A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the omission of the ne from the verbal negation in the novels that compose the Rougon-Macquart cycle reveals that this syntactic feature occurs late (though only in the case of certain characters) and intermittently. The first two points can be explained by assuming that the omission of ne follows the social trajectory of the characters, according to the theory of “dégénérescence”. The intermittent distribution of one-term negation calls for another explanation. We note that this phenomenon is not systematically added to other marks of popular oral language. This leads us to explore the logic of linguistic mimetics adopted by the author. The omission of ne contributes to the stylisation of the spoken language in accordance with the principles of naturalism: Zola observes popular speech through the lens of social determinism and wishes to integrate it into his literary narrative as an authentic document. However, the intermittence of the phenomenon reveals that the representation of popular French is integrated into literary writing to represent the deviation from the norm rather than the real linguistic identity of any particular milieu.
Sur l’omission du ne dans Les Rougon-Macquart : aspects linguistiques et stylistiques / Floquet, Oreste; Algeri, Veronic. - (2024), pp. 75-92.
Sur l’omission du ne dans Les Rougon-Macquart : aspects linguistiques et stylistiques
ORESTE FLOQUET;VERONIC ALGERI
2024
Abstract
A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the omission of the ne from the verbal negation in the novels that compose the Rougon-Macquart cycle reveals that this syntactic feature occurs late (though only in the case of certain characters) and intermittently. The first two points can be explained by assuming that the omission of ne follows the social trajectory of the characters, according to the theory of “dégénérescence”. The intermittent distribution of one-term negation calls for another explanation. We note that this phenomenon is not systematically added to other marks of popular oral language. This leads us to explore the logic of linguistic mimetics adopted by the author. The omission of ne contributes to the stylisation of the spoken language in accordance with the principles of naturalism: Zola observes popular speech through the lens of social determinism and wishes to integrate it into his literary narrative as an authentic document. However, the intermittence of the phenomenon reveals that the representation of popular French is integrated into literary writing to represent the deviation from the norm rather than the real linguistic identity of any particular milieu.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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