In spoken French, the phonological processes of liaison and resyllabification can render word and syllable boundaries ambiguous. In the case of liaison, for example, the /n/ in the masculine indefinite article un [oẽ] is normally latent, but when followed by a vowel-initial word the /n/ surfaces and is resyllabified as the onset of that word. Thus, the phrases un air ‘a melody’ and un nerf ‘a nerve’ are produced with identical phonemic content and syllable boundaries [oẽ.nɛʁ]). Some research has suggested that speakers of French give listeners cues to word boundaries by varying the duration of consonants that surface in liaison environments relative to consonants produced word-initially. Production studies (e.g. Wauquier-Gravelines 1996; Spinelli et al. 2003) have demonstrated that liaison consonants (e.g. /n/ in un air) are significantly shorter than the same consonant in initial position (e.g. /n/ in un nerf). Studies on the perception of spoken French have suggested that listeners exploit these durational differences in the segmentation of running speech (e.g. Gaskell et al. 2002; Spinelli et al. 2003), though no study to date has tested this hypothesis directly. The current study employs a direct test of the exploitation of duration as a segmentation cue by manipulating this single acoustic factor while holding all other factors constant. Thirty-six native speakers of French and 54 adult learners of French as a second language (L2) were tested on both an AX discrimination task and a forced-choice identification task which employed stimuli in which the durations of pivotal consonants (e.g. /n/ in [oẽ.nɛʁ]) were instrumentally shortened and lengthened. The results suggest that duration alone can indeed modulate the lexical interpretation of sequences rendered sequences in spoken French. Shortened stimuli elicited a significantly larger proportion of vowel-initial (liaison) responses, while lengthened stimuli elicited a significantly larger proportion of consonant-initial responses, indicating that both native and (advanced) non-native speakers are indeed sensitive to this acoustic cue. These results add to a growing body of work demonstrating that listeners use extremely fined-grained acoustic detail to modulate lexical access (e.g. Salverda et al. 2003; Shatzman & McQueen 2006). In addition, the current results have manifest ramifications for study of the upper limits of L2 acquisition and the plasticity of the adult perceptual system in that they show evidence nativelike sensitivity to non-contrastive phonological variation. / text

This study represents a sociolinguistic contribution to the analysis of Past Participle Agreement (PPA) in [avoir+PP] constructions. In spoken French, this agreement is marked only for gender, and is subject to much variation in the production of speakers of French. The objectives of this thesis are twofold: firstly, to observe the variable in the context of production, by a quantitative study of several corpora. Variation in the production of PPA is tested against linguistic factors, such as the position of the participle in the verbal group where it appears. Social and stylistic factors are also considered, notably the socioprofessional category of the speaker. These analyses reveal that agreement is conditioned by a complex interaction of these factors. The second objective is the design of a Matched Guise Test, based on scripted conversations. This test was carried out with a view to measuring the extent to which the presence or absence of marked PPA, often considered a typical result of normative pressures, affects the stereotypical social representation of a speaker. Differences in informants' judgements were modest, and two issues are discussed with regard to this: firstly, the validity of the methodology, and secondly, the evaluation of PPA as a sociolinguistic marker. Both parts of this thesis reflect the methodological issues pertaining to the investigation of a rare variable.

