Text Box: Dr Sophie Marnette, Balliol College
Sophie.marnette@balliol.ox.ac.uk

 

 

Tutorials Paper V: Modern French  

 

Description of Paper V

What to Do for your Tutorials

Reading list:

Ayres-Bennett, W. and J. Carruthers with R. Temple. 2001. Studies in the Modern French Language: Problems and Perspectives. Longman. London.**

Ager, Dennis. 1990. Sociolinguistics and Contemporary French. CUP. Cambridge.

Battye, Adrian; Hintze, Marie-Anne & Rowlett, Paul. 2000. The French Language Today. Routledge. London. (second edition).**

Harris, Martin. 'French', in Harris, Martin & Vincent, Nigel (eds.). 1997. The Romance Languages . Routledge. London. [Reprint]. chapter 6, pp. 209-245.**

Jones, Michael Allan. 1996. Foundations of French Syntax. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.

Lodge, R. Anthony et al. 1997. Exploring the French Language. Arnold. London.**

Sanders, Carol (ed.). 1993. French Today: language in its social context. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.

Tranel, Bernard. 1987. The Sounds of French: an introduction. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.**

Wise, Hilary. 1997. The Vocabulary of Modern French: origins, structure and function. Routledge. London.

Items marked with •• must be read; it is advised to read at least a few of the others.

 

A. Past Tenses

The relationship between the past tenses of French is not determined purely semantically; questions of style and discourse structure play a major role. Discuss.

References:

Ayres-Bennett and others. 2001. Chapters 5 & 6

Benveniste, E. 1966. Problèmes de linguistique générale, Paris: Gallimard. (see chapters on tenses)

Borillo, Vetters and Vuillaume (eds) 1998. Variation sur la référence verbale, Amsterdam-Atlanta: Rodopi.

Bres, J. 1997. 'Habiter le temps: le couple imparfait/ passé simple en français', Langages, 127:77-95.

Engel, D. M. 1990. Tense and Text: A Study of French Past Tenses, London: Routledge.

Fleischman, S. 1990. Tense and Narrativity: From Medieval Performance to Modem Fiction, London: Routledge.

Langages. 112. 1993.

Molendijk, A. (1990). Le Passé simple et l'imparfait: Une approche reichenbachienne, Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Pottier, B. (1995). 'Le Temps du monde, le temps de l'énonciation et le temps de l'événement', Modèles linguistiques. 16(1):9-26.

Van Vliet, E. 1983. 'The Disappearance of the French passé simple: A Morphological and Sociolinguistic Study', Word 34(2):89-113.

Vet, C. and A. Molendijk (1986). 'The Discourse Functions of the Past Tenses of French', in Lo Cascio, V. and C. Vet (eds). Temporal Structure in Sentence and Discourse, Dordrecht: Foris, pp.133-59.

Vet, C. and C. Vetters (eds). 1994. Tense and Aspect in Discourse, Berlin-New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Vogeleer, S. and others (eds). 1998. Temps et discours. Louvain-la-Neuve: Peeters.

Waugh, L.R. 1987. 'Marking Time with the passé composé: Toward a Theory of the Perfect', Linguisticae Investigationes 11(1):1-47.

Weinrich, H. 1973. Le Temps, Paris: Seuil.

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B. Subjunctive

Discuss the view that the use of the French subjunctive is 'inherently variable'.

References:

Abouda, Lotfi. 2002. ‘Négation, Interrogation et alternance Indicatif-subjonctif’. Journal of French Language Studies. 12. 1. p 1-22.

Ayres-Bennett and others. 2001. Chapter 7.

Blanche-Benveniste, C. and others. 1990. Le Français parlé; études grammaticales, Paris: éditions du CNRS.

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).

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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C. Word Order

How much sense does it make to say that French is an SVO language?

References:

Ashby, W. J. 1988. 'The Syntax, Pragmatics, and Sociolinguistics of Left- and Right-Dislocations in French'. Lingua. 75, p 203-29.

Ayres-Bennett and others. 2001. Chapter 9.

Barnes, Betsy K. 1985. The pragmatics of left detachment in spoken standard French. Amsterdam ; Philadelphia, PA : J. Benjamins Pub. Co.

