A Brief Guide to Research in French Language and Linguistics: compiled by R. Anthony Lodge

Contributions

Introduction (A.Lodge)
Analysis of French Political Language (J.Gaffney)
Anglo-Norman Studies (D.Trotter)
Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition (R.Hawkins)
Computer Assisted Language Learning (K.Cameron)
Creole Studies (J.Green)
Dialectology (T.Pooley)
Discourse and Text Analysis (C.Sanders)
Francophone Linguistics (G.Aub-Buscher)
Gender and Language (M.-M. Gervais)
History of Linguistics and Ideas of Language (C.Sanders)
History of the Language (A.Lodge)
Language Learning and Residence Abroad (J.Coleman)
Language Learning Theory (F.Myles)
Language Policy (D.Ager)
Language Testing (J.Coleman)
Learner Autonomy (E.Esch)
Learning Grammar (M. L'Huillier)
Morphology and Syntax (D.Engel)
Phonetics and Phonology (R.Sampson)
Semiotics (R.Crawshaw)
Sociolinguistics (A.Coveney)
Stylistics (A.Judge)
Translation Studies (I.Mason)
Vocabulary (M.Offord)
Corpus Linguistics (R.Salkie)

Introduction

A research data-base maintained for the Association for French Language Studies by Kate Beeching (University of the West of England) recently alerted the Association’s Research Committee to the relatively small amount of research currently being undertaken in British universities into French language/linguistics. This cannot but be detrimental to the future of French studies at schools as well as in Higher Education. The Committee has therefore decided to put together the present booklet in order to encourage more people to enter the field. It is designed not for the benefit of existing specialists but for that of would-be researchers.

The Committee originally considered producing a general information booklet for the use of potential PhD students in French language studies. However, it soon became clear that a good deal of general information and advice is already widely available in such publications as:
GRAVES, Norman (1997) Working for a Doctorate: a guide for Humanities and Social Science London: Routledge
SEBBA, Mark (1995) Focussing on Language: a Student’s Guide to Research Planning, Data Collection, Analysis and Writing up Lancaster: Definite Article
VAUX, Bert and COOPER, Justin (1999) Introduction to Linguistic Field Methods Munich: Lincom
WRAY, Alison, TROTT, Kate, BLOOMER, Aileen (1998) Projects in Linguistics. A Practical Guide to Researching Language London: Arnold

In view of this, it was decided that a French-specific publication would probably prove more useful, that is, a booklet which offers not general advice, but which indicates those areas of the discipline currently in need of investigation. The hope is that concrete suggestions of this sort might in themselves tempt new researchers into the field. Along with English, French is one of the most exhaustively studied of the world’s languages, but this does not mean that there is nothing left to do. Advances in thinking in general linguistics and elsewhere in the social sciences constantly call for reappraisal of accepted thinking in French.

To this end some of the most prominent British researchers in the field of French language studies/linguistics have agreed to contribute their personal view of the current state of play in their part of the discipline and to indicate areas where they consider new research to be urgent. Each of them has agreed to act as a clearing-house for inquiries in their field. This includes a willingness to steer potential students, on an informal basis, towards the person(s) they consider to be most qualified to offer supervision.

Anthony Lodge
University of St Andrews, June 1999

Analysis of Political Language

John Gaffney
Aston University
j.gaffney@aston.ac.uk

Map of the field

The analysis of political language and discourse is a site of inquiry where political science and language analysis meet. This has produced both strong and weak research. In French studies, the dominant methodological approach emerged in the 1960s. It has developed from basic lexicometry and word counts to a highly complex corpus analysis (of frequency, change, genre, etc.). It remains, however, theoretically limited. The dominant theoretical approaches, often separate from the above, often not, have been Marxist and post-Marxist. These theoretical approaches have proved unevenly successful when applied to case studies. First, because the former are in many cases theories which see language ultimately as the effect of other more important process, they are ultimately mono-causal theories of explanation in which language cannot itself be determining (of change, for example). They often, therefore, do not grasp its complex effects. Second, because some theoretical approaches, though sensitive to language, are so abstract as to be difficult to apply, or even form hypotheses from. Discourse analysis in conjunction with political and cultural theory has often proved the most intellectually rewarding and efficient approach, though sometimes it too is impenetrable.

The analyses of political discourse in what, in shorthand, we can call the Anglo-Saxon schools (British and North American, although each is separate) offer exciting ways forward. For the UK, the challenge here is to rectify the bad political science informing political language analysis; to go beyond the language-as-manipulation / language-as-resistance approaches, analyses often informed by a Marxian view in which “power” is conceptualised weakly as a zero sum game, as are discourse strategies. The challenge is to develop an approach that analyses, for example, the persuasiveness of political language without representing the exchange as coercive. In terms of the appropriate political science input, a middle-level theoretical approach to culture, institutions, and the structures of political opportunity would be appropriate to the proper study of public, political language. By situating language/discourse in its proper relationship to political culture on the one hand and institutions on the other, the analysis of political discourse can take its proper place in political science. As regards research on France, the institutions, in particular the presidency of the Fifth Republic, and political culture of modern France, offer superb case study material in conjunction with middle level theory (regarding, say, the political conditions of production of appeals by leaders to notions of community). The large body of North American research in political rhetoric is, with few exceptions, little known in the UK or in France. Its application would, however, be of great interest, particularly in the French case, given the comparative/contrastive nature of the respective traditions of political rhetoric and of political regimes in France and the USA. The challenge facing the analysis of political language is, therefore, to bring together the French, British, and North American approaches and methodological richness, and frame them within a useful middle-level theory of political science (as sociolinguistics has done in its interdisciplinary field), and apply them to case studies. In this way, the analysis of political language will contribute not only to understanding the maintenance of political relations, but also to understanding political change.

Areas in need of research

  • Presidential discourse
  • Political marketing
  • The mediatisation of politics
  • Theories of political discourse
  • Discourse and political change
  • Political rhetoric
  • Individual/comparative case studies
  • Language and political ideology/identity
  • Culture and discourse
  • Comparative French/UK/US research

Anglo-Norman studies

D.A. Trotter
University of Wales Aberystwyth
dtt@aber.ac.uk

Map of the Field

Anglo-Norman is the term used for the form of French imported into England in 1066, and subsequently extended into Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Traditionally, the discipline has concentrated on textual and philological work, and in particular on the production of editions of literary material (often, but not always, under the ægis of the Anglo-Norman Text Society). Latterly, attention has been given to more sociolinguistic aspects of Anglo-Norman, and in particular to its relationship with the other languages with which it came into contact in medieval Britain (see, in particular, the plethora of important studies by W. Rothwell). The ongoing revision of the Anglo-Norman Dictionary is highlighting the key role, in terms of extending our understanding of Anglo-Norman, of further investigation of administrative, non-literary, scientific, and indeed multilingual documents. It is clear that for us to have a proper grasp of the language as a whole, documentary evidence of as wide a type as possible needs to be taken into account.

Desiderata for future study include :

  • further work in the domain of medical and scientific literature, to continue that pioneered by T Hunt;
  • further investigations into administrative and non-literary language;
  • further exploration of the sociolinguistic background to Anglo-Norman texts of all sorts;
  • further work on language contact phenomena as encountered in respect of Anglo-Norman;
  • closer collaboration between Anglicists and Anglo-Norman specialists in particular, with a view to re-assessing the implications of Anglo-Norman for the history of the English language;
  • and, paradoxically, the integration of Anglo-Norman studies into work on the history of continental French (especially with regard to lexis).

Bibliography

ROTHWELL, W. (1993) “The “« Faus franceis d’Angleterre »: later Anglo-Norman” in Short, Ian (ed.) Anglo-Norman Anniversary Essays London: ANTS: 309–326
ROTHWELL, W. (1994) “The Trilingual England of Geoffrey Chaucer” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 16: 45–67
TROTTER, D.A. (ed.) (2000) Multilingualism in Later Medieval Britain: Proceedings of the 1997 Aberystwyth Colloquium Cambridge: D.S. Brewer

Key journals

Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie
Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur
French Studies
Modern Language Review
Medium Aevum
Revue de linguistique romane

Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition

Roger Hawkins
University of Essex
roghawk@essex.ac.uk

Map of the field

“Applied Linguistics” refers in principle to any area of enquiry where the insights and techniques developed by linguists in the analysis of the structural properties of language (syntax, morphology, lexicon, phonology, semantics and so on) are applied to specific instances of language use. Under this broad construal, “Applied Linguistics” covers the investigation of topics like language acquisition (first and second), language contact, language planning, language teaching, language and discrimination, language and discourse variety, and so on. In practice, most linguists restrict “Applied Linguistics” to any area of enquiry into the learning and teaching of second (third, fourth, …) languages. (See the journal Applied Linguistics for examples of the kinds of work that applied linguists are engaged in).

“Second Language Acquisition” (SLA) research is a sub-branch of Applied Linguistics which is specifically concerned with the nature of second language learners’ knowledge of the second language (L2), how that knowledge develops, how it is influenced by input and by the first language, and how the L2 is put to use.

Since we are a long way from having a good understanding of either the nature of learner knowledge of French as an L2, or the effects that specific teaching methods have on the development of that knowledge, there is plenty of work to do.

