1887
The locus of linguistic variation
  • ISSN 2211-6834
  • E-ISSN: 2211-6842
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

This paper integrates aspects of both generative theory and variationist sociolinguistics. To compare the structure of two varieties of French (Acadian French and Laurentian French), I adapt the comparative sociolinguistics approach to compare the syntactic structure of these varieties. Specifically, I focus on the effects of across multiple sociolinguistic variables. I argue that such a comparison provides insights into the underlying grammatical structures of the varieties under comparison, differences that may have remained hidden otherwise. To illustrate the approach, I focus on a single constraint, sentential polarity, and I analyze its effects on two sociolinguistic variables, yes/no questions and future temporal reference. Results show that the polarity constraint is operative in Laurentian French for both variables, but inoperative in Acadian French. To account for this difference, I argue that Laurentian French negative structures involve a negative head above the tense phrase while Acadian French does not.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/lv.16.2.02com
2017-01-12
2025-02-12
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Adger, David
    2006 Combinatorial variability. Journal of Linguistics42(3). 503–530. doi: 10.1017/S002222670600418X
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S002222670600418X [Google Scholar]
  2. Adger, David & Jennifer Smith
    2005 Variation and the minimalist program. In Leonie Cornips & Karen P. Corrigan (eds.), Syntax and variation: Reconciling the biological and the social, 149–178. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/cilt.265.10adg
    https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.265.10adg [Google Scholar]
  3. 2010 Variation in agreement: A lexical feature-based approach. Lingua120(5). 1109–1134. doi: 10.1016/j.lingua.2008.05.007
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2008.05.007 [Google Scholar]
  4. Ashby, William J
    1977 Interrogative forms in Parisian French. Semasia4. 35–52.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Auger, Julie
    1996 Subject-clitic inversion in Romance: A morphological analysis. In Claudia Parodi , Carlos Quicoli , Mario Saltarelli , & Maria Luisa Zubizarretta (eds.), Aspects of romance linguistics: Selected papers from the Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages XXIV (March 10–13 1994), 23–40. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Bayley, Robert
    2013 Variationist sociolinguistics. In Robert Bayley , Richard Cameron , & Ceil Lucas (eds.), The Oxford handbook of sociolinguistics, 11–30. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199744084.013.0001
    https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199744084.013.0001 [Google Scholar]
  7. Beaulieu, Louise & Wladyslaw Cichocki
    2008 La flexion postverbale -ont en français acadien: une analyse sociolinguistique. Canadian Journal of Linguistics53(1). 35–62. doi: 10.1353/cjl.0.0005
    https://doi.org/10.1353/cjl.0.0005 [Google Scholar]
  8. Blondeau, Hélène
    2006 La trajectoire de l’emploi du futur chez une cohorte de Montréalais francophones entre 1971 et 1995. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics/Revue de l’Université de Moncton9(2). 73–98. doi: 10.7202/015840ar
    https://doi.org/10.7202/015840ar [Google Scholar]
  9. Chevalier, Gisèle
    1996 L’emploi des formes du futur dans le parler acadien du sud-est du Nouveau-Brunswick. In Annette Boudreau & Lise Dubois (eds.), Les Acadiens et leur(s) langue(s): quand le français est minoritaire, 75–89. Moncton, NB: Éditions d’Acadie.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Chiasson-Léger, Mélissa
    2014 Future temporal reference in New Brunswick Acadian French. Paper presented at the 43rd New Ways of Analyzing Variation conference . Chicago, IL: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Illinois at Chicago.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Chomsky, Noam
    1965Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. 1995The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. 2000a Minimalist inquiries: The framework. In Roger Martin , David Michaels , & Juan Uriagereka (eds.), Step by step: Essays on minimalist syntax in honor of Howard Lasnik, 89–156. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. 2000bNew horizons in the study of language and the mind. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511811937
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511811937 [Google Scholar]
  15. 2001 Derivation by phase. In Michael Kenstowicz (ed.), Ken Hale: A Life in Language, 1–52. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Comeau, Philip
    2007 Pas vs. point: Variation in Baie Sainte-Marie Acadian French. Paper presented at the 36th New Ways of Analyzing Variation conference . Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. 2011A window on the past, a move toward the future: Sociolinguistic and formal perspectives on variation in Acadian French. Toronto, ON: York University doctoral dissertation.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. 2015 Vestiges from the grammaticalization path: The expression of future temporal reference in Acadian French. Journal of French Language Studies, 25(3), 339–365. doi: 10.1017/S0959269514000301
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959269514000301 [Google Scholar]
  19. Comeau, Philip , Ruth King & Gary R. Butler
    2012 New insignts on an old rivalry: The passé simple and the passé composé in spoken Acadian French. Journal of French Language Studies22(3). 315–343. doi: 10.1017/S0959269511000524
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959269511000524 [Google Scholar]
