La ville de Lubumbashi connaît une situation complexe caractérisée par la coexistence de nombreuses langues qui se partagent le marché linguistique : les langues ethniques à vocation identitaire et d’usage limité, les langues nationales à fonction véhiculaire et le français langue officielle parlée par une partie réduite des citadins. Dans un contexte de plurilinguisme, il est intéressant de connaître la valeur de chaque langue auprès de ses locuteurs. Sur le terrain on observe une opposition entre locuteurs non francophones et francophones et parmi ces derniers entre locuteurs scolarisés et locuteurs ayant appris le français « sur le tas ». Dans un contexte de « diglossie », les langues donnent lieu à des représentations contrastées qui interfèrent sur leur pratique effective. Notre recherche vise à décrire à la fois les usages et les attitudes linguistiques qui leur sont corrélées. Pour ce faire, nous sollicitons divers modèles, à la fois le modèle labovien adapté à l’environnement urbain pour évaluer quantitativement le degré de sécurité /insécurité linguistique, et celui du variationnisme développant des analyses plus qualitatives. Du point de vue de la méthodologie de l'enquête, notre population d'enquête a été construite à partir de différentes variables ou de traits classificatoires. La technique du questionnaire (questions ouvertes et questions fermées) a invité les élèves à livrer leurs pratiques et leurs représentations linguistiques. Les entretiens de type semi-dirigés sont des dispositifs que nous utilisons auprès des enquêtés adultes afin d'accéder à leurs représentations linguistiques. / The town of Lubumbashi lives a complex situation characterized by the coexistence of numerous languages sharing the same linguistic market: the ethnic language with the identity vocation and with limited usage, national language with a vehicular function and the official French language spoken by a reduced number of city-dwellers. In the context of multilinguism, it is interesting to know the value of each language beside its speakers. In the field we observe an opposition between the speakers and non-French-speakers and French- speakers, and among the latter between educated speakers and speakers having learnt French “on the Job training”. In a context of “diglossy,” the languages generate the contrasted representations which interfere practically on their effective practice. Our research aims at describing at the same time the usages and the linguistic attitudes which are correlated with them. Therefore, we require diverse models, at the same time the model labovien adapted to the urban environment to evaluate quantitatively the degree of linguistic security/insecurity, and the one of variationism developing more quantitative analyses. Concerning the methodology of investigation, our sample population has been constituted from different variables or classificatory features. The technique of the questionnaire (opened and closed questions) has invited pupils to provide their practice and their linguistic representations. The conversations of the type semi-conducted are the dispositive that we use towards the investigations of adults in order to get their linguistic representations.

Children everywhere learn to tell stories. One important aspect of story telling is the way characters are introduced and then moved through the story. Telling a story to a naïve listener places varied demands on a speaker. As the story plot develops, the speaker must set and re-set these parameters for referring to characters, as well as the temporal and spatial parameters of the story. To these cognitive and linguistic tasks is the added social and pragmatic task of monitoring the knowledge and attention states of their listener. The speaker must ensure that the listener can identify the characters, and so must anticipate their listener’s knowledge and on-going mental image of the story. How speakers do this depends on cultural conventions and on the resources of the language(s) they speak. For the child speaker the development narrative competence involves an integration, on-line, of a number of skills, some of which are not fully established until the later childhood years. / The study in this thesis investigates the development of reference tracking in a complex and dynamic language setting. It investigates the language and language development of Warumungu children. The Warumungu central are Indigenous Australians, whose traditional country is in northern Central Australia. Most Warumungu live today in the township of Tennant Creek. Younger people no longer develop full active proficiency in their heritage language, Warumungu, but speak a contact language, Wumpurrarni English as a first language. This contact variety is characterised by substantial variability. In addition to Warumungu and Wumpurrarni English, children learn Standard Australian English, as this is the sole language of instruction in school. / The study describes properties of Wumpurrarni English, in particular nominal expressions, used for tracking reference. These are contrasted with descriptions of the most documented and neighbouring creole variety, Roper River Kriol, and with Standard Australian English. It is demonstrated that in Wumpurrarni English, the marking of new versus given referents on the noun phrase is not obligatory. However a number of structures, such as left dislocation and emphatic subject chaining are used to mark discourse prominence. Repetition of topics, clauses and elements of clauses are stylistic features of a ‘good story’ in Wumpurrarni English. / The study investigates the ways that Warumungu children of different ages introduce, maintain and switch reference, and how, across stretches of their narrations, strategies for managing reference are used. These investigations reveal developmental differences across the age groups in the study, which resonate with studies of children’s narrative competence in other languages, illustrating general cognitive and linguistic development. In addition, some children chose to narrate in a speech style more English-like than they normally use. This set of narrations reveals interesting findings about differences between Wumpurrarni English and Standard English, children’s perceptions of these differences, and insights into the additional cognitive load that speaking in ‘English’ represents.

