Филологические науки/7. Язык, речь, речевая коммуникация

Скарлупіна Ю.А.

ДВНЗ «Українська академія банківської справи НБУ»

Language interference in learning French

The aim of this article is to analyze the possible impact of the English learnt as the first foreign language on learning French as the second foreign language. When learning a second language a student can benefit from knowledge in his/her first language, but the thing is that lexical resemblances between the two languages can become the root of some problems in translation and lead to the occurrence of errors in foreign language learners’ production.

Learners of foreign languages may draw on their previous knowledge, especially if the source language and the target language contain many similarities. In translation, many of them fall in the trap of false friends because of this reliance.

For instance, speaking about French for professional purposes, the language of legal documents should be taken in consideration, as an example of the mutual influence of both English and French.

It goes without saying that the development of a body of legal ideas is inseparable from the creation of special legal language, which in the case of English, has three sources: English language itself, Latin and French. In particular, French borrowings have been adopted into English throughout the centuries since before the Norman Conquest. The status of French as the language of law was significant. In fact, as it is mentioned by J. H. Baker, “medieval English lawyers spoke French in court”.

French has long been the source of borrowings in the history of English (as well as English was and is the source of borrowings for French). The French influence on the English lexicon represents the focus of linguistic concern in a considerable number of investigations of the language and its development. French borrowings can be found in different subject fields starting from cuisine and ending with diplomacy.

As many researchers notice, French has had a great influence on legal English language. A vast amount of legal vocabulary is French in origin, including such basic words as appeal, attorney, bailiff, bar, claim, complaint, counsel, court, defendant, demurrer, evidence, indictment, judge, judgment, jury, justice, party, plaintiff, plea, plead, sentence, sue, suit, summon, verdict and voir dire.

Law French was primarily a written language and was pronounced as if it were English. It persisted because of tradition and because most of the books in lawyers' libraries were printed in French or in Latin. It also functioned as a form of shorthand for lawyers to use in recording legal propositions. In other words, spoken English was transcribed in French. This use resulted in an artificial technical vocabulary, uncorrupted by the vicissitudes of vernacular English usage. Law French terminology formed the cornerstone of the law vocabulary. Some of the words still used today are arrest, assault, attainder, covenant, debtor, demand, disclaimer, escrow, heir, indictment, joinder, lessee, larceny, merger, negligence, nuisance, ouster, proof, remainder, tender, tort, trespass etc.

French also had a limited impact on various features of English syntax. Peter Tiersma mentions an example of French influence: in that language, unlike English, adjectives normally follow the noun (there are some exceptions, but they are not the peculiarity of the legal language). Several such combinations are common in legal English, including attorney general (originally procureur general), court martial (originally cour martiale), fee simple absolute (droit de propriété simple absolu), letters testamentary (lettres testamentaires), and solicitor general (solliciteur general). Also, legal French allowed the creation of words ending in -ee to indicate the person who was the recipient or object of an action (lessee: "the person leased to", employee: the person employed etc.). New words are created according to this pattern, including asylee, condemnee, detainee, expellee and tippee.

The semantic impact of language contact with French also led to the coexistence of native and foreign terms. This can be seen, for instance, in the differences between the written (e.g. legal contracts) and spoken language, when, for example, the verb to start can be used during the negotiations while the borrowed term commence is used in the text of a written agreement.

When two languages come into contact with each other because of many reasons they typically interact and influence each other. Consequently, it leads to the occurrence of different linguistic interferences then to language borrowing.

Although French and English belong to different branches of the Indo-European family of languages their vocabularies share a great number of similarities. Some are words of Latin and Greek origin: e.g., education and theory. A small number of very old genetic cognates go back all the way to Proto-Indo-European e.g., mére - mother and pied - foot. The majority of these pairs of words penetrated the French and English language due to the geographical, historical, and cultural contact between the two countries over many centuries, and here we talk about borrowings. Other cognates can be traced to the conquest of Gaul by Germanic tribes after the collapse of the Roman Empire and by the period of French domination of England after the Norman Conquest.

Most of the borrowings have changed their orthography following different orthographic rules and most likely their meaning as well. Some of the adopted words replaced the original word in the language while others were used together but with slightly or completely different meanings.

Cognates are words in different languages that have similar spelling and meaning. They can help a second-language learner on the tasks of vocabulary expansion and reading comprehension. The learner needs to pay attention to pairs of words that appear similar but are in fact false friends, have different meanings. Partial cognates are pairs of words in two languages that have the same meaning in some but not all contexts. The problem is to recognize, whether the words are cognates or false friends.

False friends or faux amis are words in a foreign language bearing a deceptive resemblance to words in one's own language. For example the word actually means really in English. In French actuellement has a diffrent meaning; it means at present.

This is a list of English-French faux amis (false friends).

