Je souhaite m’interroger sur le statut ontologique des prédicats de vérité à partir du célèbre débat qui a opposé P.F. Strawson et John L. Austin, qui cherchaient à résoudre certaines difficultés qu’impliquent les énoncés comportant le mot « vrai ». Autrement dit, suffit-il vraiment de dire d’une chose qu’elle est vraie pour qu’elle le soit effectivement? Strawson s’appuiera sur les travaux de John L. Austin portant sur les énoncés performatifs (Austin, 1962 ; Austin, 1970) pour défendre une conception selon laquelle l’usage de « vrai » pour qualifier une proposition consiste « à endosser la responsabilité de l’affirmation » (Ambroise & Laugier, 2009, p. 271). Contrairement à Austin, pour qui les faits parlent effectivement du monde, Strawson soutiendra plutôt que ceux-ci « sont ce qu’affirment les affirmations », coupant du même coup le lien de correspondance avec le monde (Austin, 1980, p. 296). Pour Austin, cette posture consistant à affirmer que les faits ne sont que des entités entre le monde et les mots manque de parcimonie et témoigne d’une incompréhension de l’usage ordinaire des prédicats de vérité. En effet, Austin défend plutôt une conception correspondantiste de la vérité qui ne suppose pas pour autant que le fait de dire d’une chose qu’elle est « vraie » implique toujours que l’on parle effectivement du monde. Si tel était le cas, qui donc serait en mesure de remplir les conditions de félicité nécessaires pour poser un tel acte? Peut-on vraiment aller jusqu’à faire le monde avec des mots? De façon analogue, la vérité implique-t-elle nécessairement un rapport au réel? Mon hypothèse de recherche consiste à soutenir que le correspondantisme d’Austin n’est pas incompatible avec sa théorie des actes de langage. Pour en faire la démonstration, je soutiendrai que la position défendue par Strawson constitue une radicalisation du propos d’Austin sur les énoncés performatifs. Il s’agira avant tout d’insister sur l’importance qu’Austin accordait aux conditions de vérité devant être remplies pour qu’un énoncé ait une réelle effectivité sur le monde. Je réitérerai par le fait même l’importance de supposer un lien direct entre le monde objectif et le langage pour qu’un espace intersubjectif marqué par la commensurabilité de chacun de ses membres puisse exister. Austin insistait en effet sur l’importance de prendre conscience de deux facteurs constitutifs de la vérité, à savoir (1) la correspondance entre les énoncés et le monde et (2) l’existence de conventions linguistiques qui permettent d’établir une correspondance de manière intersubjective.
Bibliographie indicative
Ambroise, B. (2006). « Strawson et la question de la vérité : Le débat Austin vs Strawson sur la question du caractère performatif de l’attribution du prédicat vrai ». EHSBM.
Ambroise, B. & Laugier, S. (2009). Philosophie du langage : Signification, vérité et réalité. Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin.
Austin, J.L. (1962). How to Do Things with Words. Harvard University Press.
Austin, J.L. (1970). Philosophical Papers: Third Edition, Oxford University Press.
Strawson, P.F. (1949). « Truth ». Analysis, Oxford University Press, Vol. 9, No. 6.
The present study is an endeavor to enhance our understanding of the effect of code-switching on the bilingual’s speech production. In particular, this study investigates the effect of intra-sentential code-switching on the French vowel lip-rounding and duration produced by 6 Kabyle (Berber) speakers of French (such as Kabyle is a mother tongue). In a sentence by sentence reading task, the Kabyle-French bilinguals had to utter the target vowels in French multisyllabic words inserted in four different carrier sentences in both French (non-switched condition) and Kabyle (switched condition). The vowel rounding was measured by F3 and duration by the distance between the vowel onset and offset. The results on the vowel lip-rounding confirmed the results of one of the very few studies conducted on the phonetics of code-switched vowels in that the vowel quality does not change categorically in the switched context. On the other hand, vowel duration showed a significant difference in the switched condition. This study is the first to observe shorter vowel duration in the switched vowels than hyper- articulation (i.e. longer vowel duration) which was observed in some recent studies (Olson,2012 and 2015; Muldner et al.,2017). Therefore, it is suggested that the matrix language-Kabyle (highly activated language) interferes with its suprasegmental features in the vowel pronunciation of the less activated language (French). There might be less muscular tension (which could decrease the vowel height, hence duration) and quicker rhythm in the speakers’ mother tongue which made the vowel duration shorter. The slower the switches the higher and longer the vowel is (Olson,2012). More possible explanations for the results are found in the discussion section of the paper. The present experimental work is a contribution to the emerging research trend that focused on the phonetics of switched vowels. Besides, the contributing languages of this study come from totally different language families. Therefore, this study contributes a new feature of language pairing. That is Indo-European (French) and Afro-Asiatic non-Semitic (Kabyle-Berber), and, to the best of our knowledge, it is the first empirical work to be conducted on Berber in general and Kabyle bilinguals in particular in the domain of the phonetics of code-switching.