Harris, M. 1985 'Word Order in Contemporary French: A Functional View', Working Papers in Functional Gramar, 1:1-16.

Jones, M.A. 1996. Foundations of French Syntax, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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.

Travaux de Linguistique 14/15. 1987.

Langue française 111. 1996.

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D. Negation

Discuss the relative importance of the different factors - syntactic, phonetic, lexical, semantic, stylistic or demographic - which favour the use or non-use of ne in contemporary French.

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. p 23-42. (recommended available on internet from Oxford network)

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. (recommended, available on internet from Oxford network)

Ashby, W.J. 1991. 'When Does Variation Indicate Linguistic Change in Progress', Journal of French Language Studies. 1:1-19. (recommended)

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 and others. 2001. 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.

Coveney, A. (1996). Variability in Spoken French: A Sociolinguistic Study of interrogation and Negation, Exeter: Elm Bank.

Coveney, A. (1998) 'Awareness of Linguistic Constraints on Variable ne Omission', Journal of French Language Studies. 8:159-87. (available on internet from Oxford network)

Diller, A.-M. [1983]. 'Subject NP Structure and Variable Constraints: The Case of ne Deletion', in Fasold, R.W. (ed). Variation in the Form and Use of Language, Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, pp.167-74.

Moreau, M.-L. (1986). 'Les Séquences préformées: entre les combinaisons libres et les idiomatismes: le cas de négation avec ou sans ne', Le Français moderne. 53:137-60.

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. 1972. 'Ne et les enfants', in L'Homme et le significant, Paris: Nathan; Brussels: Labor, pp. 107-11.

Pohl, J. 1975. 'L'Omission de ne dans le français contemporain', Le Français dans le monde 111:17-23.

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E. Spelling

Describe the discussion on the 'Réforme de l'orthographe' in the 20th c. (problematic, traditionalists versus 'reformists', types of reforms proposed, sociolinguistic factors at stakes).

Your discussion should include references to the 'rectifications' of 1990 and their most recent discussion (2016). See, for example, website: http://www.academie-francaise.fr/sites/academie-francaise.fr/files/rectifications_1990.pdf

References:

Arrivé, M. 1993. Réformer l'orthographe? Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Blanche-Benveniste, C. and A. Chervel. 1969. L'Orthographe. Paris: Maspero.

Catach, N. 1993. 'Reform of the Writing System'. In Sanders, C. (ed.) 1993. French Today: Language in its Social Contex. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp 139-54.

Catach, N. 1991. L'Orthographe en débat. Paris: Nathan.

Catach, N. 1978. L'orthographe. Paris: PUF (Que Sais-je?), 6th edition revised : 1995.

Desirat & Horde. La langue française au vingtième siècle (Chapter 7).

Goosse, A. 1991. La 'nouvelle' orthographe. Exposés et commentaires. Paris et Louvain-la-Neuve: Duculot.

Martinet. Le français sans fard - (Chapter 5).

Masson, M.1991. L'orthographe : guide pratique de la réforme. Paris: Le Seuil.

Picoche & Marchello-Nizia, Histoire de la langue française. Paris: Nathan. Chapter VII.

Rey-Debove, Josette et Béatrice Le Beau-Beusa. 1991. La réforme de l'orthographe au banc d'essai du Robert. Paris: Dictionnaire Le Robert.

 

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F. Lexicon

Discuss the different mechanisms involved in borrowing and describe its impact on French lexicon, underlining the interaction between internal and external factors.

References:

Ayres-Bennett and others. 2001. Chapter 12.

Hagège, C. 1987. Le Français et les siècles, Paris: Jacob.

Guilford, J. 1997. 'Les attitudes des jeunes Français à propos des emprunts à l'anglais'. La Linguistique. 32. 2:117-35.

Guilford, J. 1999. 'Attribution du genre aux emprunts à l'anglais'. La Linguistique. 35. 1:65-85.

Pergnier, M. 1989. Les Anglicismes: danger ou enrichissement pour la langue française, Paris: PUF.

