Aidan Coveney, Variability in spoken French: A sociolinguistic study of interrogation and negation. Exeter, UK: Elm Bank, 1996. Pp. 271. Pb £24.99.

Abstract

Originating as a British doctoral dissertation, this work constitutes a meticulous, thoughtful, well-written, and sometimes critical application of variationist methodology to two domains of spoken French syntax: negation and interrogation. The work is of merit not only for the insights it provides into two key areas of French syntax, but also for the more general methodological issues it confronts, often with considerable originality. As is well known, the application of variationist methodology to syntax is controversial, but Coveney has made a convincing case that the Labovian paradigm can indeed be insightfully applied to the realm of syntactic variation.