This volume brings together two particularly dynamic areas of contemporary research on the French language. The chapters showcase the most innovative current scholarship in historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and in the burgeoning field of historical sociolinguistics which lies at their intersection. The research across the volume is strongly data-centred, drawing on a wide range of both well-established and more novel theoretical and methodological approaches in order to open up new perspectives on the study of the French language in the twenty-first century. Although it is written in English, the work presented here is underpinned by a range of different approaches from across the Francophone and Anglophone worlds. Particular emphasis is placed on combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, on diversifying tools, methods, and objects of inquiry, and on adopting comparative and multilingual perspectives where these shed new light on important questions relating to French. In these ways, Historical and Sociolinguistic Approaches to French highlights some of the most exciting new directions for linguistic research on the French language.

This book examines the interlinked history of Parisian speech and the Parisian population.

Divided into three main sections on Phonology, Syntax and Semantics, this new volume on variation in French aims to provide a snapshot of the state of sociolinguistic research inside and outside metropolitan France. From a diatopic perspective, varieties in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Africa and Canada are considered, mainly with respect to phonological features but also focusing on syntactic and lexical evolutions (the relative clause in Ivorian French and discourse markers in Canadian French). The acquisition of stylistic features of French figures in chapters on both first and second language learners and variation across different genres is addressed with respect to non-standard non-finite forms. Finally, a section on semantic change traces the way that interactional and other socio-historical factors affect word meaning. The volume will appeal to (socio-)linguists with an interest in contemporary French as well as to advanced undergraduates and post-graduate students of French and specialists in the field.

Many of the assumptions of Labovian sociolinguistics are based on results drawn from US and UK English, Latin American Spanish and Canadian French. Sociolinguistic variation in the French of France has been rather little studied compared to these languages. This volume is the first examination and exploration of variation in French that studies in a unified way the levels of phonology, grammar and lexis using quantitative methods. One of its aims is to establish whether the patterns of variation that have been reported in French conform to those reported in other languages. A second important theme of this volume is the study of variation across speech styles in French, through a comparison with some of the best-known English results. The book is therefore also the first to examine current theories of social-stylistic variation by using fresh quantitative data. These data throw new light on the influence of methodology on results, on why certain linguistic variables have more stylistic value, and on how the strong normative tradition in France moulds interactions between social and stylistic variation.

Focuses on French applied linguistics

This textbook deals with the ways in which French is used in different circumstances and settings in France and abroad; with the language attitudes of French speakers; and with language policy. It is concerned not only with the linguistic data, but also the social, political, and economic environment in which contemporary French is used. This is the only up-to-date introduction to the sociolinguistics of French currently available. The exposition is clear and lively, and will be welcomed by students and teachers alike.

Problems and Perspectives- Studies in the Modern French Language looks at a number of interesting or problematic areas in the phonology, morphology, syntax and lexis of the French language and encourages the reader to think critically about different ways of approaching, describing and explaining these issues or data. The book is divided into two parts- the first section is a preliminary to, and contextualises, the discussion of the more specialised topics of the second part. Part two presents problematic and controversial areas in the description and analysis of the contemporary language. Where appropriate historical and sociolinguistic issues are also integrated into the discussion of modern French. Aimed primarily at advanced students and researchers in French linguistics, the introductory sections of part one also make this book accessible to undergraduates beginning their study of French linguistics, and to less specialised readers.