Lexicology: Linguistic Prescriptivism

History:

• Beginning in 15th century when Louis XII was advised by his counsellor Claude de Seyssel to attempt to unify the various different forms of 'patois'
• so much linguistic disunity could have a potentially destabilising effect
• Until 1490, there was no standard vernacular - the only standard was Latin
• 1539 - Ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts - declared all laws should be in French from then on 
• post 1789 - French was established as the language as France and it was used for all dealings

Linguistic Centralisation:

•  France has 200+ language bodies
• The problem with centralisation is that it involves people in one area trying to define French for everybody in a wider area
• 1958 - the Défense de la langue française was set up - indicative of French mentality that their language is under threat
• 1966 - Haute comité pour la défense et l'expansion de la langue française was set up 
• the committee has gone through multiple evolutions since then but still remains in some form

Future of the French Language: 

• Many language bodies continue to be set up and attempt to govern the language 
• e.g. Haute Conseil de la Francophonie, Organisation Internationale de la francophonie
• Various terminology commissions exist
• e.g. la commission générale de terminologie et de néologie - 1996
• concerned with feminisation of professional titles etc  
• Several laws have been passed in an attempt to regulate the use of French
• Loi Bas Lauriol - 1975
• Made the use of French obligatory in all public bill posting and advertising, banned all use of foreign terms or expressions
• Loi Toubon - 1994
• mandating the use of the French language in official government publications, in all advertisements, in all workplaces, in commercial contracts, in some other commercial communication contexts, in all government-financed schools
• these laws were made in effort to control the impact of English on the French language however they have not been particularly successful
• some fines have been imposed, but the insistence on the complete use of French can be off putting for multi national companies looking to settle in France
• e.g. of failure - English is still largely the language of the scientific world - it is the most commonly used language at scientific conferences and scientific seminars and the governing bodies have concluded that full implementation would not only be too difficult to regulate but also be too damaging for France's reputation in the scientific community