Pergnier, M. (ed). 1988. Le Français en contact avec l'anglais, Paris: Didier.

Picone, M. 1996. Anglicisms, Neologisms and Dynamic French, Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Poplack, S. , D. Sankoff and C. Miller. 1988. The Social Correlates and Linguistic Processes of Lexical Borrowing and Assimilation', Linguistics 26(1):47-104.

Walter, H. 1997. L'Aventure des mots français venus d'ailleurs, Paris: Laffont.

Walter, H. and C. Walter. 1991. Dictionnaire des mots d'origine étrangère, Paris: Larousse.

Wise, H. 1997. The Vocabulary of Modern French: Origins, Structure and Function, London-New York: Routledge.

Zanola, M-T. 1991. L 'Emprunt lexical anglais dans le français contemporain: analyse d'un corpus de presse (1982-1989), Brescia: La Scuola.

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G. Sociolinguistics

In the tension between standard and non-standard modern French is heading towards a situation describable as 'diglossic'. Discuss.

Required reading: Fasold 1984. pp 34-60.

References:

Ager, D. 1990. Sociolinguistics and Contemporary French. Cambridge: CUP.

Battye, Adrian and Marie-Anne Hintze and Paul Rowlett. The French language today: a linguistic introduction. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2000. Previous ed.: 1992

Blanche-Benveniste, C. 1997. Approches de la langtue parlée, Paris: Ophrys.

Blanche-Benveniste, C. and others (1990). Le Français parlé; études grammaticales, Paris: éditions du CNRS.

Fasold 1984. The Sociolinguistics of society. Oxford: Blackwell. See pp 34-60 for the definition of diglossia.

Gadet, F. 1989. Le Français ordinaire, Paris: Colin.

Gadet, F. 1993. Le Français populaire, Paris: PUF.

Lodge, R. A. French from Dialect to Standard. London: Routledge. Chapter 8.

Lodge, R. A. and others. 1997. Exploring the French Language. London: Arnold. See pp 22-29.

Martinet, A. 1974. Le Français sans fard, 2'd edn, Paris: PUF. Paris

Müller, B. 1985. Le français d'aujourd'hui. Paris: Klincksieck.

Lambrecht, Knud. 1981. Topic, antitopic, and verb agreement in non-standard French. Amsterdam : Philadelphia, Pa : J. Benjamins. See Introduction.

Rowlett, Paul. “Do French speakers really have two grammars?” French Language Studies 23 (2013), 37–57. (recommended, available on internet from Oxford network))

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H. Schwa

'The vowel schwa should not, properly speaking, be viewed as a vowel in the normal sense at all.' Discuss.

References:

Ayres-Bennett and others. 2001. Chapter 3.

Delattre, P. 1966. Studies in French and Comparative Phonetics, The Hague: Mouton.

Durand, J., C. Slater and H. Wise (1988). 'Observations on schwa in Southern French', in Slater, C., J. Durand and M. Bate (eds). French Sound Patterns. Changing Perspectives, Colchester: Association of French Language Studies and Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex, pp.71-103.

Fonagy, I. 1989.'Le Français change de visage', Revue Romane 24:225-54.

Hansen, A.B. 1994. 'Étude du E caduc: stabilisation en cours et variations lexicales', Journal of French Language Studies, 4:25-54.

Lefebvre, A. 1988.'La Prononciation du 'e-muet' dans la région lilloise est-elle un marqueur social', in Slater, C., J. Durand and M. Bate (eds). French Sound Patterns. Changing Perspectives, Colchester: Association of French Language Studies and Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex, pp.71-103.

Léon, P.R. 1978. Prononciation du français standard. Paris: Didier.

Martinet, A. 1972.'La Nature phonologique d'e caduc', in Valdman, A. (ed). Papers in Linguistics and Phonetics to the Memory of Pierre Delattre, The Hague: Mouton, pp.393-99.

Tranel, B. 1987a. The Sounds of French. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tranel, B. 1987b. 'French schwa and Non-Linear Phonology.' Linguistics. 25:845-66.

Walker, D. C. 1993. 'Schwa and /œ/ in French', Canadian Journal of Linguistics. 38. 43-64.

Walter, H. 1990. 'Une voyelle qui ne veut pas mourir', in Green, J.N. and W. Ayres-Bennett (eds). Variation and Change in French. Essays Presented to Rebecca Posner on the Occasion of her Sixtieth Birthday, London: Routledge. pp.27-36.

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 I. Text commentaries

Texts will be provided directly by Dr. Marnette. To learn what a linguistic commentary is, click here.

 

 

J. Language and Gender (1)

'La question de la féminisation des titres est symbolique et non linguistique.' (Lionel Jospin, Préface Femme, j'écris ton nom…). Discuss.

Required reading: Femme, j'écris ton nom...  

References:

Armstrong, Nigel [et al.] (éditeurs). 2001. La langue française au féminin : le sexe et le genre affectent-ils la variation linguistique? avec la collaboration de Marielle Bruyninckx ; préface de Françoise Gadet. Paris : L'Harmattan, 2001.

Femme, j'écris ton nom... , Guide d'aide à la féminisation des noms de métiers, titres, grades et fonctions, online: http://web.atilf.fr/FEMININ-Femme-j-ecris-ton-nom,209.html

Brick, Noelle & Clarissa Wilks. 1994. ‘Et Dieu nomma la femme: Observation sur la question de la féminisation des noms d'agent et sur les désignations d'Edith Cresson dans la presse.’ Journal of French Studies. 4: 235-9. (available via Solo)

Brick, Noelle & Clarissa Wilks. 2002. ‘Les partis politiques et la féminisation des noms de métier’. Journal of French Language Studies. 12. 1. p 43-54. (available via Solo)

Fleischman, Suzanne. 1997. ‘The Battle of Feminism and Bon Usage: Instituting Nonsexist Usage in French.’ French Review. 70.6: 834-844.

Houdebine, Anne-Marie. 1987. ‘Le Français au féminin.’ La Linguistique. 23: 13-34.

Trudeau, Danielle. 1988. ‘Changement social et changement linguistique: la question du féminin.’ French Review. 62.1:77-87.

Yaguello, Marina. 1978. Les mots et les femmes: Essai d'approche socio-linguistique de la condition féminine. Paris: Payot.

 

Also for a broader view on women and language, you can check out :

Armstrong, Nigel [et al.] (éditeurs). 2001. La langue française au féminin : le sexe et le genre affectent-ils la variation linguistiqueavec la collaboration de Marielle Bruyninckx ; préface de Françoise Gadet. Paris : L'Harmattan, 2001.

Aebischer, Verena. 1985. Les femmes et le langage. Paris: PUF.

Bailly Sophie, ‘La différence sexuelle dans la langue : imaginaire ou vérité ?’ in L. Guittienne et M. Prost (edsHomme - Femme : de quel sexe êtes-vousPresses Universitaires de Nancy, 2009, p. 99-109 http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/52/03/32/PDF/Bailly_2009_Difference_sexuelle_dans_la_langue_imaginaire_ou_verite.pdf

Bailly, Sophie, Les Hommes, Les Femmes Et La Communication. Mais que vient faire le sexe dans la langue? L'Harmattan. 2009. 

Coates, Jennifer (éd). 1998. Language and gender: a reader. Oxford: Blackwell.

Coates, Jennifer. 1993. Women, men and language: a sociolinguistic account of gender differences in language. 2nd ed. London: Longman.

Crawford, Mary. 1995. Talking difference: on gender and language. London: SAGE.

Graddol, David et Joan Swann. 1989. Gender Voices. Oxford - New York: Blackwell.

Tannen, Deborah. 1990. You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. New York: Morrow.

Tannen, Deborah. 1994. Gender and discourse. New York - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Wodak, Ruth. 1997. Gender and discourse. London: Sage.

 

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K. Language and Gender (2) 

Give a detailed explanation, with reference to studies of modern French, of what Labov (and others) means by ‘the Gender Paradox’.

OR

‘There can be no doubt that the social category of gender is part and parcel of the class system […] and that women’s behaviour is related to their social status.’ Discuss and illustrate you answer with examples from French.

