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On the Learning of Auxiliary Use in the Referential Variety by Speakers of New Brunswick Acadian French

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Patricia Balcom*
Affiliation:
Université de Moncton

Abstract

This study investigates the learning of Referential French by speakers of Acadian French at the university level. One difference between the two varieties lies in their use of auxiliaries in compound tenses. In Acadian French, avoir is used categorically in compound tenses with verbs of inherently directed motion and pronominal verbs, while Referential French uses être. A controlled-production task and an acceptability judgment task were administered to 80 speakers of New Brunswick Acadian French who were students at a francophone university in New Brunswick, 40 first-year students and 40 fourth-year students. Results show that, while there is still variability in the fourth-year students’ auxiliary use, their performance is significantly closer to Referential French than that of the first-year students.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet étude examine l’apprentissage du français de référence pas les locuteurs du français acadien au niveau universitaire. Les deux variétés se distinguent par leur utilisation des auxilairires dans les temps composés. En français acadien, on utilise avoir catégoriquement dans les temps composés avec les verbes de motion intrinsèquement dirigés et les verbes pronominaux, tandis que le français de référence utilise être. On a administré un test lacunaire et des jugements de l’acceptabilité à 80 locuteurs de français acadien du Nouveau-Brunswick qui étaient des étudiants à une université francophone dans la province, 40 étudiants dans leur première année d’études et 40 dans leur quatrième année. Les résultats indiquent que, bien qu’il y a toujours de la variabilité dans l’emploi des auxiliaires chez les étudiants en quatrième année, leur performance est plus proche au français de référence que celle des étudiants en première année.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2008 

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