Socialisation écrite et rédaction épistolaire de scripteurs moins expérimentés – lettres des soldats de la Grande Guerre

Abstract

Just recently, documents written by less skilled writers constitute an object of investigation in linguistics of different philologies. This contribution valorizes private letters as testimonies from writers of varying social status, as opposed to the elite, and furthermore describes the process and the context of their production. In this perspective, it is important to distinguish the process of acquisition of the written language and the complex cognitive and social process of writing. Dealing with private correspondence of writers with less experience, we focus on circumstances of the writing production in a familial and individual context. We investigate different influences on these texts: the writers’ specific writing socialization, an interrupted process of written language acquisition, specificities of colloquial everyday language as well as a lack of epistolary and writing experience. In order to realize the different writing tasks and to evoke intimacy, less-skilled writers acquire an inventory of creative tricks by following oral representations, by imitating strategies from the immediate communication and by using different linguistic and discursive routines.