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The use/non-use of ne in the spoken French of university-level learners of French as a second language in the Canadian context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2010

KATHERINE REHNER
KATHERINE REHNER*
Affiliation:
Department of Language Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga
*
Address for correspondence: Katherine Rehner, Program in Linguistics, Department of Language Studies, University of Toronto, Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Room 249 North Building, Mississauga, ON, CanadaL5L 1C6 email: katherine.rehner@utoronto.ca
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Abstract

This paper presents the results of a sociolinguistic analysis of ne use/non-use in the spoken French of learners of French as a second language enrolled in their first or fourth year of undergraduate studies in a bilingual university in Ontario, Canada. Specifically, it examines the impact of various linguistic and extra-linguistic factors on the students’ use of the variants and compares the patterns found to previous research on ne use/non-use among Ontario high school FSL learners and on other sociolinguistic variables in the speech of the same university FSL learners under study here. The paper concludes that while many of the same influences are at work in the speech of both the university and high school learners, the precise influences appear to be modified with continued study and that many of these patterns are similar across variables within the university FSL learners’ speech.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , November 2010 , pp. 289 - 311
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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