Volume 03 Issue 02-2023
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ABSTRACT
This article discusses various definitions of the term "cliche" and the lexical and semantic meanings of clichéd
expressions in the literary and colloquial speech of the French language, the use of clichés in speech as a means of
linking language, an explanation of the use of clichés in various communicative intentions.
KEYWORDS
Cliché, figure of speech, cliché, stereotype, clichés, banality, well-known truth, wear and tear.
INTRODUCTION
The ability to communicate in the studied foreign
language in various spheres of human activity forces
one to compare all language spheres such as
phraseological units, proverbs, sayings, winged
expressions and speech clichés with one's native
language. In literary and colloquial speech, they serve
to form a text or to save language resources through
the use of clichés.
A cliché is a figure of speech that consists of using a
hackneyed expression based on a fixed image that has
become commonplace through repeated use in
French.
Research Article
LEXICO-SEMANTIC FEATURES OF CLICHES IN FRENCH
Submission Date:
February 18, 2023,
Accepted Date:
February 23, 2023,
Published Date:
February 28, 2023
Crossref doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/ajps/Volume03Issue02-10
Khasanboeva Nafisa Olimjonovna
Lecturer, Department Of Theory And Practice Of The French Language, Andijan State Institute Of Foreign
Languages, Andijan, Uzbekistan
Journal
Website:
https://theusajournals.
com/index.php/ajps
Copyright:
Original
content from this work
may be used under the
terms of the creative
commons
attributes
4.0 licence.
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The term cliche (cliché) appeared in the 19th century
and is of French origin. Historical entry from the
dictionary of typography with a simplified meaning of
"copy" and "reprint". A cliché is a metal plate, that is, a
stereotypical matrix of one sheet or one engraving,
with the help of which the same reprints were
produced in a large number of copies.
Beginning in the 1860s, cliche became a catch-all term
for photography too. After that, in printing shops,
people often used the expression "il tire son cliché",
which gave the meaning that a person constantly
repeats the same thing. Thus, the word "kleshe"
entered into speech and became a figure of speech,
consisting of the use of a "stereotypical" and "banal"
expression due to its repeated use in the language. The
mere repetition of such a banal image leads to a cliche
if it is recognized in the language community. Due to
the fact that we do not have enough accurate
information, in this article we will try to consider in
more detail the lexical-semantic meaning of this term.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The article is descriptive in nature, it uses elements of
the semantic analysis of clichés in the literary and
colloquial speech of the French language. Theoretical
analysis of the term "cliche" in chronological order. In
a communicative-oriented methodology, various
needs of communicative intentions are put forward in
order to determine speech clichés.
DISCUSSION
Many researchers dealt with this category of lexical
units, but they gave different concepts of cliches and
we will consider some of them:
For S. Dantzig, a cliché is “a word or phrase of artistic
origin that forms an image and is repeated without
reflection.” For Remy de Gourmont, clichés are "signs
of inattention and decadence." For Max Jacob, "a
cliché is a convenient conversational password to
avoid feeling," alluding to the simplicity of the
language on which the cliché is based.
For some modern writers or linguists, the cliché has to
emerge from its popular image, close to being
paraphrased. In particular, Michael Riffater no longer
considers it from a normative, banal or hackneyed
point of view, but sees in it a creative stylistic potential
close to the fact of style, and Riffater also defines a
c
liché as an “expressive unit of a structural order” and
attributes to it two characteristics: “strong and
sustainable expressiveness" and a certain stylistic
origin. Hervé Laroche points out in the Dictionary of
Literary Cliches that “special attention is
required to
identify clichés, as well as a certain energy to eliminate
them. The cliché functions as a sign of the quality of the
text: since it is precisely the habit of writing that it is
repeated with sufficient consistency to be recognized
as part of a literary expression and plays a major role.
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First of all, it is necessary to consider the various
definitions and points of view on the issue of defining
the term "cliché" in various senses. To begin with, with
the help of several dictionaries: a regular dictionary, a
historical dictionary and encyclopedic dictionaries, we
will try to synthesize a single terminology for the
definition of "cliche".