Particular areas where we currently need information from well-designed studies are:

  • lexical development (How do learners acquire word meaning over time? What is the effect of conscious learning as opposed to incidental learning while learners are engaged in communicative uses of French?)
  • development of morphological, syntactic and semantic knowledge (How are phenomena like tenses, verb constructions, gender and agreement, illocutionary force (questions, imperatives, conditionals), and so on, acquired?)
  • development of speech comprehension/recognition (What are the prosodic and phonetic properties of fast native-speaker speech, and which elements pose difficulties for L2 learners of French?)
  • development of fluency in speech production (What are the characteristics of L2 learner speech at different levels of proficiency? How is fluency related to underlying knowledge?)
  • development of sociolinguistic competence (How good are L2 learners in using registers of language appropriate to different kinds of context of use?)
  • effects of different types of classroom input on the development of the kinds of knowledge described above
  • effects of naturalistic exposure on the development of the kinds of knowledge described above
  • the most effective ways of assessing the kinds of knowledge described above for L2 learners of French at different levels of proficiency

Bibliography

JOHNSON, K. & JOHNSON, H. (eds) (1998) Encyclopedic dictionary of Applied Linguistics Oxford: Blackwell
(A useful reference to the range of topics covered by Applied Linguistics)
ELLIS, R. (1994) The study of second language acquisition Oxford: Oxford University Press
(A comprehensive survey of work on second language acquisition)
MITCHELL, R. & MYLES, F. (1998) Second language learning theories London: Arnold
(A recent overview of theories of second language learning)

Key journals:

Applied Linguistics
Études de Linguistique Appliquée
Journal of French Language Studies
Language Teaching Research
Studies in Second Language Acquisition
Second Language Research

Computer Assisted Language Learning

Keith Cameron
University of Exeter
K.C.Cameron@ex.ac.uk

Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is a growth area in language studies and one which needs careful research to develop its potential as a powerful learning resource. CALL, as a generic term, involves use of many different forms of information technology — PCs, CD-ROM, Multimedia, Sound, Hypertext, the Internet, etc. For real progress to be made in language teaching and learning, future development demands a keen interest in language with an ability to rethink language learning using a new medium. We need to know more about how people learn using the “little screen”, how material should be displayed, how best to use multimedia resources, etc. We also need to develop more interactive programs, making full use of sound and multimedia, so that we have an effective learning environment.

For an idea of what research has already been achieved, consult, for example, the journals, Computer Assisted Language Learning and System, and see the recently published vade mecum for research in the field, CALL: Media, Design & Applications edited by Keith Cameron (1999).

Some of the areas which experts around the world have highlighted for future research are:

General

  • Investigation of connections between computer-supported discourse and language achievement
  • Detailed analysis of similarities and differences between print-based and electronic text-based literacies and their implications for second language readers
  • Critical contrastive content analyses — native speaker versus non-native speaker commercial software
  • Identification and application of didactic criteria for the selection and organisation of extensive content for CALL
  • Characteristics of electronic text from the language learner’s perspective
  • Exploration of learner strategies for navigating distributed multimedia databases such as the World Wide Web
French Language specific
  • Interactive programs for post-A Level students to improve grammatical accuracy and awareness (the most common errors have been identified but how to eradicate them has not)
  • Evaluation of the available Internet resources as an effective language learning medium
  • Development of linguistic awareness using literary corpora
  • Development of phonetic awareness both for pronunciation and transcription using sound

Creole Studies

John N. Green
University of Bradford
j.n.green@bradford.ac.uk

Map of the field

The term creole (probably from Sp. criollo ‘locally born’) is usually reserved for the outcome of linguistic contact or clash between unrelated languages. Most creoles evolved from the rudimentary pidgins used in slave stations or plantations set up during the period of the European colonial expansion between the 17th and 19th centuries. A typical creole derives most of its vocabulary from a European language (Dutch, English, French, Portuguese or Spanish) but has a grammatical system heavily influenced by an African or Melanesian language. Most creoles are endangered languages. Until recently, they had very low social status, even among their own speakers, and most were unwritten. Historical linguists tend to see creoles as the result of “catastrophic” linguistic change, though once established creoles evolve like any other language; certainly they are a unique source of evidence on language birth.

Creoles related to French are concentrated in the Caribbean, Louisiana, the Mascarene Islands of the Indian Ocean and (a recent discovery) in New Caledonia. Haitian and Mauritian have the most speakers; Louisianan varieties are dying out rapidly. The Caribbean and Indian Ocean groups are heterogeneous, which has given rise to competing theories and controversies. The social status of creoles has improved in nation states, but many still have no official recognition or standard orthography; a prominent exception is Seychellois/Seselwa.

Areas needing research

Within Creole French, research is needed on

  • the synchronic structure (phonology, grammar, lexis, pragmatics) of most individual creole varieties
  • the evolution and comparative typology of regional subgroups (did they develop independently or were some exported later?)
  • the possible sources of vocabulary and grammatical expressions in regional/dialectal French
  • sociolinguistic patterns; speaker attitudes; reasons for endangerment; prospects for rehabilitation.
Wider issues include:
  • Are cognate creoles more similar to one another than to their respective European lexifiers? Or vice versa?
  • Are “creoles” still a valid synchronic category?
  • What are the implications and challenges of creolistics for traditional historical-comparative linguistics?

Where to start?

The Creole Web Site http://creoles.free.fr/ (maintained by the Groupe Européen de Recherches en Langues Créoles)

Bibliography

ALLEYNE, Mervyn C. (1996) Syntaxe historique créole Paris: Editions Karthala
BAKER, Philip (1995 ed.) From Contact to Creole and Beyond (Westminster Creolistics Series 1) London: University of Westminster
CHAUDENSON, Robert (1992) Des Îles, des hommes, des langues: langues créoles—cultures créoles Paris: L’Harmattan
CORNE, Chris (1999) From French to Creole. The development of new vernaculars in the French colonial world (Westminster Creolistics Series 5) London: University of Westminster
HAZAËL-MASSIEUX, Marie-Christine (1991) Bibliographie des études créoles Paris: Didier
HOLM, John (1988–1989) Pidgins and Creoles Vol. 1 Theory and Structure Vol. 2 Reference Survey Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
LEFEBVRE, Claire (1998) Creole Genesis and the Acquisition of Grammar (CSL 88), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
THOMASON, Sarah G. & Terence KAUFMAN (1988) Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics Berkeley–Los Angeles: University of California Press
VALDMAN, Albert (1997 ed) French and Creole in Louisiana New York: Plenum

Key journals:

Études Créoles
Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages

Dialectology

Timothy Pooley
London Guildhall
pooley@lgu.ac.uk

Map of the field

While the term “dialectology” may be somewhat misleading if construed simply in the sense of the description and mapping of traditional (largely rural) linguistic speech forms (cf. Tuaillon 1976), the study of regional language varieties — whether these are considered to be dialects of French or different languages — is an exciting area of study that has much common ground with sociolinguistics and the history of French.

The current regional language debate has raised awareness of the value and usefulness of these regional linguistic varieties which both divides public opinion and calls into question centuries of centralist language policies. The study of such dialects or languages is crucial to the understanding of the formation of regional varieties of French, in urban, peri-urban and rural settings.

Areas needing research

Although new researchers would not be well advised to embark on studies of traditional speech forms merely to produce descriptions of localised linguistic systems, linguists using such an aproach have provided us with much material, e.g. in the form of linguistic atlases, which could be studied in the light of more recently formulated approaches to tackle themes such as language contact and the analysis of mixed languages. The process of language death, particularly cases where the endangered language is (closely) related to the mainstream variety warrants further study, as does the contrast between largely descriptive Anglo-Saxon approaches (Grenoble & Whaley 1998) and the “committed” approach of French linguists such as Robert Lafont (1984).

Much potentially interesting work remains to be done on attitudes and perceptions of such stigmatised varieties using models developed by English-speaking linguists such as Giles or French linguists such as Houdebine (Imaginaire Linguistique), particularly in relation to the description of linguistic behaviour (Auzanneau 1999).

Bibliography

AUZANNEAU, M. (1999) « Le bilinguisme dialectal: un modèle d’analyse sociolinguistique appliquée à la situation poitevine » Plurilinguismes 17: 101–132
CHAMBERS, J. & TRUDGILL, P. (1980) Dialectology Cambridge: CUP
GILLIÉRON, J. & Edmont, E. (1902–10) Atlas linguistique de la France Paris: Champion
GILES, H. & COUPLAND, N. (1991) Language: contexts and consequences Milton Keynes: Open University Press
GRENOBLE, L. & WHALEY, L. (eds) (1998) Endangered Languages Cambridge: CUP
HOUDEBINE, A-M. (ed.) (1996) L’Imaginaire Linguistique Travaux de Linguistique 7: Université d’Angers
LAFONT, R. (1984) « Pour retrousser la diglossie » Lengas 15: 5–35
TRUDGILL, P. (1986) Dialects in Contact Oxford: Blackwell
TUAILLON, G. (1976) Comportements de recherche en dialectologie française Paris: CNRS

Discourse and Text Analysis

Carol Sanders
University of Surrey
c.sanders@surrey.ac.uk

Map of the field

Discourse analysis involves the analysis of long stretches of text within their communicative context. Some analysts reserve the term for oral language, and use “Text Analysis” for written language. In each case, one focus of research is on the linguistic markers which enable us to interpret the sequence of ideas in a continuous utterance, including markers of cohesion and coherence such as logical connectors, paragraph linking, or rhetorical patterning. In more general terms, the notion of “genre” or text-type is of great importance, helping us to understand the “shape” of different texts (political, didactic, fictional, business etc.) and the varying expectations that readers of different cultures bring to them. It is noticeable that British and French traditions in D.A. sometimes differ markedly. In the past, the French have often tended to take a more “macro” view (eg. looking at the larger features of a particular type of political discourse within its socio-historical context), while Anglophones looked, initially at least, at the linguistic detail. However, the “Critical Discourse” movement in Britain also places language in its socio-political context, attempting to reveal the “hidden agendas” that may lie behind (for example) advertising or journalism.

