L’activité phatique et régulatrice dans la conversation en fulfulde-funangeere : aspects interactionnels et relationnels

Abstract

Phatic and Feedback Activity in Conversation in Fulfulde-Funangeere: interactional and relational aspects

This article focuses on the collective construction of discourse through the prism of phatic and feedback activity. The empirical framework is the informal conversation in Fulfulde. The aim of the analysis is to describe the linguistic materials used by the participants to perform the roles of speaker and addressee, respectively. The analysis focuses on the processes of establishing and maintaining communicative contact on the one hand, and on the markers of the addressee's commitment on the other. The empirical data used are the result of a sociolinguistic survey carried out through non-participant observation, a questionnaire, and the recording of five conversations in Fulfulde-Funangeere in the city of Maroua, Cameroon. The study is based on the hypothesis that phatic and backchannel activities are involved in the interactional mechanisms of synchronization of exchanges, but also have relational functions. The analyses take advantage of interctionist epistemology, notably conversational analysis (Sacks et al, 1974, Traverso, 2011) and the interpersonal relationship in discourse in interaction (Goffman, 1974; Kerbrat-Orecchioni, 1992, 2005). The results of the study underline the polyfunctional character of the linguistic units mobilized by the interactants to maintain contact and mark their socio-cognitive commitment to the exchange. It also emerges that the linguistic units identified provide both interactional and relational microfunctions, confirming the basic hypothesis. In fact, the importance given to speech in the interaction forces the participants to engage emotionally, cognitively, and socially in the interaction. The interaction then becomes the place par excellence where the socio-affective stakes are played out: appearing benevolent, suitable, highlighting one's good education, showing deference and altruism, maintaining and consolidating interpersonal ties. In short, this study of the phatic and feedback activity contributes to shed light on some aspects of the conversational style of the peoples of the Sudano-Sahelian area of the Far North of Cameroon.