The dictionary of the French language Emile Littre [1]
mentions the direct meaning and technical meaning of
the word: "cliché" is, first of all, a term of typography
that arose as a result of the cliché process, which we
mentioned above. In 1809, only the technical meanings
of the word “cliché” were given in the dictionary le
Petit Robert, since it is a copy of other neologisms, and
already after sixty years in 1869, le Petit Robert gives
us information about the figurative meaning of this
word that interests us. in this way, synonymous
concepts appear as: “lieu commun”, “idée reçue”,
“poncif”, “stéréotype” which a
re translated as
“banality”, “generally known truth”, but above all
“stamp” and “stereotype”.
In the dictionary "Grand Larousse Universel" we can
find a figurative meaning from a longer definition, as
"A well-known truth, a banality, often repeated and in
the same terms; stamp" [2].
In the dictionary Le Grand Larousse Illustré, for its part,
offers an initial definition of the term, but no further
than a synonym with the meaning “Too often repeated
idea; common truth; banality." [3].
In the dictionaries above, we can find a list of some of
the recurring characteristics with concepts such as
worn out (too often used), banality and artificiality. Le
Petit Robert gives the same definitions, but adds a few
elements: “Too often used ideas or expressions.
Banality, well-known truth, stamp, repetition[4]. But
the historical dictionary of the French language,
published under the direction of Alain Rey, offers a
suggestive hypothesis of a relationship of the term
"cliché" with German, which resembles the term
"kitsch".
“The Middle German etymon “klitsch” “soft mass”,
itself of onomatopoeic origin, but in the 19th century,
it acquired the figurative meaning of “copy” (1866).
The verb "clicher" itself is less common than the noun
with the past participle "cliché" n. mzh. R. (1809), this
is a printing house term almost retired due to its
direction and in the field of photography it adopted the
concept of "negative image obtained in a darkroom"
(1865). In the figurative meaning "a hackneyed phrase
or idea" (1869) comes from the initial meaning in
typography, its meaning changes to a new type of
usage, which was known in the application to the noun:
phrase, cliché speech."[5]. This last definition also
offers a strictly semantic extended explanation of the
cliché: it is first of all an adjective that continues to
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learn new uses because it does not cease to influence
new nouns.
But I want to note that when reading these meanings
of the term "cliche": we realized that they often give
an almost identical definition, and not the expanded
meaning that we would like. Thus, dictionaries testify
that "cliché" is a term that everyone agrees on. Then
we get the following synthesis, preliminary analysis
and slightly enriched:
Cliche - (figuratively) a formula [or image, or drawing,
inscription or process] ready, frozen, worn out,
becoming commonplace due to mechanical repetition;
a banal idea is usually expressed in stereotypical terms
[or forms]. Synonyms: le stéréotype, le lieu commun, le
déjà-vu, le kitsch, la caricature, le préjugé, le poncif or
even l'idée-reçue[6].
We now have a few landmarks, a series of cliché
features, their ready-made artificiality, banality, and
the mechanical repetition that produces them,
reproduces them, and allows them to expand. But the
question arises whether we have determined the
meaning of the cliché enough and are we content with
the concept of clichés that we have found from
different dictionaries. As we know, the dictionary is
usually used as a tool to limit the concept that we seek
to study, it serves to capture, even arbitrarily, the
original meaning, which includes, that is, which goes
beyond or provides many examples. Alamber, in his
entry "Dictionary" in the Encyclopedia, reveals an
opinion that is found in all dictionaries:
“First of all, what mus
t not be forgotten is that no
matter how hard you try to correct the language in the
dictionary, it is impossible. The truth is that a living
language that is constantly changing can hardly be
absolutely fixed” [7].
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
In French, cliches are among the most common
linguistic phenomena. In this regard, we will look at the
most
common
clichés
that
express
various
communicative intentions in French works. For
example, we took excerpts from the work of the writer
Mino Milani called "The Phantom of Love."
«- Bonjour, Monsieur!
-
Bonjour, Rita! Du nouveau ? Du nouveau ? J’aimais
cette façon, toujours la même, de commencer la
journée; arriver au bureau, voir tout de suite que tout
est en ordre, entendre Rita dit : «- Bonjour, Monsieur!»
J’aimais
cette odeur de papier, de matériel de bureau,
de machines à écrire, et ces vieilles portes bien
astiquées mais qui avaient toujours un air un peu
poussiéreux.»[8;20]
In this passage, we can find several clichés, "Bonjour"
belongs to the most common groups of speech clichés
expressing greeting in a formal way, "Monsieur" helps
the heroine to make contact with her interlocutor.
