La problématique — The Research Question

Linguistic insecurity

The research question Alex finds has a name in French sociolinguistics: l'insécurité linguistique, the feeling among speakers that the way they speak is not quite legitimate, even when they speak fluently. The concept was developed in the 1960s and 1970s, starting from studies of social class in New York and then applied widely to French, where a strong central norm, long associated with Paris and with educated written usage, sits beside many regional and national varieties. Research has described it among speakers in Belgium, Switzerland, Québec, Africa and the French regions, as well as among working-class speakers in France itself. It can show up as apologizing for an accent, correcting oneself in front of certain listeners, switching register, or describing one's own French as "not real French." Researchers disagree about how widespread it is and how it is changing, and many argue that confidence in local varieties has grown considerably in recent decades, particularly in Québec and parts of Africa. Mme Delorme's methodological point is central to the field: a feeling cannot be observed directly, only what people say and do. That is why interviews in this kind of research usually ask for concrete situations rather than direct questions about shame or pride, and why researchers are careful not to build their own assumptions into the wording of a question. Lessons 133 and 136 return to the concept, with the people Alex interviews.