Areas in need of research

There is a wealth of topics, both practical and theoretical, both monolingual and contrastive, for example:

  • different cohesion markers in spoken v. written French
  • male–female discourse differences in French
  • contrastive analysis of discourse structure (eg. journalistic/scientific etc. French/English)
  • contrastive analysis of differing cultural expectations, eg. French/English expectations of a televised political discussion, or of an academic essay
  • histories and implications of different theoretical approaches

Bibliography

Le Francais dans le Monde n° spéc. « Le Discours: Enjeux et Perspectives » juillet 1996 (contributions by Bonnafous & Charaudeau, Maingueneau, Moirand, and Sanders could be consulted among others)
MAINGUENEAU, D. (1991) L’Analyse du Discours Paris: Hachette
VAN DIJK, T. ed. (1997) Discourse as Structure and Process London: Sage
(This is volume 1 of Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction; vol. 2 is also of interest, but is less linguistic)

Francophone Linguistics

Gertrud Aub-Buscher
University of Hull
g.e.buscher@selc.hull.ac.uk

Map of the field

“Francophone linguistics” refers to the study of language and language use in the whole French-speaking world. Technically this includes France, but in practice the term is applied almost exclusively to French outside France — its forms and structures, its geographical distribution, its role in areas where it is not the only language present, and its relationship, historical and synchronic, with metropolitan French. (French-lexifier Creoles, which are sometimes included under this heading, are dealt with separately in this booklet — see the contribution by John Green.).

Serious interest in this field is relatively recent and coverage tends to be somewhat patchy. Some areas, chiefly in Europe and Canada, have been the subject of systematic studies and major research projects, examining phonology, morpho-syntax, lexicon and semantics as well as social and geographical variation (including detailed dialect studies). Elsewhere, scholars have concentrated on particular aspects (principally the lexicon and sociolinguistic phenomena), leaving a great deal of work to be done.

Areas where detailed studies would be particularly welcome include:

  • The development of regional standards
  • Variation of French within francophone countries
  • Discourse and pragmatic features of French outside France
  • (Comparative) semantic studies
  • Phonology (segmental as well as prosodic features) of French in sub-Saharan Africa
  • Morphosyntax of French in sub-Saharan Africa
  • French in the Pacific
  • French in the diaspora (e.g. in North America outside Quebec and Louisiana)
  • Features of the local standard French in areas where a French-speaking Creole is the native language of most of the population

Bibliography

HAUT CONSEIL DE LA FRANCOPHONIE (ongoing) État de la Francophonie dans le monde Paris: La Documentation Française
ROBILLARD, Didier de, & BENIAMINO, Michel (eds) (1993, 1996) Le Français dans l’espace francophone : description linguistique et sociolinguistique de la francophonie 2 vols Paris: Champion
VALDMAN, Albert (ed) (1979) Le Français hors de France Paris: Champion

Gender and Language

Marie-Marthe Gervais-le Garff
South Bank University
gervaimm@sbu.ac.uk

Map of the field

Gender and Language is one of the most recent branches of sociolinguistics studies. Slow to be recognised in the UK, it only began to generate interest in France in the 80s but so far little research has been undertaken in the field of gender and French. More research has been carried out in other francophone countries, particularly French Canada and Belgium, in the field of the feminisation of language. The origin of this discipline goes back to anthropologists who reported linguistic sex differentiation in non-European languages. Following the publication of Robin Layoff’s influential Language in Women’s place (1975), linguistic sexism appeared on syllabuses and proliferation of research ensued in North America, on women’s words, voice, interruptions, conversational styles, stereotyping, public talk, and variationist studies which lead to the deficit, dominance and difference theories. More recently, research has focused on discourse, gender identity and the political correctness debate. You will find few references to French in books on Gender and Language due partly to the paucity of work carried out so far.

Areas in need of research

  • the feminisation of French in French-speaking countries
  • gender stereotyping in French
  • gender in the language of advertising / politics etc.
  • gender issues and language policy in Francophone countries and in France
  • second language learners’ acquisition of grammatical gender in French
  • gender and conversational interaction in French
  • gender and discourse in French
  • translation and gender
  • gender as a sociolinguistic variable in spoken French
  • the use of gender-inclusive or gender-neutral language in French politics, in the media, in academe, or in any other domain
  • listeners/readers decoding of the so-called generics (hommes, ils)
  • the discourse of femininity / masculinity in women’s magazines
  • women and/in male dominated discourse (military, high finance)
  • French and the political correctness debate (a patriarchal language?)
  • male bias in standard French (semantics, grammar)
  • contemporary lexicography and gender
  • language institutions and gender
  • gender issues in the teaching/learning of French
  • turn-taking in public talk in French
  • reclaiming French

History of Linguistics and of Ideas of Language

Carol Sanders
University of Surrey
c.sanders@surrey.ac.uk

Map of the field

It is only relatively recently that the modern discipline of linguistics has started to concern itself seriously with its history, although there have always been linguists and historians of ideas who have traced the ancestry of contemporary views of language. Research in this area will appeal to linguists wishing to link their discipline to others, or to intellectual historians who wish to engage in a multi-disciplinary exploration of the thought of a particular period. There are some periods for which the common concerns of linguists, philosophers and other thinkers are especially obvious: those wishing to follow in well-trodden paths would do well to look at seventeenth or eighteenth century French thought. Other periods, such as the nineteenth century, are wide open for research; for the twentieth century, there is a need for serious interdisciplinary work by researchers with a proper background in linguistics. As well as a particular period, it is possible to take a particular theme, intellectual tradition or an individual thinker, or alternatively to chart aspects of the history of a branch of linguistics in a particular school, university or country.

Examples of topics

  • nineteenth century linguistic and literary naturalism
  • the contribution of certain “minor” twentieth century French linguists
  • the origins and evolution of the notion of « énonciation » in French linguistics
  • the history of sociolinguistics in France
  • the uses and abuses of Saussurean langue/parole (for example) in literary criticism/social science writing
  • the reception of American linguistic ideas in France

Bibliography

AUROUX, S. ed. (1989–92) Histoire des idées linguistiques vols 1&2 Liège: Mardaga
(A thematic history; vol.3 on the nineteenth century to appear shortly)
CHISS, J.-L. & PUECH, C. (1997) Fondations de la linguistique Louvain-la-Neuve: Duculot (An excellent overview of the impact of aspects of twentieth century linguistics on French thought)
LEPSCHY, G. (ed.) (1994–8) History of Linguistics 4 vols. London: Longman (The volume on the twentieth century still has to appear in English, but is available in the original Italian version)

History of the Language

A. Lodge
University of St Andrews
anthony.lodge@st-and.ac.uk

Map of the field

History of the language is potentially the largest of the sub-branches of French linguistic studies, for each of the others has a diachronic as well as a synchronic dimension.

Traditionally, “History of the language” has two aspects to it: an internal and an external. Internal linguistics concerns itself with the evolution of the phonetic, grammatical, and lexical systems of French, while external linguistics concerns itself with the changing relationship between French language and the various French-speaking societies across the world. This distinction is a useful one, but it is nowadays frequently challenged, particularly by sociolinguists who see changes within the linguistic system as being directly affected by changes in society.

Areas in need of research

  • the vocabulary of non-literary medieval texts (in French and anglo-Norman)
  • language variation in medieval Occitan
  • place-names and surnames
  • dialect texts from the early modern period
  • the writings of the semi-educated (17th–20th centuries)
  • diffusion of the French standard language into particular provinces of France
  • the development of technical vocabularies (17th–20th centuries)
  • evidence of vernacular speech in grammars and dictionaries
  • swearing and taboo in French since medieval times
  • evolution of devices for topicalisation

Bibliography

AYRES-BENNETT, W. (1996) A History of the French Language through Texts London: Routledge
CHAURAND, J. (1998) Nouvelle Histoire de la langue française Paris: Seuil
LODGE, R. A. (1993) French: from Dialect to Standard London: Routledge

Key journals:

Revue de linguistique romane
Romania
Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie
Language Variation & Change
Langue française

Language Learning and Residence Abroad


Jim Coleman
University of Portsmouth
jim.coleman@port.ac.uk

Map of the field

Of the many objectives of residence abroad, the one most commonly cited by the million plus students who undertake it each year is to improve linguistic skills. Research into learning a foreign language, whether in natural or tutored circumstances, belongs to Second Language Acquisition (SLA). SLA is a vast field, last mapped in encyclopedic manner by Ellis (1994); Ellis has also recently published an introduction (1997). Theories tend to address different aspects of SLA (Mitchell & Myles 1998) and are hard to bring together (but see Spolsky 1989, Towell & Hawkins l994). Residence abroad, unusually, draws on research into both tutored SLA (because it falls within a structured programme, and often students are provided in advance with learning tasks and strategies) and naturalistic SLA (because the learner is typically immersed in the foreign language community, with most input coming from the environment rather than formal classes). Researchers therefore draw on work with immigrants (such as Schumann’s acculturation theory) and on studies of tutored autonomous learners.

