Cliquer

[Salikoko Mufwene]

At 04:54 PM 8/2/2002 -0400, James landau wrote:

>which implies that in French the verb "to click on a mouse button" is
>"cliquer".
>
>Is that a real French verb?  Or is it Franglais?
>
Whether or not it is "franglais" depends on who is the judge. I am sure
somebody at the Academie Francaise is not happy to hear/read such pollution
from English; but the average French speaker, the natural maker of the norm,
says it. In computer technology, apparently Quebec leads France with such
neologisms, though it seems that the French use "e-mail" more often than
"courriel" (innovated in Quebec).

    Your posting actually reminds me of a Quebecoise AA official (in Quebec
City) who advised us that our flight was delayed "parce qu'on doit
<<de-icer >>
l'avion." I thought she could have used the verb "degivrer" but then realized
that it would have sounded like thawing ice off the walls of a freezer. In the
case of your observation, I thought "appuyer" (or "toucher"?) would work too,
but one would have to use a finger, which is possible on some larger screens,
e.g., of games. Could these be motivated borrowings (in the sense of what de
Saussure identified as "mots motives")?

Sali.

**********************************************************
Salikoko S. Mufwene                    s-mufwene at uchicago.edu
Distinguished Service Professor
University of Chicago                  773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924
Department of Linguistics
1010 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mufwene
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