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How pluricentric is the French language? An investigation of attitudes towards Quebec French compared to European French1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2012

RUTH KIRCHER
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Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study that employed a questionnaire and a matched-guise experiment to investigate the attitudes that Quebec francophones, anglophones, French-English bilinguals and allophones hold towards Quebec French compared to European French. The findings indicate that attitudes towards Quebec French on the solidarity dimension have improved since the 1980s, while attitudes on the status dimension have remained the same. These findings are interpreted in the context of the burgeoning of Quebecers’ sense of belonging to their society on the one hand, and the tradition of viewing French as a monocentric rather than a pluricentric language on the other hand.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , November 2012 , pp. 345 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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