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Introduction . The occurrence of dialect variation in feature-length cartoons with particular dialects being used as stereotypes to characterize certain roles or status in the film has been noted by various researchers. I am interested in how this phenomenon has permeated into many genres of film and television, in particular how French versions of American cartoons are `voiced'. This means in particular how French stereotypes of French language and its social and regional dialects are used to `translate' American stereotypical voices. [ your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; ; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; In my discussion of these phenomena I shall try to demonstrate that the use of various dialects originated (as far as the American context is concerned) with Vaudeville comedy, in particular the Borscht-Belt comedians of the pre-radio era, was continued in early radio and then became crystalized in early `talkie' cartoons, pioneered by the Disney Studios. As this phenomenon spread around the world, and these movies were dubbed in different languages, indigenous traditions of stereotyping were relied upon to `translate' the foreign voice into an indigenous one, while preserving some semblance of linguistic stereotyping, albeit a local one. This tends to result in the use of regional and social stereotypes already extant in France, such as rural or rustic patois for certain purposes, or working-class dialects from urban areas such as Paris for others; the French criminal subculture with its own argot has long been known, and argot shows up in these cartoons for certain purposes beyond the criminal stereotype.

Review of the Literature This phenomenon has been noted and researched by, in particular, Jones 1947, Vassberg 1993, Picard 1993, Denis and Veltman 1989, and Vermes and Boutet 1987. I have found chapter 5 in Lippi-Green (1997) to be particularly useful, but I also find that this study overlooks and/or de-emphasizes certain elements that I wish to focus on. For notions of French stereotyping and social dialectology, I rely on the work of Vermes 1987. your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; ; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here;

[For more about the Review of Literature, and what it should entail, click here.]

My Study My study of this issue focuses on gender roles in feature-length cartoons dubbed in French and distributed in French-speaking countries between 1947 and 1987. your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; ; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; (This is the longest part of the paper and goes on for pages).your text here; Pages and pages of connected text.. . ; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; ; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; during which you make claims, test them, show evidence for them, and provide warrants for the evidence... (See Booth, Colomb and Williams for more about this.) If you do a survey about people's reactions to sounds, dialects, or whatever, this would be the place to tell us what you are going to do, or have done.

Conclusion In conclusion, [e.g. based on my survey results ]I find that the assumptions made by my principle sources are borne out in my own study in a general sort of way, but that the gender issues raised by Lippi-Green and others needed to be researched further, in particular, as it affects French notions of language and dialect. My own survey, administered to 10 French speakers of various ages, as described above, seems to suggest that French versions of the Disney cartoons rely on stereotypes associated with indigenous regional forms of language, known there as patois or idiomes such as Breton, Basque, Corsican, and Alsatian dialects/languages. Class-based differences also exist, butyour text here; your text here; ; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here; your text here;

It is clear that this is a fertile field for study, and that much more could be done in this area than I have been able to accomplish in this short project. Nevertheless, my conclusions are, I believe, warranted.

References Cited

1
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory C. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. 1995. The Craft of Research Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

2
Denis, M. N. and Veltman, Calvin. 1989. Le déclin du dialecte alsacien. Strasbourg: Association des publications près les Universités de Strasbourg.

3
Gardner-Chloros, Penelope. 1985. ``Language selection and switching among Strasbourg shoppers." International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 54:117-135.

4
Hartweg, Frédéric. 1987. ``Le dialecte Alsacien: domaines d'utilisation." In Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik. Volume 32. P.H. Nelde (ed.), Sprachkontakt und Sprachkonflikt. Pp. 75-82. Wiesbaden: Fr. STeiner Verlag. Routledge.

5
Lévy, Paul. 1929. Histoire linguistique d'Alsace et de Lorraine. Paris: Société d'Édition Les Belles Lettres.

6
Lippi-Green, Rosina. 1997. English with an Accent . New York and London:

7
Picard, Olivier. 1993. ``Maternelles bilingues: la charte est signée." Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, No. 6, January 8, 1993.

8
Jones, Mary. 1947. Les luttes linguistiques en Alsace jusqu'en 1945. Strasbourg: Culture Alsacienne.

9
Philipps, Eugène. 1978. L'Alsace face à son destin: la crise d'identité. Strasbourg: Société d'Edition de la Basse-Alsace.

10
Philipps, Eugène. 1982. Le défi Alsacien. Strasbourg: Société d'Edition de la Basse-Alsace.

11
Vassberg, Liliane M. 1993. Alsatian Acts of Identity: Language Use and Language Attitudes in Alsace. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

12
Vermes, Genevieve et Josiane Boutet (eds.) 1987. France, pays multilingue. Vols. I and II. Paris: L'Harmattan.

13
Movie Database: http://us.imdb.com/search. (but note the following source for websites, etc.!)

Summary of Survey Results:

  1. Subject A: a white female aged 22, native speaker of French, from the region of Marseilles.

  2. Subject B: a white male aged 40, native speaker of French, from Paris.

  3. Subject C: an Afro-Carribean French citizen, female, aged 31, from Martinique.

  4. Subject D: A French woman of Jewish descent, aged 25, from Lyon.

  5. Subject E: An Alsatian man, native speaker of both French and Alsatian, from Strasbourg, aged 27.

  6. Subject F: A male aged 24, of Algerian descent, born in France.

  7. Subject G: A woman aged 34, born in France, of Corsican descent.

  8. ETc.

  9. ETc.

For suggestions about how to cite things from webpages, look here


OTHER THINGS TO NOTE

  1. Use the following citation style: AuthorLastName, YEAR: pg.nos. Example: "Smith 1998:32". When multiple authors are cited, list ALL last names the first time, e.g. "LeClerc, Schmitt and Dubé 1994", then after that, "LeClerc et al. 1994" will suffice. NO FIRST NAMES UNLESS THERE ARE MULTIPLE AUTHORS WITH SAME LAST NAME, but different first names. (I understand that the MLA style does not give years; but I require it.)

  2. When you quote some person directly, i.e. cite a sentence or whatever from them, GIVE PAGE NOS.! e.g. "Smith 1998: 32".

  3. Review of Literature should be short and sweet: See the format I use in "Helpful Hints". See also the other discussions of what the Review of Literature should consist of at the bottom of that page.

  4. Set your word processor to number your pages, since the WATU requirement involves a minimum number of pages. Otherwise I have to count your pages, one by one.

  5. When you have a two- or three-line quote (citation) from an author, it is customary to indent it, rather than string it along in the body of your paper.

  6. In early drafts of your papers, it is appropriate to say "this study will address the issue of (such-and-such)" but in the final draft, you should drop the future tense, and say "This study addresses such-and-such."

  7. Never, never, NEVER use the verb 'prove' in any of your papers. You 'show, demonstrate, indicate, conclude' something; maybe even your results "seem to suggest" some result, but they never prove anything. Proof is a claim that lawyers make in court, and that mathematicians do, but in the social sciences we do not prove anything.


haroldfs@ccat.sas.upenn.edu, last modified 12/17/04