André Goosse

Who is André Goosse?

André Goosse is a Belgian grammarian born in 1926. The son-in-law of Maurice Grevisse, he took over editing and updating Grevisse's last book, Le Bon Usage. In 1988, he married the Belgian writer France Bastia. Professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain, he is also the president of the Conseil international de la langue française.

His earliest research was carried out on the work of the 14th century writer from Liège, Jean d'Outremeuse. His work, carried out under the direction of Omer Jodogne, turned into a thesis which he defended in 1959, which was published in 1965.

Notable among his publications is a work exposing and commenting on the Les rectifications de l'orthographe, which was a report published on the 6th of December 1990 in the Journal officiel de la République française. Goosse's book, trying to make the debate less personal, was titled La « nouvelle » orthographe, Exposé et commentaires, published by Ed.Duculot in 1991. ISBN 2-8011-0976-2. The topic, according to Goosse, was less of a "reform" than of "developments" aimed at eliminating certain "anomalies et absurdities" as well as "contradictions existing among dictionaries".