TIPS TO WRITE A LINGUISTIC COMMENTARY

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Write a linguistic commentary on the following passage, paying particular attention to non-standard features of orthography, morphology, and syntax, and to the overall style and register of the extract.

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Le client au Matin-entre-les-doigts n'était pas seul : un magistral setter irlandais, d'un beau

roux tirant sur le brun, somnolait sous la table, son fin museau entre ses pattes. Le serveur mit

intentionnellement le pied sur la queue de l'animal, lequel, n'aimant pas ça, le fit savoir d'un

hurlement catégorique.

- Dites donc, l'est pas commode, vot'sectaire irlandoche, objecta le loufiat.

L'homme avait abaissé son journal pour calmer la bête.

- Vous avez dû lui marcher dessus, fit-il.

Il avait un regard bleu très intense dans un visage de couleur brique. Il appartenait à l'espèce

indécise des blonds grisonnants. Ses yeux étaient pleins d'une instinctive défiance.

- Hé! Dites, c't'un bestiau, fit le garçon. Quand t'est-ce on va au troquet av'c un cador, vaut

mieux que ça soye un tel-quel à poil court. L'aut'jour, un type s'pointe, il t'nait en laisse un

boule-d'ogre, j'y r'fusé l'entrée; on fait bistrot, on fait pas ménag'rie.

Tout en parlant, il écrasa derechef, sous sa semelle, l'appendice caudal du chien, qui hurla

encore plus fort.

- Qu'est-ce y s'passe, Alexandre? cria Mme Ronchonnet, la patronne, depuis la citadelle de

bois à l'abri de laquelle elle végétait en comptant ses picaillons.

- C'est c'clébard qu'est mauvais pis qu'l'prince de Galles, maâme Ronchonnet, renseigna

le serviteur.

- J'ai horreur des animaux dans mon établissement, décréta la bistrotière, surtout quand ils

sont méchants.

- Mon chien est la douceur même! assura le client.

Pour la troisième fois, Alexandre appuya son 46 à semelle renforcée sur la queue du setter.

Nouveau cri de la malheureuse bête, qui s'agita durement sous la table. Ce hurlement fut

immédiatement suivi d'un autre, poussé par Pinaud.

- Houïïïeeee! Il m'a mordu!

- C'est faux, protesta le client, vous étiez à plus d'un mètre de lui.

- Et ça, alors! larmoya Pinuche en élevant sa jambe gauche jusqu'à la banquette : le bas du

pantalon était déchiré et déjà on voyait sourdre du sang à travers la chaussette.

- Mais c't'un fauve, c'te saloperie! glapit le garçon de café. Maâme Ronchonnet, j's'rais de

vous, j'appellerais un docteur, faut soigner c'pauv'vieux à moitié déglingué; et je pressure

qu'c'vilain cabot a la rage, si on ferait pas tout d'sute une piqûre antétitanique à c'monsieur, il

risque qu'on va d'voir l'étouffer ent' deux matelas, comme ça s'pratiquait jadis.

(San Antonio, Bouge ton pied que je voie la mer, 1982)

Note: Normally, the text is presented with line numbers but it was not posible to edit it that way in this online version.

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ADVICES:

First Steps:

• Read the question and the entire text first, taking a few mental notes as to what is important.
• Read the question again. Make sure you understand everything and define important terms such as 'non-standard features', 'style' and 'register'. These definitions will have to come up in your commentary, especially the discussion of what is 'standard' and 'non standard' (see Dr Marnette's lecture 5.6).
• Answer basic questions about the text: what type of text is it? Where does the story take place? Who are the characters?
• Make sure that you use all the pieces of information given in the question. For example, what can you say about the author's name, the title and the date given at the end of the text? How does it help your analysis?

All of this will need to be present in your introduction, plus of course a summary of the most important features of your analysis.

Then:

• Analyse the text first and then write your commentary. This will allow you to present a global and organised view of the text instead of a step-by-step unfocused analysis. It will also avoid repetitions. As you will see, the following 'model commentary' does not analyse the text line by line but presents a specific structure (here separating the narrative part from the dialogues).
• Don't forget to define each technical term.
• When you refer to expressions or words from the text, signal them by using quotation marks or by underlining them (here I used italics) and give the line number.
• Write your conclusion

It is recommended that you try to do the analysis yourself before reading the following model. Please remember that what follows is only one way to carry out the commentary and especially that the structure would change for another text. The notes in blue indicate which terms should be defined and/or developed.

Obviously, it would be very difficult to gather the number of details given in the following model within one hour (which is the time for an exam question!). Of importance here is the overall picture of the text and your ability to link all the elements of the analysis together. As you will see, some elements are undoubtedly more important than others and examiners would definitely expect them (e.g. the humorous tone of the text, often missed by students), the contrast between the narrative and the characters' dialogues. Also you would be expected to deal with each character and not only with the waiter (something many students failed to do in the actual exam).

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Introduction

This text is an excerpt of a prose novel written in contemporary French with a mixture of standard and non-standard features, and of different styles and registers. [Explain standard, non standard, style, register]

San Antonio is an alias for Frédéric Dard, a prolific author of detective novels known for his rich use of French 'argot' and his humour. [If you know more about his author, you might mention that San Antonio is a detective, the main character and first person narrator of Dard's novels]

The title illustrates some of the language features of the text. It is in spoken French and in an informal style (tu form, simple que in subordination instead of afin que). It is also puzzling and therefore humorous since it is a direct injunction to an unknown addressee and difficult to understand out of context.

The text combines narration and dialogues in Direct Discourse between 4 characters. It describes a scene taking place in a French bistro (pub) between an unnamed customer with a dog, the pub's waiter Alexandre, the pub's owner Mrs Ronchonnet, and another customer called Pinaud.

As will be shown in the analysis, the most important features of the text are the contrast between the literary yet humorous style of the narration and the characters' discourses which also significantly vary from one to the other in style and register (notably the waiter's speech versus that of the customer with the dog). These multiple levels of contrast and variation contribute to the humorous tone of the text as do the events being told in details: the outrageous behaviour of a waiter deliberately and repeatedly stepping on the tail of a customer's dog, which eventually retaliates on another innocent customer. While such an event would not be funny in real life, its choice for the focus of a 'literary' text, the meticulous progression of events and the particular way they are being told bring a smile to the reader.

Textual Analysis

A. Narrative part

The narrative voice seems to be impersonal. The use of a definite article in the first nominal syntagm of the excerpt (Le client au Matin-entre-les-doigts, l. 1) shows that the description had begun before the text excerpt starts. But since we do not possess all the necessary pieces of information, it is only through reading the text that we understand that this client is actually in a pub since he is addressed by a serveur and later by the bistrotière. The expression au Matin-entre-les-doigts can also be explained both through our knowledge of the world (if we know that Le Matin is the title of a French newspaper and notice the use of italics) and/or by further reading of the text since we learn l. 7 that the customer puts his newspaper down (avait abaissé son journal). [This last remark is important since some students dealing with this text mistakenly think that au Matin-entre-les-doigts refers to the name of the bistro]. Other pieces of information are to be found in the dialogues: we learn through the bistrotière's speech that the waiter's name is Alexandre (l. 16) and this name is then used by the narrator (l. 23). From the waiter's speech, we learn that Pinaud is an older man (l. 31). [It is possible at this point to introduce the notions of coherence and cohesion, cf. Dr. Marnette's lecture 5.3].

The narrative part of the text (i.e. the part excluding the characters' dialogues) is characterised by its literariness on the one hand and its playful creativity on the other hand. The overall style is that of français soigné with a few meaningful exceptions.

1) Literary language and français soigné

Contrary to the speech of the characters (especially the waiter), there is no indication as to the pronunciation of French in the narrative part. However, a look at morpho-syntax and lexicon shows that this part has many of the characteristics of français soigné (as described by Battye, Hintze and Rowlett in The French language today) and is typical of literary language.

• Use of tenses: passé simple (mit, fit (l. 3), écrasa (l. 14), etc.) for the foregrounding of events (past punctual aspect) and imparfait (était (l. 1), somnolait (l. 2), avait, appartenait (l. 9), etc.) for backgrounding (durative aspect) + plus que parfait (avait abaissé l. 7) to present an event as accomplished in the past. [briefly explain what aspect is]
• High Lexicon: somnolait (l. 2, instead of dormait), défiance (l. 10, instead of méfiance), derechef (l. 14, instead of de nouveau), appendice caudal (l. 14, instead of queue), sourdre (l. 29, instead of apparaître)
• Anteposition of adjectives : un magistral setter (l. 1), son fin museau (l. 2), une instinctive défiance (l. 10), la malheureuse bête (l. 24),
• Inversion for inquit formula : fit-il (l. 8), assura le client (l. 22), etc.
• Detailed Description of colours to describe the customer and the dog : d'un beau roux tirant sur le brun (l. 1-2), un regard bleu très intense dans un visage de couleur brique (l. 9), l'espèce indécise des blonds grisonnants (l. 10).
• Parallel between the customer and the dog's attitudes Le client au Matin-entre-les-doigts and son fin museau entre ses pattes (l. 1-2)

2) Humour and creativity:

• Metaphors:
• depuis la citadelle de bois à l'abri de laquelle elle végétait en comptant ses picaillons (l. 17-8): The wooden bar is compared to a military term (citadelle) and shows that the pub owner paradoxically tries to protect herself from the customers (therefore viewed as the ennemy) instead of going towards them. The term végétait compares her to a big plant (? a vegetable) that has no life of her own, except to count her money (more on picaillons below).
• glapit = The voice of the waiter is referred to with a verb usually describing the scream of an animal (l. 30), which contrasts with the dog's reactions, referred to as hurlement catégorique (l. 5), hurla (l. 14) and cri (l. 24), which could all be used to describe a human's reaction and are actually equated to that of Pinaud (suivi d'un autre, l. 25)
• The waiter's stepping on the tail of the dog is described three times with different vocabulary: mit intentionnellement le pied sur la queue de l'animal (l 4), écrasa derechef, sous sa semelle, l'appendice caudal du chien (l. 14), appuya son 46 à semelle renforcée sur la queue du setter (l. 23). In particular, the foot is referred to first as foot, sole and then shoe -> metaphor and metonymy [explain]. pied -> semelle -> 46 à semelle renforcée.
• Overqualification of verbum dicendi gives more vivacity to the dialogue by qualifying the different discourses as different types of speech acts instead of only using a neutral verb such as dire or faire (fit-il (l. 8), fit le garçon (l. 11)): objecta (l. 6), cria (l. 16), renseigna (l. 18), décréta (l. 20), assura (l. 22), protesta (l. 27), larmoya (l. 28), glapit (l. 30) [define speech act]. These verbs also help to characterise each character: the pub owner for examples is presented as screaming (cria l. 16), and then edicting decrees (décréta l. 20).
• Creative anaphora that build a cohesive net of references throughout the text [Define the term anaphora and use sub-categories such as faithful, total, partial anaphora, etc. (cf. Dr. Marnette's lecture 5.3). Develop why these ex. are funny]:

queue (l. 4, 23), appendice caudal (l. 14)

un magistral setter irlandais (l. 1), l'animal (l. 4), la bête (l. 7), du chien (l. 14), du setter (l. 23), la malheureuse bête (l. 24)

Le serveur (l. 2), le loufiat (l. 6), le garçon (l. 11), le serviteur (l. 19), Alexandre (l. 23), le garçon de café (l. 30), il (l. 14)

Le client au Matin-entre-les-doigts (l. 1), L'homme (l. 7), le client (l. 22,27), il (l. 9)

Mme Ronchonnet (l. 16), la patronne (l. 16), la bistrotière (l. 20)

Pinaud (l. 25), Pinuche (l. 28)

Note that the customer with the dog is the only character whose name we don't know and the repeated use of le client and il give it a certain air of mystery (which might be connected to the fact that we are dealing with a detective novel).

• Vivacity : parataxis nouveau cri, intensifies the crescendo of the action [define parataxis]
• Use of argot to refer to the characters (words or suffixes such as uche): le loufiat for the waiter (l. 6), ses picaillons when speaking about the bistrotière (l. 17), Pinuche for Pinaud (l. 28) + the use of ça instead of cela in n'aimant pas ça (l. 4). This discrepancy with regards to the overall style of the excerpt creates humour and betrays a different perspective that might not be so impersonal after all. In particular the affectionate suffix uche might betray the fact that the narrator knows Pinaud more than the other characters [this remark can be related to the fact that San Antonio's novels are usually written in the first person, with San Antonio as the first-person narrator; he might actually be present in the bistro as well and be observing the whole scene.]
• Vocabulary too technical: appendice caudal (l. 14), or old-fashioned derechef (l. 14)

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B. Dialogues between Characters

Each character is characterised by the way he or she speaks and exhibits different registers of French. Their way of speaking and addressing each other also betrays their personalities and their attitudes towards the others (face saving vs. face threatening, see below). The strong contrast between registers and attitudes brings more humour to the text, especially as it also differs from the style of the narrative part.

