Direct speech, subjectivity and speaker positioning in London English and Paris French

This paper examines functional similarities and differences in the use of pragmatic features – in particular quotatives and general extenders – on the right and left periphery of direct quotations. This comparative study, based on the analysis of a contemporary corpus of London English and Paris French (MLE – MPF) , finds that the form and frequency of these particles tend to vary not only with respect to social factors such as speakers’ age and gender, but also with respect to the different pragmatic functions they come to perform in different interactional settings. The contemporary data is analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively to show how different variants position the speaker in relation to: i) the content of the quote, ii) the interlocutors, iii) the presumed author of the quote. The paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of pragmatic universals and variability in the use of direct speech

<i>‘Je sais et tout mais...’</i> might the general extenders in European French be changing?

This paper addresses contemporary trends in the use of general extenders in two recent corpora of spontaneous French stratified by age. In these corpora, certain variants (e.g. et tout) are highly prevalent in the speech of young people compared to older speakers, while others are not. Other studies have shown that general extenders’ form as well as frequency tends to vary with respect to speakers’ age, while some extenders may also undergo grammaticalisation. The present study includes a comparison with a late 20th-century corpus of spoken French, and finds that not only age grading but also generational change might be occurring. This conclusion is supported by qualitative and quantitative analysis of the contemporary data, showing that the forms most frequent among young people appear to have acquired new pragmatic functions

Le débat sur la diglossie en France : aspects scientifiques et politiques

This article outlines the diglossic approach to intra-speaker grammatical variation (Ferguson 1959), wherein speaker—hearers acquire two grammars which are socio-stylistically distinct – one H(igh), the other L(ow) – but linguistically related (to the extent that users regard them as the same language), and then engage one or other of them (but do not mix them) in their active productions. It then sets out how a case could be made for such a model to capture variation in contemporary France, in place of the variationist model which envisages a single, flexible grammar, e.g., the bipolarity, strength and non-random nature of the sociolinguistic H—L distinction, the differing pattern of acquisition of H and L forms, the tendency for L forms to encroach on H terrain (rather than vice versa), and the internal coherence of each of the H and L varieties. Finally, the article sketches the politico-moral dimension to the debate, extending beyond scientific objectivity, and relating to the treatment of non-standard linguistic behaviour in context of the socio-cultural status of the standard

What can be learned about the grammar of French from corpora of French spoken outside France

This paper looks at some questions which were considered quite differently before corpora became the ordinary way to describe languages, focusing on the following points: a) Our ultimate objective is to document how wide-reaching the appellation “French” can be, given the extent of variation found in the corpora: is it possible to document the whole variational span of “the French language”, in what Chaudenson (2003: 182) would call “the limits of intra-linguistic variability of French”? b) Are there grammatical phenomena which could be looked at differently and analysed using corpora? c) Is it possible to generalise in an explanatory perspective, and to determine something of the principles which lie behind the difference between standards and vernaculars? d) The discussion of ordinary and non-standard data, mostly spoken (only occasionally written) will lead me to consider if it is possible to qualify vernacular varieties as such, in what Chambers called in 2000 “universal sources of the vernacular” and in 2003 “vernacular roots”; and what I shall choose to call here “vernacular re- source” (see the concluding remarks in section 3). The linguistic variation data which will be looked at in sections 1 and 2 are primarily diatopic, and occasionally diastratic: they mostly come from geographically “periphercal” French (mostly North American) and socially “marginal” French, which means here ways of speaking which have been subjected to / been the target of (albeit sometimes in a limited way) normative pressures, as is the case for ordinary spoken French, “popular French”, youth language, child language, and different types of urban or rural vernaculars

"Il parle normal, il parle comme nous”: self-reported usage and attitudes in a banlieue

We report on a survey of language attitudes carried out as part of a project comparing youth language in Paris and London. As in similar studies carried out in London (Cheshire et al. 2008), Berlin (Wiese 2009) and elsewhere (Boyd et al. 2015), the focus was on features considered typical of ‘contemporary urban vernaculars’ (Rampton 2015). The respondents were pupils aged 15-18 in two secondary schools in a working-class northern suburb of Paris. The survey included (1) a written questionnaire containing examples of features potentially undergoing change in contemporary French; (2) an analysis of reactions to extracts from the project data: participants were asked to comment on the speakers and the features identified. Quantitative analysis had shown that some of these features are more widespread than others and are used by certain categories of speaker more than others (Gardner-Chloros and Secova, 2018). This study provides a qualitative dimension, showing that different features have different degrees of perceptual salience and acceptability. It demonstrates that youth varieties do not involve characteristic features being used as a ‘package’, and that such changes interact in a complex manner with attitudinal factors. The study also provides material for reflection on the role of attitude studies within sociolinguistic surveys

Magnetic anomalies in the spin chain system, Sr3_3Cu1−x_{1-x}Znx_xIrO6_6

We report the results of ac and dc magnetization (M) and heat-capacity (C) measurements on the solid solution, Sr$_3$Cu$_{1-x}$Zn$_x$IrO$_6$. While the Zn end member is known to form in a rhombohedral pseudo one-dimensional K$_4$CdCl$_6$ structure with an antiferromagnetic ordering temperature of (T$_N$ =) 19 K, the Cu end member has been reported to form in a monoclinically distorted form with a Curie temperature of (T$_C$ =) 19 K. The magnetism of the Zn compound is found to be robust to synthetic conditions and is broadly consistent with the behavior known in the literature. However, we find a lower magnetic ordering temperature (T$_o$) for our Cu compound (~ 13 K), thereby suggesting that T$_o$ is sensitive to synthetic conditions. The Cu sample appears to be in a spin-glass-like state at low temperatures, judged by a frequency dependence of ac magnetic susceptibility and a broadening of the C anomaly at the onset of magnetic ordering, in sharp contrast to earlier proposals. Small applications of magnetic field, however, drive this system to ferromagnetism as inferred from the M data. Small substitutions for Cu/Zn (x = 0.75 or 0.25) significantly depress magnetic ordering; in other words, T$_o$ varies non-monotonically with x (T$_o$ ~ 6, 3 and 4 K for x = 0.25, 0.5, and 0.67 respectively). The plot of inverse susceptibility versus temperature is non-linear in the paramagnetic state as if correlations within (or among) the magnetic chains continuously vary with temperature. The results establishComment: 7 pages, 7 figures, Revte

Molecular and all solid DFT studies of the magnetic and chemical bonding properties within KM[Cr(CN)6_6] (M = V, Ni) complexes

A study at both the molecular and extended solid level in the framework DFT is carried out for KM[Cr(CN)$_6$] (M = V, Ni). From molecular calculations, the exchange parameters J are obtained, pointing to the expected magnetic ground states, i.e., antiferromagnetic for M = V with J = -296.5 cm$^{-1}$ and ferromagnetic for M = Ni with J = +40.5 cm$^{-1}$. From solid state computations the same ground states and J magnitudes are confirmed from energy differences. Furthermore an analysis of the site projected density of states and of the chemical bonding is developed in which the cyanide ion linkage is analyzed addressing some isomerism aspects.Comment: new results, 5 tables, 7 fig