Cette thèse a pour objet la description et l’analyse des marqueurs discursifs (MD) là, par exemple, ékyé et wèé en français parlé au Cameroun, variété de français régional qui s’inscrit dans le français parlé en Afrique subsaharienne. Elle propose une analyse centrée sur les échanges discursifs et prend en compte la pragmatique afin de montrer que la communication repose sur l’intersubjectivité langagière qu’on peut analyser au moyen de traces linguistiques comme les MD. Pour étudier ces phénomènes pragmatiques au demeurant très peu étudiés en français parlé au Cameroun, la recherche s’est organisée principalement autour des notions de flux discursif, d’implicite social et d’interaction afin de comprendre la structuration informationnelle et le contexte situationnel qui motivent l’apparition des MD là, par exemple, ékyé et wèé dans l’organisation du discours, tant dans la production que dans la réception. Le corpus se compose d’échanges radiophoniques d’une part et d’échanges internet d’autre part. La thèse est composée en deux parties. La première rend compte des aspects théoriques, même si nous l’illustrons parfois avec des extraits de notre corpus. La seconde est consacrée à l’analyse systématique des données (le fonctionnement des quatre MD là, par exemple, ékyé et wèé dans les discours radiophoniques et dans les écrits tirés d’internet). Cette analyse a permis de conclure à la difficulté de définir exactement ce qu’est un MD, et de relever l’existence de terminologies concurrentes, tant les théories qui décrivent et expliquent le fonctionnement des MD sont hétérogènes. Nous proposons une définition opérationnelle des MD pour l’analyse de notre corpus et nous plaidons pour une prise en compte des phénomènes oraux et liés à l’interaction dans les études sur le français régional en Afrique. / This thesis sets out to describe and to analyse the discourse markers (DMs) là, par exemple, ékyé and wèé in Cameroon French, a regional variety of French that is spoken in Subsharan Africa. It is a pragmatic study of oral discourses that highlights how communication is based on speech inter-subjectivity such as DMs, which constitute linguistic traces. In order to study these uninvestigated pragmatic phenomena in Cameroon spoken French, three notions were of prime necessity, namely: discursive continuity, social implicity and interaction. These notions help to shed light on the informational structure and on the situational context of the DMs là, par exemple, ékyé and wèé in discourse organization as well as in its production or in its reception. The data of this study was got from two sources: on the one hand, radio programmes, and on the other hand, scripts collected from the internet. The study comprises two parts: Part one focuses on the theoretical concerns, alongside some illustrations of excerpts from the data. The second part provides a systematic analysis of the data (the functioning of the four DMs là, par exemple, ékyé and wèé in radio programmes and in internet scripts). This analysis enabled the confirmation that not only is it difficult to clearly define what a DM is but that there are also several competing terms and explanations, as theories regarding studies on DMs are heterogeneous. We propose an operational definition of DMs for the analysis of the data and suggest that studies on regional French spoken in Africa should take into account oral phenomena related to interaction.

Le clic dans le discours français spontané n’a pas encore fait l’objet de recherches détaillées. Il peut représenter pour certains apprenants en FLE un obstacle dans leur communication avec des francophones. Les fonctions et les usages du clic sont analysés d’un point de vue linguistique en recourant aux méthodes de la phonétique expérimentale, de la sociolinguistique et de la comparaison diachronique appliquées au corpus ESLO. De plus, en vue de caractériser les différences de perception,nous avons réalisé des enquêtes interculturelles franco-japonaises. Cette recherche montre que le clic en français peut être bilabial, dental ou apico-alvéolaire. Il apparaît à la jonction de deux segments en cooccurrence avec des fillers, des ligateurs(Morel et Danon-Boileau 1998) et des pauses courtes. Il est commun à tous les francophones depuis au moins une quarantaine d’années. Néanmoins, sa fréquence dépend du contexte et il existe une forte variation interindividuelle. On a proposé une distribution du clic selon qu’il assure une « Fonction réflexive », l’« Organisation du discours conditionnée parla syntaxe » ou une « Fonction conative ». Il est la plus phonétique des conduites co-gestuelles, ou le moins phonétique des sons du langage parlé. Nous le définissons comme « péri-lexical » : une unité de segmentation qui n’est ni phonologique ni lexicale mais qui est susceptible de recevoir une interprétation. Ce son est surtout perçu par les apprenants japonais ayant un filtre affectif élevé, en particulier ceux qui manquent de confiance en eux dans leurs échanges en français. / The click consonant in French spontaneous discourse has never been researched in depth, but students of the French language can find this phenomen on quite daunting when communicating with native French speakers. This PhD thesis will provide a linguistic analysis of the functions and usages of the click, through the use of the ESLO (Enquête Sociolinguistique à Orléans: Socio-Linguistic Survey in Orléans) corpus as well as experimental phonetics, sociolinguistics and diachronic comparison methods. Intercultural surveys amongst French and Japanese candidates were also conducted in order to define differences inperception.This research will show that the click can be bilabial, dental or apico-alveolar. It occurs at the junction between two segments, and accompanies fillers, ligateurs (Morel and Danon-Boileau 1998) and brief pauses.It appears to be common to all native French speakers since at least forty years. Nevertheless, its frequency depends on contexts, and variations can be noted between individuals. It can perform three main roles: reflexive function, discourse organization conditioned by syntax or conative function.It is the most phonetic phenomenon in gestural behavior and the least phonetic in the spoken language. We define it as a perilexical element: a segmentation unit which is neither phonological nor lexical, but which is open to interpretation.This sound is perceived both by Japanese students of the French language who possess high affective filters, and by those who lack self-esteem when communicating in French.