1) Customer with the dog

The customer uses the polite (vous form) and his attitude is quite reserved given the rude behaviour of the waiter and the pub owner. He uses standard French and possibly français soigné (as described by Battye, Hintze and Rowlett in The French language today). There are no indications about his pronunciation (e.g. no elision) contrary to the waiter's speech and contrary to what we would expect for français familier or français non standard. His vocabulary is sober and at times a bit fancy, for example, when he uses a noun instead of an adjective in the following sentence: Mon chien est la douceur même! (l. 22, instead of mon chien n'est pas méchant). This last example would thus be more reminiscent of français soigné rather than français familier, which tends to use more adjectives (even sometimes in the place of adverb, e.g. elle a eu son bac facile in Battye, Hintze and Rowlett).

2) Madame Ronchonnet

She adopts two different attitudes and two different styles of French, depending on whether she addresses Alexandre (l.16) or the whole bistro (l. 20). In line 16, Qu'est-ce y s'passe, Alexandre?, the contraction of the pronoun il and elision of the schwa in s' are typical of français familier. In line 20, there are no such simplifications in the pronunciation and the vocabulary is more fancy (e.g. j'ai horreur instead of je n'aime pas, animaux instead of bêtes), which points more to français soigné on the continuum going from standard to non standard. This shift in style shows that individuals can adapt their language given the needs of the situation and their addressees. Yet, it is worth noting that the pub owner is not necessarily polite towards the customer with the dog. Although she obviously refers to him and his dog when saying she does not like animals, she does not address him directly. On the one hand, this can be seen as face saving (i.e. not confronting directly the addressee) instead of face threatening. On the other hand, however, ignoring the addressee is also a way to deny him his rights as a discourse participant. This 'face saving' attitude could be linked to the narrator's description of the bistrotière in her citadelle, i.e. as protecting herself from the customers/enemy.

3) Pinaud

Each of Pinaud's short utterances (l. 26, 28) are exclamative and use exopohora (pronouns il and ça) [Define and explain the term exophora, cf. Dr. Marnette's lecture 5.3]: they are reactions to the outside world (reinforced through the word hurlement and the verb larmoya in the narrative part). The use of the pronoun ça (instead of cela) and the parataxis in et ça alors (instead of a longer complex sentence) are linked to français familier rather than français soigné. Yet there is no contraction of il in il m'a mordu (instead of [imamordy]), which shows that Pinaud's speech leans more towards standard French than non standard on the stylistic continuum.

4) Waiter

The waiter's speech is extremely marked in terms of non-standard features (in lexicon, morpho-syntax and phonology, see below), which strongly contrast with the other character's speech as well as the narrative voice. It is important to note however that while some features are clearly non standard (e.g. slang, drop of [r+schwa] or [e ]: mispronunciation of vowels, see below) and some would even be labelled as 'grammatical mistakes' (see some uses of the subjunctive and the conditional below), many other features only seem non standard because they are written down but would be unproblematic if they were spoken and thus simply belong to français familier rather than to non standard French (e.g. elision of il, drop of ne, dislocations, use of on for nous, etc. see below).