Plotting the many factors influencing the linguistic outcome, Coleman (1997) identified biographical, linguistic, cognitive and affective categories before departure, and circumstantial variables while abroad. The multiple, uncontrollable factors mean that a fully comprehensive study is impractical, and the research methodology tends to be more qualitative than quantitative. Findings to date suggest:

  • Overall proficiency improves faster through L2land residence than through L2 tuition in L1land
  • Initially less proficient students make faster progress
  • Students have false expectations, believing they will integrate easily and their L2 proficiency will increase automatically
  • Students who rely on formal language classes do less well than those who are less assiduous but socialise a lot with L2landers
  • Interactive contact benefits lower-level learners more than advanced-level learners; receptive contact (TV, radio, books, newspapers, films) the opposite
  • In order of average benefit, work placements are preferred to assistantships, with university study least beneficial
  • Preparatory training can help by developing students’ learning strategies, underlining the need to seek out interactive contact with L2landers
Certain language skills improve more than others:
  • little or no morpho-syntactic gain
  • big vocabulary gains
  • little gain in reading, still less in writing
  • big gains in oral-aural skills, big gains in fluency — speed, self- correction, articulation rate, phonation/time ratio, phonology, communication strategies, filled or reduced pauses
  • increased sociolinguistic skills
Overall, students become more fluent and more acceptable to native speakers, but do not improve their grammatical competence. Progress is linked to attitudes, strategies and behaviour.

Areas in need of research

  • development of a bank of valid, reliable, economic measures of all aspects of language proficiency gain
  • studies of individual variables such as degree and type of interaction with native speakers
  • studies of how individual language skills (e.g. writing, fluency) develop
  • studies of the impact of teaching designed to affect learners’ beliefs about how languages are learnt, or to offer them effective strategies for learning
  • whether and how teaching can help students progress in reading and writing while abroad
  • studies of correlations between language progress and learner preparation, learner attitudes or learners’ intercultural competence.

Bibliography

COLEMAN, J.A. (1997) “Residence abroad within language study” Language Teaching 30, 1: 1–20
ELLIS, R. (1994) The Study of Second Language Acquisition Oxford: OUP
ELLIS, R. (1997) Second Language Acquisition Oxford: OUP
FREED, B. (ed.) (1995) Second language acquisition in a study abroad context Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins
PARKER, G., & ROUXEVILLE, A. (eds.) (1995) “The Year Abroad”: Preparation, Monitoring, Evaluation, Current Research and Development London: AFLS/CILT
TOWELL, R. & HAWKINS, R. (1994) Approaches to Second-Language Acquisition Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
A searchable bibliography of research into residence abroad is at: http://www.hum.port.ac.uk/slas/rapport

Language Learning Theory

Florence Myles
University of Southampton
fjm@soton.ac.uk

Research in Language Learning Theory is primarily interested in two things:

  • the construction of a theory of language learning, that is a theoretical framework which is able to investigate, analyse and ultimately explain how language(s) are learnt;
  • the application of theories which have evolved independently of the study of language learning, but which have then been applied to the field of language learning research. Such theories might be theories of learning (e.g. information processing models), or theories of language (e.g. Universal Grammar).
Relatively little is known about the learning of French, whether in a naturalistic context or in the classroom, and research is very much needed in order to deepen our understanding of the processes involved. Starting with a well-defined theoretical framework when researching language learning issues is essential in order to avoid some of the pitfalls of a poorly designed project, and in order to focus on some of the major questions currently of interest to the field.

The main theoretical frameworks which have been applied to the learning of language are outlined below, together with the kinds of research questions they are addressing.

1. Linguistic approaches to language learning

Such approaches see language learning primarily as the construction of a linguistic system. Different views of language will mean that the level of language being studied will vary, with some models or sub-models of language putting more emphasis on some of the following levels than others: syntax; phonology; lexicon; semantics; discourse; pragmatics.

Researchers use a given theory of language as a tool for analysing data and for drawing hypotheses about learner language which can then be tested empirically.

2. Cognitive approaches to language learning

Cognitive approaches come from psychology rather than linguistics and tend to be primarily concerned with the learning aspect of language learning. They will therefore apply general models of learning to the study of language learning, and will be interested in the role of individual variables, the development of fluency, the use of learning and communication strategies etc.

3. Functional / pragmatic approaches to language learning

Such approaches typically study how learners go about expressing meaning and achieving their communicative goals, placing the emphasis very much on the range of devices, lexical and pragmatic, which learners deploy in order to convey meaning. These communicative needs are seen as the driving force behind language development.

4. Sociocultural approaches to language learning

Researchers in this tradition view learning as essentially a social process, and view language primarily as a tool for thought. All knowledge (including linguistic knowledge) is constructed jointly by participants, before being appropriated by individuals. The focus of study is therefore on how such knowledge is constructed during interactions, for example by studying the role of scaffolding, private and inner speech, or self-regulation.

5. Sociolinguistic approaches to language learning

Sociolinguists interested in language learning are concerned with how social variables affect language use and learning. For example, issues such as power relations in L2 use, mismatches in cultural expectations, learners’ identity, affect and emotion in L2 use, pidginisation and acculturation, and the socialisation process in the L2 context, will be the focus of study.

This is a very brief summary of the most prominent current theoretical frameworks used in this field. Given the wide range of research questions that this field is addressing, it is very important to start with a well-defined hypothesis originating from a theoretical model. It then becomes much easier to design a project which will be able to investigate adequately the diverse areas listed in the section on Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition.

Bibliography

MITCHELL, R. & MYLES, F. (1998) Second Language Learning Theories London: Arnold
LIGHTBOWN, P. & SPADA, N. (1993) How Languages are learned Oxford: OUP
TOWELL, R. & HAWKINS, R. (1994) Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
ELLIS, R. (1994) The Study of Second Language Acquisition Oxford: OUP

Key journals:

Studies in Second Language Acquisition
Language Learning
Second Language Research
Applied Linguistics

Language Policy

Dennis Ager
72 Buryfield Road, SOLIHULL B91 2DQ
D.E.Ager@aston.ac.uk

Map of the field

Language planning and language policy (i.e. planning done by official bodies) has a long and distinguished history in France. State involvement with language runs from the Villers-Cotterêts Edicts of 1539, the founding of the French Academy in 1635 and the Revolution’s oppression of regional languages, to 19th century prioritisation of standard French and to the passage of the Toubon Law in 1995. Contemporary language policies reflect political and social priorities in issues of social cohesion, international development, European policy and cultural protectionism. In Quebec as in Brittany and Corsica, they are at the centre of independence movements. Language policy affects the status of French (creation of the official norm, rejection of stigmatised varieties, policy towards other languages); its corpus (approval or rejection of language change (Madame la Ministre, auteure?), terminology and neologisms); and acquisition (what is taught, how correctness is defined, how parents, peers and schools form the citizen). We know quite a lot about the formal actions (laws, decrees) and about specific phenomena like Franglais, but a lot less about why planning has been done, how, who did it, what the effect has been on language use and how the French approach compares with other countries. And, of course, how effective the “French” approach is.

Areas in need of research

  • language attitudes in France and Francophone countries (motives)
  • social stigmatisation of some varieties like (some) regional languages and dialects, (some) urban vernaculars, (some) foreign accents
  • which linguistic items have been the subject of planning (Anglicisms, vulgar language, specialised terminologies, sexist language)
  • (linguistic, social and political) construction of the linguistic norm
  • regional language policy
  • history and nature of relationships between actors in language policy-making (politicians, institutions like the Academy, industry, the Press, intelligentsia)
  • relationships between Francophone countries in language policy-making
  • effectiveness of language planning and language policy
  • planning and policy for particular groups (women, immigrants)
  • educational planning for French, for foreign languages and for (the elimination of) some social varieties.
  • language policy and issues like Europe, cultural policy, or the Francophonie movement.

Bibliography

AGER, D. E. (1999) Identity, Insecurity and Image. France and Language Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
CERTEAU, M. de., JULIA, P. & REVEL, J. (1975) Une politique de la langue: la Révolution et les patois Paris: Gallimard
KAPLAN, R. B. & BALDAU, R. B. (1997) Language Planning from practice to theory Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
MARLEY, D., HINTZE, M.-A. & PARKER, G. (eds.) (1998) Linguistic Identities and Policies in the French-speaking World London: AFLS/CILT

Key journals:

International Journal of the Sociology of Language
Language Problems and Language Planning
Langage et Société

Language Testing

Jim Coleman
University of Portsmouth
jim coleman@port.ac.uk

Map of the field

Language testing is not only a research field in itself: proficiency tests are also a key element of most research into second language acquisition. To test someone’s proficiency in a foreign language requires, first of all, a clear notion of what constitutes “proficiency”, and, second, a measuring tool which is reliable, practical and valid. Bachman (1990) is a good point at which to enter discussions of how to define proficiency. For many researchers — and indeed for the majority of language professionals — it is enough to appreciate the basics of language testing:

  • what is reliability and how can we seek to maximise it?
  • what do we mean by face validity, content validity, construct validity, and how can we measure them?
  • how do the different functions fulfilled by language tests — placement, diagnosis, progress, achievement, proficiency measurement — determine the features of the test itself?
  • what makes a good test item?
Hughes (1989) is an excellent overall manual, and there are also guides to testing individual skills, such as Underhill’s (1987) Testing Spoken Language.

Undertaking actual research in language testing requires solid proficiency in statistics, but for those using testing in SLA studies, an introductory guide such as Woods, Fletcher & Hughes (1986) will be demanding enough. Current research directions include statistical modelling, ethical validity and computer-adaptive testing. For further information, there is a an International Language Testing Association (ILTA) grouping the world’s leading researchers, the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) for practitioners, a focused research journal Language Testing, the more newsy Language Testing Update edited at Lancaster, a very lively electronic discussion list LTEST-L(@LISTS.PSU.EDU, and an informative web site at http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ELI/ltrframe.html including FAQ (frequently asked questions) in video format.

