AMITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NTCC TERM PAPER REPORT

on the topic

French Linguistics

by

Prerna
A2606222022

Bachelor of Arts French Honours

Under the guidance of

Mr Inderbir singh Kochar

AMITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH
JULY 2023
 DECLARATION
I, Prerna, student of BA French Honors(2022-2025), hereby
declare that that the report entitled "French Linguistics"
which is submitted by me to AMITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN
LANGUAGES, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh in partial
fulfilment of requirement for the award of the degree of
Bachelor of Arts in French Honours, has not been previously
formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma or
other similar title or recognition. The author attests that
permission has been obtained for the use of any copyrighted
material appearing in the report, other than brief excerpts
requiring only proper acknowledgement in scholarly writing,
and that all such use is acknowledged.

Name: Prerna
Enrollment No: A2606222022
Program: BA French Honours
Batch: 2022-2025

Place: Noida, Uttar Pradesh

Date: 30th June 2023
 CERTIFICATE

On the basis of the declaration submitted by Prerna

(A2606222022), student of BA French Honours, I hereby
certify that the report entitled "French Linguistics" which is
submitted to Amity School of Foreign Languages, Amity
University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh in partial fulfilment of
requirement for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Arts
French Honours is an original contribution with existing
knowledge and faithful record of work carried out by her
under my guidance and supervision. To the best of my
knowledge this work has not been submitted in part or full for
any degree or diploma to this university of elsewhere.

Signature of the Guide Mr Inderbir Singh Kochar

(Faculty Guide) ASFL,
Date:30/06/2023 Noida
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank everyone who helped me to accomplish

my report. I sincerely thank all my respected teachers, who
have helped me with their valuable and appropriate
suggestions and supported me throughout the development
of my report.
I am highly thankful to my project guide Mr. Inderbir Singh
Kochar for providing his help and assistance at every stage of
the report.

Prerna
Signature of Student
A2606222022
BA French Honours
Date: 30/06/2023
 INDEX

S.NO INDEX PAGE NUMBER

1 INTRODUCTION 1-2

2 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY 3-4

SYNTAX AND SENTENCE

3 5
STRUCTURE

4 MORPHOLOGY IN FRENCH 6-7

5 SEMANTIC AND LEXICONS 8-9

6 SOCIOLINGUISTICS 10-12

7 CONCLUSION 13
 ABSTRACT

This research paper provides a comprehensive examination

of various aspects of the French language, including its
structure, syntax, phonetics, phonology, morphology,
semantics, lexicons, and sociolinguistics.

French Linguistics investigates linguistic attitudes, language

planning, and language policy in order to shed light on the
relationship between language and society.

This research project will also look into the language's history,
from Latin through Old French to Modern French. It explores
linguistic change, language contact, and the impact of foreign
influences on French.

Overall, French Linguistics provides unique insights into the

complexity of the French language, its structure, history, and
usage, contributing to our comprehensive understanding of
human language and enabling successful communication and
language education.
 INTRODUCTION

With approximately 275 million speakers globally, French is considered

one of the major global languages. It evolved from Latin into a distinct
Romance language with its own distinct traits and rich cultural past.
The study of French linguistics provides vital insights into the
language's structure, history, and usage, demonstrating its importance
and relevance in a variety of disciplines.

Importance of studying French linguistics:-

Cultural and Literary Importance: It is well-known for its

achievements, from Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables" to
Jean-Paul Sartre's philosophical works. It allows one to
obtain a better understanding of the language's cultural
background as well as access to a multitude of literary
gems.

Global Communication: The United Nations, the European

Union, and the International Olympic Committee all use
French as an official language. French proficiency allows
for worldwide communication, boosting contacts with
other populations and expanding professional chances. It
is especially significant for employment in diplomacy,
international relations, tourism, and journalism, all of
which require fluency in the language.
 INTRODUCTION

Academic Research and Teaching: The study of French

linguistics lays the groundwork for academic research in a
variety of fields, including linguistics, sociolinguistics,
psycholinguistics, and second language acquisition.
Researchers investigate the complexities of language
structures, allowing advances in linguistic theory and
teaching. Furthermore, knowledge of French linguistics is
required for teaching it as a second language, as well as
for assuring effective language education and supporting
linguistic variety.

Language Policy and Planning: French linguistics research

is essential for regional, national, and worldwide language
policy and planning. Sociolinguistic research explains
language differences, language attitudes, and language
shift, so contributing in the development of policies that
encourage linguistic variety and address language-related
problems.

Multilingualism and Interdisciplinary Studies:

Anthropology, sociology, history, and cognitive science all
overlap with French linguistics. It provides a forum for
researchers to investigate language acquisition,
bilingualism, language contact, and language change. It's
studies provide a better knowledge of language as a
cognitive and social phenomena, promoting
interdisciplinary research and encouraging
multilingualism.
 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

Phonetics and phonology of French linguistics, explores the

sounds and their entity in the language. This field investigates
the phonetic inventory, distinguishing traits, phonological
processes, and prosody in the speech.

The French language has a diverse set of consonants and

vowels. Consonants (/p, b, t, d, k, g/), fricatives (/f, v, s, z,, /),
nasals (/m, n, /), and liquids (/l, /) are examples of consonants.
Vowels include front (/i, y, e, /), central (//), and back (/u, o, /)
vowels, as well as nasalized vowels (/, o, /).French is
additionally distinguished by liaisons, where silent
consonants become pronounced due to word boundaries..

Distinctive features are specific attributes that distinguish

one sound from another. In French, distinctive features
include voicing, place and manner of articulation,
nasalization, and vowel height. For instance, the distinction
between /p/ and /b/ is based on the feature of voicing, while
the distinction between /s/ and /z/ relies on the feature of
voicelessness/voicedness.
Phonological processes are systematic changes that occur in
a language's sound generation or perception. Liaison
(pronouncing a normally silent consonant at the beginning of
a word when followed by a vowel), elision (omission of
sounds), assimilation (adapting neighbouring sounds to be
more similar), and sandhi (modifications in sound
pronunciation due to their phonological context) are all
common processes in French.
 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

In French, prosody refers to the suprasegmental

characteristics of speech, such as emphasis, intonation, and
rhythm. Prosody is important in French for communicating
meaning and distinguishing between different sorts of
utterances. This language has a syllable-timed rhythm, which
means that each syllable is given nearly equal time.
Intonation patterns aid in the expression of questions,
statements, and emotions, whereas stress placement effects
word and phrase interpretation.
Furthermore, French prosody is characterized by liaisons and
enchaînements, which are the smooth transitions between
words within a phrase. These prosodic features contribute to
the overall melody and flow of speech, influencing
comprehensibility and naturalness.

Being familiar with the

phonetic inventory,
distinguishing features,
phonological processes, and
prosody in French is
necessary for correct
pronunciation, phonological
analysis, second language
learning, and speech
perception research.
 SYNTAX AND SENTENCE STRUCTURE

In French, the typical word order in a declarative sentence

is subject-verb-object (SVO). However, It allows flexibility
in word order due to its use of pronouns, adverbs, and
other sentence-level elements.
For example: Pierre lit un livre.
The verb phrase in French consists of an optional subject
pronoun, the verb, and any accompanying elements such
as direct and indirect objects, adverbs, and prepositional
phrases. Here's an example:
Marie va au magasin demain.
A noun phrase in French typically includes a determiner,
an optional adjective, the noun itself, and any modifying
elements like relative clauses or prepositional phrases.
Here's an example: La grande maison rouge est à moi.
French employs agreement and concord extensively,
particularly between nouns and their modifiers,
adjectives and nouns, and verbs and their subjects. This
agreement includes gender, number, and sometimes case.
For example: Les fleurs bleues sont belles.
In this example, the article "les" (the) agrees with the plural
noun "fleurs" (flowers) in both gender and number. The
adjective "bleues" (blue) also agrees with the noun in gender
and number.
 MORPHOLOGY IN FRENCH
Inflectional morphology: French exhibits inflectional
morphology, which involves the modification of words to
indicate grammatical categories such as gender, number,
tense, mood, and person. Inflectional endings are added to
the base forms of nouns, adjectives, articles, and verbs. For
example:
Noun inflection: chat (cat) becomes chats (cats) for the
plural form.
Adjective inflection: grand (big) becomes grande (big
feminine) and grands (big masculine plural) to agree with
the gender and number of the noun it modifies.
Verb inflection: parler (to speak) becomes parlons (we
speak) for the first person plural present tense.

Derivational morphology: It also utilizes derivational

morphology, which involves the addition of prefixes or
suffixes to a base word, resulting in a new word with a
different meaning or part of speech.
Derivational morphology allows for word formation and
lexical enrichment. For example:
Base word: heure (hour) Derivational formation: heureux
(happy) - the suffix -eux changes the noun heure into an
adjective with a different meaning.

Gender and number agreement: Agreement refers to the

modification of words to match the gender and number of
the nouns they refer to. This agreement occurs between
determiners, adjectives, articles, and the nouns they modify.
For example:
 MORPHOLOGY IN FRENCH
Determiner agreement: le chat (the cat) becomes la chatte
(the female cat) to reflect the gender of the noun.

Adjective agreement: un grand chat (a big cat) becomes une

grande chatte (a big female cat) to agree with both gender
and number.

Verb conjugation patterns: French verbs exhibit complex

conjugation patterns, indicating tense, mood, aspect, and
agreement with the subject. Verb conjugation involves the
modification of the verb stem by adding different endings.
For example:
Present tense conjugation of parler (to speak): Je parle (I
speak) Tu parles (you speak) Il/Elle parle (he/she speaks)
Nous parlons (we speak) Vous parlez (you speak) Ils/Elles
parlent (they speak)
These conjugation patterns vary depending on the verb class
(regular or irregular) and the tense/mood being used.
 SEMANTICS AND LEXICONS
In French, word meaning is explored through the study of
semantic features, which are the characteristics that
distinguish one word from another. Semantic features can
include properties such as animacy, size, color, and more.
Analyzing semantic features helps understand the
distinctions and relationships between words.

It has various lexical categories or parts of speech. These

include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns,
prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. Each category
serves a specific grammatical function and has its own set of
characteristics and rules.

Polysemy and homonymy: Polysemy refers to words

having multiple related meanings, while homonymy
involves words with identical forms but distinct meanings.
Both phenomena exist in French. For example, the word
"banque" can refer to a financial institution (bank) or a
bench (park bench), illustrating polysemy. Homonymy can
be seen with words like "mer" (sea) and "mère" (mother),
which sound the same but have different meanings.
French, like any language, has a rich collection of idioms
and figurative language. Idioms are expressions with
meanings that cannot be inferred from the individual
words. Figurative language includes metaphors, similes,
and other devices used to convey meaning beyond the
literal interpretation. Familiarity with idioms and
figurative language is crucial for fully understanding and
using the language in everyday communication.
 SEMANTICS AND LEXICONS

For example, the idiom "mettre les pieds dans le plat" literally
means "to put your feet in the dish," but figuratively means
"to put your foot in it" or "to make an awkward or
embarrassing remark."
Overall, the study of semantics and lexicons in French
explores word meanings, categorization, the nuances of
polysemy and homonymy, and the use of idioms and
figurative language, contributing to a deeper understanding
and effective use of the language.
 SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Accents, pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammatical

elements vary significantly across the country in French.
Different regions of France, as well as French-speaking
communities in other countries, have distinct linguistic traits
that reflect their diverse cultural and historical histories.

Age, gender, social position, and education all have an impact

on French language variance. Sociolinguistic research
investigates how these factors influence language use,
attitudes, and linguistic choices within various social
groupings.
Language planning efforts are underway in French-speaking
countries to promote and conserve the language. Language
policy in areas like as education, the media, and political
institutions influence language use, language rights, and
linguistic variety in these countries.

Evolution of French from Latin:

Through a process of language change and linguistic
evolution, French evolved from Vulgar Latin. The
phonological, morphological, and lexical characteristics can
be better understood by understanding the historical history
of the language.
Influences on the French language: It has been influenced by
various languages, including Germanic, Celtic, and Arabic.
These influences have left traces in the vocabulary,
phonology, and grammar of French, demonstrating the
language's contact with other linguistic traditions.

Historical sound changes and phonological shifts: Over time,

It has undergone significant sound changes and phonological
shifts. These changes include vowel and consonant shifts,
loss or simplification of certain sounds, and modifications in
pronunciation patterns.

French has borrowed words from other languages,

particularly Latin, Greek, English, and Arabic. Lexical
borrowing has enriched the lexicon, while semantic changes
over time have led to shifts in word meanings and the
evolution of lexical semantics.

Bilingualism, the ability to speak two languages, is widespread

in French-speaking communities.
Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning:

Stages of first language acquisition in French: Children

acquiring French as their first language progress through
stages of language development, including prelinguistic
babbling, vocabulary acquisition, and syntactic development.
Understanding these stages aids in language assessment and
intervention.
Language development in bilingual children: Bilingual
children acquiring French and another language
simultaneously or sequentially undergo language
development processes influenced by language exposure,
proficiency, and language use patterns.

Language Variation and Variationist Sociolinguistics:

Social and regional variation in French: French exhibits
social and regional variation in pronunciation, vocabulary,
and grammar. Sociolinguistic research examines how
language variation is influenced by social factors and
geographic areas, contributing to a better understanding
of this diverse language landscape.
Factors influencing language variation: Various factors,
including age, gender, social class, and education,
influence language variation in French. Variationist
sociolinguistics investigates how these factors shape
language use, attitudes, and linguistic choices.
Sociolinguistic variables in French: Sociolinguistic
variables are linguistic features that vary systematically in
different social groups. Variables in French include
pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammatical traits
connected to particular social identities.
Language change and linguistic innovation: Language
change is an ongoing process, driven by social, cultural,
and linguistic factors. Linguistic innovations emerge and
spread through language communities, leading to
continuous shifts in the French language.
 CONCLUSION

The research project encompasses various aspects of the

French language, including phonetics and phonology, syntax
and sentence structure, morphology, semantics and lexicons,
sociolinguistics, language evolution and historical linguistics,
language acquisition and second language learning, and
language variation and variationist sociolinguistics.

It examines language acquisition and second language

learning in French, including stages of first language
acquisition, language development in bilingual children,
strategies for second language learning, and the role of input
and interaction in language acquisition. It also considers
language variation and variationist sociolinguistics, including
social and regional variation in French, factors influencing
language variation, sociolinguistic variables, and language
change and linguistic innovation.

The project concludes that further research in French

linguistics is important to deepen our understanding of the
language, inform language teaching methodologies, and
shape language policies. The findings have implications for
language teaching, bilingual education, language planning,
and policy-making, emphasizing the importance of linguistic
diversity, multilingualism, and language rights in French-
speaking contexts.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Linguistics: An Introduction to Linguistic Theory

By Victoria A. Fromkin, Susan Curtiss