Lexicological features of modern french-speaking media

Chaplik Varvara Andreevna ORCID: 0000-0002-9416-8933 Postgraduate student of the French Department, Faculty of Philology, Lomonosov Moscow State University; 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., GSP-1, office of the 1st building of Humanities Faculties (1st GUM) varvaratarapova@gmail.com

One of the immanent characteristics of the modern French-speaking press is the relevance of its discourse, which is manifested not only in the topics covered, but also in the use of new forms of expression, wordplay and neologisms. The famous French sociolinguist Marina Yaguello explains this dependence with the expressive and playful potential of neologism: "le n?ologisme est souvent un moyen ?conomique de r?pondre ? des besoins sp?cifiques, parfois ?ph?m?res, de la communication ^{[10, p.68]}.

Our article examines the morphological and semantic aspect of these lexical innovations, and also suggests a study based on particularly interesting cases of eponymous and telescopic formations created on the basis of the names of prominent political and public figures and organizations. The material of our study was selected by continuous sampling based on the analysis of the texts of periodical French-language publications in the period from 2016 to 2023: BFM TV, Courrier International, Marianne, Nouvel Observateur, La Croix, Le Canard Encha?n?, L'Express, L'Humanit?, Le Monde, Le Parisien, Le Point, Le Progr?s, Le Figaro and some others.

The totality of the neological formations selected by us was also analyzed using the N?oveille platform of the Sorbonne-Paris-Cit? University.

The N?oveille project (the very name of this platform is a telescopic neologism: n?o(logisme) + veille) was created as part of a joint international study of the statistical method of machine learning to detect formal neologisms in modern French. The project's goal was to create a multilingual (at the moment the system allows working with materials in English, German, Chinese, Greek, Russian, Polish and Czech) platform for searching, detecting and, most importantly, tracking the use of neologisms in the framework of volumetric dynamic press bodies by implementing algorithms for automatic detection of neological forms, and also borrowings, and their functioning. The creators of the platform operated with three main types of neological formations: formal, morphological and semantic (or contextual) neologisms. As the researchers and authors of the project emphasize (E. Cartier, J.-F. Sablayrolles, N. Boutmgharine, J. Humbley, C. Jacquet-Pfau, G. Tallarico and others), the latter type has not previously been used as a category of analysis of neologisms within the language system as a whole and provides an opportunity to analyze the semantic context of new words. Thus, according to the results of the platform, the researchers came to the conclusion that formal signs of neologism can be useful primarily for general classification tasks, while morphological and semantic signs better cope with the task of actually determining neological forms.

The focus of our research is primarily focused on the morphological and semantic aspect of these lexical innovations, and also offers examples based on economic and political topics, many of which are associated with the names of modern French and other famous political figures. Our analysis is aimed, among other things, at determining the function of such neologisms in journalistic discourse, as well as the prospects for their inclusion in the standard lexicon. {Graph}

As mentioned above, a characteristic feature of surnames and/or names that serve as the basis for the formation of the analyzed units is a certain prominence in the cultural code of this community. Thus, in the material we study, the surnames of both French (M?lenchon > m?lenchonisme, Chigas > Chiraquisme, Le Maire > lemairiste) and foreign politicians (Trump > trumpiste, Assad > anti-assad) are often used. It is characteristic that political topics, on the one hand, limit the set of basic proper names, but at the same time, the surname of any political and/or public figure can, if necessary, become the basis for lexical neoplasms. At the same time, the duration of the use of lexemes obtained in this way in speech is different and, in fact, directly depends on extralinguistic factors: some elements can become fixed in the language, while most of them quickly fall out of use. But it is the latter, due to their expressiveness, that are the most common. As for the distribution by parts of speech, the concept of eponymic neology applies primarily to nouns (for example, macronisation, macronade, macronie), adjectives (for example, macronien, trumpiste, trumpien) and verbs (balladuriser, obamamiser, trumpiser, jean-mariser).

It should also be noted some specificity of the word-formation mechanisms inherent in eponymous neologisms. According to the results of the study of the corpus N?oveille ^[3], prefixation mechanisms are the most productive (75.8%), while most eponymous neologisms from political texts, according to our study, are formed using suffixation (72%).