Bibliography

BACHMAN, L.F. (1990) Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing Oxford: OUP
HUGHES, A. (1990) Testing for Language Teachers Cambridge: CUP
UNDERHILL, N. (1987) Testing Spoken Language. A Handbook of Oral Testing Techniques Cambridge: CUP
WOODS, A., FLETCHER, P. & HUGHES, A. (1986) Statistics in Language Studies Cambridge: CUP

Learner Autonomy

E.M. Esch
University of Cambridge
eme10@cus.cam.ac.uk

Map of the field

“Learner autonomy” cannot be described as a field of research. Rather, it is a topic which, depending on the way the words “learner” and “autonomy” are conceptualised, can be of interest to applied linguists interested in the methodology of language learning and teaching, Second Language Acquisition researchers, language policy makers, or those interested in the sociology of knowledge.

“Autonomy” is a generic characteristic, independent of whether individuals are learning languages or not, but there are a number of language specific issues. The most fundamental one is that the very purpose of language (as opposed to, say, geography) is to link a producer and a recipient — a constraint on autonomy. Other theoretical issues concern the fact that the concept of autonomous learner is predicated on that of personal identity, which is itself a culturally-laden concept.

Areas in need of research

With the rise of self-access systems, a frequent conceptualisation of learner autonomy is that of the methodology of self-directed learning in situations where students are working on their own or “independently”. The following are typical questions. In view of our general ignorance about the psychological and social conditions which help or prevent learning for particular individuals there is a need for carefully thought out studies.

  • How to account for students’ individual differences ?
  • How to describe students’ behaviour and strategies (both learning and communication strategies)?
  • Is it possible/ useful/efficient to teach specific strategies to learners?
  • How to take into account cultural differences between learners?
  • How to support learners in such a way that their motivation is sustained?
  • How to organise things in such a way that students are not isolated (collaborative learning can be encouraged between peers)?
  • What counts as “progress”’ in autonomy? Is it at all possible to assess autonomous learning?
  • Is is possible to have access to the barriers against second language learning by analysing learners’ discourse?
  • How does learners’ discourse reflect their representations?
  • Does conscious reflection on one’s experience of learning help students become more independent?
  • How is the teacher-student relation affected by the promotion of learner autonomy?
  • Under what conditions do new technologies help students become able to take charge of their own learning?
  • Is self-instruction (or self-instructional materials) relevant to the issue of learner autonomy?

Bibliography

BENSON Ph. & P. VOLLER (eds.) (1997) Autonomy and Independence in Language Learning London: Longman
DUDA, R. & RILEY (eds.) (1990) Learning Styles Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy
LITTLE, D. (1991) Learner Autonomy: Definitions, Issues and Problems Dublin: Authentik
PEMBERTON R. et al. (eds.) (1996) Taking Control: Autonomy in Language Learning. Hong Kong: Hong Kong UP
TUDOR, I. (1996) Learner-centredness as Language Education Cambridge: CUP
VAN LIER, L. (1996) Interaction in the Language Curriculum: Awareness, Autonomy and Authenticity London: Longman

Learning Grammar

Monique L’Huillier
Royal Holloway, University of London
m.l’huillier@rhbnc.ac.uk

What is grammar?

It is the set of structures that characterise a language, i.e. morphology and syntax, but also phonetics and phonology, spelling, lexicon, and all that is linked to the semantic interpretation of forms and structures. Grammar can be studied synchronically (i.e. looking at the language at one particular stage of its development: usually the stage reached at the moment of writing!) or diachronically (i.e. looking at the development of the language: its passage from one state to another).

Why research in grammar? Hasn’t everything been said about it? Far from it. Most modern pedagogical grammars are both prescriptive and descriptive in that they describe what should be said or written (cf Le Bon Usage) but also what is really said or written by native speakers in various contexts. These “deviations” are very important in that they help shed light on the ways the language might evolve.

A particular difficulty for the learner is that grammar books (whatever their size!) are necessarily incomplete: they offer a summary of what goes on in a given language, expanding on the generally accepted and skimming over the exceptions. Hence students sometimes get frustrated when confronted by utterances for which they cannot find explanations in their grammar books. Those frustrations often correspond to

topics for research

. For instance:
· the use of the passé simple vs the passé composé:
° cases when they are used together in the same text
° cases when they compete with other tenses (e.g. present and/or future) in the same text describing past events
° the “revival” in spoken French of the passé simple and imperfect subjunctive (in particular on the radio)
· shifts in usage, for instance:
° the use of the indicative vs subjunctive after certain conjunctions
° the use of c’est + adjective + de rather than il est and, conversely, the use of il/elle est + indefinite article + noun rather than c’est
° the use of plural vs singular for “unique possessions” (e.g. Les femmes font de plus en plus attention à leurs corps vs leur corps)

Whenever a grammar book suggests that you can use indifferently structure A or B, it may be an over-generalisation which is worth investigating (e.g. Chiens et chats ne s’entendent guère vs Les chiens et les chats ne s’entendent guère).

Although it is debatable whether research into a particular language is best carried out by native speakers of that language, contrastive problems offer a huge choice of topics for research (e.g. how the ubiquitous on may be expressed in English or how the “–ing” form is expressed in French).

Finally, a lot still needs to be done on the specific features of spoken vs written French.

Bibliography

ARRIVE M., GADET F., GALMICHE F. (1986)

La Grammaire d’aujourd’hui

Paris: Flammarion
GRESILLON A., LEBRAVE J.L. (eds.) (1984)

La Langue au ras du texte

Lille: Presses Universitaires de Lille
L’HUILLIER M. (1999)

Advanced French Grammar

Cambridge: CUP
YAGUELLO M. (1991)

En écoutant parler la langue

Paris: Seuil

Key journal:

Faits de Langues Paris: Ophrys

There is also a useful collection which are not really journals and not really books:
L’Essentiel français (collection dirigée par Catherine Fuchs). Paris: Ophrys

Titles published so far include:

° La conséquence en français (1996)
° La concession en français (1996)
° Les ambiguïtés du français (1996)
° Les formes conjuguées du verbe français (1997)

Morphology and Syntax

D.M. Engel
University of Wales Swansea
d.engel@swansea.ac.uk

Map of the field

French grammar is a major area of linguistic research. Approaches may be synchronic or diachronic, theoretical or applied. Researchers may focus on areas of morphology and syntax in the standard, in varieties of French spoken around the world, in regional languages and dialects spoken within France. As such, morphology and syntax are also of concern to historical linguists, applied linguists and sociolinguists.

Normally a distinction is made between morphology, which is concerned with the forms of words, and syntax, which studies the structure of sentences. However, there is an important overlap between these two areas. Furthermore, many phenomena of interest to grammarians cross the boundaries between phonology and morphology, syntax and semantics, or syntax and discourse analysis. Despite the wealth of research already undertaken in this field, there is much to be done in the light of advances in theoretical approaches, information technology, and constant linguistic change and variation.

Areas in need of research

  • second language grammar teaching
  • grammatical forms and structures in français populaire, regional varieties, francophone varieties
  • auxiliary selection and verbal agreement
  • word order in modern spoken French
  • syntactic structures in various media (e-mail, television…)
  • computational models of syntax
  • Universal Grammar and the grammar of French

Bibliography

BATTYE, A. & HINTZE, M.-A. (1992) The French Language Today London: Routledge
JONES, M.A. (1996) Foundations of French Syntax Cambridge: CUP
LODGE, R.A. et al (1997) Exploring the French Language London: Arnold

Key journals:

Journal of French Language Studies
Langages
Le Français moderne
Revue Romane

Phonetics and Phonology

R. Sampson
University of Bristol
rodney.sampson@bristol.ac.uk

Map of the field

Both phonetics and phonology investigate the characteristics of speech. The former deals with its physical nature, while the latter considers how languages organise and pattern the range of sounds which they contain for the purposes of communication.

Although the phonetics and phonology of French have received a good deal of attention in the past, the focus has traditionally been somewhat limited. Typically, only the standard variety has been explored in any depth, and it has been common to find some unwillingness to draw on approaches developed outside France. Whilst a number of research areas still await exploration within the traditional focus, the rise of general theoretical linguistics and sociolinguistics has opened up many new possibilities for investigation. These may relate to more theoretical aspects involving the interpretation of speech data in the light of a particular model of description or they may concern projects of a more practical nature using fieldwork or laboratory-based research.

Areas in need of research

  • Prosodic characteristics of speech (intonation, rhythm, etc.)
  • Regional patterns of spoken French, from a formal or sociolinguistic perspective
  • Phonetic properties of spoken French (voice onset timing, co-articulation, etc.)
  • Interaction between written and spoken patterns of usage
  • Phonological adaptation of Anglicisms
  • On-going phonological evolution in the present-day spoken language

Semiotics

Robert Crawshaw
University of Lancaster
r.crawshaw@lancaster.ac.uk

Map of the field

The aims of Semiology were prospectively defined in 1915 by de Saussure (1973: 33) as « une science qui étudie la vie des signes au sein de la vie sociale [qui] formerait une partie de la psychologie sociale. Elle nous apprendrait en quoi consistent les signes, quelles lois les régissent ». The field was given impetus by the rediscovery of the work of the 19th century American philosopher, Charles Sanders Peirce and later by the Tel Quel movement in France in the 1960s. Following Saussure, the central tenet of semiotics during this latter period was that the underlying structure of language could be extended by analogy to the symbolic organisation of society as a whole. Images and icons had meaning which went beyond the object which they represented and could only be explained as instruments of myth creation with reference to other symbols within the same community of signs. As a field of research, semiotics has tended to consider the use of language as a visual artefact, the interaction between the linguistic sign and other forms of signification within the same image and the manner in which language interacts with behaviour, dress and design within corporate organisations and social communities. Research has not only dealt with the present and the recent past. It has also considered the relationship between text and image in representing cultures at particular moments in history. Scientific advance (the digital revolution), the increasing mixing of the visual and the verbal in society and the closer attention given to the notions of identities, community and context have given semiotics a new focus.

