Tutorials
Paper IV: History of the French Language
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Reading List: Ayres-Bennett, W. 1996. A History of the
French Language through Texts. Routledge.
London and New York. ** Ayres-Bennett, W. and J. Carruthers
with R. Temple. 2001. Studies in the Modern French Language: Problems and
Perspectives. Longman. London. Ayres-Bennett, Wendy. 2002.
"Socio-historical linguistics and the history of French". Journal
of French Language Studies. 11. 2. p 159-178. Chaurand, J.
(ed.). 1999. Nouvelle histoire de la langue française.
Paris. Seuil. Crowley, T. 1992 . An
Introduction to Historical Linguistics. Oxford University Press. Oxford. Harris, M. 1978 . The
Evolution of French Syntax. A Comparative Approach. Longman. London and
New York.** Lodge, Anthony. 1993. French
. From Dialect to Standard. Routledge.
London.** Marchello-Nizia, C.
1999. Le français en diachronie : douze siècles d'évolution. Ophrys. Gap.** Perret, M. Introduction
à l'Histoire de la langue francaise.
SEDES. Paris. Picoche, J
& C. Marchello-Nizia. 1989. Histoire de la
langue française . Nathan. Paris. Price, G. 1971 . The
French Language . Present and Past. Edward
Arnold. London.** Rickard, P. 1989. A History of the French
Language. Routledge. London. Schwegler, A. 1990 . Analyticity and Syntheticity.
A diachronic Perspective with Special Reference to Romance Languages. Mouton
de Gruyter. Berlin. New York. Trask, R. L. 1996. Historical Linguistics.
Arnold. Edward Arnold. London. Walter, H. 1988. Le français
dans tous les sens. Robert Laffont. Paris. Items marked with •• must
be read; it is advised to read at least a few of the others. |
A. Spelling
'L'écriture et
la prononciation sont, dans notre langue, deux forces constamment en lutte'. Discuss with an historical perspective as well as
references to the most recent 'rectifications' of 1990 (which was re-discussed
in Spring 2016).
References:
'Rectifications 1990' See website: http://www.academie-francaise.fr/sites/academie-francaise.fr/files/rectifications_1990.pdf
Arrivé, M. 1993. Réformer l'orthographe? Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Blanche-Benveniste, C. and A. Chervel.
1969. L'Orthographe. Maspero. Paris.
Catach, N. 1993. 'Reform
of the Writing System'. In Sanders, C. (ed.) 1993.
French Today: Language in its Social Contex. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. pp 139-54.
Catach, N. 1991. L'Orthographe en débat. Nathan. Paris.
Catach, N. 1978. L'orthographe.
PUF (Que Sais-je?). Paris. 6th
edition revised : 1995.
Cerquiglini,
B. Le Roman de l'Orthographe: Au paradis des mots avant la faute. Minuit. Paris.
Cerquiglini, B. 1995. L'accent du souvenir.
Minuit. Paris.
Desirat & Horde. La langue française au vingtième siecle (Chapter 7).
Goosse, A. 1991. La 'nouvelle' orthographe. Exposés et commentaires. Duculot. Paris et Louvain-la-Neuve.
Martinet, A. 1969.
Le français sans fard. PUF. Paris. (Chapter 5).
Masson, M.1991. L'orthographe : guide pratique de la réforme. Paris. Le
Seuil.
Picoche, J & C. Marchello-Nizia.
1989. Histoire de la langue française . Nathan. Paris. chapt.
VII. (Recommended).
Rey-Debove, Josette et Béatrice
Le Beau-Beusa. 1991. La réforme
de l'orthographe au banc d'essai
du Robert. Dictionnaire Le Robert. Paris.
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B. Lexicon
Essay: 'The methods used to create new words are no different
today from these used in the Middle Ages.' Discuss.
References:
Ayres-Bennett, W. and J. Carruthers with R. Temple.
2001. Studies in the Modern French Language: Problems and Perspectives.
Longman. London. Chapter 12.
