Join the linguistics department for a talk on Media reception of the gender-neutral pronoun iel (they) in France and Belgium: Possible repercussions for the unicity-plurality paradox of the French-speaking world, hosted by Tanja Collet.

Short biography

Tanja Collet is an associate professor of linguistics in the French Studies program at the University of Windsor (Windsor, Ontario, Canada), where she lectures in Applied Linguistics, Bilingualism Studies, Translation and Lexicology / Terminology. Her research interests concern the intersection between lexicology / terminology, text linguistics, and discourse analysis, with a main focus on term-text dynamics in specialized discourse, whether journalistic, academic or political. Her work has appeared in journals such as Discourse & Society, Discourse and Interaction, JosTrans: The Journal of Specialised Translation, Meta: Translators’ Journal, Terminology: International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Issues in Specialized Communication, and TTR (Études sur le texte et ses transformations). Originally from Belgium, she is also the current president of the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Netherlandic Studies (CAANS) and the editor in chief of the Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies (CJNS).

Abstract

The inclusion of the gender-neutral pronoun iel (they) in the online version of the leading French dictionary, Le Robert, led to much controversy and debate in the French press in the days and weeks following its appearance in the Dico en ligne in mid-November 2021. This talk focuses on the media reception of iel in the printed press of France and of neighbouring Belgium, a country that shares with France not only a border but also an official language, for which it uses the same reference works, including significantly the now controversial Petit Robert.

French, however, is not Belgium’s sole official language, and hence it does not perform in that small country the role of ‘main identity marker holding the inhabitants of the state together,’ as it does in France. Indeed, Belgium’s two main official languages, French and Dutch, are embroiled in a protracted social conflict since the country’s independence in 1830. They share, this conflict notwithstanding, a common sociolinguistic status: they are both lesser valued regional varieties of languages that are dominant in nation-states that fit the mould ‘one nation-one language,’ are expected to conform to the normative dictionaries and grammars of these higher valued national languages, but are also influenced by the linguistically and culturally diverse context, combining Gallic and Germanic traits, in which they evolve.

Against this sociolinguistic background, the talk analyzes media coverage of the controversy surrounding iel with the aim to assess how the French-speaking community of Belgium negotiated stance and positioned itself with respect to gender- neutral language, and whether this positioning can be interpreted as indicative of an emerging pluri-centric view of the French language as having several codified standard forms, of which one not only pertains to but is also claimed by Belgium’s francophones.