So, the most productive suffixes among the examples we found were :

— -iser for verb neologisms. For example^[1]:

• talibaniser > 20 usage contexts, "[...] qui talibanise en couleurs la parole et l'air ambiant. Car autant s’adapter» (Agora Vox 12.06.2021),«L’Iran se talibanise-t-il ?» (Styles 14.03.23).

• se trumpiser > 15 contexts, "Le concept a d'ailleurs ?t? repris par Manuel Valls en d?but d'ann?e, qui accusait la droite de se trumpiser"(Le Parisien 09.11.16), "Reste ? savoir si ? force de se trumpiser, ils ne risquent pas de s'ali?ner les ?lecteurs mod?r?s qui leur pr?f?reront un d?mocrate en novembre" (L'Express 15.05.22);

• (se) balladuriser> 7 contexts, " il est sur une position de deuxi?me tour de l'?lection pr?sidentielle, il se balladurise" (LCP 16.06.16), "[...]voudra pousser son raisonnement et balladuriser Jupp? [...]" (Le Progr?s 04.11.2016);

— -isme, -(a)tion, -?tre, -phile, -a de, -phobie for nouns:

• macronisme > 50 contexts, "La droite n'est pas soluble dans le macronisme" (France Soir 05.09. 18), "[...] le socialiste converti au macronisme Fran?ois Rebsamen a vot? pour faire battre [...]" (Le Figaro 26.01.23);

• hollandisme > 49 contexts, "Jean-Christophe Cambad?lis, l'homme gauche du hollandisme" (L'Express 25.04.16), "ce du du hollandisme a auparavant ?t? longtemps directeur du cabinet de Bertrand Delano?, [...]" (Le Monde 11.07.22);

• macronisation / macronisable > 43 contexts, "Le militant du rail fustige une macronisation des transports" (Midi Libre 25.09.16), "Ils ne savent plus trop s'ils sont macronis?s, macronisables ou en voie de macronisation[...] " (Le Huffington Post 25.10.22);

•   talibanisation > 15, «La talibanisation du pays est presque achev?e» (Le Huffington Post 11.15.22), «Des hommes et des femmes tr?s li?s aux religieux ultra-conservateurs, et qui n'agissent jamais seuls. Tout ?a, ? mon sens, va de pair avec la talibanisation du pouvoir depuis ces derni?res ann?es» (Elle 16.03.23).

• sarkol?tre> 27 contexts, "Les sarkol?tres, empetr? dans leur haine de hollande, divisent le monde en 2 [...]" (Le Journal du dimanche 02.05.16), "[...]m?me sarkol?tre en 2007, avant de " se f?cher" avec la politique, trop " cynique" ? son go?t [...]" (Le Point 25.04.17);

•   Macronophile > 6, «[…]attraction croissante sur les macronophiles de droite, qui regagneront progressivement ses rangs» (Nouvel Observateur 12.06.17), «Les macronophiles, m?lenchophiles, jadeauphiles et lepenophiles d’aujourd’hui sont […]» (Agora Vox 01.07.22);

•   macronophobie > 1, «Premier ministre, il s’acharne sur Twitter contre Emmanuel Macron, au point d’?tre accus? de macronophobie» (Nouvel Observateur 20.04.17);

— -(i)ste for adjectives:

• sarkozyste > 49 contexts, "Autre candidat sarkozyste ? l'investiture, dans le Nord Vienne, Romain Bonnet acquiesce [...]" (La Nouvelle R?publique 20.09.16); "l'ancien ministre sarkozyste ?ric Woerth apporte son soutien ? l'actuel pr?sident Emmanuel Macron [...]" (BFM TV 09.02.2022);

• trumpiste > 36 contexts, "Bient?t un groupe de m?dias trumpistes?" (Lib?ration 07.01.21), "Probl?me: cela avait rendu hyst?riques les trumpistes, c?ur de l'audience de la cha?ne" (L'Humanit? 10.03.23);

• mairiste > 5 contexts, "[...]Sarkozystes, Le Mairistes, Fillonistes, Cop?istes esp?rent se rappeler au bon souvenir de leur favori s'il acc?de ? une [...]" (L'ind?pendant 14.10.16), "Si vous regardez les signataires, il y a des Sarkozystes, des Le Mairistes, des Jupp?istes [...]" (20 Minutes 03.03.17).