The intention of this study is to give a qualitative and quantitative description of the usage of connectors, especially mais, parce que and donc, and of some epistemic modifiers in the spoken French of Swedish advanced learners. The study includes eight advanced learners, six highly advanced learners and eight native speakers from the French learner corpus InterFra, all interviewed by the same native speaker. In total, 22 interviews of learners (39,000 words) and eight interviews of native speakers (23,000 words) were examined. One of the goals was to find typical advanced learner features (interlanguage features) in connector and modifier usage, and also to describe individual variation in the group. We highlight the importance of comparative studies and of taking into account recent studies of spoken French to establish advanced interlanguage features, as normative French grammar fails to account for some spoken usage of connectors. The aim in studying interlanguage features that involve connectors and modifiers is twofold: first, we try to understand the function of certain connectors/modifiers at the semantic, discourse organizing, interactional and speech act levels. Second, we look at the syntactic dependence and integration of discourse sequences introduced by parce que and modifiers like je crois (que). The study of mais (chapters 2 and 3) showed that learners used turn-introducing mais more often than native speakers. Mais was also found to be an important reformulation marker in the learner group. In the study of parce que (chapter 4), we found that the macro-syntactic (paratactic) parce que was frequent in both speaker groupes, but that a function like introducing ”specifications” was more frequent in the learner group, while parce que introducing parenthetic remarks (incises) – commonly used by native speakers of French – was found in only a few cases in the learner corpus. We suggest that this latter usage is a property of the highly advanced user. The study of epistemic phrases like je crois/ je pense/ je trouve (que) (chapter 5) revealed a small quantitative difference in syntactic dependence between the two groupes of speakers: the learners more frequently used independent expressions. From a qualitative point of view, the difference was partly due to the high number of isolated phrases (like je crois oui) and post-positioned phrases in the learner material. Both groups of speakers used modifiers as discourse-structuring devices and as fillers, but their use as fillers was more frequent in the learner group. Finally (chapter 6), by carrying out a prosodic analysis (variation in fundamental frequency) coupled with an analysis of the information structure, we segmented the speech into functional discourse units (les paragraphes oraux). This analysis suggested some characteristics of highly advanced learner usage for the position of the connector donc. One such feature was the incorporation of donc in a constituent of the discourse unit, both from a syntactic and prosodic point of view.

This thesis investigates the developpment of gender agreement in determiners and adjectives in the spontaneous speech of L2 French by five groups of Swedish learners: beginners at the university, secondary school students, university students, teacher candidates and PhD students. Different types of determiners are examined, such as definite and the indefinite articles. Adjectival agreement is studied in different positions in relation to the noun, such as the attributive anteposition, the attributive postposition and the predicative position. The aim is to identify the developmental sequence of gender agreement through a longitudinal study of learners at different levels of acquisition. The analysis is based on spoken language, i.e. 81 interviews belonging to the InterFra-corpus, Stockholm University. Our data also includes 8 oral productions from a control group of native speakers. The study is in three parts: one for the agreement between determiners and nouns, another for the agreement between adjectives and nouns and, finally, a study considering agreement between all three items within the noun phrase, i.e. determiner, noun and adjective (Det-N-Adj). A sequence of acquisition for gender agreement on determiners and adjectives is proposed based on the productions of four learner groups and compared to the six developmental stages suggested by Bartning and Schlyter (2004). Results have showed that there is an acquisition order of gender agreement in different parts of the nominal phrase, according to the type of determiner and the positions of the adjective. A qualitative analysis has shown a random use of gender agreement on determiners and some nouns are used with both genders on the determiner. Also, the type-token ratio is very low at the beginning of the acquisition, which partly explains the high accuracy rate (100 %). The study considering agreement between all three constituents within the noun phrase revealed that advanced learners have higher accuracy rate for gender agreement on adjectives within the noun phrase with the presence of a determiner that marks gender distinction (i.e. a non-elided, singular determiner). Results also showed that the feminine form of the adjectives remains difficult at higher acquisitional levels.

The object of this thesis is to present a comprehensive analysis of the phrase structure and the properties of the subject in spoken French and Japanese. Consulting histories, grammars, and a corpus of transcribed speech from each language, a comparative examination of the oral codes of both languages is conducted, which highlights not only the significant distinctions between the two but also the similarities. These distinctions are not just the result of structural differences between the two languages, but are more that of a distinct classification of our experiences. By pointing out the distinguishing characteristics of the oral codes of the two languages, this study attempts to bring us to a better understanding of the two languages and equally of the cultures from which they are inseparable.