Areas in need of research

The scope for research in semiotics is vast and increasing. It ranges from the analysis of postage stamps, through historical studies of typography to the interpretation of digital imaging and fashion design. Research can be purely textual and speculative in that it involves the interpretation of interrelationships between signs considered in conjunction with factual information about modes of composition, and social contexts, or it may be empirical involving data gathered in the field, typically reader/viewer responses.. The most popular object of study has been advertisements but there is a need to consider other areas of social life which integrate linguistic and visual symbols such as corporate designs and logos, the construction of political and cultural campaigns, and the forms of verbal and visual expression which define the identity of different groups in French society.

Bibliography

DE SAUSSURE, F. (1973) Cours de linguistique générale Paris: Payot
HAWKES, T. (1989) Structuralism and Semiotics London: Routledge
PEIRCE, C. S. (1873) “On the nature of signs” in HOOPES, J. (ed.) (1991) Peirce on Signs: writings on semiotics by Charles Sanders Peirce North Carolina UP: 141–143
SILVERMAN, K. (1983) The Subject of Semiotics Oxford: OUP

Key journals:

French Cultural Studies
Image
Semiotica
Word

Sociolinguistics

Aidan Coveney
University of Exeter
A.B.Coveney@ex.ac.uk

Map of the field

The scope of sociolinguistics, understood in its broadest sense, is perhaps not quite as large as in the early days of the discipline in the 1960s: in this broadest sense, the sub-discipline can be understood as embracing the study of almost all aspects of spoken language. However, areas such as Conversation Analysis, Socio-Pragmatics and the study of Language Attitudes have to some extent established themselves as separate sub-disciplines. A common view would perhaps be that the central concern of sociolinguistics is the analysis of linguistic change in progress and of socially and stylistically significant variation, and that the dominant methodology is that pioneered by William Labov. But bilingual behaviour, notably language choice and code-switching, has also always been of great interest to sociolinguists, and gender and discourse have been major growth areas recently. For various reasons, relatively little Labovian variationist research on French has so far been carried out by French scholars themselves. In contrast, much work of this type has been carried out in Quebec, and there is a growing number of studies on metropolitan French by researchers from other countries. Data collection and analysis in variationist sociolinguistics are extremely time-consuming and it is crucial to keep the scope of a project manageable and clearly defined. An advantage of working within the Labovian paradigm is that the methods and principles have been highly systematised and provide a clear procedure for newcomers.

Areas in need of research

  • sociolinguistic surveys of variation in more areas (especially in France, Belgium, Switzerland)
  • the relationship between social (class-based) and regional variation
  • the extent to which social variation exists at the levels of phonology, grammar, lexis and discourse
  • the extent to which linguistic changes currently in progress suggest convergence or divergence of varieties within France (and elsewhere)
  • code-switching and language choice among various bilingual and bi-dialectal communities

Bibliography

BOYER, H. (1991) Éléments de sociolinguistique Paris: Dunod
CHAMBERS, J. (1995) Sociolinguistic theory: linguistic variation and its social significance Oxford: Blackwell
DAVELUY, M. (1994) Culture 14 (2) (special issue on variationist work in Montreal)
FASOLD, R. (1990) Sociolinguistics of language Oxford: Blackwell
GADET, F. (1996) « Variabilité, variation, variété: le français d’Europe » JFLS 6: 75–98
HUDSON, R. (1996) Sociolinguistics (2nd edition) Cambridge: CUP
LABOV, W. (1994) Principles of linguistic change vol. 1: Internal factors Oxford: Blackwell (vol. 2: Social factors due November 1999)
MILROY, L. (1987) Observing and analysing natural language Oxford: Blackwell
MOREAU, M.-L. (ed.) (1997) Sociolinguistique: concepts de base Brussels: Mardaga
TRUDGILL, P. (1986) Dialects in contact Oxford: Blackwell

Key journals:

Journal of French Language Studies
Journal of Sociolinguistics
Langage et société
Language in Society
Language Variation & Change

Stylistics

Anne Judge
University of Surrey
a.judge@surrey.ac.uk

Map of the Field

The term “style” may be interpreted in a number of ways. It commonly refers to the manner of expression characteristic of a particular writer (as in Buffon’s celebrated formulation that « le style, c’est l’homme »), or of a literary group or a period. In cases like this, the task facing the researcher is to determine the set of distinctive linguistic characteristics that identify that author, group of authors, or period. Such studies may be approached from either a synchronic or a diachronic point of view and are essentially descriptive. However, they may include an evaluative element — the researcher may choose to highlight what makes somebody’s writing stand out in terms of excellence or otherwise (as for instance Pope’s “Proper words in proper places”). This traditional approach to style limited stylistics to literature, but there is no theoretical reason to exclude non-literary language and not to study the features which characterise legal, journalistic, scientific or indeed any other kind of style linked with a specific domain.

Another type of stylistic analysis starts from langue rather than parole and considers the choices at the disposal of the writer. This is what Bally called « la stylistique des moyens d’expression ». A fundamental concept in stylistics is that of choice within the linguistic resources (lexical, rhetorical, grammatical or phonological) available. Choice may be seen at the level of the user, as indicated above, but it may also be seen in terms of the language itself. For example, several tenses may be available in a given context to refer to the same point in time, e.g. in certain contexts the present tense could be used to refer either to the present or future. The study of register (particularly in relation to lexis) and the study of figures of speech also come under this heading. Since the aim of the style-as-choice approach is to isolate the unconscious stylistic potential of la langue commune, literary texts were originally excluded, on the grounds that literature represents a consciously aesthetic and personal use of language. This led to a distinction between the study of “style”, which referred to specific texts or authors or genres, and “stylistics”, which referred to the stylistic potential of a given language. Nowadays both approaches come under the heading “stylistics”.

Areas needing research

The linguistic study of literary authors is well established, but research, both from a synchronic and diachronic point of view, on the linguistic characteristics of special non-literary domains would be particularly useful. Work has been carried out on the language of journalism, which is in itself a vast field, but on little else. Also, next to nothing is known on the stylistic characteristics of the spoken language within these specific domains.

Where la langue commune is concerned, far more research has been carried out, particularly in the domain of tenses, but all aspects of grammar where choice is possible remain open to study. Clearly the line between grammar and stylistics is a fine one, since the aim is to discover the stylistic potential of particular grammatical forms. Again, much work is needed into stylistic variation in the spoken language.

Bibliography

AYRES-BENNETT, W & O’DONOVAN, P (eds) (1995) Syntax and the Literary System: New Approaches to the Interface between Literature and Linguistics Cambridge: Burlington Press (a synthesis of a number of approaches)
BELLARD-THOMSON, C. A. (1992) The Literary Stylistics of French Manchester: MUP
COLEMAN, A.C. & CRAWSHAW, R. (eds) (1994) Discourse Variety in Contemporary French, Descriptive and pedagogical approaches London: AFLS/CILT
(presents a variety of problems and approaches)
FLEISCHMAN, S. & WAUGH, L.R. (eds.) (1991) Discourse pragmatics and the verb London: Routledge
GADET, F (1997 2nd ed.) Le Français ordinaire Paris: Armand Colin
(a good introduction to the spoken language aspect of the problem and contains an excellent bibliography)
GUIRAUD, P (1979 9th ed) La Stylistique. Paris: PUF (Que sais-je ?)
(a good introduction to the field as a whole)
JUDGE, A & LAMOTHE, S (1995) Stylistic developments in literary and non-literary French prose Studies in French Literature Volume 19 Lewiston / Queenston / Lampeter: Edwin Mellen (a diachronic and synchronic approach to the development of the stylistic potential of French as a whole in a variety of contexts)
MOLINIÉ, G. (1989) La Stylistique Paris: PUF (Que sais-je ?)
(a more up-to date approach than Guiraud 1979)
VAN BUUREN, M.B. (ed.) (1997) Actualité de la stylistique Amsterdam: Rodopi (on the relevance of stylistics, with articles illustrating a number of approaches)
VOGELEER, S., BORILLO, A, VETTERS, C. & VUILLAUME, M. (eds) (1998) Temps et discours, Louvain-la-Neuve: Peeters
Articles in Cahiers Chronos edited by Carl Vetters, Rodopi, Amsterdam. So far four volumes have been published.

Translation Studies

Ian Mason
Heriot-Watt University
I.Mason@hw.ac.uk

Map of the field

Translation Studies, an emerging and vigorous (inter)discipline over the last twenty years or so, is of course by no means restricted to the French/English language pair; indeed many studies adopt a non-language-specific approach to the study of translating as social and cultural activity. Among the prominent and productive areas of current research, we can distinguish:

  • Think-aloud protocols (TAPS), an attempt to gain access to the processing of texts as it takes place in the mind of the translator
  • Cultural studies: translations as vehicles of cultures, cultural values, dominant ideologies, particularly in a post-colonial context
  • Text linguistics, critical linguistics and discourse processing: attempts to deepen our understanding of the ways in which users of texts (including translators as a special category) interact with each other and relay meaning (across linguistic and cultural boundaries)
  • Descriptive Translation Studies: attempts to formulate and test hypotheses relating to (actual rather than normative) translator behaviour by analysing translation products as entities in their own right
  • Skopos theory: study of the process of translating as a purpose-driven activity, rather than necessarily a source-text driven activity
  • Contrastive studies: studies of translator behaviour in particular language pairs
These sub-areas within the field are by no means mutually exclusive and insights from any one can fruitfully be applied to any other.

