Conventional expressions, a subset of multiword units, are the target of the current study, which aims to address questions concerning native and nonnative speakers' knowledge and processing of a set of such strings. To this end, 13 expressions identified as conventional in the southwest of France were tested in an online contextualized…

This study uses a mixed-effects model to examine the acquisition of targetlike patterns of phonological variation by 17 English-speaking learners of French during study abroad in France. Naturalistic speech data provide evidence for the incipient acquisition of a phonological variable showing sociostylistic variation in native speaker speech: the…

New research on the history of nineteenth-century Flemish migration into the North of France shows ample evidence of a complex pattern of transfer procedures taking place between the source and target cultures, both via institutions such as newspapers, magazines and associations and via practices such as popular theatre, almanacs and songs. The…

This paper describes certain metonymies that are often employed in the daily French press. In such metonymies, a human being or a set of individuals are referred to by means of the name of an institutional location (i.e., a capital city, a ministry in a western country, the name of a country). These metonymic patterns do not seem to be used by…

Traces the history and describes the present state of France's regional languages (Alsacien, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Flemish, and Occitan) and analyzes the common problems encountered by speakers of these languages. (Author/CB)

A study explored the ability of children to comprehend expressions of uncertainty in varying degrees (e.g., "not likely, possible, probable"). Subjects were 42 French students aged approximately 9, 12, and 15. Results, including age and gender differences, and implications for classroom communication are discussed. (MSE)

This article discusses structural factors responsible for a number of subtle differences in the outcome of language contact in Brussels (Belgium) and Strasbourg (France), and suggest that sociolinguistic factors have little explanatory power in this area. Differences between the rules for past participle formation in Dutch as spoken in Brussels…

The concept of journalistic norms and recent French experience with this are reviewed. It is concluded that the press might be a reasonable arbiter between conservative institutional norms and recent rapid change in the French language. (MSE)

Analyzes the syntactic structure of noun phrases and verb phrases in recipes and cookery articles in the French press and argues that the complexity of writing about cooking parallels the complexity of the cooking process itself, demonstrating how syntax can reflect function and meaning in a restricted text-type. (Author/MSE)

Forty-one French-English bilinguals in England and France participated in three segmentation experiments with English and French materials. Bilinguals formed two groups, defined by forced choice of a dominant language. Only the French-dominant group showed syllabic segmentation and only with French language materials. The English-dominant group…

This article outlines a research project conducted in Perpignan in 1988 that sought to discover and describe the varieties of language present in the town, patterns of language use and language attitudes among inhabitants. The research took the form of a questionnaire survey, used with a representative sample of the population. (Contains 10…

Focuses on variable /l/-deletion in the French definite articles, subject clitic pronouns, and in one frequent phono-lexical context. Considers whether the sociolinguistic patterns reported indicate ongoing linguistic change or whether the effects observed reveal attitudes to non-standard linguistic forms inculcated in speakers by normative French…

Finds important differences between Quebecois and French mothers: the Quebecois mothers spoke more than French mothers and produced a greater number of assertive and expressive speech acts than the French mothers. Shows that speech used in both of these cultural groups varies according to the mother's child-rearing style, with coercive mothers…

Examines the problem posed for French second-language learners by the irregular dropping of French final consonants, examining the rules presented in textbooks and comparing them with findings of various linguistic surveys conducted in France and Canada. Differences observed between theory and reality lead to practical advice for French teachers.…

A trait of the scholarly tradition of France is explication de texte, associated in the past with philology and the translation of classical texts. This tradition reemerges as a compromise between demands of the communicative approach for practical language skills and the broader linguistic and cultural objectives of foreign language learning.…