linguistique

Ces dernières années, le discours scientifique a fait l'objet de nombreuses études. Examinant la mise en mots et texte des résultats de recherches, les auteurs de ces études analysent, entre autres, l'organisation textuelle, les choix lexicaux et leurs variations linguistiques, disciplinaires et socioculturelles. La présente étude s'inscrit dans le prolongement de ces travaux. Elle examine le compte rendu critique d'ouvrage, un type de discours scientifique dont la fonction ultime est de présenter une nouvelle publication et d'en évaluer la pertinence dans une discipline donnée. Cette visée évaluative va de pair avec la gestion des faces et rapports interpersonnels au sein de la communauté scientifique dont émane et où circule ce type de discours. À partir d'un corpus de comptes rendus d'ouvrages tirés de quelques revues spécialisées en linguistique, l'étude met en exergue des stratégies mobilisées par les évaluateurs pour émettre des jugements de valeur sur les travaux de leurs pairs et négocier des relations interpersonnelles au sein de leur communauté discursive.Ces dernières années, le discours scientifique a fait l’objet de nombreuses études. Examinant la mise en mots et texte des résultats de recherches, les auteurs de ces études analysent, entre autres, l’organisation textuelle, les choix lexicaux et leurs variations linguistiques, disciplinaires et socioculturelles. La présente étude s’inscrit dans le prolongement de ces travaux. Elle examine le compte rendu critique d’ouvrage, un type de discours scientifique dont la fonction ultime est de présenter une nouvelle publication et d’en évaluer la pertinence dans une discipline donnée. Cette visée évaluative va de pair avec la gestion des faces et rapports interpersonnels au sein de la communauté scientifique dont émane et où circule ce type de discours. À partir d’un corpus de comptes rendus d’ouvrages tirés de quelques revues spécialisées en linguistique, l’étude met en exergue des stratégies mobilisées par les évaluateurs pour émettre des jugements de valeur sur les travaux de leurs pairs et négocier des relations interpersonnelles au sein de leur communauté discursive