  20. Comeau, Philip , Ruth King & Carmen LeBlanc
    2014 Dialect contact and the sociolinguistic history of Acadian French. Paper presented at the Methods in Dialectology XV Conference . Groningen, The Netherlands: University of Groningen.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Cornips, Leonie & Karen P. Corrigan
    (eds.) 2005Syntax and variation: Reconciling the biological and the social. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/cilt.265
    https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.265 [Google Scholar]
  22. Coveney, Aidan
    2002Variability in spoken French: A sociolinguistic study of interrogation and negation. Bristol, UK: Intellect Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Deshaies, Denise & Ève Laforge
    1981 Le futur simple et le futur proche dans le français parlé dans la ville de Québec. Langues et linguistique7. 21–37.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Dewaele, Jean-Marc
    1999 Word order variation in interrogative structures of native and non-native French. ITL – International Journal of Applied Linguistics123–124. 161–180.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Di Sciullo, Anne-Marie & Mireille Tremblay
    1993 Négation et interfaces. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics12(1). 75–89.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Elsig, Martin
    2009Grammatical variation across space and time: The French interrogative system. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/silv.3
    https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.3 [Google Scholar]
  27. Elsig, Martin & Shana Poplack
    2006 Transplanted dialects and language change: Question formation in Québec. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: Papers from NWAV [New Ways of Analyzing Variation] 3412(2). 77–90.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Embick, David & Rolf Noyer
    2007 Distributed morphology and the syntax–morphology interface. In Gillian Ramchand & Charles Reiss (eds.), The Oxford handbook of linguistic interfaces, 289–324. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199247455.013.0010
    https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199247455.013.0010 [Google Scholar]
  29. Emirkanian, Louisette & David Sankoff
    1985 Le futur simple et le futur périphrastique. In Monique Lemieux , Henrietta J. Cedergren , & Fernande Dupuis (eds.), Les tendances dynamiques du français parlé à Montréal, 189–204. Montreal, QC: Office de la langue française.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Flikeid, Karin
    1994 Origines et évolution du français acadien à la lumière de la diversité contemporaine. In Raymond Mougeon & Édouard Beniak (eds.), Les origines du français québécois, 275–326. Sainte-Foy, QC: Les Presses de l’Université Laval.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Foulet, Lucien
    1921 Comment ont évolué les formes de l’interrogation. Romania47. 243–348. doi: 10.3406/roma.1921.4437
    https://doi.org/10.3406/roma.1921.4437 [Google Scholar]
  32. Fox, Cynthia A
    1989Syntactic variation and interrogative structures in Québécois. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University doctoral dissertation.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Gesner, B. Edward
    1979Étude morphosyntaxique du parler acadien de la Baie Sainte-Marie, Nouvelle-Écosse, Canada. Québec, QC: International Center for Research on Bilingualism.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Grimm, D. Rick
    2010 A real-time study of future temporal reference in spoken Ontarian French. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: Selected Papers from NWAV [New Ways of Analyzing Variation] 3816(2). 83–92.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Grimm, Rick & Terry Nadasdi
    2011 The future of Ontario French. Journal of French Language Studies21(2). 173–189. doi: 10.1017/S0959269510000335
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959269510000335 [Google Scholar]
  36. Halle, Morris & Alec Marantz
    1993 Distributed morphology and the pieces of inflection. In Kenneth Hale & Samuel Jay Keyser (eds.), The view from building 20: Essays in linguistics in honor of Sylvain Bromberger, 111–176. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Jarmasz, Lidia-Gabriela
    2007The future and negation in Canadian French. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto unpublished manuscript.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Jeanjean, Colette
    1988 Le futur simple et le futur périphrastique en français parlé: étude distributionnelle. In Claire Blanche-Benveniste & André Chervel (eds.), Grammaire et histoire de la grammaire: hommage à la mémoire de Jean Stéfanini, 235–257. Marseille, France: Université de Provence.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Kayne, Richard S
    1972 Subject inversion in French interrogatives. In Jean Casagrande & Bohdan Saciuk (eds.), Generative Studies in Romance Languages, 70–126. Cambridge, MA: Newbury House.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. 2000Parameters and universals. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. King, Ruth
    2005 Morphosyntactic variation and theory: Subject-verb agreement in Acadian French. In Leonie Cornips & Karen P. Corrigan (eds.), Syntax and variation: Reconciling the biological and the social, 199–229. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/cilt.265.12kin
    https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.265.12kin [Google Scholar]
  42. 2013aAcadian French in time and space: A study in morphosyntax and comparative sociolinguistics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. 2013b Morphosyntactic variation. In Robert Bayley , Richard Cameron , & Ceil Lucas (eds.), The Oxford handbook of sociolinguistics, 445–463. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199744084.013.0022
