Variability in interrogation and negation in spoken French
In this thesis, a set of defining properties of grammatical variables is proposed, taking particular account of the precise extent to which variants should be required to be equivalent, semantically and pragmatically. These principles are then applied in a variationist analysis of negation and interrogation in spoken French, with data from a corpus from the Somme, northern France. Computer-assisted data-handling techniques are employed, notably the Oxford Concordance Program. For the (ne) variable, a large proportion of the data is analysed in terms of preformed sequences, which strongly favour the omission of the negative particle. There is also evidence that age is the most important extra-linguistic constraint, but this is interpreted as being a case of age-grading rather than of change in progress, as has sometimes been supposed. It is suggested that the negative particle has all but disappeared from northern French vernacular styles. To check the pragmatic equivalence of variant interrogative structures, a taxonomy of communicative functions is set up, drawing from research on speech acts, conversational structure and communicative grammar. The interrogatives in the corpus are then classified in terms
Coveney, Aidan Benedict
French grammatical variability
Variability in interrogation and negation in spoken French. In this thesis, a set of defining properties of grammatical variables is proposed, taking particular account of the precise extent to which variants should be required to be equivalent, semantically and pragmatically. These principles are then applied in a variationist analysis of negation and interrogation in spoken French, with data from a corpus from the Somme, northern France. Computer-assisted data-handling techniques are employed, notably the Oxford Concordance Program. For the (ne) variable, a large proportion of the data is analysed in terms of preformed sequences, which strongly favour the omission of the negative particle. There is also evidence that age is the most important extra-linguistic constraint, but this is interpreted as being a case of age-grading rather than of change in progress, as has sometimes been supposed. It is suggested that the negative particle has all but disappeared from northern French vernacular styles. To check the pragmatic equivalence of variant interrogative structures, a taxonomy of communicative functions is set up, drawing from research on speech acts, conversational structure and communicative grammar. The interrogatives in the corpus are then classified in terms
variability interrogation negation speak french set define property grammatical variable propose take particular account precise extent variant require equivalent semantically pragmatically principle apply variationist analysis negation interrogation speak french data corpus northern_france computer_assisted data handling technique_employ notably oxford concordance program variable large_proportion data_analyse term sequence strongly favour omission negative particle also evidence age important extra_linguistic constraint interpreted case age rather change_progress sometimes suppose suggest negative particle disappear northern french vernacular style check pragmatic equivalence variant interrogative structure taxonomy communicative_function set draw speech_act conversational structure communicative grammar interrogative corpus classified term