Full Description
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.
Contents
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.