    https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199744084.013.0022 [Google Scholar]
  44. King, Ruth & Terry Nadasdi
    2003 Back to the future in Acadian French. Journal of French Language Studies13(3). 323–337. doi: 10.1017/S0959269503001157
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959269503001157 [Google Scholar]
  45. King, Ruth , Terry Nadasdi & Gary R. Butler
    2004 First-person plural in Prince Edward Island Acadian French: The fate of the vernacular variant je…ons. Language Variation and Change16(3). 237–455. doi: 10.1017/S0954394504163035
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394504163035 [Google Scholar]
  46. Kroch, Anthony S
    1989 Reflexes of grammar in patterns of language change. Language Variation and Change1(3). 199–244. doi: 10.1017/S0954394500000168
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394500000168 [Google Scholar]
  47. 1994 Morphosyntactic variation. In Katharine Beals (ed.), Papers from the 30th regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society: Parasession on variation and linguistic theory, 180–201. Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Kroch, Anthony , Ann Taylor & Donald Ringe
    2000 The Middle English verb-second constraint: A case study in language contact and language change. In Susan C. Herring , Pieter van Reenen , & Lene Schøsler (eds.), Textual parameters in older language, 353–391. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/cilt.195.17kro
    https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.195.17kro [Google Scholar]
  49. Labov, William
    1963 The social motivation of a sound change. Word 19. 273–309. doi: 10.1080/00437956.1963.11659799
    https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1963.11659799 [Google Scholar]
  50. 1969 Contraction, deletion, and inherent variability of the English copula. Language45(4). 715–762. doi: 10.2307/412333
    https://doi.org/10.2307/412333 [Google Scholar]
  51. 1972Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Laurendeau, Paul
    2000 L’alternance futur simple/futur périphrastique: une hypothèse modale. Verbum22(3). 277–292.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. LeBlanc, Carmen
    2013 Les interrogatives totales en français madelinot: Continuité dans la filiation. In Alena Barysevich , Alexandra D’Arcy , & David Heap (eds.), Proceedings of Methods XIV: Papers from the fourteenth International Conference on Methods in Dialectology, 2011, 90–101. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Martineau, France
    2005 Perspectives sur le changement linguistique: aux sources du français canadien. Canadian Journal of Linguistics50(1/2/3/4). 173–213. doi: 10.1353/cjl.2007.0010
    https://doi.org/10.1353/cjl.2007.0010 [Google Scholar]
  55. 2011 Ne-absence in declarative and yes/no interrogative contexts: Some patterns of change. In Pierre Larrivée & Richard P. Inghan (eds.), The evolution of negation: Beyond the Jespersen cycle, 179–207. Boston, MA: De Gruyter Mouton.
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Martineau, France & Raymond Mougeon
    2003 A sociolinguistic study of the origins of ne deletion in European and Quebec French. Language79(1). 118–152. doi: 10.1353/lan.2003.0090
    https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2003.0090 [Google Scholar]
  57. Martineau, France & Marie-Thérèse Vinet
    2005 Microvariation in French negation markers: A historical perspective. In Montserrat Batllori , Mari-Lluïsa Hernanz , Carme Picallo , & Francesc Roca (eds.), Grammaticalization and parametric variation, 194–205. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272129.003.0012
    https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272129.003.0012 [Google Scholar]
  58. Morin, Annick
    2008The Quebec French interrogative particle tu: A question of definiteness. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto unpublished manuscript.
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Morin, Yves-Charles
    1985 On the two French subjectless verbs voici and voilà. Language61(4). 777–820. doi: 10.2307/414490
    https://doi.org/10.2307/414490 [Google Scholar]
  60. Parott, Jeffrey K
    2007Distributed morphological mechanisms of labovian variation in morphosyntax. Washington, DC: Georgetown University dissertation.
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Pohl, Jacques
    1965 Observations sur les formes d’interrogation dans la langue parlée et dans la langue écrite non-littéraire. In Georges Straka (ed.), Linguistique et philologie romanes. Actes du Xe Congrès international de linguistique et de philologie romanes, 501–513. Paris, France: Klincksieck.
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Poplack, Shana
    1989 The care and handling of a mega-corpus: The Ottawa-Hull French Project. In Ralph W. Fasold & Deborah Schiffrin (eds.), Language change and variation, 411–451. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/cilt.52.25pop
    https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.52.25pop [Google Scholar]
  63. Poplack, Shana & Nathalie Dion
    2009 Prescription vs. praxis: The evolution of future temporal reference in French. Language85(3). 557–587. doi: 10.1353/lan.0.0149
    https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.0.0149 [Google Scholar]
  64. Poplack, Shana & Anne St-Amand
    2007 A real-time window on 19th century vernacular French: The Récits du français québécois d’autrefois. Language in Society36(5). 707–734. doi: 10.1017/S0047404507070662
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404507070662 [Google Scholar]
  65. Poplack, Shana & Sali A. Tagliamonte
    2001African American English in the diaspora. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers.
