Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T04:42:08.236Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Schwa and /œ/ in French

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Douglas C. Walker
Douglas C. Walker*
Affiliation:
University of Calgary
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Few topics in the phonological literature have inspired the amount of attention that has been lavished on the notorious “mute-e” of contemporary French. Perhaps the most perplexing difficulty for phonologists is how (or even whether) to include schwa in phonological representations. Solution of the representation problem, moreover, is necessary for a proper identification of the conditions under which schwa is deleted, maintained or inserted, and for an analysis of alternations linking schwa and other vowels. Many different solutions to the representation problem have been suggested: schwa as a distinct vowel; schwa as absent from the phonemic inventory (hence from underlying representations) and inserted as a “lubrifiant”; or (in the current non-linear literature), schwa as an empty nucleus; schwa as an unlinked vowel.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , March 1993 , pp. 43 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Stephen 1982 The Analysis of French Schwa: Or How to Get Somthing From Nothing. Language 58:534–573.Google Scholar
Bauche, Henri 1920 Le langage populaire. Grammaire, syntaxe et dictionnaire du français tel qu’on le parle dans le peuple de Paris avec tous les termes d’argot usuel. Paris: Payot. Google Scholar
Carton, Fernand 1974 Introduction à la phonétique du français. Paris: Bordas. Google Scholar
Catach, Nina 1986 L’orthographe française. Traité théorique et pratique. Paris: Nathan. Google Scholar
Charette, Monik 1991 Phonological Conditions on Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar
Dauses, August 1973 Etudes sur l’e instable dans le français familier. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Google Scholar
de Cornulier, Benoît 1975 Le droit d’e: e et la syllabicité. Cahiers de linguistique, d’Orienta lisme et de Slavisme 5-6:101–117.Google Scholar
Delahaye, Victor 1902 Dictionnaire de la prononciation moderne. Paris: Delagrave. Google Scholar
Delattre, Pierre 1966 Studies in French and Comparative Phonetics. The Hague: Mouton. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dell, François 1973a Les règles et les sons. Paris: Hermann. Google Scholar
Dell, François 1973b e muet: fiction graphique ou réalité linguistique. Pp. 26–50 in A Festschrift for Morris Halle. Anderson, Stephen and Kiparsky, Paul, eds. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Dell, François 1977 Paramètres syntaxiques et phonologiques qui favorisent l’épenthèse de schwa en français moderne. Pp. 141–153 in Actes du Colloque franco-allemand de linguistique théorique. Rohrer, Christian, ed. Tubingen: Niemeyer. Google Scholar
Dell, François 1978a Epenthese et effacement de schwa dans des syllabes contiguës en français. Pp. 75–81 in Etudes de phonologie française. Cornulier, Benoît de and Dell, François, eds. Paris: Éditions du CNRS.Google Scholar
Dell, François 1978b Certains corrélats de la distinction entre morphologie dérivationnelle et morphologie flexionnelle dans la phonologie du français. Pp. 1–10 in Etudes linguistiques sur les langues romanes. Morin, Yves-Charles and Querido, Antonio, eds. Montreal: Montreal Working Papers in Linguistics 10.Google Scholar
Dell, François 1980 Generative Phonology and French Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Translated and revised version of Dell 1973a.]Google Scholar
Dell, François, and Selkirk, Elisabeth 1978 On a Morphologically Governed Vowel Alternation in French. Pp. 1–51 in Recent Transformational Studies in European Languages. Keyser, Samuel, ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Durand, Jacques 1986 French Liaison, Floating Segments and Other Matters in a Depen dency Framework. Pp. 161–201 in Dependency and Non-Linear Phonology. Durand, Jacques, ed. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Durand, Jacques, Slater, Catherine, and Wise, Hilary 1987 Observations on Schwa in Southern French. Linguistics 25:983–1004.Google Scholar
Fischer, Robert 1980 La phonologisation du schwa en français. Linguisticae Investigations 4:21–38.Google Scholar
Frei, Henri 1929 La grammaire des fautes. Bellegarde: S.A.A.G.F. Google Scholar
Haton, Jean-Paul, and Lamotte, Michel 197 Etude statistique des phonèmes et diphonèmes dans le français parlé. Revue d’acoustique 16:258–262.Google Scholar
Guiraud, Pierre 1965 Le français populaire. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Google Scholar
Jones, Daniel 1950 - The Phoneme, its Nature and Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Juilland, Alphonse 1970 Frequency Dictionary of French Words. The Hague: Mouton. Google Scholar
Léon, Pierre 1966 Apparition, maintien et chute du “e” caduc. La Linguistique 2:111– 122.Google Scholar
Léon, Pierre 1971 Apparition, maintien et chute du “e caduc”. Variantes combinatoires et expressives. Pp. 67–79 in Essais de phonostylistique. Léon, Pierre, ed. Ottawa: Didier.Google Scholar
Lerond, Alain 1980 Dictionnaire de la prononciation. Paris: Larousse. Google Scholar
Lucci, Vincent 1983 Étude phonétique du français contemporain à travers la variation situationnelle. Grenoble: Publications de l’Université des Langues et Lettres de Grenoble.Google Scholar
Martinet, André 1958 “C’est jeuli le Mareuc!” Romance Philology 2:345–355.Google Scholar
Martinet, André 1972a Qu’est-ce que le “e muet”? Pp. 209–219 in Le français sans fard. Martinet, André, ed. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Martinet, André 1972b La nature phonologique d’e caduc. Pp. 393–399 in Papers in Linguistics and Phonetics to the Memory of Pierre Delattre. Valdman, Albert, ed. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinet, André 1991 Un dictionnaire pratique de la prononciation du français. La Linguistique 27:87–100.Google Scholar
Martinet, , André, , Martinet, Jeanne, Villard, Jeanne, Boyer, Denise, Dominici, Albert, and Dominici, Gilberte 1983 Vers l’écrit avec alfonic. Paris: Hachette. Google Scholar
Martinet, André, and Walter, Henriette 1973 Dictionnaire de la prononciation française dans son usage réel. Paris: France-Expansion.Google Scholar
Morin, Yves-Charles 1978 The Status of Mute “e”. Studies in French Linguistics 1:79–140.Google Scholar
Morin, Yves-Charles 1987 French Data and Phonological Theory. Linguistics 25:815–843.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morin, Yves-Charles 1988 De l’ajustement du schwa en syllabe fermée dans la phonologie du français. Pp. 13–189 in La phonologie du schwa français. Verluyten, S. Paul, ed. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar
Noske, Roland 1982 Syllabification and Syllable Changing Rules in French. Pp. 257–310 in The Structure of Phonological Representations (Part II). Hulst, H. van der and Smith, Neil, eds. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Schane, Sanford 1968 French Phonology and Morphology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Google Scholar
Shibatani, Masayoshi 1973 The Role of Surface Phonetic Constraints in Generative Phonology. Language 481:87–106.Google Scholar
Taulelle, Danielle, ed. 1989 Le Robert oral-écrit. L’orthographe par la phonétique. Paris: Dictionnaires Le Robert. Google Scholar
Thimonnier, René 1970 Code orthographique et grammatical. Paris: Hatier. Google Scholar
Tranel, Bernard 1981 Concreteness in Generative Phonology: Evidence from French. Berkeley: University of California Press. Google Scholar
Tranel, Bernard 1987a The Sounds of French. An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar
Tranel, Bernard 1987b French Schwa and Non-Linear Phonology. Linguistics 25: 845–866.Google Scholar
Tranel, Bernard 1988 À propos de l’ajustement de E en français. Pp. 89–131 in La phonologie du schwa français. Verluyten, S. Paul, ed. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Valdman, Albert 1972 The Loi de Position as a Pedagogical Norm. Pp. 473–485 in Papers in Linguistics and Phonetics to the Memory of Pierre Delattre. Valdman, Albert, ed. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Valdman, Albert 1976 Introduction to French Phonology and Morphology. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Varney Pleasants, Jeanne 1956 Etudes sur l’e muet. Timbre, durée, intensité, hauteur musicale. Paris: Klincksieck. Google Scholar
Vennemann, Theo 1972 Rule Inversion. Lingua 29:209–242.Google Scholar
Verluyten, S.|Paul, ed. 1988 La phonologie du schwa français. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar
Walker, Douglas 1975 Lexical Stratification in French Phonology. Lingua 37:177–196.Google Scholar
Walter, Henriette 1976 La dynamique des phonèmes dans le lexique français contemporain. Paris: France Expansion.Google Scholar
Walter, Henriette 1977 La phonologie du français. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Walter, Henriette 1988 Le français dans tous les sens. Paris: Editions Robert Lafont.Google Scholar
Warnant, Léon 1987 Dictionnaire de la prononciation française dans sa norme actuelle. Paris: Duculot.Google Scholar
Wioland, François 1972 Estimation de la “fréquence” des phonèmes en français parlé. Travaux de l’Institut de Phonétique de Strasbourg 4:177–204.Google Scholar
Wolff, Mark 1974 Rule Inversion and the Derivational Morphology of French. PhD thesis, University of Washington.Google Scholar
Zwannenburg, Wiecher 1983 Productivité morphologique et emprunt. Etude des dérivés déverbaux savants en français moderne. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar