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Norm and Ideology in Spoken French: A Sociolinguistic History of Liaison

Hornsby, David (2020) Norm and Ideology in Spoken French: A Sociolinguistic History of Liaison. Palgrave Macmillan, 231 pp. ISBN 978-3-030-49299-1. E-ISBN 978-3-030-49300-4. (doi:10.1007/978-3-030-49300-4) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:83169)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49300-4

Abstract

This volume offers a diachronic sociolinguistic perspective on one of the most complex and fascinating variable speech phenomena in contemporary French. Liaison affects a number of word-final consonants which are realized before a vowel but not pre-pausally or before a consonant. Liaisons have traditionally been classified as obligatoire (obligatory), interdite (forbidden) and facultative (optional), the latter category subject to a highly complex prescriptive norm. This volume traces the evolution of this norm in prescriptive works published since the 16th Century, and sets it against actual practice as evidenced from linguists’ descriptions and recorded corpora. The author argues that optional (or variable) liaison in French offers a rich and well-documented example of language change driven by ideology in Kroch’s (1978) terms, in which an elite seeks to maintain a complex conservative norm in the face of generally simplifying changes led by lower socio-economic groups, who tend in this case to restrict liaison to a small set of traditionally obligatory environments.

Item Type: Book
DOI/Identification number: 10.1007/978-3-030-49300-4
Uncontrolled keywords: French; liaison; variation and change; ideology of the standard; sociolinguistic theory; history of French; linking phenomena; sandhi; stylistic variation; written and spoken French; variation and class; variation and gender; variation and age; models of variation
Subjects: P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics > P95.8 Communication. Political aspects.
P Language and Literature
P Language and Literature > PC Romance philology and languages
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: David Hornsby
Date Deposited: 29 Sep 2020 10:39 UTC
Last Modified: 28 Sep 2021 15:52 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/83169 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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