Ce travail s’inscrit dans le cadre global de la didactique du FLE/FLS puis dans celui, plus précis, de la prononciation du français parlé et porte sur les difficultés des apprenants hungarophones en production orale. Si le matériel phonique des deux langues présente certaines similitudes, le point nodal des interférences réside surtout dans les oppositions vocaliques (durée phonologique en hongrois vs durée phonétique en français), la prononciation de certaines consonnes et la prosodie (accent tonique d’intensité hongrois vs accent rythmique duratif français). Diverses méthodes expérimentales usitées à l’Institut de Phonétique de Strasbourg seront exploitées : spectrographie pour le timbre et la durée des voyelles ainsi que pour les phénomènes prosodiques, laryngographie pour les assimilations de sonorité et contacts consonantiques. Les analyses se situeront donc au niveau segmental, comme au niveau suprasegmental. Outre de se poser en tant que contribution à l’étude comparée et contrastive des langues, cette recherche privilégiera les visées didactique et pédagogique et apportera en dernier lieu explications et astuces de remédiation. Nous espérons que cette thèse sera utile à nos collègues français exerçant en Hongrie, mais aussi à nos collègues hongrois n’ayant pas forcément conscience de certaines fautes typiques et redondantes, car partant du même substrat que leurs apprenants. / This research fits into the overall framework of FLE/FLS teaching methods and more precisely, of spoken French pronunciation. It deals with the difficulties of native Hungarian learners in oral production. While the sounds of the two languages have some similarities, most of the interferences are to be found in the vowel oppositions (Hungarian phonological duration vs French phonetic duration), the pronunciation of certain consonants and prosody (Hungarian tonic intensity stress vs durational rhythmic French accent). Various experimental methods commonly used at the Institut de Phonétique de Strasbourg were applied : spectrography for the quality and duration of vowels, and for the prosodic characteristics, laryngography for pitch assimilations and consonant contacts. Analyses therefore lean both on the segmental and the supra-segmental levels.This work is more than just a comparative and contrastive study of languages, as it goes beyond by focusing on didactic and pedagogical purposes, using explanations and remediation tips. We hope that it will be useful to French teachers in Hungary, but also to our Hungarian colleagues who may not always be aware of some typical and redundant faults, starting from the same substrate as their learners.

No description available.

<p>This study investigates the use of formulaic language in spoken French produced by native and non-native speakers. It aims at describing the development of formulaic sequences in learners ranging from beginners to very advanced users. It draws on data from the InterFra corpus, which includes both formal and semi-formal learners. Four measures are used to characterize this development: extent of formulaic language used, category distribution, type / token ratio and frequency of types. </p><p>It has been shown that a user’s knowledge of formulaic sequences impacts heavily on language proficiency and idiomaticity. Because these sequences follow neither grammatical nor lexical rules, they constitute the last threshold for advanced L2 learners. In second language acquisition, the term formulaic sequence not only applies to strict idiomatic constructions, but it is also used to refer to sequences that appear to be acquired in a holistic manner during the first phases of acquisition. A categorization is therefore proposed that can account for native and non-native usage of formulaic sequences (prefabs). Five categories of prefabs are included: Lexical, Grammatical, Discourse, Situational and Idiosyncratic. </p><p>The extent of a learner’s use of formulaic language increases as the learner progresses, the largest amount found in the production of native speakers and very advanced learners. The learner’s distribution of categories moves towards native speaker distribution, albeit slowly. Situational and Idiosyncratic prefabs are found to characterize the early phases of acquisition, while Lexical prefabs are mastered later and are a major difficulty for L2 learners. Only very advanced learners who have spent considerable time in France produce the same proportion of Lexical prefabs as native speakers. Discourse prefabs constitute the most important category for all groups, including natives and non-natives. It can therefore be postulated that the main function of formulaic sequences in spoken French is that of discourse structuring and speech management. The development and use of formulaic language is explained within a framework of Frequency Effects. Coupled with other factors, frequency can account for why Lexical prefabs are hard to acquire and why formulaic sequences take a long time to master.</p> / The thesis is published and can be purchased by Peter Lang http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?vID=11369&vLang=E&vHR=1&vUR=1&vUUR=38