Language during the First World War. Interdisciplinary perspectives

-> Language during the First World War. Interdisciplinary perspectives
In the context of the upcoming commemorations of the First World War in 2014, the purpose of this conference is to bring together the research by linguists, historians and specialists of literature around what happened to the French language – and to other languages – during the conflict. For some, the First World War is a turning point in the history of the French Language. This standpoint raises the question of the coincidence between language change and historical change, and of the possible use of periodization. Furthermore, the history of the French Language during the 19th and 20th century has not been much explored recently, as these times may appear too near to us for the diachronic approach to be deemed necessary.

As a matter of fact, the First World War seems to have fascinating potential for sociolinguistic enquiries, as some of its language material still remains unexploited, and may reveal a fruitful case study for some of today’s most important issues in the linguistic field – the question of variation and language use, for example.

Indeed, while the quantity of written material that remains from some more ancient periods can prove scarce and frustrating, this is not the case with the First World War. An enormous quantity of sources is available – some of them even oral sources -, constituting a rich heritage, and there is no doubt that during this period of commemorations, some of them will be more systematically explored. Through digitization, new corpora will be made available for researchers.

While existing studies mostly put a stress on literary testimonies or the use of argot on the front lines, the purpose of this conference is to open up the range of possible linguistic issues and raise a number of questions that have not been so far dwelt upon in much detail.

Papers proposals should be sent in electronic format word, rtf or pdf to colloque-langue14@listes.paris-sorbonne.fr not later than June 30, 2013. Proposals must include the author’s name and his status, the title of the paper, a 350-word abstract. They will be examined by the members of the scientific committee.
Responsable : Odile Roynette, Gilles Siouffi, Stéphanie Smadja, Agnès Steuckardt,
Url de référence : http://pgm2014.sciencesconf.org/
Adresse : Université Paris-Sorbonne, 1 rue Victor Cousin, 75230 Paris Cedex 05