Aspects sociolinguistiques du langage du tango

Abstract

In cases where there have been few or no sociological field surveys or studies conducted on a particular language phenomenon, it is often studied through literature. Tango songs are one of the sources of choice for the study of lunfardo (an Argentine argot). The fact that a maximum emotive effectiveness is concentrated in just a few verses, giving the words quite specific and enduring semantic and symbolic values, presents a significant advantage for the study of this working-class argot, which is otherwise highly unstable and subject to change. Studying poetic texts also offers the possibility of observing changes in lexico-thematic configurations, frequency of lexical items and lexical redundancy and stability over the decades. However, the language of tango songs in no way constitutes genuine spontaneous expression. The songs present aspects of a stylised orality that is used as a tool in poetic resources with particularly rich emotional effects. The researcher, and indeed the listener, must therefore not try to decipher subtle information supposedly relating to ‘real’ speakers or give in to the temptation of seeing language as a ‘mirror’ of society. These linguistic phenomena should be seen purely as representations within the complex plurisemiotic system that is song. Drawing on some examples of tango songs, we will examine these questions, taking into account the circumstances of the act of utterance – a sung performance – and the reception of the oral message.

Keywords

• tango
• lunfardo
• argot
• Argentina
• sociolinguistics