References

Ashby, W. (1991). ‘When does variation indicate linguistic change in progress?’. Journal of French Language Studies 1: 1-19.

Cheshire, J. (2002). ‘Sex and gender in variationist research.’ In Chambers, J., Trudgill, P. & N. Schilling-Estes (eds). The Handbook of Language Variation & Change. Oxford: Blackwell. Pp. 423-443.

King, R. & Nadasdi, T. (1996). ‘Sorting out morphosyntactic variation in Acadian French: the importance of the linguistic marketplace.’ In Sociolinguistic Variation: Data, Theory and Method. Selected Papers from NWAV 23 at Stanford. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications. pp. 113-128.

Labov, W. (1990). ‘The intersection of sex and social class in the course of linguistic change.’ Language Variation & Change 2: 205-254.

**Labov, W. (2001). Principles of Linguistic Change (Oxford, Blackwell). Chapters 8 & 11.

Pooley, T. (1994). ‘Word-final consonant devoicing in a variety of working class French – a case of language contact?’ Journal of French Language Studies 4: 215-234.

--------(1996). Chtimi: the urban vernaculars of northern France. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

-------- (2000). ‘Sociolinguistics, regional varieties of French and regional languages in France.’ Journal of French Language Studies 10: 117-157.

Price, G. (1993). ‘Pas (point) without ne in interrogative clauses.’ Journal of French Language Studies 3: 191-195.

Sankoff, D. & S. Laberge (1978). ‘The linguistic market and the statistical explanation of variability.’ In Sankoff, D. (ed.) Linguistic Variation: Models and Methods.

Sankoff, G. & D. Vincent (1977).L’emploi productif du ne dans le français parlé à Montréal.’ Le français moderne 45: 243-256.

Straka, G. (1952). ‘Le Langage des femmes: enquête linguistique à l’échelle mondiale.’ Orbis 1: 335-357.

Temple, R. A. M. (2000). ‘Now and then: the evolution of male-female differences in the voicing of consonants in two varieties of French.’ Leeds Working Papers in Linguistics  and Phonetics 8: 193-204.

Trudgill, P. (1972). ‘Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British English of Norwich.’ Language in Society 1: 179-195.

 

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L. Forms of Address

‘Address pronouns tu and vous in French demonstrate different degrees of closeness and intimacy between the speaker and the hearer/addresses.’ Discuss.

OR

‘It is impossible to give hard and fast rules for the use of tu and vous as pronouns of address.’ Discuss.

References

Bates, E. & L. Begnini (1975). ‘Rules of address in Italy: a sociological survey.’ Language in Society 4: 271-288.

Brown, P. & S. Levinson (1987). Politeness: some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: CUP.

**Brown, R. & A. Gilman (1976). ‘Pronouns of power and solidarity.’ In Fishman, J. (ed.) Readings in the Sociology of Language. Harmondsworth: Penguin. pp. 225-40.

Fasold, R. (1991). The Sociolinguistics of Language. Oxford: Blackwell. Chapter 1.

Gardner-Chloros, P. (1991). ‘Ni tu ni vous: principes et paradoxes dans l’emploi des pronoms d’allocution en français contemporain.’ Journal of French Language Studies 1: 139-155.

Head, B. F. (1978). ‘Respect degrees in pronominal reference.’ In Greenberg, J. H. (ed.) Universals of Human Language. Vol. 3. Stanford: Stanford University Press. pp. 151-211.

Joseph, J. E. (1987). ‘Subject relevance and deferential address in the Indo-European languages.’ Lingua 73: 259-277.

Lambert, W. E. & G. R. Tucker (1976). Tu, vous Usted: a Socio-Psychological Study of Address Patterns. Rowley MA: Newbury House.

Maley, C. (1974) The Pronouns of Address in Modern Standard French. University of Mississippi Romance Monographs.

Mühlhusler, P. (1989). Pronouns and People: the Linguistic Construction of Social and Personal Identity. Oxford: Blackwell.

Schoch, M. (1978). ‘Problème sociolinguistique des pronoms d’allocution: ‘tuetvous’; enquête à Lausanne.’ La linguistique 14: 55-73.

 

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This page was last updated on 1 April 2016.