History of the French Language
Code
711131072
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Linguística
Credits
6
Teacher in charge
Maria Sousa Lobo Gonçalves
Weekly hours
4
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
a) To describe the historical context of the formation of French, distinguishing its main specificities compared to other Romance varieties
b) To identify the main phenomena of linguistic change between Old French and Modern French
c) To identify specific linguistic features of different texts written in Old or Middle French
d) To identify recent phenomena of linguistic change in French and changes in progress
e) To be able to relate dialect variation and linguistic diversity in France to the history of French
f) To understand the diversity of French in the French-speaking world
Prerequisites
None. Previous attendance of an introductory course to Linguistics is recommended.
Subject matter
1. Variation and linguistic change: introductory notions
2. From Latin to Modern French
2.1. The formation of French
2.2. Old French and Middle French
2.3. Classical French
2.4. Modern French
3. Main phenomena of linguistic change in the history of French
3.1. Orthography, phonetics and phonology
3.2. Verbal and nominal morphology
3.3. Syntax
3.4. Lexicon
4. Linguistic diversity in France
4.1. The linguistic landscape of France; minority languages
4.2. Dialects and regional French
4.3. Gallo-Romance dialectal varieties
5. The expansion of French: 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 l’histoire 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 L’Aventure 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%).