Areas in need of research (French/English perspective)

  • Norms of translator behaviour, especially by the compilation of large machine-readable corpora
  • The reception of translations (immediate response, verbal recall, operational effectiveness)
  • Empirical, non-normative studies of translating in various fields (screen, stage, cartoon, etc.) and modes (simultaneous, consecutive, dialogue interpreting, etc.)

Vocabulary

Malcolm Offord
Department of French, University of Nottingham
Malcolm.offord@nottingham.ac.uk

Words have exercised a permanent fascination on all language users – whether it be Roald Dahl’s Big Friendly Giant, who just couldn’t get them to work properly in his everyday use or Victor Hugo with his emotional outburst on le verbe in his poetry or Jean-Paul Sartre with his philosophical ruminations in Les Mots. Recent research in French shows the diverse nature of the subject: a study of the vocabulary of pain, the names of the robin in Gallo-Romance, a dictionary of French spoonerisms or of the language of emotion and eroticism, the etymology of canif, are a small selection of the topics tackled in the last few years. In addition to “pure” studies of this type, vocabulary studies may cross with almost every other aspect of language study. In view of the number of new dictionaries and new editions of old editions appearing annually, it is clear that the word industry has never been more productive — and more in need of research!

Areas which invite investigation are:


· Historical
° diachronic or synchronic approaches: etymology
° the vocabulary of a particular period /of a particular region / of a particular user or group of users (literary or non-literary figures)
° surviving archaisms
· Individual studies
° “the vocabulary of so-and-so” / particular stylistic practices
· Francophonia
° usage outside metropolitan France
· Medium and register
° differences between oral and written modes
° slang, verlan
· Specialist lexis
° e.g. the vocabulary of IT, of the press, of literature
· Word formation
° morphological devices
· Neologisms
· Sociolinguistic
° the role of the Académie française, commissions de terminologie, and other agencies in monitoring and proposing French vocabulary

Bibliography

MITTERAND, H (1968) Les Mots français Paris: PUF (Que sais-je ? )
RICKARD, P (1989) A History of the French Language London: Hutchinson
WISE, H. (1997) The Vocabulary of Modern French London: Routledge

Key journal:

Cahiers de lexicologie. Paris: Didier Érudition

Corpus linguistics

Raphael Salkie
University of Brighton
r.m.salkie@brighton.ac.uk

A corpus (plural corpora) is simply a large collection of authentic language data: for spoken language this usually means either tape recordings or transcripts, and for written language it involves texts or extracts from texts. Nowadays corpora are usually stored as electronic files, and below I will say something about the advantages of using a computer. The key thing about corpora, however, is not their format but their size. A large corpus enables researchers to investigate issues in ways that are not possible using small amounts of data. In this context, “large” means “large enough to contain enough examples of whatever you are interested in to make useful statements about frequency”.

An example from Sweden

An example will make it clear why size is important. Corpus-based research in French linguistics has flourished for many years in Swedish universities. Swedish doctoral theses in this area are usually published: they are written in French with an abstract in English. One such study is Lars-Göran Sundell’s La coordination des propositions conditionnelles en français (Studia Romanica Upsaliensia 37: Uppsala, 1985). Sundell cites several standard French grammars, according to which a common strategy when conditional clauses are conjoined is to use que to introduce the second one, as in this example from Molière:

Ce serait une chose plaisante si les malades guérissaient et qu’on m’en vînt remercier.

Sundell uses as his corpus 115 volumes of French prose, mostly novels published after 1950 (they are listed in his bibliography). He found 207 instances of conjoined conditional clauses, of which 171 (83%) used si in both clauses, while only 36 (17%) used si in the first clause and que in the second clause. Sundell goes on to investigate whether there are recurrent semantic differences between si… et si constructions and si… et que constructions, and concludes that there are. He also looks at coordination of comme si… and même si… clauses and some similar constructions. For cases where the second clause is introduced by que, he analyses the choice of the subjunctive or indicative in the que-clause: again, contrary to what the standard grammars suggest, the subjunctive is far from obligatory: the figures are 60% subjunctive, 15% indicative and 25% ambiguous forms.

Sundell’s study illustrates several features of corpus-based research. Firstly, with his large corpus he found enough examples to make helpful statements about the frequency of different constructions. Secondly, his findings often conflicted with statements in standard French grammars. Thirdly, this quantitative research was supplemented by qualitative analysis of the meaning of different constructions. Finally, even if his conclusions may not stand the test of time, his data will: other researchers can look at the data that Sundell reproduces in his study, which is available for all time. Having said that, his corpus consists entirely of written literary texts; future research might look at a wider variety of texts, and possibly use a spoken corpus as well.

Why use a computer?

We can now turn to the reasons for using a computerised corpus as opposed to a printed one. Sundell had to read 115 French novels and look carefully for examples of the constructions that he was interested in. This may have been a culturally enriching activity: many lecturers in French departments would be delighted if their graduate students had read half as much French literature. More likely it was a time-consuming and tedious slog: his mind would always have been partly preoccupied with finding occurrences of the word si, and deciding whether it was degree modifier si (C’est si bon, etc.) in which case it is not relevant, or whether it was conditional si. He would then have to check each time whether there was another si or a que nearby. I should imagine that this took some of the richness out of the experience. It is also quite likely that Sundell missed a few examples simply because he was too busy enjoying the novel to notice its syntax. Finding examples in a large corpus is not something that humans are particularly good at: it is basically a trivial and repetitive task.

Computers, on the other hand, are extremely good at performing trivial, repetitive searches of large databases at lightning speed. It makes sense, where possible, to let the computer do this part and to leave the human mind with the activity that we are good at: analysing and interpreting complex arrays of evidence. The kind of data that Sundell needed is in fact quite easy to find in a computerised corpus using a CONCORDANCER, a piece of software which finds examples and displays them on the screen. One example of such software is MonoConc (see the end of this article for details). I used MonoConc to find examples of coordinated conditional clauses in the INTERSECT corpus, just over a million words of French, including literature and a variety of other text types (again, see below for details).

Any concordancer will allow you to search a corpus for a particular word or phrase. It would be possible to search for every instance of si in the corpus, but this would not be an efficient strategy. Firstly, that will give us many examples of si as a degree modifier, which we will have to eliminate manually one at a time. Secondly, si is a very common word in French, so we will find large numbers of examples: but we are only interested in the small proportion which contain another conditional clause near the first one — another tedious manual checking task. It is true that either of these methods is less work than reading through the whole corpus and marking relevant examples, but as we have seen, it is preferable in principle to let the computer do the routine searches.

We therefore need to ask MonoConc to find occurrences of si which are followed soon after by an occurrence of either et si or et que. Notice that if we ask the computer to find et que it will do exactly that, but then of course it will not tell us about instances where the form that occurs is in fact et qu’ because the next word begins with a vowel. Computers are reliable but stupid: they will do exactly what you tell them to, but they are incapable of figuring out that when you said que you actually meant either que or qu’ .

A more significant problem is posed by the words “followed soon” in the last but one paragraph. Obviously we don’t want to look for cases where et si comes immediately after si. If we tell the computer that at least one word must intervene between the first si and the word et, then we will probably find examples like si beau et si cruel — degree modifier si rather than conditional si. It seems that two intervening words is the relevant minimum: restricting our search in this way will pick up examples like Si tu arrives et si je ne suis pas là..., if they exist in the corpus — exactly what we are looking for.

MonoConc can be customised so that it will only look for examples with a minimum of two words between si and et, but unfortunately the maximum number of words that can intervene is nine. This is a pity, because in this case we don’t want to set a maximum. It is, however, a start.

Results of the corpus search

Searching in the INTERSECT corpus it took the computer about 30 seconds to find twenty examples of si… et si, such as:

En d’autres termes, [[si nous savons quel genre de monde nous voulons et si]] nous sommes prêts à travailler, il existe des occasions à saisir.

MonoConc then found eighteen examples of si… et que, for example:

[[Si vous n’avez pas fait de modifications et qu’il]] n’y a donc rien de nouveau à enregistrer, MacWrite ferme la fenêtre.

The numbers of examples of each construction are very similar, which is not what Sundell found. However, if we look at the source of the examples more closely, it turns out that many of them come from the Bible, which uses a style of French that is not typical of modern French prose. For si… et si exactly half the examples were from the Bible, and for si… et que no less than fifteen of the eighteen were biblical. If we leave these out then the corpus yielded ten examples of si… et si, compared to three of si… et que — much more in line with what Sundell found.

This is a small number of examples, of course, certainly too small to make useful quantitative statements as Sundell was entitled to do with his larger sample. I therefore did another search to see if the limit to nine intervening words had missed many instances. This time I simply searched for et si, which yielded 85 examples. I then examined each instance to see if there was another si anywhere to the left. This took a few minutes, but again it was far quicker than Sundell’s method, and the computer helped a little: using the search and replace facility in my word processor, I temporarily put every occurrence of si in bolded capitals. It was then an easy matter to scan the 85 examples and find further instances of our construction. One that I found was:

SI

D1, D2, D3 désignent les chiffres du code de destination du pays (ou du réseau) demandé, [[et si]] N1, N2, N3, etc., désignent les chiffres du poste demandé, la suite des signaux de sélection se présentera de la façon suivante.

Here there are 16 words between si and et si, so the first search did not pick up this example. In all this extra search found another 12 examples of the construction, making a total of 22 — again, two few to make quantitative statements. A larger corpus is clearly needed (more about this later). Before leaving this example, it is worth mentioning a couple of problematic instances that the concordancer found. Authentic texts often contain constructions which are not exactly the type that you had in mind. Consider this example:

Il convient de se demander

SI

le travail de la Sous-Commission contribue à étendre la pratique du bon voisinage [[et si]] la tâche confiée à cette dernière est essentiellement de nature juridique…

A moment’s examination reveals that these are not conditional clauses: the si here introduces a noun clause which is the complement of se demander. We would therefore not want to include such examples among our data, and we would have to define “conditional clause introduced by si” either on the basis of meaning, or in structural terms.
I also found an example containing three occurrences of si in sequence:

C’en est même agaçant;

SI

je me levais,

SI

j’arrachais ce disque du plateau qui le supporte [[et

SI

]] je le cassais en deux, je ne l’atteindrais pas, elle.

