History of the French Language
Code
711131072
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Linguística
Credits
6
Weekly hours
4
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
General learning oucomes
a) the ability to understand the external changing factors and internal characteristic of the history of the French language;
b) the ability to understand synchronic aspects of French history in the light of the French language;
c) the ability to relate synchronic variation and language change
Specific outcomes
1. to describe the historical context that gave rise to the French language, distinguishing its main specificities compared to other Romance varieties
2. to identifiy the main phenomena of linguistic change from Old French to Modern French
3. to be able to observe particular linguistic features in a text written in Old/Middle French, apllying the acquired knowledge
4. to identify phenomena of recent linguistic change in French and tendencies in the evolution of the French language
5. to know the linguistic diversity of French and of French in the world and relate it with the history of the French language
Prerequisites
None. Previous attendance of an introductory course to Linguistics is recommended.
Subject matter
1.Introduction to linguistic variation and change
2. From Latin to contemporary French
2.1.The formation of French
2.2. Old French and Middle French
2.3. Classical French
2.4. Contemporary French
3. Main phenomena of language change in the history of the French language 3.1.Orthography, phonetics and phonology
3.2. Verbal and nominal morphology
3.3. Syntax
3.4.The lexicon
4. Linguistic diversity in France
4.1. Linguistic diversity in France and minority languages
4.2. Regional French and dialects
4.3. Gallo-Romance dialectal varieties
5. Expansion of French in the world
5.1. French in Europe
5.2. French outside Europe
5.3. French-based Creoles
Bibliography
Chaurand, J.(org.) (1999) Nouvelle Histoire de la Langue Française, Ed. du Seuil, Paris.
Huchon, M. (2002) Histoire de la langue française, Le Livre de Poche.
Perret, M. (2001) Introduction à lhistoire de la langue française, Armand Colin, Paris.
Picoche, J. & Marchello-Nizia, C. (1999) Histoire de la langue française, Nathan, Paris, 3ª ed. [edição eletrónica Ed. Vigdor, 2008]
Walter, H. (1994) O francês, in A Aventura das Línguas do Ocidente: a sua origem, a sua história, a sua geografia. Terramar, Lisboa. [trad. port. de LAventure des Langues en Occident, Ed. Robert Laffont, Paris, 1994]
Walter, H. (1988) Le Français dans tous les sens. Ed. Robert Laffont, Paris.
Teaching method
The classes will be theorical and practical (with exercises of analysis) and will combine a reflection on the phenomena of linguistic variation and change with descriptive analysis, in order to develop the capacity to observe and understand certain aspects of the French language.
Evaluation method
Participation and oral presentation of a topic related to the history of the French langage 30%; practical exercises (30%); written exam (40%).