Pub Date : 2022-04-12DOI: 10.1017/s0959269521000259
Emma Annan
The present study reports on the effect of study abroad on the choice of request perspectives in formal and informal situations using the intermediary of an open role play test. The study is a longitudinal one involving 24 Ghanaian L2 French learners. At least 12 out of the 24 did a study abroad in France and the other 12 in Benin. Both groups studied for a duration of 10 months in their respective contexts. Additional data included learner’s self-reported volume of interaction in French per day. The main results show that the effect of formality of the context on the choice of request perspectives is only observed after study abroad. This seems to be as a result of their interaction with L1 speakers during study abroad leading to the adoption of native-like use of request perspectives in formal and informal situations.
{"title":"The effect of study abroad on the choice of request perspectives in formal and informal contexts: evidence from role play","authors":"Emma Annan","doi":"10.1017/s0959269521000259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959269521000259","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The present study reports on the effect of study abroad on the choice of request perspectives in formal and informal situations using the intermediary of an open role play test. The study is a longitudinal one involving 24 Ghanaian L2 French learners. At least 12 out of the 24 did a study abroad in France and the other 12 in Benin. Both groups studied for a duration of 10 months in their respective contexts. Additional data included learner’s self-reported volume of interaction in French per day. The main results show that the effect of formality of the context on the choice of request perspectives is only observed after study abroad. This seems to be as a result of their interaction with L1 speakers during study abroad leading to the adoption of native-like use of request perspectives in formal and informal situations.","PeriodicalId":43930,"journal":{"name":"Journal of French Language Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48089118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-12DOI: 10.1017/S0959269522000035
M. Labelle
Abstract The paper focuses on the syntax and semantics of the French verbal prefix auto. It is proposed that auto is an intensifier stating that no agent other than the one specified in the clause (agent-focusing), or, in anticausative clauses, no agent (agent-denying), is responsible for the event. Syntactically, auto merges with a verbal projection, and the nature of the constituent to which it attaches determines and constrains the interpretation of the clause. The proposed analysis of auto provides support for generative approaches in which a v head introduces the external argument role, while a grammatical Voice head determines its syntactic realization.
{"title":"The French intensifier auto, and the roles of v and Voice in introducing agents","authors":"M. Labelle","doi":"10.1017/S0959269522000035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959269522000035","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The paper focuses on the syntax and semantics of the French verbal prefix auto. It is proposed that auto is an intensifier stating that no agent other than the one specified in the clause (agent-focusing), or, in anticausative clauses, no agent (agent-denying), is responsible for the event. Syntactically, auto merges with a verbal projection, and the nature of the constituent to which it attaches determines and constrains the interpretation of the clause. The proposed analysis of auto provides support for generative approaches in which a v head introduces the external argument role, while a grammatical Voice head determines its syntactic realization.","PeriodicalId":43930,"journal":{"name":"Journal of French Language Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42758893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-31DOI: 10.1017/S0959269521000247
Dalila Ayoun
Abstract Although L1 French speakers (FS) acquire the formal features of gender and number early, agreement appears to take longer, leading to persistent difficulties even for cases of straightforward agreement within a nominal or verbal phrase. This begs the questions of how adult FSs (n = 168) may fare with idiosyncratic cases of agreement such as nominal affective constructions and past participles as measured by a written grammaticality judgment /correction task and preference/grammaticality judgment task. The findings showing that participants performed better at correctly accepting than rejecting stimuli, are consistent with an increasing number of empirical studies revealing individual differences among adult L1 speakers. The findings are discussed from a generative perspective and the usage-based perspective of the Basic Language Cognition-High Language Cognition theory of L1 proficiency (Hulstijn, 2015).
{"title":"Indeterminacy in L1 French grammars: the case of gender and number agreement","authors":"Dalila Ayoun","doi":"10.1017/S0959269521000247","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959269521000247","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Although L1 French speakers (FS) acquire the formal features of gender and number early, agreement appears to take longer, leading to persistent difficulties even for cases of straightforward agreement within a nominal or verbal phrase. This begs the questions of how adult FSs (n = 168) may fare with idiosyncratic cases of agreement such as nominal affective constructions and past participles as measured by a written grammaticality judgment /correction task and preference/grammaticality judgment task. The findings showing that participants performed better at correctly accepting than rejecting stimuli, are consistent with an increasing number of empirical studies revealing individual differences among adult L1 speakers. The findings are discussed from a generative perspective and the usage-based perspective of the Basic Language Cognition-High Language Cognition theory of L1 proficiency (Hulstijn, 2015).","PeriodicalId":43930,"journal":{"name":"Journal of French Language Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48739763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-16DOI: 10.1017/S0959269521000284
James Hawkey
Abstract The independent microstate of Andorra lies on the border of France and Spain and constitutes a case of complex societal multilingualism. The country’s official language, Catalan, coexists with French and Spanish, among others. French is an important vehicle of education, with around three quarters of Andorran children taught exclusively or partly through French. However, recently, the position of French has become increasingly precarious, and the language is rarely heard or used in the public domain. This article presents the results of a mixed-methods study that seeks to determine the current and future place of French in Andorra by studying language attitudes, ideologies and policies. Quantitative analysis of attitude survey data reveals that French is associated with employment opportunities but does not fulfil in-group solidarity roles. A critical analysis of semi-structured interview data shows how lack of in-group ‘pride’ (Heller and Duchêne 2012) attached to French reinforces its perceived lack of instrumental value. Finally, the analysis of public discourse from Emmanuel Macron in his role as co-Prince of Andorra highlights how combining existing strategies that emphasize historicity and civic duty with discourses appealing to the extensive migrant population could be a more suitable means to safeguard French in Andorra.
安道尔是一个独立的微型国家，位于法国和西班牙的边界，是一个复杂的多语言社会。该国的官方语言加泰罗尼亚语与法语和西班牙语等语言共存。法语是一种重要的教育工具，大约四分之三的安道尔儿童完全或部分通过法语学习。然而，最近，法语的地位变得越来越不稳定，在公共领域很少听到或使用这种语言。本文呈现一项混合方法研究的结果，旨在通过研究语言态度、意识形态和政策，确定法语在安道尔目前和未来的地位。态度调查数据的定量分析表明，法语与就业机会有关，但不履行群体内团结的角色。一项对半结构化访谈数据的批判性分析表明，法语缺乏群体内“自豪感”(Heller and Duchêne 2012)，强化了它被认为缺乏工具价值的感觉。最后，对埃马纽埃尔·马克龙(Emmanuel Macron)作为安道尔共同亲王的公共话语的分析突出了如何将强调历史性和公民义务的现有战略与吸引大量移民人口的话语结合起来，可能是保护安道尔法语的更合适手段。
{"title":"« Même si l’usage du français décline, là où pourtant il était si foisonnant… » : The sociolinguistic situation of French in Andorra","authors":"James Hawkey","doi":"10.1017/S0959269521000284","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959269521000284","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The independent microstate of Andorra lies on the border of France and Spain and constitutes a case of complex societal multilingualism. The country’s official language, Catalan, coexists with French and Spanish, among others. French is an important vehicle of education, with around three quarters of Andorran children taught exclusively or partly through French. However, recently, the position of French has become increasingly precarious, and the language is rarely heard or used in the public domain. This article presents the results of a mixed-methods study that seeks to determine the current and future place of French in Andorra by studying language attitudes, ideologies and policies. Quantitative analysis of attitude survey data reveals that French is associated with employment opportunities but does not fulfil in-group solidarity roles. A critical analysis of semi-structured interview data shows how lack of in-group ‘pride’ (Heller and Duchêne 2012) attached to French reinforces its perceived lack of instrumental value. Finally, the analysis of public discourse from Emmanuel Macron in his role as co-Prince of Andorra highlights how combining existing strategies that emphasize historicity and civic duty with discourses appealing to the extensive migrant population could be a more suitable means to safeguard French in Andorra.","PeriodicalId":43930,"journal":{"name":"Journal of French Language Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45029032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-14DOI: 10.1017/s0959269522000023
Diane de Saint Léger
{"title":"Christophe Benzitoun, Qui veut la peau du français? Paris : Le Robert, 2021, 282 pp., ISBN : 978-2-32101-688-5.","authors":"Diane de Saint Léger","doi":"10.1017/s0959269522000023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959269522000023","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43930,"journal":{"name":"Journal of French Language Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45723901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-02DOI: 10.1017/s0959269521000156
M. Noailly
L’ouvrage d’Adriana Orlandi est une réflexion sur la spécificité de l’adjectif en français. Dans ce domaine bien connu, Orlandi propose une démarche originale, inspirée des travaux qui retiennent l’attention. Le principe directeur de l’étude, puissant et d’une élégante simplicité, ce sont les travaux de Michele Prandi. Les adjectifs sont tous marqués par leur signifié relationnel, et donc leur dépendance référentielle. Ils ont deux fonctions syntaxiques primaires : épithète et attribut. Mais la disparité est grande entre les deux positions : alors que l’épithète peut recevoir tous les adjectifs, dans leur plus extrême diversité, la fonction attribut, elle, se limite aux emplois de type qualificatif. Un tel « blocage prédicatif » ne tient pas tant aux adjectifs en eux-mêmes qu’à leurs emplois divers. A partir de là, Orlandi s’interroge : quelle est la fonction syntaxique primaire de la catégorie adjectivale ? Plutôt que d’y répondre par un choix exclusif, comme on l’a fait avant elle, Orlandi considère que le problème est mal posé. S’appuyant sur ce qu’elle appelle les « cas conflictuels » (où l’interprétation de l’adjectif ne va pas de soi, chap. II), elle distingue dans le corpus littéraire qui lui sert de base (un roman des frères Goncourt) quatre types de « conflit » : métaphoriques (lumière riante), oxymoriques (sensualité spirituelle), dilatés (beautés faunesques), obliques (sourire blanc). Elle observe que dans le syntagme nominal (SN), la structure s’adapte aux contenus en jeu, le processus interprétatif s’appuyant sur la cohérence conceptuelle (et textuelle). La relation attributive, au contraire, impose rigidement une lecture qualificative. C’est que l’une est à moule large, l’autre à moule rigide. La première se contente d’exprimer le signifié complexe, qui naît avant tout de la solidarité entre les contenus, la seconde le construit (le contenu est imposé par la structure elle-même). Dans le premier cas, on parlera d’un « codage ponctuel », une sorte de sous-codage, dans le second, d’un « codage relationnel » (c’est la relation grammaticale qui assigne un rôle aux contenus). Dans le SN, la structure, du fait de son faible pouvoir de codage, ne fait que suggérer l’existence d’un lien (p. 135), un calcul inférentiel permettant de résoudre l’éventuel conflit. En position attribut en revanche, les cas conflictuels sont exclus pour la plupart (restreints de fait aux seuls emplois métaphoriques). Mais à ce compte-là, les adjectifs à fonction classifiante (les adjectifs de relation entre autres) devraient être exclus de la position attributive. Or ils ne le sont pas vraiment. Alors, comment rendre compte de cette difficulté théorique ? Orlandi la résout par le recours à la notion de « glissement de fonction » (p. 165) : une sorte de contamination entre deux types de sous-catégorisation, celle de l’adjectif attribut classifiant, et celle que fournit plus normalement un pivot prédicatif nominal (le sapin est un arbre).
{"title":"Adriana Orlandi, Le paradoxe de l’adjectif. (Champs Linguistiques.) Louvain-la-Neuve : De Boeck Supérieur, 2020, 288 pp. 978 2 8073 1985 1","authors":"M. Noailly","doi":"10.1017/s0959269521000156","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959269521000156","url":null,"abstract":"L’ouvrage d’Adriana Orlandi est une réflexion sur la spécificité de l’adjectif en français. Dans ce domaine bien connu, Orlandi propose une démarche originale, inspirée des travaux qui retiennent l’attention. Le principe directeur de l’étude, puissant et d’une élégante simplicité, ce sont les travaux de Michele Prandi. Les adjectifs sont tous marqués par leur signifié relationnel, et donc leur dépendance référentielle. Ils ont deux fonctions syntaxiques primaires : épithète et attribut. Mais la disparité est grande entre les deux positions : alors que l’épithète peut recevoir tous les adjectifs, dans leur plus extrême diversité, la fonction attribut, elle, se limite aux emplois de type qualificatif. Un tel « blocage prédicatif » ne tient pas tant aux adjectifs en eux-mêmes qu’à leurs emplois divers. A partir de là, Orlandi s’interroge : quelle est la fonction syntaxique primaire de la catégorie adjectivale ? Plutôt que d’y répondre par un choix exclusif, comme on l’a fait avant elle, Orlandi considère que le problème est mal posé. S’appuyant sur ce qu’elle appelle les « cas conflictuels » (où l’interprétation de l’adjectif ne va pas de soi, chap. II), elle distingue dans le corpus littéraire qui lui sert de base (un roman des frères Goncourt) quatre types de « conflit » : métaphoriques (lumière riante), oxymoriques (sensualité spirituelle), dilatés (beautés faunesques), obliques (sourire blanc). Elle observe que dans le syntagme nominal (SN), la structure s’adapte aux contenus en jeu, le processus interprétatif s’appuyant sur la cohérence conceptuelle (et textuelle). La relation attributive, au contraire, impose rigidement une lecture qualificative. C’est que l’une est à moule large, l’autre à moule rigide. La première se contente d’exprimer le signifié complexe, qui naît avant tout de la solidarité entre les contenus, la seconde le construit (le contenu est imposé par la structure elle-même). Dans le premier cas, on parlera d’un « codage ponctuel », une sorte de sous-codage, dans le second, d’un « codage relationnel » (c’est la relation grammaticale qui assigne un rôle aux contenus). Dans le SN, la structure, du fait de son faible pouvoir de codage, ne fait que suggérer l’existence d’un lien (p. 135), un calcul inférentiel permettant de résoudre l’éventuel conflit. En position attribut en revanche, les cas conflictuels sont exclus pour la plupart (restreints de fait aux seuls emplois métaphoriques). Mais à ce compte-là, les adjectifs à fonction classifiante (les adjectifs de relation entre autres) devraient être exclus de la position attributive. Or ils ne le sont pas vraiment. Alors, comment rendre compte de cette difficulté théorique ? Orlandi la résout par le recours à la notion de « glissement de fonction » (p. 165) : une sorte de contamination entre deux types de sous-catégorisation, celle de l’adjectif attribut classifiant, et celle que fournit plus normalement un pivot prédicatif nominal (le sapin est un arbre).","PeriodicalId":43930,"journal":{"name":"Journal of French Language Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42955486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.1017/s0959269522000060
{"title":"JFL volume 32 issue 1 Cover and Back matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/s0959269522000060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959269522000060","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43930,"journal":{"name":"Journal of French Language Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42489324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.1017/s0959269522000059
{"title":"JFL volume 32 issue 1 Cover and Front matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/s0959269522000059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959269522000059","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43930,"journal":{"name":"Journal of French Language Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48376341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-09DOI: 10.1017/S0959269521000223
Jeffrey Lamontagne, Gretchen McCulloch
Abstract Writing on social media often departs from prescriptive norms through the use of non-standard words, spellings and punctuation. Amongst these traits is the repetition of letters (e.g. for oui ‘yes’). In this study, we draw upon a corpus of over 65 million tweets from three dialects of French (Laurentian, Metropolitan and Midi) to test phonological motivations for the choice of repeated letter in a word with repetition. Using mixed-effects multinomial regression, we compare dialectal differences in whether repetition targets final consonants (silent or pronounced), word-final orthographic corresponding to phonological schwa, and prosodically accented penults. We demonstrate that repetition covertly signals phonological properties. We conclude that prosody mediates morphological and phonological effects and that grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences vary between regions, thereby producing phonological patterns that writers likely did not intend to convey at the time of writing. We also propose that orthographic repetition on Twitter has two prosodic sources: the default pitch accent in French (shifted or not) and focus.
