The Vocabulary of Modern French

The Vocabulary of Modern French provides a fresh insight into contemporary French. With this book, Hilary Wise offers the first comprehensive overview of the modern French vocabulary: its historical sources, formal organisation and social and stylistic functions. Topics covered include: * external influences on the language * word formation * semantic change * style and register In addition, the author looks at the relationship between social and lexical change and examines attempts at intervention in the development of the language. Each chapter is concluded by notes for further reading, and by suggestions for project work which are designed to increase awareness of specific lexical phenomena and enable the student-reader to use lexicographic databases of all kinds. The Vocabulary of Modern French is an accessible and fascinating study of the relationship between a nation and its language, as well as providing a key text for all students of modern French.

Hilary Wise is Senior Lecturer in French at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London.

List of figures, maps and tables, Preface, List of phonetic symbols and abbreviations 1 Questions and concepts 2 The lexical foundations of French 3 Les racines nobles: borrowing from Latin and Greek 4 The Romance contribution 5 English influence: good neighbours or false friends? 6 New words for old: the derivational processes of French 7 Cognitive processes and semantic change 8 Lexis in society 9 Lexis in context 10 Argot: from criminal slang to la langue des jeunes 11 Codification, control and linguistic mythology