Sitting on the terrace of cafes, the French like to exchange beautiful words. But, sometimes, a short interaction is enough to break the enchanted parenthesis. "Can I get the bill?" the client asks the server. Answer: "Of course!" Even worse: "No worries! " It is a fact, the "yes" seems to be disappearing. But why on earth abandon this adverb whose role is to express the acceptance of a positive statement or a state of affairs?
To discover
- Crosswords, arrow words, 7 letters... Free to play anywhere, anytime with the Le Figaro Games app
Anyone who pays a little attention to the expression of his neighbor will have noticed that, for several years now, the word "yes" has been replaced by adverbial phrases such as "quite", "indeed", "exactly", "perfectly", or "absolutely". "Was it you who phoned me yesterday? - Absolutely." Probably believing that these formulas give more weight to their answer, as analyzed by the Académie française, people tend to use them excessively.
The elision in question
For the lexicologist and historian of the French language Jean Pruvost, the phenomenon seems to be linked to the laconicism of the expression of the little word of three letters from the old French "oïl". "It's customary that you rarely settle for a simple 'yes'," he explains. Used alone, it is a quick response, not very explicit, whereas it usually introduces a confirmation or a precision that allows it to be modulated ("yes, certainly", "yes, certainly", "yes, indisputably", etc.). ." And this, from the sixteenth century, we read in the Treasury of the French language. Since then, "yes" can be associated with an adverb or interjection manifesting the degree of conviction or sentiment of the speaker. However, the elision of the phrase at the expense of the adverb is unprecedented.
Read also"Big", "black"... How did these words become "offensive"?
What exactly is the "yes" vote that it is so despised? In order to answer this question, let us look at its values in literature, as a receptacle of the zeitgeist. As Frédérique Toudoire-Surlapierre, professor of literature at the Sorbonne and author of the essay Oui/Non (Les Éditions de Minuit), explains, "the term has its letters of nobility. On the one hand it is perceived as a liberating projection, on the other it functions as an 'endgame', suggesting acceptance or consent." Let us quote the frank and happy "yes" of marriage, for example. The one opposed by today's "that's it". A phrase supposed to allow the one who uses it to approve without showing an overflowing enthusiasm.
The ambivalence of the "yes" vote
Under its air of a simple and smooth word, the "yes" seems to have reinvested certain values of the "no" - symbol of refusal and contestation - since it became politicized. "Recent writings on 'consent' have given food for thought on the ambivalence of the 'yes' vote, which also has its share of intransigence and radicalism," continues the academic. Also, everything happens as if it was necessary to de-dramatize the yes, to make it less radical and definitive. And that it takes up other nuances, starting with that of a consensual joviality."
Recent writings on "consent" have given food for thought on the ambivalence of the "yes" vote, which also has its share of intransigence and radicalism.
Frederique Toudoire-Surlapierre
It is probably from this "consensual joviality" that synonymous expressions such as "absolutely", "exactly" or "completely", have replaced the "yes". Similarly, some terms close to onomatopoeia, such as "yes" and "yep", sometimes replace it. What if it simply resulted from the increasing euphemization of language, the attenuated expression of things? A cat can no longer be called a spade, the "yes" is no longer self-evident.