Historical and Sociolinguistic Approaches to French

Speakers
Janice Carruthers (Queen's University Belfast)
Mairi McLaughlin (University of California, Berkeley)
Olivia Walsh (University of Nottingham)
Wendy Ayres-Bennett (ILCS and University of Cambridge)

Historical and Sociolinguistic Approaches to French is a new volume published by OUP in June 2024. It brings together two particularly dynamic areas of contemporary research on the French language through a series of eighteen chapters which showcase both diachronic and synchronic perspectives on a wide range of linguistic issues. The event will start with a general presentation of the volume by the editors, Janice Carruthers, Mairi McLaughlin, and Olivia Walsh. This will be followed by a series of short conversations featuring some of the contributors to the volume. They will discuss topics such as the impact of new types of data on studies of contemporary and historical varieties of French; the role of multilingualism in the (socio)linguistic study of French; and the relationship between on the one hand the use of the French language by speakers, communities, and institutions and, on the other, language attitudes, ideologies, and policy. The event will end with a response by Wendy Ayres-Bennett to whom this volume is dedicated as a mark of her immense contributions to the history and sociolinguistics of French.


All are welcome to attend this free event, which will be held online at 17:00 GMT (UK time). Please click Book Now at the top of the page to register and you will be sent the zoom joining link.