{"title":"Phonological variation on Twitter: Evidence from letter repetition in three French dialects","authors":"Jeffrey Lamontagne, Gretchen McCulloch","doi":"10.1017/S0959269521000223","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959269521000223","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Writing on social media often departs from prescriptive norms through the use of non-standard words, spellings and punctuation. Amongst these traits is the repetition of letters (e.g. for oui ‘yes’). In this study, we draw upon a corpus of over 65 million tweets from three dialects of French (Laurentian, Metropolitan and Midi) to test phonological motivations for the choice of repeated letter in a word with repetition. Using mixed-effects multinomial regression, we compare dialectal differences in whether repetition targets final consonants (silent or pronounced), word-final orthographic corresponding to phonological schwa, and prosodically accented penults. We demonstrate that repetition covertly signals phonological properties. We conclude that prosody mediates morphological and phonological effects and that grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences vary between regions, thereby producing phonological patterns that writers likely did not intend to convey at the time of writing. We also propose that orthographic repetition on Twitter has two prosodic sources: the default pitch accent in French (shifted or not) and focus.","PeriodicalId":43930,"journal":{"name":"Journal of French Language Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46527681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-11DOI: 10.1017/S0959269521000168
Shanti Ulfsbjorninn
Abstract It is standardly assumed that French does not have word-stress, rather it has phrase-level prominence. I will advance a number of arguments, many of which have appeared already in the literature, that cumulatively suggest that French roots are characterized by phonological prominence, even if this is non-contrastive. By prominence, I mean a syntagmatically distributed strength that has all the phonological characteristics of stress in other Romance languages. I will remain agnostic about the nature of that stress, eschewing the lively debate about whether French has feet, and if so what type, and at what level. The structure of the argument is as follows. French demonstrably has phonological word-final strength but one wonders what the source of this strength is. Positionally, the initial position is strong and, independently of cases where it is reinforced by other factors, the final position is weak. I will argue, based on parallels with other Romance languages, that French word-final strength derives from root-final phonological stress. The broader significance of this conclusion is that syntagmatic properties are enough to motivate underlying forms, even in the absence of paradigmatic contrasts (minimal pairs).
{"title":"An Argument for Phonological Stress in French: the syntagm over contrast","authors":"Shanti Ulfsbjorninn","doi":"10.1017/S0959269521000168","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959269521000168","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract It is standardly assumed that French does not have word-stress, rather it has phrase-level prominence. I will advance a number of arguments, many of which have appeared already in the literature, that cumulatively suggest that French roots are characterized by phonological prominence, even if this is non-contrastive. By prominence, I mean a syntagmatically distributed strength that has all the phonological characteristics of stress in other Romance languages. I will remain agnostic about the nature of that stress, eschewing the lively debate about whether French has feet, and if so what type, and at what level. The structure of the argument is as follows. French demonstrably has phonological word-final strength but one wonders what the source of this strength is. Positionally, the initial position is strong and, independently of cases where it is reinforced by other factors, the final position is weak. I will argue, based on parallels with other Romance languages, that French word-final strength derives from root-final phonological stress. The broader significance of this conclusion is that syntagmatic properties are enough to motivate underlying forms, even in the absence of paradigmatic contrasts (minimal pairs).","PeriodicalId":43930,"journal":{"name":"Journal of French Language Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45768168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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