116-022 Spoken French: Theory and Practice

116-007 French I: Cultural Perspectives and 116-008 French I: Language in Context II or equivalent.

In this subject, students will be trained to recognise, transcribe and describe the sounds of French (articulatory phonetics), and to contrast them with the sounds of English. They will acquire a basic understanding of intonation patterns and linking phenomena (liaison and elision). They will be introduced to theoretical approaches to phonological description and to methods of oral data collection and transcription. Grammatical and lexical differences between spoken (colloquial) and written forms of the language will be examined (in particular, negative and interrogative constructions, left and right dislocations, use of personal pronouns). Features of the French spoken by young people will also be studied. The subject will be taught in French.

A 90-minute test, practical work and problem-solving exercise totalling 1300 words, and an essay of 1200 words.

• F Gadet, Le Français populaire. PUF, 1994.
• B Tranel, The Sounds of French. CUP, 1987.