In the most heated conversations it is not unusual to use very expressions colorfulsometimes even scurrilous like the bad wordsaccompanying them to the phrase “forgive the Frenchism“. But why associate certain expressions with the French? Call it” Frenchness ” gives a sarcastic tone to the word or the scurrile expressions used, precisely because they are associated with a language traditionally considered cultured and refined.
The evolution of the meaning has followed two paths: starting from the nineteenth century the expression “sorry for the French” was attested with a very different meaning from the current one. It was in fact a strategy through which the speaker justified the use of a real Gallicism or a construct French in Italian, for example budget, menu, garage, or entire Linguistic castslike mettre en leur faute (“Put in wrong”, blame).
Only starting from the early 2000sprobably thanks to the spread of media and telecommunications, the expression has taken on the sarcastic meaning we know today. THE’semantic evolution It has passed, therefore, from “I use a word in French which is the only one able to convey the information I want to give and also serves to demonstrate my culture“A“I use a inconvenient word that ironizes on a culture considered refined and courteous“.
There is therefore a conversational dynamic for which the speaker consciously reports that he has broken a linguistic rule – in simple words, the use of a dirty word. According to the philosopher Herbert Paul Gricethis mechanism is based on principle of cooperationaccording to which in a conversation the sincerity and relevance of what is said is taken for granted. In this context, the foul language can also be accepted by both interlocutors. In other words, thanks to a “forgive French”, lvulgar expression is attenuated, brought down and made socially more digestibleavoiding to be excessively inconvenient.
We are not the only ones who reconnect to the cousins of the Alps to justify one conversation breakage: even the British, strong of a history of rivalry and at the same time of admiration towards French culture, use the expression “Pardon my fench “also already attested in the nineteenth century with use sarcastic.
“Sorry for French” is a linguistic reversal that has evolved over two centuries: From simple justification for the use of a French word to ironic alibi for our swear words. A way of saying that reveals how languages are never static, but they have fun subverting their meanings, and paradoxically the French, a symbol of refinement, have help us make even the most colorful custody more elegant.
