BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Speaker attitudes to the French language in France and Québec: Pu
 rist or moderate? - Olivia Walsh\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20110509T094000Z
DTEND:20110509T101000Z
UID:TALK30792@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:David Willis
DESCRIPTION:France is a country which has long been associated with lingui
 stic purism. In fact\, so widespread is this association that France is se
 en by many to be the archetypal purist country. However\, this idea\, thou
 gh so widely held\, does not appear to have been empirically verified in a
 ny systematic way. In order to do so\, a framework is needed which allows 
 us to measure linguistic purism. Just such a framework – one which can b
 e used to identify and measure elements typical of all purist movements 
 – can be found in George Thomas’s _Linguistic Purism_ (1991)\, and thi
 s is thus used as a basis for my work.\n\nFrance is seen to be exceptional
 ly purist for a number of reasons\, including the existence of the _Acadé
 mie française_\, the long history of linguistic laws and the existence of
  numerous bodies that attempt to implement these laws. These all relate to
  language at the official level and an analysis of these must naturally be
  included in any discussion of linguistic purism in France. However\, if w
 e want to provide a complete picture of the purism that exists in France t
 oday\, we cannot simply concentrate on the official level but must also in
 vestigate the non-official level – that is\, the attitudes and language 
 behaviour of speakers of French in France. Are ‘ordinary’ speakers of 
 French also purist? Is their linguistic consciousness affected by the offi
 cial situation in their country? We may expect them to hold more purist at
 titudes towards their language than speakers in a country less associated 
 with a strongly purist rhetoric\, but is this actually the case? \n\nIn or
 der to address these issues\, a questionnaire was developed using Thomas
 ’s framework to ensure that all elements typical of linguistic purism we
 re included and measured\, and this was then administered to a sample of p
 articipants in France. In order to compare these speakers of French to spe
 akers in an area less often associated with purist rhetoric\, the question
 naire was also administered to a sample of participants in Québec. The re
 sults of the study and the implications of these for purism at the unoffic
 ial level in France and Québec are the focus of this paper. \n
LOCATION:GR-05\, English Faculty Building\, West Road
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR