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
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.
Reading Lists
Books
Posner, Rebecca (1997) Linguistic Change in French
Oxford: OUP
Parry, MM, Davies, W V & Temple, RAM (eds) (1994) The changing voices of Europe
Cardiff: University of Wales Press/MHRA
Cerquiglini, Bernard (1993) La naissance du francais
Paris: PUF
Green, John and Ayres-Bennett,Wendy (eds) (1990) Variation and change in French: essays presented to R. Posner on the occasion of her 60th birthday
London: Routledge
Lodge,R A (1993) French: From Dialect to Standard
London: Routledge