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Poplack, Shana & Danielle Turpin
    1999 Does the Futur have a future in (Canadian) French?Probus11(1). 133–164. doi: 10.1515/prbs.1999.11.1.133
    https://doi.org/10.1515/prbs.1999.11.1.133 [Google Scholar]
  67. Rizzi, Luigi
    1990Relativized minimality. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  68. Rowlett, Paul
    2007The syntax of French. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511618642
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511618642 [Google Scholar]
  69. Sankoff, David , Sali A. Tagliamontre & Eric Smith
    2005Goldvarb X: A variable rule application for Macintosh and Windows. Toronto, ON: Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto.
    [Google Scholar]
  70. Sankoff, Gillian & Diane Vincent
    1977 L’emploi productif du ne dans le français parlé à Montréal. Le français moderne45(3). 243–256.
    [Google Scholar]
  71. Sankoff, Gillian , Suzanne Evans Wagner & Laura Jensen
    2012 The long tail of language change: Québécois French futures in real time. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: Selected Papers from NWAV [New Ways of Analyzing Variation] 4018(2). 107–116.
    [Google Scholar]
  72. Seutin, Émile
    1975Description grammaticale du parler de l’Île-aux-Coudres. Montreal, QC: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal.
    [Google Scholar]
  73. Söll, Ludwig
    1983 L’interrogation directe dans un corpus de langage enfantin. In Franz Josef Hausmann (ed.), Études de grammaire française descriptive, 45–54. Heidelberg, Germany: Groos.
    [Google Scholar]
  74. Statistics Canada
    1991 2A Profile, 1991 – NS – Southern Nova Scotia (21 areas) (table), 1991 (2A) basic questionnaire, Provinces to Municipalities (database), Using E- STAT (distributor). estat.statcan.gc.ca/cgi280win/cnsmcgi.exe?Lang=E&EST-Fi=EStat\English\SC_RR-eng.htm. (AccessedSeptember 25, 2011)
  75. Tagliamonte, Sali
    2002 Comparative sociolinguistics. In J.K. Chambers , Peter Trudgill , & Natalie Schilling-Estes (eds.), The handbook of language variation and change, 729–763. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
    [Google Scholar]
  76. Terry, Robert M
    1970Contemporary French interrogative structures. Montreal, QC: Éditions Cosmos.
    [Google Scholar]
  77. Thomas, Dominike
    2010Étude sociolinguistique historique du système interrogatif: les interrogatives dans le Journal de Jean Héroard. Ottawa, ON: University of Ottawa MA thesis.
    [Google Scholar]
  78. Travis, Lisa
    1984Parameters and effects of word order variation. Cambridge, MA: MIT dissertation.
    [Google Scholar]
  79. Vet, Co
    1993 Conditions d’emploi et interprétation des temps futurs du français. Verbum4. 71–84.
    [Google Scholar]
  80. Vinet, Marie-Thérèse
    2000a Feature representation and -tu (pas) in Quebec French. Studia Linguistica54(3). 381–411. doi: 10.1111/1467‑9582.00071
    https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9582.00071 [Google Scholar]
  81. 2000b La polarité pos/nég, -tu (pas) et les questions oui/non. Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée28(1). 137–149. doi: 10.7202/603191ar
    https://doi.org/10.7202/603191ar [Google Scholar]
  82. Weinreich, Uriel , William Labov & Marvin I. Herzog
    1968 Empirical foundations for a theory of language change. In Winfred P. Lehmann & Yakov Malkiel (eds.), Directions for historical linguistics, 95–195. Austin, TX: The University of Texas Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  83. Wagner, Suzanne Evans & Gillian Sankoff
    2011 Age grading in the Montréal French inflected future. Language Variation and Change23(3). 275–313. doi: 10.1017/S0954394511000111
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394511000111 [Google Scholar]
  84. Zanuttini, Raffaella
    1997 Negation and verb movement. In Lilian Haegeman (ed.), The new comparative syntax, 214–245. New York, NY: Longman.
    [Google Scholar]
  85. Zeijlstra, Hedzer Hugo
    2004Sentential negation and negative concord. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: University of Amsterdam dissertation.
    [Google Scholar]
  86. Zimmer, Dagmar
    1994 Ça va tu marcher, ça marchera tu pas, je le sais pas » (71: 15): le futur simple et le futur périphrastique dans le français parlé à Montréal. Langues et linguistique20. 213–226.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/lv.16.2.02com
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error