Chaurand,
J. Introduction à l'histoire du vocabulaire français (1977)
Hagège, C. 1987. Le Français et les siècles. Jacob.
Paris.
Mitterand,
H. 1963. Les Mots français.PUF (que
sais-je). Paris.
Picoche, J & C. Marchello-Nizia.
1989. Histoire de la langue française . Nathan. Paris. chap. 10,
"Le lexique", pp. 321-365 (recommended)
Wise, H. 1997. The Vocabulary of Modern
French: Origins, Structure and Function. Routledge.
London-New York:
For fun reading, check out all the books by Henriette Walter (they have been translated in English).
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C. Word Order
Discuss (keeping in mind the structure of written and
spoken French):
Until the 12th-c, the general structure of the
sentence was 'communicative' (in French 'informationnelle',
see Marchello-Nizia 1999, p 47), i.e. of the type 'topic-comment'.
From the 13th-c. onwards,
the structure evolved towards a 'syntactic structure', where the word order was
determined by grammatical functions.
References:
Ashby, W. J. 1988.
'The Syntax, Pragmatics, and Sociolinguistics of Left- and Right-Dislocations
in French'. Lingua. 75, p 203-29.
Ayres-Bennett, W. and J. Carruthers with R. Temple.
2001. Studies in the Modern French Language: Problems and Perspectives.
Longman. London. Chapter 9.
Buridant,
Claude. 2000. Grammaire nouvelle de l'ancien français. Sedes. Paris. "L’ordre des constituants" (chap. 29, p 741-756)
Harris, M. 1985 'Word Order in Contemporary French:A Functional View', Working
Papers in Fonctional Gramar,
1:1-16.
Harris, M. 1978 . The Evolution of French Syntax. A
Comparative Approach.
Longman. London and New York. chap. 2.
Jones, M.A. 1996. Foundations
of French Syntax, Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
Lambrecht,
K. 1987. 'On the Status of SVO Sentences in French Discourse', in Tomlin, R.S.
(ed.). Coherence and Grounding in Discourse: Typological Studies in
Language, Amsterdam: Benjamins, vol II. p. 217-61.
Lambrecht,
Knud. 1984. 'A pragmatic constraint on lexical
subjects in spoken French.' Papers from the regional
meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society. 20:239-56.
Lambrecht,
Knud. 1981. Topic, antitopic,
and verb agreement in non-standard French. Amsterdam :
Philadelphia, Pa : J. Benjamins.
Marchello-Nizia, C. 1999. Le français en diachronie : douze siècles d'évolution. Ophrys. Gap. p 35-59. (Recommended)
Marchello-Nizia,
C. 1995 . L'Evolution
du français . Ordre des mots. démonstratifs.
accent tonique. Armand
Colin. Paris. Chapters 2 and 3 (More difficult than Marchello-Nizia 1999).
Price, G. 1971 . The
French Language . Present and Past. Edward Arnold. London. chap 20.
Travaux
de Linguistique 14/15. 1987.
Langue française 111.
1996.
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D. The Old French Case System
'The Disappearance of the declension system imposed on the
French language a rigidity from which it is only now beginning to free itself.'
Discuss (making sure that you know how the Old French Case system operated, how
it disappeared and what its relationship to word order was).
References:
Anglade,
J. 1965. Grammaire élémentaire de l’ancien
français. A. Colin. Paris. pp 75-85.
Buridant,
Claude. 2000. Grammaire nouvelle de l'ancien français. Sedes. Paris. Le substantif
(includes declension), p 59-104
Einhorn, E. 1974. Old French : A concise handbook. CUP. Cambridge. pp. 14-19
Foulet, L. Petite syntaxe de l’ancien français.
Champion. Paris. pp. 3-44.
Harris, M. 1978.
The Evolution of French Syntax. A Comparative Approach. Longman. London and New York. chap. 1-3.
Marchello-Nizia, C. 1999. Le français en diachronie : douze siècles d'évolution. Ophrys. Gap. pp 35-59.
Marchello-Nizia,
C. 1995 . L'Evolution
du français . Ordre des mots. démonstratifs.
accent tonique. Armand
Colin. Paris. Chapters 2 and 3 (More difficult than Marchello-Nizia 1999).
Price, G. 1971 . The
French Language . Present and Past. Edward Arnold. London. chap 20.
Schøsler, Lene. 2013. ‘The
Development of the Declension System’. In Deborah Arteaga
(ed.) Research on Old French: The State of the Art. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 167-186.
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E. Pronouns
Classical Latin
Librum
lego. (Book / I read) I read the book.
Quis librum legit?
(Who/ book/ reads?) Who does read the book?
- Ego librum lego. - I / book / I read) - It is I who read the book.
Old French
Et qui i sera ? - Jo.
Translation: Et qui y
sera? - Moi
Old French (11th-c. St. Alexis)
'Or sui jo vedve, sire' dist la pulcela,
'Jamais ledece n'avrai,
...
Translation: 'Maintenant
je suis veuve, sire, dit la jeune fille
/ Jamais je n'aurai de joie, ...
Old French (11th-c, Song of
Roland)
Jo ne vos pois tenser ne garir
Translation: Je ne peux
vous défendre ou vous sauver.
Modern Spoken French
Moi
je sais pas où il est Bernard.
On the base of the above examples, describe how the difference
between Modern French "je" and "moi"
was expressed in Latin, how it was expressed in Old French and how (and why) it
evolved to the final example in Modern Spoken French. While answering this
question, pay attention to the distinction between stressed and unstressed
pronouns, conjunctive and disjunctive pronouns.
References:
Harris, M. 1978.
The Evolution of French Syntax. A Comparative Approach.
London and New York: Longman. chap. 5
Buridant,
Claude. 2000. Grammaire nouvelle de l'ancien français. Sedes. Paris. "Le pronom personnel", chapter 11. p 407-469.
Lambrecht,
Knud. 1981. Topic, antitopic,
and verb agreement in non-standard French. Amsterdam :
Philadelphia, Pa : J. Benjamins. Chapter 2.
Price, G. 1971 . The
French Language . Present and Past. Edward Arnold. London. 11.1 -
11.6
Schwegler,
A. 1990 . Analyticity and Syntheticity. A diachronic
Perspective with Special Reference to Romance Languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Chap. 4
Michael
Zimmermann, 2014. Expletive
and referential pronouns in Medieval French. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. (available online
via Solo)
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F. Negation
Describe the chronology of the loss of ne from Latin to
Contemporary French and the explanations that have been given for this change.
Pay attention to the type of data used by linguists for their specific
theories.
References:
Armstrong, Nigel &
Alan Smith. 2002. "The influence
of linguistic and social factors on the recent decline of French ne".
Journal of French Language Studies. 12.1. (available online via Solo)
Ashby, W.J. 2001. "Un nouveau regard sur la chute du ne en français
parlé tourangeau: s'agit-il d'un changement en cours?". Journal
of French Language Studies. 11:1-22. (available online via Solo)Recommended
Ashby, W.J. 1991. 'When Does
Variation Indicate Linguistic Change in Progress', Journal of French
Language Studies. 1:1-19. (available online via Solo)
Ashby, W.J. 1981. 'The Loss of the Negative
Particle ne in French: A Syntactic Change in Progress', Language.
57:674-87.
Ashby, W.J. 1976. 'The Loss
of the Negative Morpheme, ne in Parisian French', Lingua 39:119-37.
Ayres-Bennett, W. and J. Carruthers with R. Temple.
2001. Studies in the Modern French Language: Problems and Perspectives.
Longman. London. Chapter 11 Recommended
Ayres-Bennett, W. 1994.
'Negative Evidence: Or Another Look at the Non-Use of Negative ne in
Seventeenth-Century French', French Studies. 48:63-85. Recommended
Buridant,
Claude. 2000. Grammaire nouvelle de l'ancien français. Sedes. Paris. "La négation",
p 699-724.
Coveney, A. 1998. 'Awareness
of Linguistic Constraints on Variable ne Omission', Journal of French
Language Studies. 8:159-87. (available online via Solo)
Coveney, A. 1996. Variability in Spoken
French: A Sociolinguistic Study of interrogation and Negation. Elm Bank.
Exeter.
Gregory, S. 1997. 'Negative particles in
French prose id the twelfth century'. In Gregory, S. & D.
A. Trotter (eds). De mot
en mot, Aspects of medieval Linguistics. Essays
in honour of William Rothwell. University of Wales Press.
Cardiff. pp 37-51.
Larrivée, Pierre and
Richard Ingham (eds). 2011. The Evolution of
Negation: Beyond the Jespersen Cycle. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. (available online via solo)
Mosegaard Hansen, Maj-Britt and Jacqueline Visconti (eds). 2014. The Diachrony of
Negation. (Studies in Language Companion Series, 160.) Amsterdam:
John Benjamins. 258 pp.
Pohl, J. 1968. 'Ne dans
le français parlé contemporain: les modalités de
son abandon', in Quilis, A. (ed).
Actas del XI Congreso
Internacional de Linguistica
y filologia románicas,
vol. 3, Madrid: n.p.,
pp.1343-58.
Pohl, J. 1975. 'L'Omission de ne dans le français contemporain', Le Français dans le monde
111:17-23.
Price, G. 1971 . The
French Language . Present and Past. Edward Arnold. London
Price, G. 1997. 'Negative
particles in French'. In Gregory, S. & D. A.
Trotter (eds). De mot en
mot, Aspects of medieval Linguistics. Essays in
honour of William Rothwell. University of Wales Press.
Cardiff. pp 173-90
Willis, David W. E. ;
Lucas, Christopher and Anne Breitbarth (eds.) 2013. The History of Negation in the
Languages of Europe and the Mediterranean. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
(available online via solo)
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G. Notions of "Analogy", "Simplification", "Reinforcement
Define and illustrate the notions of simplification, analogy and
reinforcement with examples taken from the history of French syntax and
morphology.
References:
Harris, M. 1978 . The Evolution of French Syntax. A
Comparative Approach. Longman.
London and New York. chap. 1 + description of the
evolution of negation.
Trask, R. L. 1996.
Historical Linguistics. Arnold. Edward Arnold. London. pp 102-159.
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H. Past Tenses: Passé Simple - Passé Composé
Classical Latin
Librum
legisti.
(book/ you have read)
You have read a/the book.
In ea provincia pecunias magnas collocatas habent
(In that province / huge sums invested / they
have)
They have huge sums invested in that province.
Late latin
Promissum habeo nihil
sine eius consilio agere.
(Promised I have / nothing/ without of him
advice / to do)
I have promised to do nothing without taking
his advice.
Old French (12th-c)
A sa
meson va li portiers;
L'enfant
aporte volentiers,
Si l'a a la dame mostré;
Et ele l'a molt esgardé
Et dit que norrir le fera.
Translation: Le portier
va dans sa
maison./ Il apporte volontiers l'enfant./ Il l'a montré à la dame/ Et elle l'a beaucoup regardé / Et dit qu'elle le fera élever.
Etcherelli,
Elise ou la vraie vie
En redescendant vers les Ternes, il me dit
"Tu as froid", et
nous entrâmes dans un établissement où la terrasse était chauffée. Mais il préféra
l'intérieur, choisit deux places et commanda deux thés.
On the base of the above examples, trace the evolution of the
aspectual meaning of passé composé from Old
French to Modern French and show its position with regard to present indicative
on one hand and passé simple on the other hand. While answering this
question, pay attention to the following subquestions:
1) Do tenses carry other values than temporality and if so,
which ones?
2) What do these examples tell us about the formation of the passé
composé from Latin to Modern French?
