The analysis of French verbs presented in this monograph is neither a synchronic nor a diachronic description, but rather a theoretical achronic analysis whose goal is the explanation of the historical phonetic development of the French verb in terms of changes in the underlying abstract morphological forms. One of the basic premises of this book is that the French superficial phonetic forms are not derived from the Latin superficial phonetic forms, but that both are derived from abstract etymological forms.

This study is based on the writings and teaching of Gustave Guillaume (1883-1960), one of the earliest proponents of what is today called Cognitive Linguistics. It offers (1) a much needed presentation in English of Guillaume's view of the French system, (2) the clarifications added by his successors, and (3) much empirical detail added by the author from his own extensive experience with the material.The word "system" in this work, as explained in the very first chapter, is intended in the Saussurian sense of a closed set of contrasts. The method is first briefly applied to English, in order to familiarize the reader with the methodological concepts and terminology, and comparisons are made with the general outline of the French system.The major sub-systems of the French verb are analysed in the four central chapters (4-7) entitled Aspect, Voice, Tense, Mood, followed by a chapter on systemic comparison, and two final chapters of detailed analysis of the verbal morphology and its relevance to the cognitive system.

The Vocabulary of Modern French provides a fresh insight into contemporary French. With this book, Hilary Wise offers the first comprehensive overview of the modern French vocabulary: its historical sources, formal organisation and social and stylistic functions. Topics covered include: * external influences on the language * word formation * semantic change * style and register In addition, the author looks at the relationship between social and lexical change and examines attempts at intervention in the development of the language. Each chapter is concluded by notes for further reading, and by suggestions for project work which are designed to increase awareness of specific lexical phenomena and enable the student-reader to use lexicographic databases of all kinds. The Vocabulary of Modern French is an accessible and fascinating study of the relationship between a nation and its language, as well as providing a key text for all students of modern French.

The latest volume of OLINCO proceedings is a selected set of papers that grew from presentations at OLINCO 2021 - the international Olomouc Linguistics Colloquium held at Palacky University in June 2021. The nineteen papers collected here are unified by the topic of the colloquium: Language Use and Linguistic Structure, in that they all, in one way or the other, address the central questions of the study of human language. They all use standard scientific methodology and theory and solidly researched empirical evidence in favor of formalized structural representations of the language system.

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the French language from the perspective of modern linguistics. Features include a further reading guide at the end of each chapter, a glossary of linguistic terms, a bibliography and index.