Children everywhere learn to tell stories. One important aspect of story telling is the way characters are introduced and then moved through the story. Telling a story to a naïve listener places varied demands on a speaker. As the story plot develops, the speaker must set and re-set these parameters for referring to characters, as well as the temporal and spatial parameters of the story. To these cognitive and linguistic tasks is the added social and pragmatic task of monitoring the knowledge and attention states of their listener. The speaker must ensure that the listener can identify the characters, and so must anticipate their listener’s knowledge and on-going mental image of the story. How speakers do this depends on cultural conventions and on the resources of the language(s) they speak. For the child speaker the development narrative competence involves an integration, on-line, of a number of skills, some of which are not fully established until the later childhood years. / The study in this thesis investigates the development of reference tracking in a complex and dynamic language setting. It investigates the language and language development of Warumungu children. The Warumungu central are Indigenous Australians, whose traditional country is in northern Central Australia. Most Warumungu live today in the township of Tennant Creek. Younger people no longer develop full active proficiency in their heritage language, Warumungu, but speak a contact language, Wumpurrarni English as a first language. This contact variety is characterised by substantial variability. In addition to Warumungu and Wumpurrarni English, children learn Standard Australian English, as this is the sole language of instruction in school. / The study describes properties of Wumpurrarni English, in particular nominal expressions, used for tracking reference. These are contrasted with descriptions of the most documented and neighbouring creole variety, Roper River Kriol, and with Standard Australian English. It is demonstrated that in Wumpurrarni English, the marking of new versus given referents on the noun phrase is not obligatory. However a number of structures, such as left dislocation and emphatic subject chaining are used to mark discourse prominence. Repetition of topics, clauses and elements of clauses are stylistic features of a ‘good story’ in Wumpurrarni English. / The study investigates the ways that Warumungu children of different ages introduce, maintain and switch reference, and how, across stretches of their narrations, strategies for managing reference are used. These investigations reveal developmental differences across the age groups in the study, which resonate with studies of children’s narrative competence in other languages, illustrating general cognitive and linguistic development. In addition, some children chose to narrate in a speech style more English-like than they normally use. This set of narrations reveals interesting findings about differences between Wumpurrarni English and Standard English, children’s perceptions of these differences, and insights into the additional cognitive load that speaking in ‘English’ represents.

Cette thèse de doctorat a pour objectif de décrire la situation actuelle de la langue iaai (langue océanienne, famille austronésienne) et de proposer une analyse de ses dynamismes d’évolution. En tant que langue kanak minoritaire de Nouvelle-Calédonie, inscrite dans un contexte de contact de langues intense avec le français, le iaai connait des changements importants tant linguistiques que sociolinguistiques. Cette thèse adopte un angle d’approche à la fois double et complémentaire. D’une part, il est question de proposer une évaluation de la vitalité sociolinguistique du iaai aujourd’hui en croisant différents facteurs relevant du contexte social et ethnolinguistique dont la variété des profils de locuteurs typiques des langues en danger. D’autre part, l’analyse porte sur les évolutions au sein même du fonctionnement du iaai en abordant trois thèmes particulièrement intéressants de cette langue : (i) les changements dans le système des classificateurs possessifs ; (ii) les stratégies de néologie et de modernisation du lexique ; (iii) le cas particulier des emprunts de verbes. L’étude de ces changements s’appuie les travaux de description du iaai de la linguiste Françoise Ozanne-Rivierre (1976, 1984) auxquels sont comparés des données modernes collectées lors de trois enquêtes de terrain menées à Ouvéa depuis 2009, ainsi que grâce à une collaboration soutenue avec une informatrice, locutrice native, à Lyon. Au final, ce travail de recherche met en exergue l’entrelacement de différentes dynamiques entre modernisation, obsolescence et résilience linguistique en iaai. / This PhD thesis describes the current situation of Iaai (an Oceanic language from the Austronesian family) and provides an analysis of its dynamics. As a minority Kanak language of New Caledonia, engaged in a process of intense contact with French, Iaai is experiencing significant changes both on a linguistic and sociolinguistic aspect. This thesis adopts an approach that is both dual and complementary. On the one hand, it offers an evaluation of modern Iaai’s sociolinguistic vitality, crossing different factors from the social and ethno-linguistic context together with the high variety of speakers, typical of endangered languages. On the other hand, the analysis focuses on language change by addressing three particularly interesting themes in Iaai: (i) evolution in the system of possessive classifiers; (ii) strategies of neology and of modernization of the lexicon; (iii) the particular case of verbal borrowings. The study of these changes is based on the linguistic description of Iaai made by Françoise Ozanne-Rivierre (1976, 1984) which is compared with modern data collected during three fieldworks conducted in Ouvea since 2009, as well as through sustained collaboration with a native speaker informant in Lyon. Finally, this research highlights the intertwining of different dynamics in Iaai between modernization, obsolescence and linguistic resilience.