3) How do the Modern French passé composé
verbs differ from the corresponding verbs in Old French?
4) If you transpose the Etcherelli's
excerpt in passé composé, how does it affect
the meaning of the text?
References:
Ayres-Bennett, W. and J. Carruthers with R. Temple.
2001. Studies in the Modern French Language: Problems and Perspectives.
Longman. London. Chapters 5 & 6.
Buridant,
Claude. 2000. Grammaire nouvelle de l'ancien français. Sedes. Paris. "Les temps grammaticaux",
p 361-385
Fleischman, S. 1990.Tense and Narrativity .
From Medieval Performance to Modern Fiction. University of
Texas Press. Austin.
Harris, M. 1978 . The Evolution of French Syntax. A
Comparative Approach.
Longman. London and New York. chap. 6
Price, G. 1971 . The
French Language . Present and Past. Edward Arnold. London. 13.1 13.6, 15.3, 15.5, 17.1 17.7, 18.2
Schwegler,
A. 1990 . Analyticity and Syntheticity. A diachronic
Perspective with Special Reference to Romance Languages. Mouton de Gruyter. Berlin. New York. Chap. 5
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I. Mood and Modality: Subjunctive
Compare and contrast the use of the subjunctive in Old French
and Modern French. (make sure to explain the concepts
of mood and modality).
References:
Ayres-Bennett, W. and J. Carruthers with R. Temple.
2001. Studies in the Modern French Language: Problems and Perspectives.
Longman. London. Chapter 7.
Cohen, M. 1965.
Le subjonctif en français
contemporain . Société d'édition de l'enseignement
supérieur. Paris.
Foulet,
Lucien. 1970. Petite syntaxe de l'ancien français. Paris.
Champion. pp. 203-15.
Harris, M. 1978.
The Evolution of French Syntax. A Comparative Approach.
Longman. London and New York. chapt.
7.
Imbs,
P. 1953. Le subjonctif en français moderne.
Strasbourg.
Laurier, M. 1989.
'Le Subjonctif dans le parler franco-ontarien: un mode
en voie de disparition?', in Mougeon, R. and E. Beniak (eds). Le Français canadien parlé hors du Québec: Aperçu sociolinguistique, Quebec: Presses de l'Université Laval, pp. 105-26.
Poplack, S. (1992). 'The Inherent Variability
of the French Subjunctive', in Laeufer, C. and T.A.
Morgan (eds). Theoretical Analyses in Romance
Linguistics: Selected Papers from the Nineteenth Linguistic Symposium on
Romance Languages (LSRL XIX), 21-23 April 1989, The Ohio State University,
Amsterdam-Philadelphia: Benjamins, pp.235-63.
(Photocopies available with Dr. Marnette).
Price, G. 1971 . The
French Language . Present and Past. Edward Arnold. London.chapter 18, pp 241-251
Sand, J.U. (1983). 'Le Subjonctif
en français oral', in Spore, J. and others (eds). Actes du VIIIe congrès des romanistes scandinaves, 17-21
August 1981, Odense, Odense: Odense University Press, pp.303-13.
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J. Sound Changes
Define and illustrate the following processes from the history
of French: assimilation, nasalisation, palatalisation,
diphtongisation.
References:
Ayres-Bennett, W. 1996.
A History of the French Language through Texts.
Routledge. London and New York.
Perret, M. Introduction à l'Histoire de
la langue française.
SEDES. Paris. pp 180-184
Picoche & Marchello-Nizia.
1989. Histoire de la langue française . Nathan. Paris.
Price, G. 1971 . The
French Language . Present and Past. Edward Arnold. London.
M.K. Pope. 1934. From Latin to Modern
French with especial consideration of Anglo-Norman Phonology and Morphology.
Manchester University Press. Manchester.
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K. Text Commentary
Texts will be provided directly by Dr.
Marnette. Click here
to know what a linguistic commentary is.
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This page was last updated on 1 April 2016.