You know, I am sure, the hypermarket, the hyperactive, the hyperbole, without forgetting – I wish you no harm, however – hypertension and hyperopia. But do you know about hypercorrection, this attitude which leads someone who seeks to express themselves perfectly to… make mistakes by applying grammatical rules inappropriately? A trap which, let us admit, awaits each of us.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO RECEIVE THIS NEWSLETTER? >> Click here
Let’s take some examples:
– Adding superfluous silent and/or scholarly letters : lethymology, the camps…
– Adding unnecessary circumflex accents : he was, he should have, he would have, he did, he was silent…
– Redundancy in interrogative formulas : “Won’t he be taking too many risks by accepting such a dangerous mission?”
– The abusive hunt for anglicisms: replace “traffic” with “circulation” while “traffic” is a borrowing from… Italian “traffico”.
– The incorrect conjugation of certain verbs: by association with “you say”, we are sometimes tempted to use “you meditate” and “you contradict yourself”. This is an error, because the derivatives of “say” are conjugated quite normally: “you slander”, “you contradict yourself”. It is true that the rule is particularly difficult to master, since it – obviously – has its exception. With “redire”, it is “you repeat” which is required in the present indicative (no, Grevisse is not offered with this column).
– The consecutive use of “of” and “of which”: we sometimes hear: “This is the car I’m talking about.” But “whose” can be replaced by “from whom” or “from what”. The correct formulas are therefore “this is the car I am talking about” or “this is the car I am talking about”.
The phenomenon is so widespread that it leads some, and not the least, to wrongly stigmatize correct uses that they believe to be wrong. Voltaire thus condemned the phrase “on the other hand” in favor of “on the other hand” without real justification. The same goes for “second”, which we think should be replaced by “second” when the enumeration is limited to two objects whereas the French Academy itself recognizes that this is not the case.
How can we explain this tendency towards hypercorrection? By another phenomenon that experts call “linguistic insecurity”. In short: we sometimes have the feeling that our way of writing or speaking does not conform to the prestige standard. Anxious to imitate the latter, we want to do so well that we end up making mistakes. This is why this type of error appears especially in somewhat formal contexts: job interviews, exams, official letters, public speaking, etc.
According to sociologists and linguists such as Pierre Bourdieu and William Labov, this attitude therefore particularly concerns certain categories of the population. The petty bourgeoisie. People seeking to erase a regional or social accent. Individuals with a certain cultural level: teachers, elected officials, journalists, sometimes academics. Women, too, and that’s understandable. They must in fact overcome more obstacles to rise socially and therefore seek more than men to adopt the norm presented as legitimate.
Finally, know that hypercorrection has its exact opposite: hypocorrection. An approach which consists, for an individual mastering “good French”, in making mistakes on purpose. Shortly after his appointment at Matignon, in 1984, Laurent Fabius, although from Normale and ranked first in the aggregation of modern letters, declared on television: “These are important problems” (instead of “These are important problems”). A way for those who dreamed of entering the Elysée to try to “make people”. Well, at least that’s the hypothesis I can come up with.
FIND VIDEOS DEDICATED TO FRENCH AND THE LANGUAGES OF FRANCE ON my youtube channel
READ ELSEWHERE
What language did prehistoric people speak?
When did humanity start to speak? And was there an original language? Here are the – fascinating – answers from researcher Guy Jucquois, emeritus member of the Royal Academy of Belgium.
Successful start for the International City of the French Language of Villers-Cotterêts
Inaugurated by Emmanuel Macron on October 30, 2023, the Cité internationale de la langue française, in Villers-Cotterêts, in Aisne, seems to be meeting its audience. In two months it reached the milestone of 53,000 visitors, more than a quarter of its annual objective.
“Amandjine eats at the cantchine”: “affrication”, the new “chic” language of adolescents
Do the young people around you replace “ti” with “tchi” and “di” with “dji”? Do not panic ! All generations have their language whims, as sociolinguist Maria Candea explains here.
“Promulgate”, “embarrassment”, “abaya”… The star words of 2023, according to Le Robert
What are the 10 words that saw the biggest increase in consultation in 2023 on the Dico online site Le Robert ? The list revealed by the publisher does not lack spice, as shown by the example of “ejaculatory”, used to everyone’s surprise by Pope Francis. And for good reason: this term designates “short and fervent prayers”. What many obviously didn’t know…
31% of French people read at least 20 books per year
What are the reading habits of the French? If 11% of them say they do not read at all, 31% are on the contrary considered to be heavy readers (more than 20 books per year), 38% read between 5 and 19 books and 20%, between 1 and 4 books. . In total, there are 89% of readers in our country, a proportion increasing by 3 points between 2021 and 2023, according to a study by the National Book Center.
Saint-Brieuc claims the first trilingual family record book in France
Since January 17, a trilingual family record book (French, Gallo, Breton) has been automatically distributed by the town of Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor), after a marriage or at the birth of a first child. “This is the meaning of history,” rejoices Ludovic Le Moignic, municipal councilor responsible in particular for the languages and cultures of Brittany.
Disappearance of Jean-Philippe Joly, great activist of Norman culture
The president of the Regional Federation of Associations for the Norman Language (Fale) and the Federation of Normandy Traditional Sports and Games, Jean-Philippe Joly, has just died. For years, he had fought for the recognition of this language and this culture and obtained results, in a particularly difficult environment.
The mysteries of the Tamil language of Reunion
Did you know ? “Curry” and “catamaran” are two words borrowed by French from Tamil, a language originating in India and spoken on part of the national territory, in Reunion, more precisely. In an article on the Cheminez site, “the media of languages and cultures, here and elsewhere”, Philippe Pratx returns to the Reunionese history of this language unlike any other, considered one of the oldest in the world. world. Amazing.
A petition against the “linguicide of the regional language of Alsace”
“When no real effort is undertaken by the State to sustain or promote the regional language of Alsace, it commits linguicide […]. We ask him to put in place a real policy of revitalization and restoration of the regional language of Alsace.” This is the theme of the petition which has just been launched online, in order to ask that Alsatian have a educational, media, administrative, cultural, economic and religious existence, essential conditions to offer it a future.
Conference in Lorient on January 27: “Why and how to save regional languages?”
It is these two questions that I will try to answer on Saturday January 27, in Lorient, at the invitation of the development council of the country of Lorient and the Human Rights League of the country of Lorient. Meet at 5 p.m. at the Embarcadère, Courbet room, 83, rue Amiral-Courbet (free entry).
TO LISTEN
When ministers abuse the French language
Syntax errors, anglicisms galore, meaningless sentences. Ministers regularly mistreat the French language, wonders Hadrien Mathoux, journalist at Marianne, in this intervention on France Inter.
TO WATCH
“These mistakes that no one calculates”, by Linguisticae
Discover other elements on hypercorrection with this very educational video from YouTuber Linguisticae. “The overcorrector wants to show that he is socially above others through his mastery of the social code of standardized language,” he explains in particular. “He fears making mistakes for fear of being stigmatized.”
REACT, DEBATE AND FIND MORE INFORMATION ON THE LANGUAGES OF FRANCE ON the Facebook page dedicated to this newsletter.