Vers la triple articulation des langues naturelles: le rôle incontournable de la variation sociolinguistique

Abstract

While linguistic variety, both internal and external, might enhance the language system, this is not the case for French in the Moroccan context. Internal variation does not provide any advantage to the Fren- ch language, as all the processes involved in its acquisition and learning are detached from any specific context and are limited to the realm of “formal linguistics”. French, being the dominant language, would not benefit from external diversity in terms of exchanging and mutually enriching itself. In fact, only French is granted the privilege to be spoken, thereby preventing the occurrence of language contact and the subsequent potential for enrichment. The current study, which is inherently complex, as it is exami- ned through the lens of complexity pedagogy, enabled us to reexamine key notions in (post) Saussurean linguistics and propose the following: The sociolinguistic variation, which involves promoting contacts and considering real language situations, leads us to assert that language products are triply articulated: first in metaspeech, then in words, and finally in sounds.