ERIC Number: EJ745623
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004-Oct
Pages: 20
Abstractor: Author
Reference Count: 35
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0019-042X
"Vous" or "tu"? Native and Non-Native Speakers of French on a Sociolinguistic Tightrope
Dewaele, Jean-Marc
International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL), v42 n4 p383-402 Oct 2004
Sociolinguistic rules governing choice of pronouns of address are notoriously difficult in French, despite the fact that the number of variants is rather limited: the more formal "vous" versus the more informal "tu." Children with French as L1 learn to use pronouns of address appropriately as part of their socialization process. The learning curve is much steeper for instructed learners of French and many never reach the summit. The present contribution focuses on the effects of situational and sociobiographical variables on the self-reported and actual use of pronouns of address in native and non-native French. Data on self-reported pronoun use in different situations were collected from 125 participants through a written questionnaire. A corpus of conversations between native (n = 9) and non-native (n = 52) speakers of French provided data on the actual use of address pronouns. (Contains 5 tables, 1 figure and 6 notes.)
Descriptors: Native Speakers, French, Sociolinguistics, Form Classes (Languages), Measurement Techniques, Questionnaires, Computational Linguistics, Written Language, Second Language Learning, Language Usage
Walter de Gruyter. P.O. Box 960, Herndon, VA 20172-0960. Tel: 800-208-8144: Tel: 703-661-1589; Fax: 703-661-1501; e-mail: degruytermail@presswarehouse.com; Web site: http://www.degruyter.de/rs/384_392_ENU_h.htm.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers: N/A

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