Sociolinguistic Variation in Contemporary French

Edited by Kate Beeching, Nigel Armstrong and Françoise Gadet
University of the West of England, Bristol / University of Leeds / Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense
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.
[IMPACT: Studies in Language and Society, 26]  2009.  xi, 257 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Hardbound – Available
ISBN 9789027218650 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00
 
e-Book – Sold by e-book platforms
ISBN 9789027288998 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00
 
 

Table of Contents

Introduction
Kate Beeching
vii–xii
Section I. Phonological variation and leveling
Introduction
Nigel Armstrong
3–8
Perception and production in French dialect leveling
Nigel Armstrong and Zoë Boughton
9–24
The sociolinguistic relevance of regional categories: Some evidence from word-final consonant devoicing in French spoken in Belgium
Philippe Hambye
25–42
Prosodic style-shifting as audience design: Real-time monitoring of pitch range and contour types in Swiss French
Jessica Sertling Miller
43–62
The immigrant factor in phonological leveling
Tim Pooley
63–76
A prototype-theoretic model of Southern French
Elissa Pustka
77–94
The law of position revisited: The case of mid-vowels in Briançon French
Anne Violin-Wigent
95–112
Section II. Stylistic and syntactic variation
Introduction
Françoise Gadet
115–120
Variation in first and second language French: The case of parce que
Mireille Bilger and Henry Tyne
121–140
French preadolescents’ perceptions of stylistic variation: A contrastive sociolinguistic study
Laurence Buson
141–158
Sociolinguistic variation in African French: The Ivorian relative clause
Anne Moseng Knutsen
159–176
Register variation in the non-standard use of non-finite forms
Nathalie Rossi-Gensane
177–192
Section III. Lexical variation and semantic change
Introduction
Kate Beeching and Richard Waltereit
195–199
Discourse markers and regional variation in French: A lexico-semantic approach
Gaétane Dostie
201–214
Sociolinguistic factors 
and the pragmaticalization of bon in contemporary spoken French
Kate Beeching
215–230
From ‘luck’ to ‘wealth’: The stylistic (re)distribution of fortuné in Modern French
Bruno Courbon
231–252
Index
253–258

Quotes

“This volume offers a most valuable mise au point on the variability of contemporary French, synthesising French and Anglo-American methods and perceptions in a highly creative way. It deserves a conspicuous place on postgraduate and even some undergraduate bibliographies, not just in French, but in general sociolinguistics too.”
Anthony Lodge, University of St. Andrews
“An interesting and diverse collection of articles. This will offset the commonly heard claim that no one does quantitative sociolinguistics in France.”
Noami Nagy, Universisty of Toronto

Subjects

Benjamins Subject classification

Linguistics

BIC Subject

CFB: Sociolinguistics

BISAC Subject

LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  2009023931
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