Standard French Research Articles

Picardisch in het Vlaams/Nederlands

This paper traces the evolution and integration of Picardian elements into Flemish, showing how many modern Flemish words and family names originate from Picardian forms, not standard French. Picardian influence on Middle Dutch orthography and phonology can be traced in Middle Dutch spellings form Flanders, with examples such as plache (D. plaats, ‘place’) and family names like Franchois from François. Additionally, the article highlights how Picardian preserved the Latin plosive k that evolved into a fricative ch in some other French dialects and later standard French, as seen in canter (Fr. chanter, ‘to sing’) and capiau (Fr. chapeau, ‘hat’). Also, some regional pronunciation variations, such as 'Pierre' evolving to 'Pire', are explained. Overall, the analysis suggests that many words traditionally attributed to French are more accurately derived from Picardian, emphasizing the profound linguistic interconnections between Flemish and Picardian dialects.

Codification in the shadow of standards: ideologies in early nineteenth-century metalinguistic texts on Luxembourgish

ABSTRACT Inspired by the ideological and multilingual turn in ‘third wave’ language standardisation studies (McLelland 2020, Walsh 2021), this paper demonstrates the value of these perspectives for historical analysis by exploring the implications of language ideologies for the early codification of Luxembourgish. As a ‘late’ standardised language (Vogl 2012), Luxembourgish provides a valuable case study for evaluating how existing powerful standard language regimes (Gal 2006) ideologically influence the discursive construction of a ‘late’ standard language, especially in multilingual borderlands. Ideologies of linguistic differentiation (Irvine & Gal 2000; Gal & Irvine 2019) are inherent in the standardisation process of Luxembourgish which sits between the Romance and Germanic language spheres of influence. The analysis focuses on metadiscourses of three early texts on Luxembourgish (Meyer 1829, Meyer & Gloden 1845, De la Fontaine 1855) in their discussions and proposals for codification. The diverse labelling of Luxembourgish in the texts forms part of a metadiscourse of differentiation and hierarchical contrast. Other core emergent discourses foreground affinities with Standard French and Standard German respectively but in differing ways that evoke the ideological notion of erasure. The final part of the analysis identifies further discourses that, in contrast, frame Luxembourgish as unique and different from other languages.

Vowel alternation with final i offers an easy-to-learn morphological option for a sex-blind grammatical gender in French.

Like all modern Romance languages, French has a sex-based grammatical gender with two genders, feminine and masculine, and a lexicon that is highly sex-differentiated. These characteristics give rise to a number of issues, including the problematic generic use of the masculine grammatical gender, coupled with the challenge of sex categorization itself, and the epistemological difficulty of an adequate sociological description and analysis of what gender commonsense categories really are about. To remedy these concerns, several authors have proposed the creation of an additional, epicene grammatical gender. We have identified three such systematic proposals, or solutions, which specify various morphological options for new epicene nouns and gender markers on their satellite elements. These options include the use of non-standard or rarely used characters, the merging of feminine and masculine gender markers, as well as consonantal and vowel changes. In the simplest proposal, referred to as "solution I," new epicene forms are mostly derived from feminine forms by systematically replacing with an i the final e that generally differentiates feminines from their masculine counterparts in written French. Although these solutions are used in some communities, their learnability has not been addressed so far, even though it could be a determining factor in their popularity and their eventual integration into standard French. In the present study, we provide a first assessment of this aspect by means of an online translation test. For each solution, French-speaking participants were instructed that they would be trained to learn an "alien" language that does not mark sex/gender categories (these alien languages correspond to standard French where only gendered words referring to people are replaced by the new epicene forms recommended by each solution). After a short learning-by-example phase, participants were required to translate into the alien language a set of 16 standard French sentences. The translations were analyzed as a function of several variables including the participants' self-reported age and sex, the word categories and the solutions themselves. While all solutions proved quickly learnable, participants' responses with solution I achieved the highest accuracy score, in particular with regard to the production of non-standard epicene forms.

