FR23020 - THE INVENTION OF FRENCH

Module Identifier	FR23020
Module Title	THE INVENTION OF FRENCH
Academic Year	2001/2002
Co-ordinator	Professor David Trotter
Semester	Semester 1
Course delivery	Lecture	10 Hours
	Seminars / Tutorials	4 Hours
	Practical	2 Hours Either 4 x 1 hr or 2 x 2 hr, depending on availability of the Language Laboratories
Assessment	Course work	Two coursework assignments (c.2,500 words each)	100%
	Resit assessment	Resit will be by resubmission of assessed work

Brief description

A history of French from a variationist perspective, deliberately stressing the variety which has always existed in reality, and identifying the ways in which diversity has been stifled in the life of the language, and has been camouflaged in histories of French.

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module, students should be able to

understand how one dialect amongst several becomes a language
read critically conventional histories of French
see how and why ideological presuppositions have influenced those histories
understand the principal tenets of variationist linguistics

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Background
Green, John, & Ayres-Bennett, Wendy (eds). Variation and change in French: essays presented to Rebecca Posner on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday.
Lodge, R. (1993) French: From Dialect to Standard. Routledge
Posner, Rebecca. (1997) Linguistic Change in French. Oxford University Press
Parry, M M, Davies, W V, and Temple, R A M (eds). (1994) The changing voices of Europe: social and political change and their linguistic repercussions, past, present and future. University of Wales Press/MHRA
Cerquiglini, Bernard. (1993) La naissance du francais. Paris University Press