This study examines the relationship between lexical frequency and s-lenition in Barranquillero Spanish, looking at lexical frequency as a scalar variable. A quantitative analysis of /s/ in words of different lexical frequencies, in which productions from a reading task were submitted to auditory acoustical analysis, reveals that the single most important factor in s-lenition is lexical frequency. Speakers tend towards a full articulation of /s/ in low-frequency words, while weakening it in high-frequency words. This study addresses three questions: Do subtle differences in lexical frequency influence how sounds are produced synchronically? What are the advantages of considering lexical frequency in scalar terms as opposed to a categorical variable (high vs. low-frequency)? What is the relationship between lexical frequency and other linguistic factors?

This article considers the origin of distinctly “québécois” phonological traits. Using data from the Atlas linguistique de l’Est du Canada (1980), the analysis examines the geographic distribution and history of two variables—/t/ and /d/ affrication and high vowel laxing — establishing that both are innovations of Canadian French, spreading from the influential urban centre of Montreal. In addition, the supposed uniformity of Canadian French and the robustness of the east-west dialect boundary are disputed. Finally, the article draws from data on two additional variables — the replacement of apical [r] by posterior [R] and the diphthongization of/ε:/ and /e:/ — to tie the nature of linguistic diffusion to the degree of consciousness of the change in question. The findings and model are relevant not only for the study of the origin and description of Canadian French, but also more broadly for the field of dialect geography.

The aim of this paper is threefold: descriptive, methodological and theoretical. It offers a distinctive collexeme analysis of two pairs of near-synonymous complex prepositions (sous le coup de SN/sous le choc de SN; sous l’emprise de SN/sous l’empire de SN), completed by a qualitative analysis. The analysis of the statistically significant co-occurrents suggests that sous le coup de has a more abstract and general meaning than sous le choc de, while the semantics of the second pair are less differentiated. The analysis touches upon several methodological issues; thus, examination of the problem addressed allows for assessment of the method. It also shows that the collostructional analysis offers an interesting contribution to the debate on the existence of a constructional semantics by identifying repelled collexemes that may yield coercion effects.

This study investigates the acquisition of English (primary) word stress by native speakers of Canadian French, with focus on the trochaic foot and the alignment of its head with heavy syllables. L2 learners and native English speakers produced disyllabic and trisyllabic nonsense nouns. The participants with consistent stress patterns were grouped according to their prosodic grammar, and their productions were analyzed acoustically. The results indicate that the L2 learners who failed to align the head of the trochaic foot with the heavy syllable realized stress with higher pitch. Conversely, the L2 learners who aligned the head of the trochaic foot with the heavy syllable realized non-initial stress by lengthening the syllable. Surprisingly, the native speakers produced higher pitch on the initial syllable irrespective of stress, and they used length to realize stress oh the heavy syllable. These findings suggest that L2 learners may have reached different prosodic grammars as a result of attending to distinct acoustic cues to English stress.

The Michif language, while distinct from both Cree and French, combines a largely French-based nominal complex with a largely Cree-based verbal system. The syntax of negation cuts across these dimensions. Declarative sentences in Michif show the Cree-based negator namô and the French-based nô interchangeably. (This is also the only context for pas.) Imperatives, by contrast, demand the Cree-based êkâ (ya) exclusively.

In subordinate clauses, Michif permits either êkâ or nô. In Cree, all such constructions require the deontic negator êkâ. The integration of the two Cree-based negation types and the French-based no and pas into a single new system in Michif poses not only problems of constituency and syntactic analysis. It also raises once again the thorny question of balance: Is the imbrication of Cree and French symmetrical, or is one of the two languages dominant?