English word French Equivalent

to abuse insulter and not abuser (which means in English take advantage of)

to accommodate loger and not accommoder (which means in English prepare)

to achieve réaliser and not achever (which means in English complete)

actually en fait and not actuellement (which means in English at present)

caution prudence and not caution (which means in English guarantee)

character personnage and not caractère (which means in English nature)

to charge faire payer and not charger (which means in English load)

check contrôle and not chèque (which means in English cheque)

close proche, serré and not clos (which means in English closed)

commodity marchandise and not commodité (which means in English convenience)

comprehensive complet and not compréhensif (which means in English understanding)

conductor contrôleur and not conducteur (which means in English driver)

confection friandise and not confection (which means in English ready-made clothes)

consistent cohérent and not consistant (which means in English solid, thick)

contemplate One of its meanings is envisager and not contempler (which means in English gaze at)

countenance expression (visage) and not contenance (which means in English capacity)

to deceive tromper and not décevoir (which means in English disappoint)

delay retard and not délai (which means in English time limit)

to dispose se débarrasser and not disposer (which means in English arrange)

dispute conflit and not dispute (which means in English quarrel, argument)

engaged occupé and not engagé (which means in English committed)

estate domaine and not état (which means in English state, condition)

eventually finalement and not éventuellement (which means in English possibly)

expertise compétence and not expertise (which means in English expert's report)

extra supplémentaire and extra (which means in English first-rate)

fortunate chanceux and not fortuné (which means in English wealthy, well-off)

gentle aimable, doux and not gentil (which means in English nice, kind)

grand grandiose and not grand (which means in English tall, big)

grapes raisin and not grappe (which means in English bunch of grapes)

habit habitude and not habit (which means in English dress, clothes)

hazard danger and not hasard (which means in English chance)

inconvenient inopportun and not inconvenant (which means in English improper)

indulge laisser aller and not indulgence (which means in English leniency)

invaluable inestimable and not non valable (which means in English invalid, not valid)

lecture conférence and not lecture (which means in English reading)

location emplacement and not location (which means in English renting, lease)

mechanic mécanicien and not mécanique (which means in English engineering)

medicine médicament and not médecin (which means in English doctor)

mercy miséricorde and not merci (which means in English thanks)

notice avis, préavis and not notice (which means in English note, instructions)

partition séparation and not partition (which means in English (musical) score)

petrol essence and not pétrole (which means in English oil, petroleum)

photograph photographie and not photographe (which means in English photographer)

phrase expression and not phrase (which means in English sentence)

to prevent empêcher and not prévenir (which means in English warn)

proper adéquat and not propre (which means in English clean, decent)

to recover se rétablir and not recouvrir (which means in English cover)

to regard considérer and not regarder (which means in English look at)

relieve soulager and not relever (which means in English raise)

to resume recommencer and not résumer (which means in English sum up)

route itinéraire and route (which means in English road)

rude grossier and not rude (which means in English rough, hard)

sensible raisonnable and not sensible (which means in English sensitive)

socket douille and not socquette (which means in English sock)

store grand magasin and not store (which means in English blind, shade)

suit costume and not suite (which means in English rest)

to supply fournir and not supplier (which means in English implore)

to survey examiner and not surveiller (which means in English supervise)

sympathetic compatissant and not sympathique (which means in English nice, friendly)

wagon chariot and not wagon (which means in English carriage, car)

In fact, a number of French nouns look like their English equivalents, but their spelling is different:

- une adresse (address),

- un appartement (apartment),

- un comité (commitee),

- le confort (comfort),

- un correspondant (correspondent),

- un ennemi (enemy),

- un exemple (example),

- le gouvernement (government),

- un héros (hero),

- le langage (language),

- la littérature (literature),

- des progrès (progress).

It is sometimes difficult for the students not to confuse the following:

1. nuit and soirée

«J’ai pâssé la soirée avec lui» doesn’t mean «J’ai passé la nuit avec lui».

Nuit (night) – time from 23:00 until the morning,

Soirée (evening) – time from 19: 00 to 23:00;

2. chambre (a bedroom) and pièce (a room);

3. librairie (a bookstore) and bibliothèque (a library);

4. injure (offending words) and blessure (a wound);

5. position (opinion, location), place (a job,a square or a place) and poste (a job);

6. caractère (personality) and personnage (a film or a book character);

7. humeur (mood) and humour (sense of humour);

8. monnaie (loose change or currency) and argent (money).

As it is mentioned by the authors of “The Handbook of Linguistics”, “we can safely say that these false friends are a serious linguistic problem which belongs to the field of interference. Interference is the phenomenon we experience when linguistic structures we already learnt interfere with our learning new structures”. This problem should be further explored in the context of learning French as the second foreign language.

References

1. Aronoff M., Rees-Miller J. The Handbook of Linguistics /Blackwell Publishing, Ltd, 2003 [Електронний ресурс]// - Режим доступу: https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=rl8LDiR11nYC&printsec=frontcover&hl=ru#v=onepage&q&f=false

2. Baker J. H.,The Three Languages of the Common Law / J.H. Baker // http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=The+Three+Languages+of+the+Common+Law+J.H.+Baker&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Flawjournal.mcgill.ca%2Fdocuments%2F43.Baker.pdf&ei=FO5qUbPpB4mR7AawzYHgAw&usg=AFQjCNE7Cs3TUQ7mcz82ztRaLMRWbZCarA&bvm=bv.45175338,d.d2k

3. Difficulties in French [Електронний ресурс]// - Режим доступу: file:///I:/Public/PublicResources.html?direction=b-fr-en&sp=11

4. Frunza O., Inkpen D. Identification and Disambiguation of Cognates, False Friends, and Partial Cognates Using Machine Learning Techniques / Frunza O., Inkpen D. International Journal of Linguistics Vol. 1, No. 1 – Ottawa, 2009

Vercollier A., Vercollier C., Bourlier K. Difficultés expliquées du français ... for English speakers / Vercollier A., Vercollier C., Bourlier K. – CLE International, 2004