Code-Switching and Bilingualism in French Guiana: Exploring Influences Between French Creole and Standard French

The paper focuses on detailing the reasons and effects of code-switching and bilingualism in French Guiana. The primary focus is on analyzing the patterns of code-switching between two dominant languages in the region: The commonly known French Creole and Standard French, which are, furthermore, one of the many, different languages. Using the mixed-methods approach that is based on both quantitative and qualitative methods, the study attempts to find the various social, cultural and linguistic factors that make bilingualism in this very particular sociolinguistic setting feasible. French Guiana being different from other countries as it has different cultures and having different languages coming from different sources. It is the clashing of French Creole and Standard French that points to the history, the social-political dimension and the culture that define the language in this region. Through detailed research of the code-switching in this case study, the aim is to gain a nuanced perception of the intricacies of bilingual communication. The innovative method adapted in the study provides overall understanding of the code-switching patterns applied. Statistical analysis will help us understand code-switching patterns, distribution, while qualitative analysis will give us social and cultural reasons of switching to another language. The effects of the study have made us face the role of language, identity and social conditions. These links affect different disciplines particularly language matters and education. From this study, we will derive such insights that will aid in the making of inclusive policies that will adapt to the diverse linguistic practices. Students attending these schools also benefit from applying the data to their language development programs, those taking into account the multilingual nature of their environments. For example, the study’s conclusion that multilingualism is favorable paves the way for other researchers to come up with more studies on multilingualism. The research undertaken has provided the foundation for further studies to be carried out in relation to the villi context in linguistic studies that will be carried out to identify the same phenomenon in other sociolinguistic contexts. Typically, the outcomes of a this study direct a more general view into dilemmas of dual language and code changing.

Evolution of the French Language System in Ivory Coast

This article examines the current state of the French language in Ivory Coast. The relevance of the study is related to the lack of research on the state of French in Ivory Coast, represented by the following varieties: Ivorian Popular French, Ivorian French and the Nouchi language code. Nouchi, an integral part of Ivory Coast's linguistic system and a crucial factor of Ivorian identity, remains a poorly researched phenomenon today. The aim of the work is to objectively describe the phonetic, morphological, lexical and syntactic changes that take place in French on the territory of Ivory Coast in a situation of interaction with the autochthonous languages under the influence of extralinguistic factors. The scientific novelty lies in the integrated approach to the study of the French language system in Ivory Coast and the differences between each of the varieties of French and standard French. The research uses general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special methods (descriptive and comparative methods). The analysis of the French language system shows the distinctive features of the French varieties from the standard French on the phonetic, morphological, lexical and syntactical levels. Ivorian Popular French is characterised by the greatest influence from the autochthonous languages and numerous features at all levels of the language, caused by the lack of education of its speakers. The continuity and interconnectedness of all the varieties of language examined is highlighted: the oldest variant of Ivorian Popular French became the basis for the formation of modern Ivorian French. Nouchi, on the other hand, combines earlier variants of French with borrowings from the autochthonous and European languages. Ivorian French and Nouchi are now widespread in all social strata and contribute to the issue of Ivorian self-determination.

Socio-Verbal Function of the French Immigrant School Argot in the Film “Class” by L. Cantet

The article analyzes speech characteristics of the characters of the film “Class” depicting French immigrants’ children. The teenagers study at one of the suburb Paris colleges. They communicate with each other and teachers in the form of a dialogue. The adolescents intentionally tend to ignore the rules of behavior established by the educational institution and neglect the norms of the codified French language. Using artistic images, the film reproduces one of the most topical social problems in modern France — that of immigrants’ resistance to accepting French cultural values, customs, codes, language, and speech culture.The characters’ speech determines their nationality, social status, personal values, and emotional state. Sampling, the linguistic and stylistic types of analysis were employed as research methods. The teenagers use verlanized and obscene lexical units, words from the young immigrant argot developed by borrowing, neologizing, and rethinking outdated French words. The verlan and special colloquial lexical units that characters use contain negative emotional and evaluative connotations. The insults, rudeness, name-calling, familiarity between immigrant children are ritual, intra-group, sociocultural, harmless, directed against the culture, language, economic dominance of the French-speaking ethnos in the society.The adolescent verbal behavior expresses a pejorative assessment of the French culture, language and people. The children ignore school rules and neglect standard French. Verlanisms, youth slang/argot, aggression are considered as the reaction of young immigrants to the requirement to learn standard French and behavioral rules of the French society, rejection by the ethnic French, lack of opportunities to rise in life, a sign of psychological trauma, as well as hardships.