Here the placement of the first two si clauses close together and near the third probably makes it more likely that the third one will also be introduced by si: switching to que would not have the same rhetorical effect of conditions piling up.

Obtaining a corpus

Although searching the INTERSECT corpus took a few seconds, compiling it took many hours of work. This is mainly because it is a translation corpus, containing French texts and their translations in English. But even a monolingual corpus takes time to organise and put into a convenient form. If you can buy a corpus, do so: it makes sense to take advantage of the work that someone else has put in rather than duplicating it.

At the time of writing, obtaining large French corpora which are ready to use is not easy. Many University departments now take French newspapers on compact disk, and the texts can often be searched using the software provided on the CD or a concordancer. Here are some other resources:

A CD entitled

Bibliothèque Virtuelle

is exceptionally good value: It contains 162 pieces of French literature by 61 authors, and is available for 30 Francs plus p+p from Olivier Tableau, BP 34, 95660 MONTSOULT, France; email: otableau@club-internet.fr. The files need a certain amount of editing to put them into a form suitable for concordancing.

The

Institut National de la Langue Française

(INALF) has a collection of French texts in electronic form. In their own words:

FRANTEXT est une des meilleures bases textuelles que l’on puisse trouver actuellement sur Internet, en ce qui concerne la langue française.
Elle rassemble un corpus de textes français du XVIème au XXème siècle numérisés (3000 textes environ) et un logiciel d’interrogation (STELLA) conçu en vue de recherches littéraires, linguistiques, lexicographiques, stylistiques…

Access is via annual subscription. See www.inalf.cnrs.fr.

You can obtain large amounts of French text directly from the World Wide Web. One way is simply to search for French web pages: you can then copy and paste the text into a word-processor and store it on your computer. This is a hit-and-miss method, and it will take time to collect a sample which is diverse and large enough to use for serious research, but it is certainly possible. Using the search engine Altavista (www.altavista.com) you can type in a French word and tell Altavista only to look for web pages that are in French. Alternatively, you can ask Altavista to look for pages which are from France: these pages will tend to contain “.fr” in their web address. If you type “linguistique domain:fr” in the search box, Altavista will look for pages containing the word linguistique which are from France.

Several web sites contain collections of texts, or information about how to find texts. Some good starting points are:

Association des Bibliophiles Universels

(ABU): cedric.cnam.fr/ABU/index.shtmll

Oxford Text Archive

(OTA): www.hcu.ox.ac.uk/ota/public/index.shtml

Corpus Linguistics

. Michael Barlow from Rice University in Texas has useful information and links to sources of texts in many languages: www.ruf.rice.edu/~barlow/corpus.html

Translation corpora

A translation corpus (sometimes called a parallel corpus) is a collection of texts in one language and their translations in another. Translation corpora are useful for research into translation and contrastive linguistics, and in the last ten years they have aroused considerable interest.

The INTERSECT corpus at the University of Brighton contains the following texts:
Text type...............................Number of words.....Details
Fiction...................................300 000....................Extracts from Céline, Sartre, Robbe-Grillet, Malraux, Gide, Verne, etc
Instructions............................75 000......................Manuals for various domestic appliances and some computer software
International organisations.......280 000....................Texts from the EU, ILO and UN
Newspapers...........................115 000....................Articles from Le Monde and their translation in Guardian Weekly
Technical...............................90 000......................Extracts from a telecommunications standard
Bible......................................100 000....................Extracts from Genesis, Exodus and Psalms
Miscellaneous.........................240 000...................Texts from the Canadian National library, the Royal Bank of Canada, and the
French embassy in London.
Total:......................................1 200 000
(A smaller German-English corpus has also been constructed).

Using a translation corpus it is possible to find out how French words are translated into English by skilled translators, who often use strategies that go beyond the equivalents indicated in bilingual dictionaries. For instance, a search for forms of the word voir in some of the fiction and newspaper texts found 48 instances, of which half were translated using a form of the verb see. The remaining 24 were translated in a variety of ways, some of which are indicated here:

1. FICTIONF: On [[voit]] bien que vous ne connaissez pas l’importance de la somme!
2. FICTIONE: It’s clear that you don’t know how large the sum is.
3. FICTIONF: XXII Où Passepartout [[Voit]] Bien Que, Même Aux Antipodes, Il Est Prudent D’avoir Quelque Argent Dans Sa Poche.
4. FICTIONE: Chapter XXII In Which Passepartout Finds Out That, Even At The Antipodes, It Is Convenient To Have Some Money In One’s Pocket
5. FICTIONF: Puis il haussa les épaules; il en avait [[vu]] d’autres et, s’il le fallait, il casserait en deux son adversaire.
6. FICTIONE: He had been through worse things, and if he had to, he would break his adversary in two.
7. LM93: Et au Cachemire, qui est dans la même situation depuis trois ans, on ne [[voit]] guère poindre l’espoir d’une amélioration.
8. GW93: And in Kashmir, which has been in the same situation for the last three years, there is scarcely the least sign of an improvement.
9. LM93: Mais il tient à « la dignité de la France ». Dans ses rapports avec l’étranger, il ne veut pas la [[voir]] représentée dans les rencontres internationales « par un monstre à deux têtes », comme lors de la première cohabitation.
10. GW93: In its relations with the outside world, he does not want France represented “by a two-headed monster” at international meetings as happened during the earlier period of cohabitation.

The research task is to explain which occurrences of voir tend to be translated by see, and which do not; of the translations which do not use see, the issue is to establish which equivalents are chosen for reasons which have to do with the process of translation, and which equivalents are used because of systematic differences between French and English. Contact the present author for more information about the INTERSECT corpus.

A large translation corpus of debates in the Canadian Parliament, the

Canadian Hansard corpus

, can be searched over the web at:
www-rali.iro.umontreal.ca/TransSearch/

Concordancers

MonoConc

: available from Athelstan. For information see: www.athel.com

Wordsmith

is a powerful concordancer. For information and to download a demo version, see: www.liv.ac.uk/~ms2928/index.shtml

For information about other concordancers, see Mike Barlow’s Corpus Linguistics page at: www.ruf.rice.edu/~barlow/corpus.html

To search a translation corpus you need a parallel concordancer. Two good ones are:

ParaConc

: available from Athelstan. For information see: www.athel.com

Multiconcord

: available from CFL software. For information see http://web.bham.ac.uk/johnstf/cfl.htm

Bibliography

Introductions to corpus linguistics

BIBER, D., S. CONRAD & R. REPPEN (1998) Corpus linguistics: investigating language structure and use Cambridge: CUP
BILGER, M. (ed.) (To appear late 1999) Questions de méthode dans la linguistique sur corpus Perpignan: Les Presses de l’Université de Perpignan [Enquiries to: bilger@univ-perp.fr]
HABERT, B. & A. NAZARENKO (1997) Les linguistiques de corpus Paris: Armand Colin
HABERT, B., C. FABRE & F. ISSAC (1998) De l’écrit au numérique : constituer, normaliser et exploiter les corpus électroniques Paris: InterEditions
KENNEDY, G. (1998) An Introduction to corpus linguistics London: Longman

Examples of corpus-based research in French linguistics

(a)

Swedish theses

. These are all held by Cambridge University Library, and can be ordered on inter-library loan. Contact the present author in case of difficulty
BJÖRKMAN, S. (1978) Le type avoir besoin : étude sur la coalescence verbo-nominale en français Uppsala
ERIKSSON, B. (1979) L’emploi des modes dans la subordonnée relative en français moderne SR Uppsala
HANSEN, I. (1982) Les adverbes prédicatifs français en –ment: usage et emploi au XXe siècle Gothenburg
WALL, K. (1980) L’inversion dans la subordonnée en français contemporain Uppsala
SUNDELL, L.-G. (1985) La coordination des propositions conditionnelles en français contemporain Uppsala
(b)

Other studies


ASHBY, W. (1981) “The loss of the negative particle ne in French: a syntactic change in progress” Language 57.3: 674–687
ATKINSON, J. (1973) The two forms of subject inversion in modern French The Hague: Mouton
BALLARD, M. (ed.) (1995) Relations discursives et traduction Lille: Presses Universitaires de Lille
ENGEL, D. (1990) Tense and text: a study of French past tenses London: Routledge
GUILLEMIN-FLESCHER, J. (ed.) (1994) Linguistique contrastive et traduction Tome 3. Gap: Ophrys
GUILLEMIN-FLESCHER, J. (1991) Syntaxe comparée du français et de l’anglais Gap: Ophrys
KENNING, M.-M. (1998) “Parallel concordancing and French personal pronouns” Languages in Contrast 1.1: 1–21
PONS-RIDLER, S & QUILLARD, G. (1991) « Quelques aspects de la négation: Comparaison de l’anglais et du français » Canadian Modern Language Review 47.2: 327–340
SALKIE, R. (1996) “Modality in English and French: a corpus-based approach” Language Sciences 18: 381–392
SALKIE, R. (1997) “Naturalness and contrastive linguistics” in B. LEWANDOWSKA-TOMASZCZYK & P. J. MELIA (eds.) Proceedings of PALC ’97 Lodz: University of Lodz: 297–312