Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

4-30-2025

Abstract

The French pronoun « on » presents a unique political case study. According to the French Academy, the pronoun, though limited to the subject position of a sentence, has potential usage to refer to any person or group of people. In everyday usage, the pronoun simply replace the French 'we' equivalent (nous). However, on does not limit itself to just the aforementioned use—instead, it can (and has been) used to replace any personal pronouns (I-je, you-tu, you-vous, il-he/it, elle-she/it, ils/elles–they [gendered accordingly]), and even certain undefined/indefinite ones (like someone, anyone, one, etc.). On is a good discussion point about the concept of imperceptibility (particularly in speech)—when taken at face value, referring to those whose attention is usually deemed "not received", those which are usually not detected and mentioned, those which may not take a recognisable form. What is there to learn from the usage of this problematic pronoun? What does it mean to be called on in this imperceptible state? What sorts of spaces are created when invoking this pronoun, usually in comparison to its most common "cousin", « nous »? How to apply the lesson learned here towards a pedagogy of imperceptibility? Considering the usages of « on » through examination of maxims and word choices by Tevanian and Stevens (2022) or Hochmann (2025) and a case of France's Minister of Higher Education Frédérique Vidal, in contrast with the non-usage of activists of the Collage Féminicides movement (2021) and the Parti des Indigènes de la République (2005), the research aims to emphasise the importance of approaching and utilising imperceptibility in a world that is going towards perception and opposing division (usually binary in nature).

Comments

Completed as part of an Off-Campus Study Master-level Gender Studies course at Université Paris 8, with Professor Marie-Dominique Garnier.

Presented at the Global Language Research Symposium, 2024-2025

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