The French Language Today: A Linguistic Introduction (review)

This textbook originally appeared in 1992, under the title The French language today(no subtitle). The second edition was actually prepared by only Hintze and Rowlett, as Battye, the first-named author died in 1993.

The goals of this second edition are basically the same as those of its predecessor: to provide undergraduate students with a comprehensive description of the linguistic structure of Modern French and to place this description within both a historical and a social context (x). Rather than presenting a catalogue of facts in the style of a reference or teaching grammar, the authors have aimed to highlight patterns, generalizations, and explanations in a more marked way than was the case in the first edition (x).

A number of changes in the presentation of the material have been made, but the basic structure of the book remains unaltered: five chapters, each covering a different topic, viz., the historical development of Standard French (Ch.1), the sound system (Ch. 2), word-formation (Ch. 3), sentence patterns (Ch. 4), and geographical and stylistic varieties (Ch. 5).

The authors have taken great pains to make the book more ‘user-friendly’, especially in response to comments from readers of the first edition. They have added several new features including a glossary of linguistic terms (313–25), a subject index (339–45), a slightly differently formatted and expanded bibliography (326–38), and a ‘Further reading’ guide at the end of each chapter. The table of contents has been improved upon as well and now contains not only the main chapter headings, but also subsection headings. The subtitle, ‘A linguistic introduction’ adds specificity to the main title and makes clearer the authors’ vision of their book: as a ‘text on the linguistics of French’ and not ‘a potted grammar or an introduction to linguistics with exemplification from French’ (x).

The new edition contains subtler changes as well: the authors’ style is far lighter and more engaging; some materials have been unobtrusively rearranged within the chapters; and the statistical information, particularly in Ch. 1, has been updated.

In spite of their splendid efforts, the authors have not produced an error-free volume. Ch. 2, for example, contains a number of infelicities: Table 2.18 (91), a new feature, intended to summarize the distribution of [o]/[ɔ] in open and closed syllables, is incomplete, confused, or inexact. The fourth row of the table fails to show that [ɔ] may occur also in nonfinalclosed syllables (as in docteur[dɔk.tœr]). Still on the same page, and just beneath the table, [o] is mistakenly called a mid-lowvowel. Novice students of French linguistics are likely to be confused by the authors’ unexplained and inconsistent use of ‘E’, for e-muet[ə] (e.g. rEvenir‘to return’ (85): why have they used ‘E’only in the first syllable?). In the discussion on vowel harmony (93), the mid-low vowel [œ] is mistakenly referred to as mid-high: ‘the front rounded mid-high vowel [œ] tends to close to [ø] if it precedes [ø]’ (93). Putting aside minor problems such as these, the second edition is clearly an improvement on what was already an informative and well thought-out textbook. Those interested in making the study of French linguistics more appealing or wishing to have under one cover a comprehensive introduction to the French language, from the perspective of modern linguistics, will do well to consider this fine volume.