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«- Oui, bien sûr, fis-je après un silence, et avec
l’impression
de
me
comporter
bizarrement.
Evidemment, la femme de menage... Je pris la pièce, la
mis dans une petite boîte de cuir qui se trouvait sur
mon bureau : «Ah, Rita... il n’est venu personne ce
matin... ou bien hier soir, après mon départ ?».».[8;21]
In the following passage, "Oui" is used as a sign of
consent, and for the affirmation of the speaker's
thought in the sense of using self-will, it is expressed
with the help of the cliché "bien sûr", "Evidemment"
gives the concept of approval.
«- Excusez-moi, Monsieur... je ne voulais pas vous
manquer de respect... vous qui êtes mon patron...
-
Ressi, au nom du ciel !
-
Ne croyez pas que...
-
Allons ! Courage ! Expliquez-vous une bonne
fois.»[8;46]
With the help of an expression with the meaning of
apology "Excusez-moi", the speaker intercepts
initiatives in conversations and the interlocutor uses
"Allons!" ordering to induce the speaker to call.
Courage! a softer form of invocation, used for wishing
the speaker and making a request together with
"Expliquez-vous..." in the hope of mercy[9].
With the help of these examples, we see that clichés
perform the function of a kind of signals for the
participants in the dialogue, namely: - one of the
interlocutors begins (enters) into the dialogue, gives
consent, approval or approval, etc. And we understand
that these speech clichés are already ready, already
more or less frozen and are used as language bundles,
they are such a linguistic phenomenon that is
widespread in the speech of a literary and colloquial
style. And we can see these bundles in various
communicative intentions, such as greeting / request,
consent / approval, confirmation, ask / demand,
apology / request, request information, advise, offer,
object, turn to the interlocutor, express regret
(surprise), joy, abandon, etc[10].
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we can say that clichés are formulas or
ideas or images, etc., which become clichéd, after a
process of repetition and wear, are transmitted ready-
made and become common in literary and colloquial
speech. But then the initial state will influence some
element in order to become a cliché, and for us this
remains the most important answer - apart from the
process of repetition, we would not know the special
conditions that give rise to clichés - or the initial state
of formulas and images. And as a conclusion, we can
say that any formula, any image, any idea has the
potential to become a "cliche" in a simple mechanical
repetition, with the help of freezing and wear, making
it ordinary.
REFERENCES
Volume 03 Issue 02-2023
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American Journal Of Philological Sciences
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2771-2273)
VOLUME
03
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OCLC
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1121105677
Publisher:
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1.
Émile Littré, Dictionnaire de la langue française,
Chicago, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 1991, p.
966.
2.
Grand Larousse Universel, t. IV, Paris, Larousse,
1997, p. 2308.
3.
Grand Larousse Illustré 2016, Paris, Larousse,
2015, p. 260.
4.
Le Petit Robert 1990, Paris, Le Robert, p. 325
5.
Alain Rey (dir.), Dictionnaire historique de la
langue française, Paris, Le Robert, 1992, p. 777.
6.
Jean le Rond d’Alembert, « Dictionnaire » in
L’Encyclopédie, t. IV, 1ère
éd., 1751 [En ligne], p.
958-970 (nous soulignons). Disponible à
l’adresse
sui
-vante:
https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/L%E2%80%99Ency
clop % C 3 % A 9 die / 1re_% C 3 % A 9 dition /
DICTIONNAIRE (consulté le 5 octobre 2018).
7.
Riffaterre, Michael, « Fonctions du cliché dans
la prose littéraire », Cahiers de l'Association
internationale des études françaises, n° 16,
1964.
8.
Minon Milani, «Fantôme d’amour», Paris, 1977.
9.
Gourmont, Remy de, Esthétique de la langue
française [1899], Paris, Alain Baudry & Cie
éditeur, 2008.
10.
Amossy, Ruth, Les Discours du cliché, avec
ROSEN, Elisheva, Paris, SEDES-CDU, 1982. Les
Idées reçues : sémiologie du stéréotype, Paris,
Nathan, 1991. Stéréotypes et clichés : langue,
discours, société [1997], avec Herschberg-
Pierrot, Anne, Paris, Armand Colin, 2011.
L'Argumentation dans le discours : discours
politique, littérature d'idées, fiction, Paris,
Nathan, 2000.
