Syntactic variation in French: diglossia and language change

Rowlett, PA

Abstract

In this talk I shall (a) review the history of the study of syntactic variation in French, (b) briefly comment on the use of the Internet in variationist syntactic research, and then (c) consider the notion that syntactic variation in modern metropolitan French can best be captured within the framework of diglossia. I review the particular approach adopted by Benjamin Massot in a recent Paris 8 PhD thesis, and suggest that Massot's model needs to be fine-tuned to account for cases where one and the same surface form is generated by two distinct grammars but has a different status in each.

Citation

Rowlett, P. Syntactic variation in French: diglossia and language change. Presented at 19th International Postgraduate Linguistics Conference, University of Manchester

• Presentation Conference Type: Keynote
• Conference Name: 19th International Postgraduate Linguistics Conference
• Conference Location: University of Manchester
• End Date: Sep 17, 2010
• Deposit Date: Sep 20, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 20, 2010
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference