NAPOLEON'S ARMY: STRUCTURES OF CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION (ON THE LETTERS OF THE SOLDIERS OF THE GRANDE ARMÉE OF 1812)
On the basis of analysis of a considerable number of letters of the soldiers of Napoleon's army the author of the article comes to the conclusion about the formation of a certain argot based on French in the framework of the multinational Napoleon's military machine. The article characterizes the changes that took place in the French language in the late 18th century under the influence of revolutionary social processes: a wide use of common language, jargon words, pathetic phraseology and treating interlocutors with unwanted familiarity in the army. The democratization of language characteristic of that epoch was connected with a dramatic mix of broad popular masses. By the time of the Russian campaign the Napoleon's army for the most part consisted of non French warriors. This fact led to the spread of bilingual and even multi lingual communication: letters were written in Italian with French inclusions and in French with notes in Italian; a German officer could write a letter in French with Italian explanations. Nevertheless, in spite of considerable success in developing cross-cultural contacts the mechanism of their formation turned out to be far from ideal, directly reflecting the imperial essence of Napoleon's project of united Europe. The growing hardships of the Russian campaign evidently worsened the cross-cultural relations in Napoleon's army. An important role in this process was played by rumors and moods that reached the soldiers from their native lands. By 1813 the fall of the multinational Grande Armée was inevitable.