• Lexicon:
• Familiar words and expressions: commode (l. 6, instead of gentil), un type se pointe (l. 12, instead of un client entre), faire bistrot (l. 13, instead of tenir un bistrot), faire ménagerie (l. 13), déglingué (l. 31)
• Slang words and suffixes: troquet, cador (l. 11), clébard (l. 18), saloperie (l. 30), cabot (l. 32)
• Morpho-syntax:
• Modes and tenses:
• Use of tenses in narrative: present tense for foregrounding, imparfait for background, passé composé for accomplished L'aut'jour, un type s'pointe, il t'nait en laisse un boule-d'ogre, j'y r'fusé l'entrée; on fait bistrot, on fait pas ménag'rie. (l. 12-3) [contrast this with the narrative part]
• Wrong use of subjunctive il risque qu'on va d'voir instead of il risque qu'on doive, il risque de devoir
• Wrong form of subjunctive: vaut mieux que ça soye (l. 12) instead of soit
• Absence of si+ imparfait with the conditional: j's'rais de vous, j'appellerais instead of si j'étais vous, j'appellerais (l. 30-1)
• Use of conditional with si instead of imparfait: si on ferait pas (l. 32)
• Word order
• Drop of ne in negation: l'est pas commode (l. 6), on fait pas ménag'rie (l. 13) , si on ferait pas (l. 32)
• Drop of personal pronoun or elision : l'est pas commode (l. 6), vaut mieux (l. 12), j'y r'fusé l'entrée (l. 13), faut soigner (l. 31)
• Drop of auxiliary and elision of pronoun: j'y r'fusé (l. 13) for je lui ai refusé
• Use of on instead of nous: on fait bistrot, on fait pas ménag'rie (l. 13)
• Dislocation [define this term and explain its fonction in spoken French, cf Dr Marnette's lecture 5.2]: l'est pas commode, vot'sectaire irlandoche (l. 6), c't'un fauve, c'te saloperie! (l. 30)
• Cleft-sentence [define this term and explain its fonction in spoken French cf Dr Marnette's lecture 5.2]: C'est c'clébard qu'est mauvais (l. 18)
• Parataxis: L'aut'jour, un type s'pointe, il t'nait en laisse un boule-d'ogre, j'y r'fusé l'entrée; on fait bistrot, on fait pas ménag'rie. (l. 12-3)
• Use of interrogation particle within a declarative sentence: Quand t'est-ce on va au troquet (l. 11) probably on the model of Quand est-ce que tu viens?
• Pronunciation
• Drop of schwa: s'pointe (l. 12), il t'nait (l. 12), r'fusé (l. 13), ménag'rie (l. 13), c'clébard (l. 18), qu'l'prince (l. 18), j's'rais (l. 30), c'pauv'vieux (l. 30), qu'c'vilain (l. 32), d'sute (l. 32), c'monsieur (l. 32), d'voir (l. 33), ça s'pratiquait (l. 33) [mention the rules suggested by phonologists for the dropping of schwa]
• Drop of [r+schwa]: vot' (l. 6), L'aut' (l. 12), c'pauv'vieux (l. 30), ent' (l. 33)
• Drop of [e ]: c't'un bestiau, av'c, c'te saloperie (l. 30), c't'un fauve (l. 30)
• Drop of [i] qu'est (l. 18)
• ça for cela (l. 12,33)
• Drop of [d] : maâme (l. l. 18) for madame
• Liaison in Quand t'est-ce (l. 11): liaison of quand followed by a vowel is with a [t]. So it is a regular liaison here but it looks strange when written.
• Vowel mispronunciation: maâme (l. l. 18), d'sute (l. 32)

Coupled with his outrageous behaviour, the waiter's utterances are also very funny both in form (non standard features + mistakes) and in content (exaggerations when speaking about the dog or when assessing Pinaud's bite and suggesting possible cures). The inability of the waiter to shift style when addressing different individuals may point to some of his limitations as a speaker since unlike the pub owner, he does not switch from standard to non standard French. These limitations might be further emphasised by the fact that he makes several 'mistakes' in his use of vocabulary (e.g.: je pressure instead of je présume (l. 31), une piqûre antétitanique (l. 32) instead of antitétanique) and in morphosyntax (see above). However, it is also important to note that some features that might be termed 'mistakes' also show great language creativity, for example when he transforms anglicisms with French approximations and slang suffixes sectaire irlandoche for setter irlandais (l. 6), un tel-quel à poil court for teckel (l. 12), un boule-d'ogre for un bouledogue (l. 13). In particular, his aversion for the dog is expressed through a rich array of anaphoric expressions, most of them in slang: cador (l. 11), clébard, saloperie (l. 30), cabot (l. 32)) or as metaphors referring to another type of animal (fauve wild animal (l. 30), or bestiau (l. 11), normally used in the plural, bestiaux, to refer to livestock), all of these terms being in stark contrast with the neutral terms used in the narrative part. Finally his attitude to the customer with the dog and to Pinaud is very rude. Although, he addresses the customer in the polite vous form, he never uses polite terms of addresses such as monsieur but only imperative expressions such as dites donc (l. 6) and dites (l. 11) and of course he uses very insulting terms to refer to the dog (see above). In other parts of the dialogue, like his boss, he tends to speak about the dog while completely ignoring the customer. He does the same for Pinaud, whom he never addresses directly but unflatteringly describes as c'pauv'vieux à moitié déglingué (l. 31) while speaking to his boss. These attitudes are to be contrasted with the seeming deference he uses towards his boss, whom he doesn't fail to address as maâme Ronchonnet.

Conclusion

Connect all the dots and link them to the introduction. Open to broader questions, e.g. Why is non standard language used in a literary text?, What is the current state of spoken language?, Can we speak of a "San Antonio style"?, etc.

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This webpage was last updated on 31 March 2016