Exam practice – June 2019 resit paper - L’auberge espagnole

Question 1
How does the extract from L’auberge espagnole reflect the concerns of the language industry? You
may discuss examples from the video, material covered in class and ideas drawn from your own
reading. ➔ see Lectures 1 and 2 to answer this question

This question asked students to think about at least two aspects of the extract:
1. use of language in the dialogue between Wendy, Xavier’s mother (speaking in French on the
phone) and Alessandro (Wendy’s flatmate, who speaks one line), and how this reflects the
concerns of the language industry.
Detailed analysis of the dialogue is best left to Question 2, but you could point out:
• that the use of multiple languages and the misunderstanding between the characters
demonstrates the need for translation in multilingual environments. Subtitles are
used to make the exchange comprehensible to a French-speaking viewer, but
interpreting or some other technique would be needed in order for the characters to
understand each other.
• that providing multilingual communication isn’t as simple as having access to
information in another language: Wendy has been provided with a message in
French to read but is unable to pronounce it in a way Xavier’s mother can
understand.
• the film focuses on a group of students undertaking an ERASMUS exchange in
Barcelona, presumably with the goal of improving their foreign language skills in
order to help them work within a multilingual environment shaped by European
language policy.
• that the exchange between Wendy and Xavier at the end of the extract (explaining
the fac/fuck misunderstanding can be understood as an example of applied
linguistics.
• that the film (made in 2002) doesn’t necessarily reflect the way we use language and
speech technologies in 2021. A remake of the film today would likely involve Xavier’s
mother communicating with him directly using a smartphone, but could also involve
machine translation/interpreting or even the use of speech synthesis to produce
sounds in a different language.
2. the different types of language encountered when watching the extract, which include:
• the dialogue spoken by the different characters in the film (in English, French and,
briefly, Spanish)
• the multilingual notice posted next to the telephone, complete with national flags:
this is an attempt at multilingual communication that would work when writing, but
doesn’t quote work as indended when charaters are speaking
• the French subtitles provided for this particular clip: these allow viewers to
understand the exchange, though the subtitles would need to be organised
differently for viewers speaking other languages.
Question 2
What linguistic features make the extract funny? How does the video illustrate the difference
between abstract language rules and language use in context?
➔ see Lectures 3, 4 and 5. There are several ways to answer this question: see whether you can
come up with other ideas based on the material presented in class.

Notice that this question is in two parts, both of which need to be addressed.
1. We usually think of language as a tool for communication, but the humour of this text
derives mostly from a miscommunication between characters:
• most obviously from the incongruity between Wendy’s mother’s use of the word
‘fac’ when speaking French, and Wendy’s understanding of this as the English word
‘fuck’. This misunderstanding is played out:
• during the phone conversation, where Wendy is particularly surprised to
hear her flatmate’s mother use a word she considers very vulgar
• when Alessandro reacts to Wendy’s repetition of ‘the fac/fuck’ while on the
phone: he understands it as an expression of frustration ‘[what] the fuck’,
and tells her to relax
• after the phone conversation, when Xavier explains the meaning of ‘fac’ and
when Wendy subsequently makes a joke in front of her other flatmates: ‘I’m
going to [the] fac [noun]’, pronounced as ‘I’m going to fuck [verb]’
• Wendy’s attempt to pronounce a written text in French while on the phone is also
likely to be perceived as funny, particularly by speakers of French.
2. The video illustrates the difference between abstract language rules and language use in
context in several different ways.
• the fac/fuck misunderstanding illustrates how language functions as a formal
symbolic system with an arbitrary relationship between signifier and signified: there
is no particular reason other than convention for ‘fac’ to have one specific meaning
in French and for ‘fuck’ to have its own specific set of meanings in English.
• part of the misunderstanding is based on the idea that French and English are
different languages with different rules.
• we can also understand the misunderstanding in terms of the difference between
semantic meaning (words, rules) and pragmatic meaning (context).
• several parts of the extract illustrate the difference between competence/langue
and performance/parole:
• Wendy is unable to pronounce a text written in French in a way that is
comprehensible by a native French speaker: she does not have sufficient
competence in French to produce a comprehensible performance, even
though she is reading from a grammatically correct written text
• the vowel sounds in ‘fac’ and ‘fuck’ are not, in fact, identical, though they are
close enough for speakers of one language but not the other to confuse their
meaning. We can assume Wendy hears (and repeats) ‘fuck’, where Xavier
hears ‘fac’. This suggests (a) that humans do not always speak or write in
exact accordance with language rules, since factors such as accents and even
telephone interference can get in the way, and (b) that humans need to try
to understand language in context with the information/competence they
have, sometimes with incorrect or amusing results
• the exchange with Alessandro illustrates the same principle: he hears Wendy
say ‘the fuck’ on the telephone to Xavier’s mother, which he understands as
‘[what] the fuck’ and reacts accordingly
• the extract shows how different registers, or levels of formality, are used in
different contexts: ‘fac’ is a common abbreviation for ‘faculté’, which is how
Xavier explains the derivation of the word
• Wendy’s final line ‘I’m going to fac/fuck’ plays both on the language rule she
has learned from the exchange and on the context she is in (sitting at a table
with all her flatmates) in this part of the scene: judging by his reaction, Xavier
may or may not understand the joke, but it is unlikely the other flatmates
(who do not speak French) understand it.