Improving the performance of a triage scale for chest pain patients admitted to emergency departments: combining cardiovascular risk factors and electrocardiogram

BackgroundThe triage of patients presenting with chest pain on admission to the emergency department uses scales based on patient clinical presentation or an electrocardiogram (ECG). These scales have different sensitivity and specificity. Although a good sensitivity allows for the prompt identification of high-risk patients, specificity prevent ED overcrowding. Moreover, ECG at triage avoids missing ST elevation myocardial infarction, which requires urgent revascularization. Our study therefore aimed to investigate whether a scale combining ECG and cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) improves the diagnostic performance of ED chest pain triage scale.Methods and resultsIn this prospective single-center observational study involving 505 patients, the standard ECG-based FRENCH scale was compared to a scale combining the ECG-based FRENCH scale and the patients CVRF. The new scale was called the “modified” FRENCH. The accuracy of patient CVRF collection was evaluated by comparing the results of triage nurses and ED physicians.Compared with the standard FRENCH scale, the modified FRENCH scale had an increased sensitivity (61% versus 75%) but a decrease in specificity (76% versus 64%) resulting in a similar diagnostic performance. Using CVRF collected by the ED physicians, the modified FRENCH scale had a sensitivity of 87% and a specificity of 56% with a significant improvement in his diagnostic performance compared with standard FRENCH scales. This improvement can be explained by an accurate collection of the CVRF by physicians compared with nurses, as suggested by the weak to moderate correlation between their respective data collection.ConclusionIn conclusion, combining ECG and accurately collected cardiovascular risks factor improves the diagnostic performance of the ECG based chest pain triage in the ED.Trial registrationTrial registration number: NCT03913767.

Introduction

Introduction

Lexical Collocations and their Acquisition in French as a Foreign Language (FLE)

Summary The importance of stereotypical uses of language is recognized by most didactic studies of the vocabulary (Granger and Paquot, 2008). Collocations are an area of vocabulary which is difficult to master by non-native learners. This type of lexical relation often presents itself as a semi-frozen binary lexical co-occurrence. The meaning of collocations is often transparent in reception, while in production, it requires a special effort on behalf of the learner. In this paper, we have tried to verify this assertion by comparing the corpus of French language and that of learners, and to define the regularities of lexical combinations in the French interlanguage of Lithuanian learners with level B1. Thanks to the corpus at our disposal, we observed that nomino-adjectival collocations at this level are more frequent than verbal collocations. However, in the percentage of total, the number of collocations only represents a contingent part of the corpus. The corpus also reveals that the present combination of words is not always diversified either by its syntax or by its lexical content, which is sometimes atypical of standard French. Learners choose from a fairly limited number of rather free lexical units. The process of interference and hybridization can be seen as an essential contamination of collocations, both lexically and syntactically. The data received makes it possible to note that collocational competence is insufficient. The results of this study also show that the analysis of collocational constructions can reveal the relationships between competence and performance of speakers.

Преподавание разговорного французского языка в ФЯИ (французский язык как иностранный)

How to define the meaning of familiar language? What is its role in the teaching and study process of French? How to properly clarify the relationship between standard French and familiar language to further improve students’ listening and speaking ability in communication? These are the questions to be discussed in this article.

A corpus-based study of the distribution of word-final schwa in Standard French and what it teaches us about its phonological status

What is commonly considered as an epenthetic vowel can actually refer to at least two different realities: phonological epenthesis or phonetic excrescence. French schwa, noted [ә], is a vowel alternating with zero and limited to unstressed syllables that can appear word-internally or word-finally. This paper presents an extensive description of the distribution of word-final schwa in Standard French in order to shed light on its nature: is it an intrusive vowel or a full epenthetic vowel? To that extent, three large corpora of French containing more than 110 hours of speech were used to establish the presence of word-final schwa as a function of sociolinguistics, orthography, phonotactics and phonetics. Our conclusions are that word-final schwa is impacted by speech style, gender, orthography, phonotactics (i.e., the number of adjacent consonants and their sonority profile), and the phonological properties of the codas. However, speech rate does not impact word-final schwa realization. The specific results lead us to suggest that word-final schwa in Standard French shares similarities with intrusive vowels but ultimately behaves like a legit epenthetic vowel.

