SF Linguistics 2008-9
Dr Rachel Hoare
Room 4103
rmhoare@tcd.ie
Office hours:
Tuesday 3-4
Wednesday 2-3
French grammar and
grammatical analysis
Lecture 1
What is grammar?
Dr Rachel Hoare
Course objective
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The main objective of this course is to give a
deeper understanding of the French language as
it exists today in its social context.
The course looks at and evaluates attempts to
control the language.
The course describes different types of French
which may be encountered but which differ in
some way from Standard French
Recommended reading
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Ager D. (1990) Sociolinguistics and Contemporary French, Cambridge University
Press
Ball R. (1997) The French-Speaking World, London and New York, Routledge
Lodge R. A. (1993) French: From Dialect to Standard, London and New York,
Routledge
Lodge R., Armstrong N, Ellis Y, Shelton J. (1997) Exploring the French Language,
London, Arnold
Offord M. (1990) Varieties of Contemporary French, Basingstoke, Macmillan
Sanders C. (ed) (1995) French Today: Language in its Social Context, Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press
Walter, H. (1994) French Inside Out: The worldwide development of the French
Language in the Past, present and future. Routledge.
Concepts
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French is a many-faceted social instrument
which may be delicately modified to suit the
multitude of situations in which it is used on a
daily basis.
The French language, like any other language in
current use, is constantly changing and
responding to the needs and demands of its
users.
Content
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History of Standard French
 Emergence of standard languages
 attempts to control the language
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Linguistic diversity within France:
 Geographical origin
 Age
 Sex
 Socioeconomic status
 Register
The History of Standard French
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The emergence of standard languages:
Selection
 Codification
 Elaboration of function
 Acceptance
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The development of standard French
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Ninth century: French emerged as independent
language distinct from Latin
Old French period (10th to 13th centuries)
Middle French period (14th and 15th centuries)
Sixteenth century: French promoted at
expense of Latin
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1539 Ordonnance of Villers-Cotterets
Seventeenth century
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Seventeenth century: control and norms:
1635: Académie Française founded by Cardinal
Richelieu
 Claude Favre de Vaugelas: 1647: Remarques sur la
langue françoise
 Le bon usage
 Language of the masses ‘degenerate patois’
 1694: publication of first edition of Dictionnaire de
l’Académie
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Eighteenth century
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Eighteenth century:
1789: Revolution overthrew Ancien Régime
Revolutionary agenda: linguistic uniformity,
centralisation, standardisation
1790: L’abbé Grégoire: ‘Sur la nécessité et les moyens
d’anéantir les patois et d’universaliser l’usage de la
langue françoise’
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Nineteenth century
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Nineteenth century:
At beginning of this century, in 24 of country’s
89 départements, more than half the people did
not speak French
French remained virtually a foreign language to
large proportion of country’s population until
end of 19th century.
Eighteenth century
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1790: Population of 26 million:
3 million fluent speakers of French
 6 million no knowledge of French
 6 million ‘some knowledge’
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1794: decree issued proclaiming unilingualism in
all parts of France
Prohibited use of regional languages
Factors influencing the diffusion of
the French language (19th century)
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Literary influences:
Chateaubriand (1768-1848) introduced poetic,
scientific and popular terms into novels.
 Victor Hugo (1802-85) innovations in literary
language.
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Factors influencing the diffusion of
the French language (19th century)
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Educational influences:
The Jules Ferry laws set of French laws which
established first free education in 1881.
 proposed by the (Republican) Minister of Public
Instruction Jules Ferry
 a crucial step in the grounding of the Third Republic
(1871-1940)
 Primary education in French was obligatory under
these laws from 1886 and promoted French
language and culture.
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Factors influencing the diffusion of
the French language (19th century)
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Military conscription
Improvement of communication networks
Influence of Paris with strong centralizing
tendencies.
Very important years in formation of French
identity and promotion of French language.
Twentieth century
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In 20th century still forbidden to use any language other
than French in schools.
Regional languages = forbidden
They were living in France, and the language of France
= French
Situation changed in 1951 with passing of Loi
Deixonne
Allowed for teaching of some of the regional languages
and dialects of France (Breton, Basque, Catalan,
Occitan).
One hour a week on a voluntary basis.
Twentieth century
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More sympathetic attitude (?)
Mitterrand (1981) ‘C’est blesser un peuple au plus
profond de lui-même que de l’atteindre dans sa
culture et sa langue. Nous proclamons le droit à la
différence’
Jack Lang (1982) ‘Le gouvernement souhaite que
toutes les cultures locales et régionales puissent
aujourd’hui jouir d’un véritable droit à l’expression’