The Language Between the Written and the Spoken

The Example of the Radio Chronicle “Pop & Co”

Abstract

Communication in every language can take either written or spoken form, which may share some of their characteristic features or differ completely one from another. In this regard there are some particularities connected with written and spoken French, as shown in the first part of the article. Its objective is, however, to further study these particularities using a specific medium and genre. Therefore, being familiar with phenomena traditionally attributed to written or spoken communication in French, the article searches for and shows their presence in the radio programme Pop & Co, which belongs to the genre of the “chronique de radio” (radio chronicle). Though this genre seems to be well-known by the French-speaking radio audience, chronicles are still poorly described regarding their structure and language. Out of the features shared by some radio genres, the one that stands out for chronicles is that they are often prepared in textual form and only then read aloud on the radio. The combination of the written and spoken aspects of French, as well as deficient linguistic research in this domain, led us to a more detailed investigation of this genre. The analysis that we suggest concentrates on the structure of the text itself and on the presence of linguistic constructions associated traditionally with written or spoken French. This analysis should then help us situate the chronicle in the written/spoken linguistic continuum, and state if these types of communication constitute a balanced combination in this specific genre.