This volume provides the first comprehensive reference work in English on the French language in all its facets. It offers a wide-ranging approach to the rich, varied, and exciting research across multiple subfields, with seven broad thematic sections covering the structures of French; the history of French; axes of variation; French around the world; French in contact with other languages; second language acquisition; and French in literature, culture, arts, and the media. Each chapter presents the state of the art and directs readers to canonical studies and essential works, while also exploring cutting-edge research and outlining future directions. The Oxford Handbook of the French Language serves both as a reference work for people who are curious to know more about the French language and as a starting point for those carrying out new research on the language and its many varieties. It will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students as well as established scholars, whether they are specialists in French linguistics or researchers in a related field looking to learn more about the language. The diversity of frameworks, approaches, and scholars in the volume demonstrates above all the variety, vitality, and vibrancy of work on the French language today.

Why is it that French chefs tend to develop a syndrome of professional nostalgia? Educated to work in the most prestigious restaurants, they soon discover another reality in common foodservices and are viewed as having made an egotistical professional choice. Regardless of the improvement in their working conditions, their identity is distorted. This book describes foodservices as a whole, including international and inter-industry comparisons in the sociological field of gastronomical professionals, in an attempt to analyze their identities in different stages and diversities.