Unexpected Partitive Articles in Francoprovençal*

AbstractThis contribution seeks to add to our knowledge on ‘partitive articles’ (like the French element du in Je bois du vin, ‘I drink (some) wine’) in a highly endangered language spoken in France, Switzerland and Italy, namely Francoprovençal. Based on recent fieldwork data (2017) from the Aosta Valley and data from the ALAVAL atlas project, we will discuss outliers in a geographical and syntactic perspective, i.e. occurrences of ‘partitive articles’ where they should not appear. This either because the regions and their respective varieties do not feature them according to the existing literature or because syntactic regularities known from Standard French do not admit them (under the scope of negation and after quantifying expressions). We will try to propose some explanations for the existence of these unexpected elements, both internal and external, i.e. via language contact, and argue more generally in favour of a more systematic consideration of rare elements in fieldwork data, which should not too readily be “explained away”.

Cyclic changes to the negative coordinating conjunction from Latin to Modern French

AbstractThe evolution of the negative coordinating conjunction (‘neither’/‘nor’) from Latin to Modern French instantiates a type of cyclic development that is previously undocumented as such at the level of morphosyntax, viz. a ‘semasiological’ cycle. In effect, the conjunction appears to have taken an almost perfectly circular path. Thus, in Classical Latin, as is consonant with the typological status of that language as a Double Negation language,neque/necwas exclusively used in negative contexts. Medieval French being a Negative Concord language, on the other hand, its negative coordinating conjunction,ne, a direct descendant ofneque/nec, was able to develop a full range of weak negative polarity uses. In a range of contexts,newas thus semantically equivalent to either the additive conjunctionet(‘and’) or the disjunctionou(‘or’). By the end of the Classical French period, however, the conjunction (which by then takes the formny/ni) has lost all of its weak negative polarity uses again, and it is used only in strong negatively polar environments in Modern Standard French. Based on data from the electronic corporaFrantextandBase de Français Médiéval, I analyze the three stages of this evolution. I show that, together with other developments in the French negative system, it falsifies predictions made in the literature and has consequences for the reconstruction of negative systems in less well-documented languages.

«Siftlikom msg f tel opostitha hna rj3 l history»: mescolanze di codice nella comunicazione mediale in Marocco

Based on first-hand collected data, the article analyses a number of code-switching occurrences in multilingual chats among a community of English teachers in the Fes-Meknes region of Morocco. The data are compared with the results of a perceptual questionnaire on linguistic self-assessments and also take into account the orthographic aspect of the messages. The complex sociolinguistic framework of the area vividly emerges, as well as the real and perceived status of the varieties and the relationships between codes. The result is a coherent combination of Standard Arabic, dialectal Arabic, French and English.

The standardization process of Louisiana French: issues and outcomes

The main goal of this article is to give a general overview on the standardization process of the French language in Louisiana. After examining the sociolinguistic situation of Louisiana French and discussing the notion of “standard language”, following the definitions of Bagno (2011) and Milroy & Milroy (1999), we will try to understand what recovers the notion of “Standard French”. Thereafter, we will analyze how its introduction in Louisiana has triggered some issues on the linguistic norm to be used during the revitalization movement, which began in the 1960s, and how these debates influenced the French norm used nowadays in Louisiana.

The journey from france to france: the spiritual moves of muslim youth from marseille

Based on long-term ethnographic research with youth who were born to North, West, and East African families in northern Marseille, this article explores the common experience of alienation that practicing Muslims from Marseille report as they endeavor to live piously in their hometown, together with the mobility-oriented strategies they have devised to achieve belonging. Following these Muslim-Marseillais young adults longitudinally, it emerges that some relied on physical migration away from France (religiously conceived as hijrah) as a means of remaining pious and finding belonging. Others, meanwhile, navigated towards pious personhood and finding home in ways that still involved movement but transpired within France. Significantly, individuals who have chosen to remain in France carve out pious belonging by engaging in domestic movements to particular places in France, by pursuing occupational mobility, and by making advantageous use of prestigious linguistic registers like Standard French and Modern Standard Arabic. As such, the article suggests that hijrah is but one—and the most transnational—among various kinds of movement to which young Muslim-Marseillais turn as they grapple with discrimination, seek to improve themselves, and ascertain how best to belong.

