Equivoque du concept de linguistique dans les études psycholinguistiques et sociolinguistiques des situations plurilingues [Ambiguous character of the concept of linguistics in the psycholinguistic and sociological studies of the multilingual situations]
Authors: Tabouret-Keller Andrée 
Published: April 2017

The object of this paper is to examine the studies that psycholinguists and sociolinguists have made of plurilingual situations in order to 1) assess the present situation in the field of research and 2) take stock of interdisciplinary work achevied in this field by these two disciplines.

1. The field of psycholinguistics which, when established in 1953, was conceived as a focal point combining linguistics, the theory of learning and the theory of information, sets out an initial model (Osgood et al.) which derives its method of representing the process of human communication from the theory of learning and its interpretation of this process in terms of mediation from the theory of information. The pattern of psychic bilingual functioning is determined by reference to this model. Two modes are distinguished : a) the compound system, in which two groups of linguistic signs SA and SB belonging to languages A and B are associated with the same group of process representation mediators (rm — sm) which can, in the course of codification, be associated with two categories of linguistic responses RA and RB ; b) the coordinated system in which group A of linguistic signs and responses is associated with a group of different process mediators (rm2 - sm2). The compound system would appear to be typical of bilingualism among children immersed in an environment in which two languages are used interchangeably by the same speakers in identical situations. Alternatively, it could result from the acquisition of foreign languages at school based upon word-for-word equivalences betwen lists of vocabulary. The coordinated system would appear to characterize the «true» bilingual speaker who has, for example, learned one language in the family situation and another in the course of his schooling or professional activity, i.e. a form of learning which depends as little as possible upon translation and which corresponds to global forms of situation and behaviour. Interference between one language and the other, is inevitable in the compound type of bilingualism and would occur all the more frequently in the coordinated type as the mediating terms were similar to one another. It could also take the form of domination of one language over the other if the former were frequently used ; thus the opposition between dominant bilingualism and balanced bilingualism.

Research undertaken by reference to this model stresses the psychological aspect of bilingualism. This research can be divided under two main headings : Work stemming from coding-decoding hypotheses and dealing with the reception of messages and those proceeding from the hypothesis of a mediatory process and concerned with examining the two types of bilingualism.

After 1960, a new model, evolved by Chomsky, replaced the first. The need to assess theoretical grammar systems in relation to real grammar systems led to what is strictly speaking a psycholinguistic distinction between an individual's theoretical command of language (his intuitive knowledge) and his actual performance (the process of production and interpretation of statements). However, although the first model gave rise to a large amount of research work in the field of bilingualism, the second has not been followed up in any notable way.

Unlike psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics have evolved along diverging lines of interest using linguistics, sociology and anthropology as their frame of reference. They have undergone a sudden growth in importance over the past six years, the main reason for which stems from the urgency of the problems to be solved in the Third World where one is inadequately acquainted with the linguistic situation and where the choice of national language has become a vital question since these countries achieved independence. One branch of study, deriving from dialectology and the charting of linguistic atlases, has sought to complement the «horizontal» geographical distinctions by «vertical» social distinctions, which are generally characterized in plurilingual situations by the use of different dialects. A second branch centres upon teaching problems and aims at perfecting methods of teaching second languages as well as method of teaching in a second language. A third branch examines the technical, psychological and sociological problems involved in the setting up of long-term linguistic policies. Lastly, a branch of fundamental research is being developed parallel to these other partially complementary branches. Setting aside this of activity, sociolinguistics is pursuing the same objectives as applied linguistics while replacing them in their social context.

2) The interdisciplinary synthesis which people have sought to make between these two disciplines is far from having been achieved, at least as far as the study of plurilingual situations is concerned. In psycholinguistics, the model establishes an a priori synthesis, but the application of unilateral models gives predominance either to psychology (the Osgood model) or to linguistics (the Chomsky model). In sociolinguistics, the synthesis is made a posteriori, but the absence of a model leads one either to proceed from a linguistic analysis in order to determine at a later stage the correlations between the variables which have been established, or, alternatively, to work from a sociological analysis and determine any correlations with linguistic features afterwards.