20 Evocative French Words

20 Evocative French Words 20 Evocative French Words 20 Evocative French Words By Mark Nichol English has borrowed words from other languages indiscriminately, and has done so for hundreds of years. Often, this happens even when a perfectly sound native or imported synonym already exists, but sometimes the new term gains its footing because it expresses a concept better than an existing term, or conveys a connotation or nuance no other single word or phrase does. But speakers and writers of English don’t always use the word as it is intended, leading to semantic drift. In the interests of preserving the purity of some highly evocative terms, here are twenty such words acquired from French: 1. Bà ªte noir (literally, â€Å"black beast†): someone to whom one is averse 2. Cachet (â€Å"seal†): originally, a seal or mark of approval; now, also (and primarily) used in a figurative sense meaning â€Å"prestige† (though it has additional meanings in philately, or stamp collecting) 3. Calque (â€Å"copy†): a literal translation of a word or phrase into one language from another, as in French-to-English vers libre (â€Å"free verse†) or English-to-French seconde main (â€Å"second hand†) 4. Dà ©tente (â€Å"relaxation†): an easing of political tensions; specifically, the thawing of the Cold War during the 1970s 5. Élan (â€Å"rush, impetus†): high spirit or enthusiasm 6. Ennui (â€Å"annoyance†): annoyance or boredom 7. Fà ªte (â€Å"feast, festival†): a celebration, or to celebrate 8. Haute couture (â€Å"high fashion†): High-quality custom tailoring, referring either to specific garments or to the industry; sometimes called simply couture 9. Lagniappe (from yapay, â€Å"to increase,† from the native South American language Quecha, by way of American Spanish and Louisiana French): a merchant’s small gift to a customer; in general usage, a modest bonus 10. Malaise (â€Å"discomfort†): a feeling of poor mental or physical health, or a sense of cultural unease 11. Mà ©tier (â€Å"work, ministry†): a type of work or other activity at which one excels 12. Panache (â€Å"small wing,† from Latin through Italian): flair or flamboyance 13. Parvenu (â€Å"new arrival†): an upwardly mobile newcomer to a socioeconomic class (synonym: â€Å"nouveau riche, or â€Å"newly rich†); the term is pejorative 14. Patois (â€Å"native or local speech†): a nonstandard dialect, especially the speech of uneducated or provincial speakers, or a jargon 15. Raconteur (â€Å"one who recounts†): a storyteller, or anyone skilled at relating anecdotes 16. Riposte (â€Å"retort†): originally the name of a fencer’s offensive response to an attack; now, also refers to the verbal equivalent, either spoken or written 17. Rouà © (literally, â€Å"broken on the wheel†): a hedonistic man (synonyms: libertine, rake); not to be confused with roux, a word for a flour-and-fat mixture used as a thickener 18. Sang-froid (literally, â€Å"cold blood†): self-possession under pressure 19. Savant (â€Å"one who knows,† from savoir, â€Å"to know†): a learned person, especially a specialist; also a shortening of â€Å"idiot savant,† a clinical term for a mentally disabled person with anomalous skill or ability in one area of learning, or a casual term for someone whose knowledge is almost exclusively in one subject 20. Timbre (â€Å"quality of a sound†): the particular characteristics of a musical note or other sound Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:45 Synonyms for â€Å"Food†7 Patterns of Sentence StructureUsing "May" in a Question

Illocutionary Acts in Speech-Act Theory

Illocutionary Acts in Speech-Act Theory In speech-act theory, the term illocutionary act refers to the use of a sentence  to express an attitude with a certain function or force, called an  illocutionary force, which differs from locutionary acts in that they carry a certain urgency and appeal to the meaning and direction of the speaker.   Although illocutionary acts are commonly made explicit by the use of performative verbs  like promise or request, they can often be vague as in someone saying Ill be there, wherein the audience cannot ascertain whether the speaker has made a promise or not. In addition, as Daniel R. Boisvert observes in Expressivism, Nondeclarative, and Success-Conditional Semantics that we can use sentences to warn, congratulate, complain, predict, command, apologize, inquire, explain, describe, request, bet, marry, and adjourn, to list just a few specific kinds of illocutionary act. The terms  illocutionary act  and  illocutionary force  were introduced by British linguistic philosopher John  Austin in 1962s How to Do Things With Words, and for some scholars, the term illocutionary act  is virtually synonymous with speech act. Locutionary, Illocutionary, and Perlocutionary Acts Acts of speech can be broken down into three categories: locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts. In each of these, too, the acts can either be direct or indirect, which quantify how effective they are at conveying the speakers message to its intended audience. According to Susana Nuccetelli and Gary Seays Philosophy of Language: The Central Topics, locutionary acts are the mere act of producing some linguistic sounds or marks with a certain meaning and reference, but these are the least effective means of describing the acts, merely an umbrella term for the other two which can occur simultaneously. Speech acts can therefore further be broken down into illocutionary and perlocutionary wherein the illocutionary act carries a directive for the audience, such as promising, ordering, apologizing and thanking. Perlocutionary acts, on the other hand, bring about consequences to the audiences such as saying I will not be your friend. In this instance, the impending loss of friendship is an illocutionary act while the effect of frightening the friend into compliance is a perlocutionary act. Relationship Between Speaker and Listener Because perlocutionary and illocutionary acts depend on the audiences reaction to a given speech, the relationship between speaker and listener is important to understand in the context of such acts of speech. Etsuko Oishi wrote in Apologies, that the importance of the speakers intention in performing an illocutionary act is unquestionable, but, in communication, the utterance becomes an illocutionary act only when the hearer takes the utterance as such. By this, Oishi means that although the speakers act may always be an illocutionary one, the listener can choose to not interpret that way, therefore redefining the cognitive configuration of their shared outer world. Given this observation, the old adage know your audience becomes especially relevant in understanding discourse theory, and indeed in composing a good speech or speaking well in general. In order for the illocutionary act to be effective, the speaker must use language which his or her audience will understand as intended.