Written v spoken French

1 Introduction

In French, as with many languages, there are large disparities between writing and speech. Two key areas of difference are language register (whether language is formal or informal) and message focus (whether the discourse is "message-centered" or "person-centered".

1.1 Language register

Written language is mainly associated with more formal contexts such as school or university studies, professional work, our commercial or administrative dealings or high culture, although it can also be used in informal contexts such as personal letters or e-mails. In addition, when we write we have time to plan our language, correct mistakes, choose more appropriate words, use more complicated grammatical structures, and so on. As such written language tends to conform much more to the rules and conventions that are found in dictionaries and grammars, the language that has come to be known as the linguistic standard for a given language group.

By contrast with written language, spoken language is more commonly used in less formal contexts such as communication with family, friends, and closer acquaintances or work colleagues, although it can also be used in formal contexts such as speeches, meetings, classes and so on. Most spoken language is unplanned, a spontaneous expression of our intentions and opinions as we react to people and phenomena in the world in the world around us. As such spoken language tends to differ from standard or written language in a number of important respects. For example, when we speak we make more mistakes and false starts, change direction in mid-sentence, hesitate or forget things, use “fillers” such as er, I mean, you know. We also tend to make much more use of clause juxtaposition (I told him to be quiet. He was being too loud) rather than clause subordination (I told him to be quiet because was being too loud). Furthermore there are many devices in spoken language that are not available to us when we write, and which form a large part of the communication process. These include emphatic stress, changes in intonation, raising or softening our voice, changing our tone or accent, hand and facial gestures such as smiles, glares and so on, and the ability to point to things in our environment.

1.2 Message focus

A further difference between written and spoken language lies in the focus of its message. Written language is also broadly speaking message-centered, meaning we are more focussed on the message we are trying to convey rather than any emotional factors that might surround it. As such it tends to be more impersonal and abstract in its tone, presenting facts, ideas and so on in a logically progressive manner towards a goal that is usually multifaceted (compared to the relatively simple ideas we exchange in spoken dialogue), and quite often contains a high degree of nuance and complexity. This complexity leads to a greater need for clarity, accuracy and thematic expressivity, hence the importance in written language of broad vocabulary, correct spelling, grammatical accuracy, clause subordination and so on.

Spoken language is to a greater extent person-centered, that is to say we are more focussed on expressing our feelings towards both the subject matter and the person we're talking to. This means that not only do we get more I and you and we forms, and verbs serving to express attitudes and emotions and so on, but also more emotionally charged language, such as such as exclamations, intensifiers, and expletives, as well as pejorative or loaded words and terms of affection and abuse. Furthermore the scope of registers in spoken language is generally greater than in written language, ranging from everyday, informal and vulgar to standard and formal. Through these different registers we are not only selecting the tenor that is most expressive of our thoughts and emotions, but also conveying to others our understanding of the nature of social interaction (displaying our "social skills") and expressing our idea of our relationship towards them.

1.3 Categories used in this unit

Written and spoken language, then, tend respectively to gravitate towards more formal and less formal language registers, although each can accomodate the full range of language registers. These registers, although in reality far from distinct, are for the purposes of this unit divided into the following categories:

• Formal (F): the register most commonly found in academic, bureaucratic, ceremonial or literary language.

• Standard (S): Language that is grammatically correct and which is neither informal nor overly formal.

• Everyday (E): the register of less formal or guarded situations, such as conversation with family or friends.

• Non-standard (N): the register of very informal situations where there are no obvious social restrictions. Care should be taken when using certain non-standard words and expressions as inappropriate use can create a bad impression or even offend (this is especially true of words marked N!).

2 Grammatical forms

3 Pronunciation

All E unless stated

4 Vocabulary

4.1 General

All E unless stated

4.2 Exclamations

4.3 Insults (descriptions)

4.4 Insults (instructions)

4.5 Intensifiers

4.6 Fillers

4.7 Redundancy

4.8 Abbreviations