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What linguistic features distinguish complaints in Cameroon French from France French visualisation

What linguistic features distinguish complaints in Cameroon French from France French

French Complaints and Apologies: Speak with Confidence!: What linguistic features distinguish complaints in Cameroon French from France French
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Linguistic features distinguishing complaints in Cameroon French from France (Hexagonal) French include notable differences in complaint strategies, use of external and internal modifiers, and address terms.

Complaint Strategies

  • Both varieties commonly use requests for repair. However, France French speakers use this strategy more frequently (39.7%) than Cameroon French speakers (33.3%).
  • Cameroon French speakers favor expressions of disappointment significantly more (14.4%) compared to France French (2.6%).
  • Cameroon speakers also use more interrogations and exclamations (18%) than France speakers (14%).
  • France French speakers use the disbelief strategy more (11.5%) than Cameroonian French speakers (5.4%). 1

External Modifiers

  • Cameroon French speakers frequently employ attention getters (interjections, address terms) as preparatory acts (26.3%), while France French speakers use apologies and disarmers more often (19.4%).
  • Both groups use supportive acts like grounders (justifications), but France speakers show a higher use (34% vs. 28.8%).
  • Rejections as supportive acts appear only in Cameroon French complaints. 1

Internal Modifiers

  • Both groups use mitigators (softeners) and intensifiers in complaints; France French speakers slightly favor mitigators more (57% mitigators vs. 54% in Cameroon).
  • Politeness markers are preferred mitigators in Cameroon French, whereas modal verbs dominate in France French.
  • Consultative devices, implying inclusive or collaborative language, occur only in Cameroon French.
  • Lexical intensifiers (negatively loaded adjectives, verbs, or adverbs) are the most frequent intensifiers in both varieties. 1

Address Terms

  • Cameroon French speakers use more nominal address terms such as kinship and endearment terms (21.6%) to express closeness and soften complaints, while France French speakers mostly rely on pronominal forms (95.6%) indicating more formal or neutral address.
  • The pronominal “vous” is more frequent in France French (58.6%) versus Cameroon French (39.8%), while Cameroon French shows greater diversity including nominal terms of respect and solidarity. 1

Sociopragmatic Context

  • Cameroon French complaints reflect the multilingual, postcolonial context where cultural diversity influences complaint formulations, making them more complex with a variety of pragmatic strategies.
  • France French complaints tend to be more direct and forged by the norms of Mainland France French usage, often with more politeness markers and less expressive emotional strategies. 1

In summary, complaints in Cameroon French compared to France French tend to have more expressive and emotional elements, greater use of attention getters and address terms reflecting social closeness, and unique pragmatic strategies rooted in the postcolonial and multilingual sociolinguistic setting. 2, 1

References

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