French Today
Language in its Social Context

An examination of French throughout the French-speaking world, considering prescriptivism, gender, regional languages and dialects.

Carol Sanders (Edited by)

9780521396950, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 8 April 1993

340 pages, 15 b/w illus. 3 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.54 kg

"...perhaps the most interested reader would be the researcher in language planning with a special interest in the French-speaking world; in fact, for such a reader, the text may well be uniquely useful. Anthropologists who do fieldwork in any of the French-speaking countries will find the book moderately useful as well...." Anthropological Linguistics

French Today is a profile of the French language in its social context. British and French linguists examine trends in French throughout the French-speaking world, and address issues around prescriptivism, gender and language, and regional languages and dialects. The collection includes overviews of work done in particular areas and deeper analyses of sociolinguistic questions. One theme is how to represent and interpret data relating to language varieties that have been marginalised. Another concerns the ways in which French is adapting to the future, whether as a language of new technology, or as a vehicular language on the continent. All chapters of this book are in English, with examples and quotations in French, and a mixture of references given in both languages. At the end of each chapter, there are also texts in French, serving as illustration and as pointers to further reading.

List of figures and maps
List of tables
Notes on the contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction Carol Sanders
1. French: a planned language? Anne Judge
2. Sociosituational variation Carol Sanders
3. Regional variation in France Roger Hawkins
4. The other languages of France: towards a multilingual policy F. Larousi and J.-B. Marcellesi
5. The migrant languages of Paris L.-J. Calvet
6. Gender and language in French Marie-Marthe Gervais
7. The reform of the writing system Nina Catach
8. Alternative French Ken George
9. New words for new technologies Stephen Noreiko
10. Language and style in politics John Gaffney
11. French and French Creoles: the case of the French Caribbean Gertrud Aub-Buscher
12. French in Africa Suzanne Lafage
13. French in Canada Michel Blanc
14. Sociolinguistic variation and the linguist Jacques Durand
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Language teaching & learning [other than ELT CJ]