THE FRENCH LANGUAGE IN THE DIARIES OF OLGA DAVYDOVA AS A BASE FOR BILINGUAL PERSON’S LINGUISTIC PORTRAIT

Abstract

This paper is a part of a research on diaries written in French and Russian by Olga Davydova (1813-1876) which are located in the Scientific Technological Library of Novossibirsk. Amongst 20 copybooks, five are in French. They are authorized and proofed copies of originals, in which we can distinguish the author, the copyist, the checker and the corrector, using the analysis of errors and corrections in the text. In this paper we present the level of correctness in French, typical errors and transcoding markers between French and Russian, with some elements of others languages of the author. Our conclusions are that the people from O.I. Davydova’s social circle didn’t use language switching and their level of French, as also English and German, was quite high, not only because of their early learning (the so-called “gouvernante method”) but also because of lifelong learning, reading and travelling.

Keywords

• code-switching
• bilingualism
• foreign language acquisition
• speech errors
• diary
• Russian aristocracy