French : Linguistics

Teacher(s)

Dupont Maïté;

Language

French

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

-For the Learning Activity group 'General and Comparative Linguistic' On completing this learning Activity group students should be able to: - Draw on the theory they have studied to pursue their personal inquiry into the nature of language and the relationship between language and thought (assessed via open questions) or into the different schools of linguistics (Saussure, Chomsky, etc.); - Answer specific questions on the linguistic ‘objects' studied (word, phoneme, syntactic structure, etc.) and other associated concepts; - Apply theory to the analysis of words (morphology, semantics), syntactic units or utterances (pragmatics). - For the Learning Activity group ‘French Phonetics' On completing this Learning Activity group students should: - Have in-depth expertise in the international phonetic alphabet (IPA) and the ability to transcribe a text of around 10 lines according to standard French pronunciation rules; - Possess a command of the terminology of phonetics (voicing, devoicing, assimilation, liaison, loi de position, etc.) and the history of the French language (link with spoken latin, founding of the Académie, etc.) and can answer knowledge/process questions in the form of MCQs; - Be able to identify and analyse, in a speech sample (a radio extract) of around one minute in length, recorded in one of the three ‘linguistic zones' studied during the course (French-speaking Belgium or southern France), examples of phonetic characteristics that identify the origin of the speaker, by comparison with standard French.

Content

The course is split into two learning activities (General and Comparative Linguistics, on the one hand, and French Phonetics, on the other), assessed in a single exam.
The course offers students an opportunity to engage in a critical examination of language and learn about the different fields of linguistics (phonetics, morphology, semantics, syntax, etc.). It also offers historical and comparatives insights into the discipline (e.g. introduction to the history of linguistics, comparison of some phonetic varieties of the French-speaking area). A detailed course programme is available on Moodle.

Teaching methods

Face to face (lectures and integrated learning tasks)

Evaluation methods

The two 'Learning Activities' of the course are assessed commonly, but the evaluation is divided in two parts. Both parts take the form of a written exam comprising a range of different types of questions: MCQ, closed questions requiring short answers, open questions on theoretical aspects.
The final grade is caculated as follows: 65% for the General Linguistics part, and 35% for the French Phonetics part.
 

Other information

For the ""Phonétique française"" activity, students have access to formative evaluation exercises (indicating her/his level and progress).
These activities are not mandatory. Participation is optional, but nevertheless recommended.

Bibliography

Pour la partie « Linguistique générale et comparée » :
Supports complémentaires au cours magistral :
- Garric, N. (2011). Introduction à la linguistique. Paris: Hachette Supérieur.
- Mainguenau, D. (2009). Aborder la linguistique. Paris: Seuil.
- Moeschler, Jacques & Zufferey, Sandrine (2021). Initiation à la linguistique française. Paris: Armand Colin.
- Moeschler, Jacques & Auchlin, Antoine (2009). Introduction à la linguistique contemporaine. Paris: Armand Colin.

Pour la partie « Phonétique française » :
Support recommandé :
- Monique Léon, Pierre Léon (2019), La prononciation du français. Paris, Armand Colin.

Faculty or entity

> TIMB