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French liaison in the light of corpus data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2008

JACQUES DURAND  and
CHANTAL LYCHE
JACQUES DURAND
Affiliation:
CLLE-ERSS UMR5263 CNRS, Maison de la Recherche, Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail, 5 Allées Antonio-Machado, 31058 Toulouse, France e-mail: [email protected]
CHANTAL LYCHE
Affiliation:
Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages, University of Oslo, Postboks 1003, Blindern, 0315 Oslo, Norway e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

French liaison has long been a favourite testing ground for phonological theories, a situation which can undoubtedly be attributed to the complexity of the phenomenon, involving in particular phonology/syntax, phonology/morphology, phonology/lexicon interfaces. Dealing with liaison requires stepping into all the components of the grammar, while at the same time tackling the quick sands of variation. The data on which a number of formal analyses are based have often been a source of concern since liaison, in part because of its intrinsic variable character, requires extensive and robust data. In the wake of the results from the study of other corpora, we present here extensive results based on the PFC database (Phonologie du français contemporain: usages, variétés et structures) and point to their implications for models of linguistic structure. While we do not believe that a motivated theoretical account can be mechanically extracted from the data, we conclude that future analyses will have to take explicitly into account the results of extensive corpus work as well as sociolinguistic surveys, acquisition studies, experimental phonetics and (neuro-)psycho-linguistic investigations, including the relationship between speech and writing. As stressed in Chevrot, Fayol and Laks (2005), these analyses will have to acknowledge that French liaison is not a homogeneous locus but a multi-faceted phenomenon requiring us to accept, without demur, the crossing of disciplinary boundaries.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 1: Le français à la lumière des corpus , March 2008 , pp. 33 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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