Following the conference disciplinary perspectives, the present project is closely related to the area of language acquisition while it investigates the effect of a sociolinguistic phenomenon (code-switching) on the properties of sound qualities (phonetics) of one of the languages spoken by bilinguals. Therefore, this project connects more than one conference theme: broadly linguistics and more specifically L1/L2/Ln acquisition, sociolinguistics, phonetics.
This presentation examines Puerto Rican Sign Language (PRSL), a language that was once very prominent amongst the Deaf community in Puerto Rico. PRSL is now considered a moribund variety, losing popularity to more “standardized”, international ASL (American Sign Language). PRSL may still be being used in the western and central parts of the island (which are considered harder to reach areas due to being mountainous and country regions). Dr. Maria Laguna Diaz, linguist and researcher of PRSL, has uncovered traces of the language in Puerto Rico, where many are in denial of the language. The denial of this language stems from a lack of knowledge of what constitutes a linguistic system and the role that the political status of the island has depicted over the last 120 years (Diaz, 2017).
This presentation argues that just as many indigenous spoken languages are threatened by the global spread of the English language (Phillipson 1992; 2009; among others), so are many local signed languages threatened by the spread of ASL. Due to the contact between the languages (PRSL and ASL, Spanish and English), it is increasingly difficult to determine the nature of PRSL. Is it indeed a dialect of ASL that has become a full-fledged creole? Spanish is the first and official language of Puerto Rico. That being said, PRSL signs are Spanish words that are signed in ASL, so why is Spanish Sign Language (SSL) not a contributing factor in the development of PRSL? The Puerto Rican dialect is a mixture of Spanish, and words that derive from the Taíno language; did the island’s first inhabitants (The Taínos) have a sign language that did contribute to the language? This pidgin or perhaps creole language is a form of communication that has been established by both communities Puerto Rican deaf people without any resources, and Puerto Rican deaf people who have been exposed to ASL on and off the island. ASL is having a very strong influence on the culture and the language in Puerto Rico, and sooner or later PRSL may be completely replaced by ASL. The new generation is more influenced by the abundance of resources for ASL that are not only in larger, more populated cities but also on the internet. This includes, but is not limited to, online ASL resources, social media, news media, etc. Rehabilitation efforts would have to take place within the government and the Puerto Rican community not to lose a piece of their identity. Due to the island’s political status, the cultural identity may truly suffer if ASL completely wipes out PRSL.
References
Laguna-Diaz, Maria. 2017. “Lenguaje De Señas Puertorriqueño: Un Asunto De Indiferencia Política, Social y Académica.” Comunidades Sordas En América Latina, Editora Bookess, 75–86.
Phillipson, Robert. 1992. Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Phillipson, Robert. 2009. Linguistic imperialism continued. London: Routledge.
McEntee-Atalianis, Lisa. 2019. Identity in applied linguistics research. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Meir, Irit, Assaf Israel, Wendy Sandler, Carol A. Padden, and Mark Aronoff. 2012. The Influence of Community on Language Structure. Linguistic Variation 12:2247-91.
Padden, Carol, and Tom Humphries. 1988. Living in others’ worlds. Deaf in America: Voices From a Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Edwards, John. 2009. Language and identity: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Williams, Holly, and Elizabeth Parks. https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/34/72/85/347285512011965913771294784390 81104716/silesr2012_005.pdf. Rep. SIL International, Jan. 2012. Web.
Matras, Yaron. 2009. Language contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lupyan, Gary, and Rick Dale. 2016. Why are there different languages? The role of adaptation in linguistic diversity. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 20:9, 649-60.
