Re: Slang

On 8/26/2023 8:03 AM, Sh. Mandrake wrote:

Bonjour,
>
Toujours dans la série Our Man in Havana de G. Greene :
>
« I fell asleep and then I heard you moving around. » It was as though
he had been caught without his slang; he hadn't yet had time to put it
on with his clothes. »

C'est bien de l'argot (et sa façon de parler). C'est une astuce du personnage qui essaie de faire croire qu'il n'est pas celui qu'il est.

Dans cette oeuvre académique

https://www.davidcrystal.com/Files/BooksAndArticles/-4838.pdf

l'auteur parle de l'importance de langage dans les oeuvres de Graham Greene.. Il signale le fait que les gens qui parlent de l'argot sont presque toujours des malfrats.

Il écrit :

§

Two examples from "Our Man in Havana". A visitor arrives in Wormold's shop. Wormold greets him in Spanish: "Don't speak the lingo, I'm afraid," the stranger answered. The slang word was a blemish on his suit, like an egg-stain after breakfast." Slang again? We soon learn that he is a secret agent. And then, later in the novel, Hassebacher has a visitor and Wormold asks about him: "What nationaliy was this man?" "He spoke English like I do" [...] In Greene novels, if people are said to speak with an accent, they are up to no good and not who they claim to be.

§

Donc, le narrateur dit que la personne a oublié de parler comme la personne qu'elle prétendait être.