Sociolinguistic Variation in Seventeenth-Century France: Methodology and Case Studies

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Preface......Page 11
Acknowledgments......Page 13
Abbreviations......Page 14
1.1 Introduction......Page 15
1.1.1 The development of socio-historical linguistics......Page 16
1.1.2 The scope of this book......Page 17
1.2.1 The question of sources and defining a corpus......Page 19
1.2.2 Deciding upon the variables......Page 23
1.2.3 Syntactic variation in a socio-historical perspective......Page 24
1.3.1 Processing the data: the question of statistics......Page 25
1.3.2 Separating the different parameters of variation and the problem of metalanguage......Page 26
1.3.3 Avoiding anachronistic judgments......Page 28
1.4 The value of studying variation in seventeenth-century French......Page 29
1.5 The structure of this book......Page 30
2.1 Introduction......Page 31
2.2 Terminological difficulties......Page 34
2.3 The relationship between written and spoken French......Page 39
2.4 Sources of spoken French......Page 41
2.5.1 Introduction......Page 51
2.5.2 Pronoun usage......Page 53
2.5.3 Verb morphology and usage......Page 59
2.5.4 Interrogation......Page 64
2.6 Conclusion......Page 73
3.1 Introduction......Page 75
3.2.1 Modelling variation......Page 76
3.2.2 Style labels: dictionaries......Page 78
3.2.3 Style labels: observations......Page 82
3.2.4 Style labels in other metalinguistic texts......Page 86
3.3.1 Textual sources......Page 87
3.3.2 Vocabulary......Page 99
3.3.3 Pronunciation: [wε], [ε] and [wa]......Page 113
3.3.4 Syntax: ‘Constructions louches’......Page 119
3.4 Conclusion......Page 122
4.1 Introduction......Page 125
4.2.1 Introduction......Page 127
4.2.2 The Querelle des femmes......Page 128
4.2.3 Education......Page 130
4.2.4 Salons and la culture mondaine......Page 132
4.2.5 Women's 'ignorance'......Page 134
4.2.6 Theories of honnêteté and the civilizing role of women......Page 135
4.3.2 Theories of conversation......Page 137
4.4.1 Positive attitudes towards women’s language: women as authorities......Page 140
4.4.2 Negative attitudes towards women's language: women making errors......Page 142
4.4.3 Positive qualities of women’s language......Page 143
4.5.2 Difficulties of definition and of sources......Page 147
4.5.3 The language of Préciosité......Page 152
4.5.4 Spelling......Page 155
4.6.1 Methodology......Page 157
4.6.3 Vocabulary......Page 161
4.6.4 Gender......Page 168
4.6.5 Agreement......Page 174
(a) Morphology......Page 175
(b) Syntax......Page 176
(c) Pronunciation......Page 177
4.6.7 Précieuses' language: evidence from the satirical texts......Page 179
4.6.8 Précieuses' language: evidence from the metalinguistic texts......Page 186
4.6.9 The language of Préciosité and women's language......Page 188
4.7 Conclusion......Page 190
5.1 Introduction: attitudes towards change in the seventeenth century......Page 195
5.2.1 The chronology of change......Page 196
5.2.2 The reduction of the French language......Page 197
5.3 Stable variation versus change in progress: the case of negation......Page 199
5.4.1 Introduction......Page 203
5.4.2 Corpus of texts......Page 204
5.4.3 Pronunciation......Page 205
5.4.4 Verb morphology......Page 215
5.4.5 Word order: the position of clitic pronouns and negatives......Page 222
5.5 Conclusion......Page 237
6 Conclusion......Page 239
b dictionaries......Page 244
e model dialogues in didactic texts......Page 245
h works on versification and prosody......Page 246
i miscellaneous other works including conversations, compilations of observations, grammars, works on style, etc.......Page 247
References......Page 248
Index of concepts......Page 268
Index of names......Page 275