Module Identifier

FR23020

Module Title

THE INVENTION OF FRENCH

Academic Year

2008/2009

Co-ordinator

Professor David A Trotter

Semester

Intended for use in future years

Course Delivery

Delivery Type	Delivery length / details
Lecture	10 hours in all.
Seminars / Tutorials	10 hours in all.

Assessment

Assessment Type	Assessment length / details	Proportion
Semester Assessment	Two coursework assignments (c.2,500 words each) Course Work:	100%
Supplementary Assessment	Resit will be by resubmission of assessed work

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

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 List

Recommended Background
Cerquiglini, Bernard (1993) La naissance du francais Paris University Press Primo search Green, John, & Ayres-Bennett, Wendy (eds) Variation and change in French: essays presented to Rebecca Posner on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday Primo search Lodge, R (1993) French: From Dialect to Standard Routledge Primo search 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 Primo search Posner, Rebecca (1997) Linguistic Change in French Oxford University Press Primo search

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 5