MODO-TEMPORAL MICRO-SYSTEMS IN CONTEMPORARY ORAL FRENCH

The ability to use verbal modes and tenses in spoken French differently from standard French is undeniably aphenomenon that is part of social usage, especially among young people. Indeed, faced with a great variety and complexity of modes and tenses in written French, the speaker will tend to use in his speech only grammatical forms strictly necessary for immediate communication. This article is based on a survey carried out over a period from 2005to 2010, put into understanding with another independent oral corpus, in order to better underline the contrasts. The resulting cross-analysis shows not only the evolution of the language as a sociolect, but also the ability of some speakers to adapt their speech to the minimalist need for interlocution. First, it focuses on the opposition between the modal-temporal organization of written French and of contemporary spoken language. In a second step, itcharacterizes in this field the differentiation of use in “standard” oral French and in “spontaneous” oral French, to end up delineating the modo-temporal architectonics of the latter. By highlighting the fact that the variations and thetrends identified are a social trait and are part of the vitality of the language, thus, this study contributes to a more precise definition of “spontaneous” oral French as a social language and is intended to be an illustration of the contemporary socio- pragmatic use of the French language.

Pluricentric Languages Policy Features through the Example of French

Introduction.The paper reviews features of the French language policy inFrance,Belguim,Canada, andSwitzerland. The novelty of the study is implied by the fact that features of the language policy are analyzed with previously unknown circumstances taken into account: the circumstances that allow French to be seen as a pluricentric language. The relevance of the study is conditioned by the necessity of observing the sociopolitical space of language functioning, as well as the importance of both analyzing the dynamics of pluricentric languages spreading and identifying mechanisms of using a single language for either uniting disparate nations or countries manipulating.Methodology and sources.The method of the study is a comprehensive approach with a number of linguistic and social variables correlations. The study was conducted using official websites of Organisation international dela Francophonie describing official bodies and institutions responsible for language policy implementation, as well as articles of various publications (Le soir, The Guardian, Ethnologies), devoted to the discussion of French norm regulation problems as the material of the study.Resultsanddiscussion.The main result of the study is a review of the status of French as a pluricentric language worldwide, particularly in countries considered to be centres of French variants development and having French as an official language. Main features of a pluricentric language, as well as the factors that turn a monocentric language into a pluricentric one (through the example of French) are looked at. The actions taken by the Organisation internationale dela Francophonie and aimed at the strengthening of relations between French-speaking countries and the promoting of the French language worldwide are described. The study also illustrates the dependence of peripheral language centres fromFrance. An emphasis is put on the politics of the Académie Française aimed at the French language unification in all the countries having it as an official language. An assumption on the reasons of different deviation extent of French variants inCanada,Belgium, andSwitzerland from Standard French is made.Conclusion.It is impossible to consider language to be an independent and isolated phenomenon as it exists and evolves within society serving its needs. Institutions pursuing a language policy are in position to affect its development directly, yet in the context of pluricentric languages it is insufficient to have a single centre of linguistic regulation. Local institutions may have a policy that runs contrary to the language policy of the centre. Gender reforms can also become a new wave of linguistic changes leading to further distancing of different language variants.

The French language: monocentric or pluricentric? Standard language ideology and attitudes towards the French language in twentieth-century language columns in Quebec

ABSTRACT Quebec has a tradition of language columns, articles discussing questions related to the French language produced by a single author and published regularly in the periodical press. This study examines the content and discourse of a sample of these language columns produced by six authors in Quebec during the twentieth century to explore possible changes over time in the variety of French viewed as the standard or ideal French to aspire to. The article explicitly examines this question from the perspective of pluricentricity, little discussed in work on language columns to date, to test the hypothesis that there is a change over time from a strongly monocentric view of the standard to a somewhat more pluricentric view. The results show that while all the authors of language columns examined here adhere in varying degrees to a monocentric view of standard French, there is nonetheless a shift over the course of the century towards an acceptance of a more pluricentric model of standard French. These findings show the value of a small-scale, detailed qualitative approach in highlighting issues that deserve to be further explored.

Использование и функционирование фразеологических африканизмов в текстах романов А. Курумы “Les Soleils des Indépendances”, “En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages” и “Allah n’est pas obligé”

The article examines phraseological Africanisms, in particular, proverbs and sayings used in the French-language novels “Les Soleils des Indépendances (The Suns of Independence)” (1968), “En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages (Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote) (1998)” and “Allah n’est pas obligé (Allah Is Not Obliged) (2000)” by the Ivorian writer A. Kourouma (the native language - Mandinka). The conclusion is made that inclusion of phraseological Africanisms in the literary text results in literary Africanization (Mandingization) of Standard French. It is shown that introducing phraseological Africanisms, the writer pursues argumentative and persuasive purposes.