“Structure and Style”, a materialist approach to language

Jean-Jacques Lecercle is a linguist and specialist in the English language. He provides Composition and style An approach to linguistic theories based on concrete examples of English.

A materialist approach to language

Subtitled “An Alternative Linguistics”, Composition and style Saussure’s structural linguistics or Chomsky’s generative grammar tend to be relegated to the status of outdated theories. Its starting point is simple: no language can be considered independent of the conditions of its origin and use. For Jean-Jacques Lecercle, it is a question of relying on the material reality of a language, not relying on theories with a universal scope that cannot accept all spoken languages. As shown in the title of one of his earlier works, he is part of the Marxist tradition. A Marxist philosophy of language (PUF).

Dialectic between spoken language and taught language

His knowledge of the English language guides him in the intricacies of the principles of the language. For this he relies on Monique de Mattia-Vives’ Complete English Grammar English Grammar Lessons (Presses Universitaires de Provence), which has the advantage of reporting on English as it is practiced in all its varieties, but not as it is taught. This important corpus allows Jean-Jacques Lessergle to theorize the dialectic between theoretical language and actual language. This departure from the norm between spoken and taught language is not only found in oral or popular English; It is in the appearance of these variations that, in any language, a style is formed. Her work also draws on the language of writers such as Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters.

method and teaching, Composition and style Stimulates readers’ reflections, thanks to concrete examples, often taken from English-language texts they enjoy (re)reading.

Composition and style. An alternative linguistics, Jean-Jacques Lecircle, Paris, Editions Amsterdam, 2023, 208 pages, €18. Afterword by Monique Di Mattea-Vives.

Image: © Sylvain Lamy/Editions Amsterdam