Sociolinguistic Variation in Seventeenth-Century France This book provides the first systematic study of sociolinguistic variation in seventeenth-century France. Drawing on a range of case studies, Wendy Ayres- Bennett makes available new data about linguistic variation in this period, showing the wealth and variety of language usage at a time that is considered to be the most ‘standardizing’ in the history of French. Variation is analysed in terms of the speaker’s ‘pre-verbal constitution’ – such as gender, age and socio-economic status – or by the medium, register or genre used. As well as examining linguistic variation itself, the book also considers the funda- mental methodological issues that are central to all socio-historical linguistic accounts, and more importantly, addresses the question of what the appro- priate sources are for linguists taking a socio-historical approach. In each chapter, the case studies present a range of phonological, morphological, syn- tactic and lexical issues, which pose different methodological questions for sociolinguists and historical linguists alike. wendy ayres-bennett is Reader in French Philology and Linguistics at the University of Cambridge. Her most recent publications include Prob- lems and Perspectives: Studies in the Modern French Language (with Janice Carruthers, 2000), A History of the French Language through Texts (1996), and Les Remarques de l’Acad´ emie Franc ¸aise sur le Quinte-Curce de Vaugelas 1719–1720 (with Philippe Caron, 1996), which won the French Academy’s Prix d’Acad´ emie. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 052182088X - Sociolinguistic Variation in Seventeenth-Century France: Methodology and Case Studies Wendy Ayres-Bennett Frontmatter More information