Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pftt2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-20T12:19:02.394Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Variable deletion of French /l/: linguistic, social and stylistic factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2009

Nigel Armstrong
Nigel Armstrong*
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
*
Department of French Studies, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article considers variable /l/-deletion in the French definite articles, subject clitic pronouns and in one frequent phono-lexical context, exemplified by table ‘table’ and ronfle ‘snore’. It reports the treatment of /l/ by a sample of secondary schoolchildren from Lorraine in north-eastern France. The definite articles and subject clitics are considered on the one hand in relation to the linguistic constraints which influence /l/-deletion, and on the other to the extra-linguistic variables of age, sex and speech style. Variable /l/-deletion in the phono-lexical context referred to above is examined principally in relation to the lexical input which influences /l/-deletion. Finally, we consider whether the sociolinguistic patterns reported here are indicative of linguistic change in progress, or whether the effects observed are revelatory rather of attitudes to non-standard linguistic forms inculcated in speakers by normative French pedagogy.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 1996 , pp. 1 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aniansson, E. (1981) Barns språkliga formåga: redogörelse för ett par test. FUMS Rapport, no. 84, Uppsala.Google Scholar
Armstrong, N. R. (1993) A study of phonological variation in French secondary school pupils. PhD thesis, University of Newcastle upon Tyne.Google Scholar
Armstrong, N. R. (1995) Trying to quantify lexical variation in French. Paper presented at a research seminar in the School of Modern Languages, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, November.Google Scholar
Ashby, W. (1981) French liaison as a sociolinguistic phenomenon. In Cressey, W. W. and Napoli, D. J. (eds.), Linguistic Symposium on the Romance Languages (9th). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, pp. 46–57.Google Scholar
Ashby, W. (1988) Français du Canada/français de France: divergence et convergence. French Review 61/5: 693–702.Google Scholar
Ashby, W. (1991) When does variation indicate linguistic change in progress? Journal of French Language Studies 1: 1–19.Google Scholar
Bell, A. (1984) Language style as audience design. Language in Society, 13: 145–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanche-Benveniste, C. and jeanjean, C. (1987) Le Français parlé: transcription et édition. Paris: Didier.Google Scholar
Butler, C. (1985) Statistics in Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cheshire, J. (1978) Present tense verbs in Reading English. In Trudgill, P. (ed.), Sociolinguistic Patterns in British English. London: Edward Arnold, pp. 52–68.Google Scholar
Cheshire, J. (1982) Variation in an English Dialect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Damourette, J. and Pichon, E. (1911–1939) Essai de grammaire de la langue française, 7 vols. Paris: D'Artrey.Google Scholar
De Jong, D. (1993) Sociophonological aspects of Montreal French liaison. In: Ashby, W. (ed.), Linguistic Perspectives on the Romance Languages. Proceedings of the Twenty-first Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Diller, A.-M. (1983) Subject NP structure and variable constraints; the case of ne-deletion. In Fasold, R. (ed.), Variation in the Form and Use of Language. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, pp. 167–74.Google Scholar
Ernst, G. (1985) Gesprochenes Französich zu Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts: Dirkete Rede in Jean Hérouards ‘Histoire particulière de Louis XIII’ (1605–1610) (Beheifte zur Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie, 204). Tübingen: Niemeyer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gadet, F. (1992) Le Français populaire. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Hansen, A. B. (1994) Etude du E caduc: stabilisation en cours et variations lexicales. Journal of French Language Studies 4: 25–54.Google Scholar
Laberge, S. (1977) Etude de la variation des pronoms sujets définis et indéfinis dans le français parlé à Montréal. PhD dissertation, Université de Montréal.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1966) The Social Stratification of English in New York City. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1970) Stages in the acquisition of standard English. In Hungerford, H., Robinson, J. and Sledd, J. (eds.), English Linguistics. Glenvievv, IL: Scott Foresman, pp. 274–303.Google Scholar
Labov, W., Cohen, P., Robins, C. and Lewis, J. (1968) A Study of the Non-standard English of Negro and Puerto Rican Speakers in New York City. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, P. (1982) A Course in Phonetics. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Laks, B. (1980) Différenciation linguistique et différentiation sociale: quelques problèmes de linguistique française. PhD thesis, Université de Paris VIII.Google Scholar
Lass, R. (1984) Phonology: an Introduction to Basic Concepts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Milroy, L. (1992) New perspectives in the analysis of sex differentiation in language. In Bolton, K. and Kwok, H. (eds.), Sociolinguistics Today: International Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 163–79.Google Scholar
Poplack, S. (1980) The notion of the plural in Puerto Rican Spanish: competing constraints on (s) deletion. In Labov, W. (ed.), Locating Language in Time and Space. New York: Academic Press, pp. 55–67.Google Scholar
Poplack, S. and Walker, L. (1986) Going through [L] in Canadian French. In Sankoff, D. (ed.), Diversity and diachrony. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 173–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Romaine, S. (1979) The language of Edinburgh schoolchildren: the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence. Scottish Literary Journal: Language Supplement 9: 55–61.Google Scholar
Romaine, S. (1984) The Language of Children and Adolescents. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sankoff, G. and Cedergren, H. (1976) Les contraintes linguistiques et sociales de l'élision du l chez les Montréalais. In: Boudreault, M., Moehren, M. and Moehren, F. (eds.), Proceedings of the XIII International Congress of Romance Linguistics and Philology. Quebec: Presses de l'Université Laval, pp. 1101–16.Google Scholar
Straka, G. (1982) Formation de la prononciation française. Strasburg: Centre de Philologie et de Littérature Romanes.Google Scholar
Thurot, C. (1966) De la Prononciation française, vol. II. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints. (First published 1881–3.)Google Scholar