D'accord: la prononciation du français international, acquisition et perfectionnement by Sylvie Carduner and M. Peter Hagiwara (review)

284ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW writings are normally subjected. Borges's fiction — note the emphasis on this one segment of the Borgesian opera — is surveyed in essentially chronological fashion, with summaries which attempt to give both the texts' narrative complexities and their artistic originality. Bell-Villada rather stridently disavows in his introduction current critical fashions, a tactic which might justify his thematic approach and enhance its appeal to the readers of literary supplements. Yet such a tactic blithely ignores why so much of Borges's international reputation is bound up with the emergence of the postmodernist criticism which his own essays so fascinatingly prefigure. Borges and His Fiction as a consequence makes for a very "flat" reading experience; perhaps better to read the stories themselves. DAVID WILLIAM FOSTER Arizona State University Sylvie Carduner and M. Peter Hagiwara. D'accord: la prononciation du français international, acquisition et perfectionnement. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1982.xiii, 304p. This textbook is described by its authors as "designed to teach French phonetics and pronunciation at the intermediate and advanced college levels." It is accompanied by a tape program and may be used by the student as a self-paced instructional package. D'accord introduces itself as an application of Contrastive Analysis. It consequently presents the sound-systems of English and French in order to show which areas of the latter will be a special problem for speakers of the former. The basic concept of linguistic interference is thus used to justify the remedial character of the exercises: "...the so-called 'foreign accent' is largely based on the superposition or substitution of the phonemic system of the native language for that of the target language" (p. 11). Each chapter has a section on interference and the remainder of learner-errors is explained by the lack of consistency in the French pronunciation/spelling relationship. The contrastive analysis orthodoxy of the book accounts for both the limited range assumed for sources of error and the denial of historical justification for some of these "inconsistencies": the positivistic nature of the approach and its Saussurean distaste for diachronic linguistics forbid any search for non-directly observable causes. Moreover, the pedagogic intent of the book may not allow for extended discussions of exceptions. Scientific and scholastic loyalties also convene to give the text a very practical character. Exercises always emphasize communicative contexts and intend to be as meaningful as possible. D'accord leaves an impression of unprecedented thoroughness in its choice of exercises: prise de conscience auditive, prise de conscience articulatoire, discrimination auditive, exercices d'apprentissage; and these exercises are also characterized by a double quality of adequacy and cultural propriety, as shown in this dialogue on the pronunciation of YOD: Mireille: Je vais essayer d'aller chez l'épicier. Eliane: Avec un temps pareil! Vous allez vous noyer! Mireille: Voyons! Soyez sérieuse; je ne suis pas une nouille. Eliane: Il pleut, il mouille C'est la fête à la grenouille! (p. 215) Book Reviews285 Perhaps in order to exhibit this contrastive spirit, each chapter is divided in two parts: Profil, in which a phonologic topic is defined in English, and Pratique, in which exercises are conducted in French, including the directions. In comparison with other textbooks on the topic of French Phonology, D'accord is very explicit on intonation and groupe rythmique. For these and other subjects, the transcription symbols used here are very helpful. Slightly revised IPA is resorted to: crescents of different shapes show the differences between liaison, enchaînements vocalique or consonantique; circles limit the boundaries of groupes rythmiques; stress and intonative patterns are also marked in manners that favorably compare with most other works. On the other hand, this textbook sometimes suffers from its very quality. On the matter of liaisons obligatoires, facultatives or interdites, forinstance, it says as much as others do, but, in relationship with its otherwise greater bulk of information, the topic appears inordinately underdeveloped! Besides, the need to dig for this information in three different places contrasts with the usually clear presentation of D'accord. This may only be an inconvénient de richesse'. Another impression of relative deficiency is produced by the use of "français international" in the title...