Also in our study, we can state a fairly high productivity of the prefix mechanism. For eponymic neologisms in our corpus, the most frequent prefixes were anti-, pro-, post-, ultra- for adjectives and (less often) for nouns:

• anti-Macron > 47 contexts, "Fran?ois Bayrou, l'arme anti-Macron du candidat Fillon?" (Nouvel Observateur 18.01.17), "Marine Le Pen cherche ? faire ?chec au " front r?publicain", actionn? en 2002 contre son p?re puis en 2017 contre elle-m?me pour faire barrage ? l'extr?me droite, et plaide pour un "front anti-Macron" dimanche" (Charente Libre 04/24/2022);

• anti-Trump > 48 contexts, "Dans la journ?e de vendredi, la tension ?tait mont?e dans la ville de Barack Obama, o? des manifestants anti-Trump s'?tait rassembl?s" (Courrier International 03/16/16), "Ce mercredi matin, les premiers r?sultats sont tomb?s: la vague anti-Trump n'a pas eu lieu mais les d?mocrates prenent le contr?le du Congr?s" (Le Dauphin? Lib?r? 17.11.18);

• anti-Assad > 45 contexts, "[...] dans tout le sud de la Syrie, notamment ? Deraa, berceau de la r?volution anti-Assad de 2011" (Le Monde 18.04.16), "Manifestations anti-Assad dans une r?gion du sud de la Syrie" (Courrier International 14.02.22);

• pro-Moubarak/ post-Moubarak> 49 contexts, "[...] s'attirant des critiques virulentes dans les m?dias et sur les r?seaux sociaux, d'?gyptiens pro-Moubarak" (Le Parisien 10.03.16), "Durant la transition post-Moubarak, Tantaoui avait souvent ?t? per?u comme un potentiel candidat..." (Sud Ouest 21.09.21);

• Post-macron > 26 contexts, "Hollande pr?side le premier Conseil des ministres de l'?re post-Macron" (L'Express 30.08.16), "pour Valls, la recomposition politique post-Macron va se poursuivre" (BFM TV 27.11.17);

• pro-Morsi > 47 contexts, "Dans les semaines qui ont suivi la destitution, plus de 1400 manifestants pro-Morsi [...]" (L'Express 04/18/16), "le militaire est apparu sur le devant de la sc?ne, lan?ant une r?pression sanglante contre les pro-Morsi...]" (L'Express 02.06.18);

• ultrasarkozyste /ultra-hollandais > 10 contexts, " Ce noyau d'ultrasarkozystes hyper motiv?s est une force : ceux-l? ne rateront pas le jour J l'occasion de soutenir [...]" (Nouvel Observateur 30.08.16), "[...] s'inqui?tait-elle aupr?s du ministre ultra-hollandais Michel Sapin" (Le Journal du dimanche 29.10.16);

In the material we studied for neological verbs, the prefix de-, marking the cancellation, negation or absence of any action, turned out to be the most productive:

• (se) d?macroniser > 18 contexts, "[...] r?concilier les Fran?ais avec leur identit? franco-europ?enne, d?diaboliser la mondialisation, mais aussi se d?macroniser un peu" (Courrier International 09.05.17), "Plusieurs sources internes ?voquent surtout les efforts d?ploy?s par le directeur de la r?daction pour d?politiser, voire d?macroniser le journal [...] (Le Monde 08.04.22);

•   d?schr?deriser  > 1 «ont contribu? ? d?schr?deriser le travail, par exemple en mettant en place le salaire minimum en 2015» (Lib?ration 25.09.17).

Other important mechanisms for the formation of neologisms in the language of the press is telescoping. Recall that this mechanism of word formation (t?lescopage or mots-valises in the French linguistic tradition) consists in the formation of a new lexeme by merging two (or more)  already existing words in the language into one new element with the preservation of the recognition of the original forms: "Fr?quemment utilis? (...) le mot-valise m?lange deux mots en imbriquant astucieusement les syllabes" ^{[4, p.68]}. However, it should be noted that the analysis of the selected material showed a rather low degree of prevalence of this mechanism for neologisms formed from the proper names of political and public figures, in contrast to "classical" neologisms, which at the same time tend to spread rapidly not only in speech, but also in the normalized language.:

• stagflation (stagnation + inflation) > 49 contexts, "[...] De plus en plus d'analystes et d'?conomistes commencent ? s'inqui?ter d'un risque de stagflation (Courrier International 29.07.20), " Deloitte en ao?t 2022 d?claraient s'attendre ? voir les Etats-Unis entrer dans une p?riode de stagflation en 2023" (Challenges 13.01.23);

• docufiction (documentaire + fiction) > 48 contexts, "[...] .L’enterrement ? Vercel est rejou? dans le Doubs pour un docufiction (L'Est R?publicain 11.04.16), « […] extraits devaient ?tre mix?s avec d’autres entretiens et ins?r?s dans un " docufiction "» (Marianne 10.02.23);

•   clavardage (clavier + bavardage) > 47 contexts, "[...] l'aide aux devoirs par clavardage et par textos" (Le Journal de Qu?bec 07.09.16), "Dix mots qu?b?cois que nous ferions bien d'emprunter: pourriel, clavardage" (Le Figaro 06/19/19);

Another common language mechanism used in the language of the press and media does not directly lead to the creation of new lexemes as such, but plays out the form and/or meaning of already existing words and proper names. It is important to note that wordplay functions within a strictly defined speech and extralinguistic context (slogans, headlines) and is often accompanied by various kinds of images: posters, cartoons, covers of publications. The language game, of course, is one of the most expressive mechanisms that instantly react to changing realities, but for its adequate perception, additional reinforcement in the form of a visual image is often required:

• La retraite d'e lisabeth d?passe les bornes (Elisabeth Borne is the current Prime Minister of France // borne in the meaning of limites);

• Macron, l'heure est gr?ve (l'heure est grave) — slogan on the poster of protesters against pension reform, February 2023;

• R?forme des retraites vs vraie forme en retraite — slogan on the poster of protesters against pension reform (March 2023);

• Mal trait?, mal retrait? (traiter qqn // retraite) — slogan on the poster of protesters against pension reform (April 2023);

• Je ne ferai ma Chine arri?re (faire machine arri?re ) — the title of the publication Le Canard Encha?ne 30.10.22;

• Non, rien de rien, je ne retraite rien (je ne regrette rien) — the title of the publication Le Canard Encha?ne 22.02.23;

• Tu nous mets 64, on te mai 68 (mettre // mai 1968) — graffiti in Paris, winter-spring 2023;

• D?put?s // d?pit?s — cartoon of the Ouest France edition;

As mentioned above, journalistic discourse is undoubtedly characterized by an increased degree of linguistic creativity, which is expressed in the relative freedom of using various kinds of neoplasms and wordplay. According to our research, the most productive word-formation process within the French-speaking media discourse is the creation of eponyms. However, depending on the degree of fame and influence of political and public figures and/or organizations (from whose names lexemes are formed), it seems necessary to distinguish two cases.

 In the first case, the formed words usually have only basic, stylistically neutral forms, intended primarily to denote supporters of someone, as in the case of the suffixes -iste / -isme (gaulliste, jospiniste, s?gol?niste, etc). In this case, we are talking about simple derivatives of nouns or adjectives, used mainly because of the brevity of their form and unambiguity of meaning.

In the second case, the stable fame of figures of the political world is often transformed into a certain stereotypical image in socio-cultural perception, which gives their surnames a certain connotative meaning: affixes -ade, -?tre, phile, -pro, - anti, etc., as in the examples anti-macron, macronisables, macron-compatible, macronie. The wide prevalence of these words is the result of their expressiveness, due primarily to their lexical basis, but also to the word-formation model, which gives these lexemes a special semantic accuracy or stylistic shade.

Political eponyms, so widely used in journalistic discourse, are lexical tools that are at the same time expressive, stable in their use, but at the same time much more economical than other mechanisms of language play, and perform all the linguistic functions required in the language of the press: the need for accuracy, expressiveness and play of meanings. However, their inclusion in the standard language remains an open question, which is undoubtedly directly related to the historical context being formed — how serious and significant the role of a particular political figure and/or phenomenon turns out to be for the future.

^[1] Here and further we give examples of the earliest and last of the contexts of the use of neologisms that we have discovered.