In line with a recent trend in sociolinguistic research focusing on the visual dimension of multilingual urban environments, this study investigates multilingualism, as seen in street signage, more particularly shopfronts, in the Parisian neighbourhood of Belleville. Through this illustrative account, the study aims to highlight the ways in which,…

In the past century, French has shifted from being the native language of many Louisianans to being an endangered dialect. Since the creation of the state agency CODOFIL (Council for the Development of French in Louisiana) in the 1960's, efforts have been made to revitalize French in Louisiana, and since the 1980's, some parishes have offered…

Poplack, Zentz and Dion (PZD; Poplack, Zentz & Dion, 2011, this issue) examine the often unquestioned assumption that the existence of preposition stranding (PS) in Canadian French is linked to the presence of a contact situation with English in the North American context. Although this issue has been the topic of previous research from a…

This paper discusses the language contact situation between Algonquian languages and French in Canada. Michif, a French-Plains Cree mixed language, is used as a case study for linguistic results of language contact. The paper describes the phonological, morphological, and syntactic conflict sites between the grammars of Plains Cree and French, as…

Reports on a study to determine the origin, development, and use of the comparative in children ages 2-7. The role of adult-child interaction in acquisition is discussed. Tabulated results show that the comparative is used infrequently by young children. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

The frequency of liaison in French is studied in the context of the grammatical function of contiguous words involved, the phonetic characteristics of the liaison consonant and a number of paralinguistic variables such as sex, age, occupation, syllabic rate, loudness, attitude of the speaker and subject matter. Results are tabulated. Available…

Discusses abbreviations in contemporary French words from a sociolinguistic point of view, taking into account the morphological and syntactical consequences. (AM)

Investigates the double compound that is a feature of the regional French of the langue d'oc and franco-provencal areas. Analysis suggests that, in addition to the temporal and aspectual properties traditionally attributed to this form, the expressive properties of the surcompose regional are central to any description of its function in…

A discourse analysis of sixty French children aged ten to twelve from two socioeconomic groups. The object of the study was to describe the syntactic-semantic functioning of their language in an "abstract" situation and to determine the degree of influence of socio-cultural factors. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Underlines the importance of semantic, situational, and phonological factors such as intonation in the teaching of French as a second language. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Describes a set of questionnaires administered to 400 French speakers in France and Switzerland to study variation in the position of the adjective in a noun phrase. The first objective was to separate rigidly structured contexts from those affected by fluctuations, the second was to detect regularities and hesitations in individual behavior. (MES)

Examines the relationship between language acquisition and current linguistic theory, with specific reference to Chomsky's work. Linguistic areas that should be explored in relation to acquisition are suggested, including regional dialect studies, the place of sociolinguistic factors in acquisition, and syntax. Suggestions as to how to analyze…

This article argues that QUE-deletion in Montreal French is a syntactic rule, rather than a phonological one, as earlier treatments had claimed. It is divided into five sections: (1) a discussion of why the rule accounting for the alternation of QUE with zero is a deletion, not an insertion rule, (2) a critique of the best known earlier…