78671 - French Linguistics 1 (LM)

Learning outcomes

The global aim of this course – which includes lectures and language classes - is to provide students with an expert knowledge of a number of aspects of French linguistics, enabling them not only to communicate effectively in French, but also to think critically about and describe the metalinguistic factors at play in language use. This aim will be achieved by providing students with theoretical knowledge related to one or more of the following areas of French linguistics: phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicology, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, stylistics and corpus linguistics. The focus of the course will be on real language use, with authentic texts (written and/ or spoken, belonging to different registers) and electronic language corpora used as examples. At the end of the two years course, the student is able to apply such knowledge by means of the use of suitable tools ; he/she knows how to plan a linguistic search in a correct way. Language classes aim to improve students’ linguistic competence; over the two year period students’ knowledge of French should reach level C2 according to the European framework in all four abilities, which allows students to effectively interpret the partner-linguistic and cultural codes in any subject within a communicative relationship. These classes will work in connection with the lectures to improve students’ writing skills in particular.

Course contents

PRACTICAL LANGUAGE CLASSES (K. Gendron, 1st semester)

Writing in the era of digital social media

Communication, medias, linguistics, editorial world and creative or professional writings are all transforming in the actual era of social medias. We will discuss some of the following issues during our course: the speeches and the public democratization, the internationalization of the contents, the emergence of an interactive contact with readers, the redefinition of writing practices and the consequences of the broadcast formats on the communication form adopted. Writing on blogs, on Facebook or on Twitter, specialised publishing in online journals and international online communication are fairly recent practices that require to adjust our writing modes. Often, the writer needs to be incisive and, for this, has to combine the density of information with a simple language, a restricted space granted and the actuality of the subject. Twitter’s limit of 140 characters gives an idea of the challenge that the actual web writers have to face. How to inform or discuss a new topic in a few words? How to hook the lectors who are facing daily a huge information flow? How to assure the credibility of the text written beyond the walls of traditional networks of knowledge circulation? These are some of the topics we will discuss in class.

OFFICIAL COURSE (V. Zotti, 1st semester)

On-line linguistic resources for writers and translators

The aim of the official course is to supply the student with the theoretical and practical skills necessary in order to carry out linguistic analysis in French language with the help of information technology. Based on an applied approach to the study of French linguistics, this course pays attention to the training of “new” professional abilities demanded in multilingual and multimedia communication (compiler, translator, lexicographer, computational linguist, etc.).

I. The first part of the course (10 h) will be focused on introducing the student to the basic concepts of this field (what is linguistics; the difference between linguistics and grammar; “langue” and “parole”; “signifiant” and “signifié”; the arbitrary nature of linguistic sign, etc.)) and to the major branches of theoretical and applied linguistics (Semantics, Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics, Corpus Linguistics, Natural Language Processing, Machine Translation, Terminology, etc.) with particular reference to the contribution of French and Francophone linguistics for their evolution (Saussure, Martinet, Guillaume, etc.).

II. The second and principal part of the course (35 h) will be focused on learning the criteria for the use of electronic dictionaries and databases, in order to be able to write correct texts in French language and to translate different typologies of texts from French into Italian. Among the resources which will be studied during practical lessons (TD travaux dirigés): Le Petit Robert électronique, Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé ; IATE, GDT Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique, TermiumPlus, BLF Base Lexicale du Français, BDLP Base de Données Lexicales Panfrancophones, QUIT ; Frantext, Fichier Lexical TLFQ, LBC ; HyperMachiavel, SketchEngine ; as well as the Web as Corpus and, in the end, a few programs for machine translation and computer-assisted translation (Google Traduction, SDL Trados).

III. The third part of this course (15 h) will be devoted to the creation and analysis of a linguistic corpus by using two tools: TermoStat Web, a terminological software developed by the University of Montréal (Canada), and SketchEngine, the most renowned corpus query system incorporating word sketches, created by the company Lexical Computing.

Readings/Bibliography

PRACTICAL LANGUAGE CLASSES (K. Gendron)

During classes, the teacher will provide a complete bibliography of Quebec literary works. Each student will choose only one book.

OFFICIAL COURSE (V. Zotti)

D. Maingueneau, Aborder la linguistique, Paris, Editions du Seuils, 1996, et 2009 pour la nouvelle édition.

V. Zotti, Ressources linguistiques en ligne pour la rédaction et la traduction : dictionnaires, bases de données, corpus. 2018, dossier en ligne.

V. Zotti, A. Pano (éds.), Informatica umanistica: risorse e strumenti per lo studio del lessico dei beni culturali, Firenze University Press, 2017, (only for consultation).

All readings will be available on line.

Teaching methods

PRACTICAL LANGUAGE CLASSES (K. Gendron)

Preparation for the final written exam (2 h for week)

In order to prepare the written exam, but also to give the students the skills they will need for a possible job in the field of  digital writing, the practical works have been structured around the creation of a collective blog that we will feed and diffuse on different web platforms (Facebook, Twitter, institutional websites, journals, etc.). The topic will be: "Quebec literary works seen from Italy" (« Les œuvres littéraires québécoises vues de l’Italie »). This kind of blog will allow us to work on 4 different types of texts: argumentative, narrative, descriptive and explanatory ones. Each student will have to choose only one short literary text (around 125 pages) inside a list given during the first classes of the semester. The book will be loaned for the whole semester in order to be read and to let the student write about it on the blog. On this point, during the semester the student will be asked to write gradually  the blog’s entry concerning the selected book. Each entry will be formed by four parts, each one associated with the writing skills of a precise type of text:

• Author description: descriptive text.
• Summary of the story or subject: narrative text.
• Critical comment on the interest of the book: argumentative text.
• Reading tips for non-Quebecois readers: explanatory text.

Oral practice (2 h by week)

We will read various documents on digital publishing and writing and on social media in general, in order to discuss some issues about them. Weekly, we will discuss and correct the texts written for the blog, by paying attention to the difficulties found on the the choosen book. At the same time, we will prepare the written exam by analysing the structure and the characteristics of different forms of web writing.

OFFICIAL COURSE (V. Zotti)

All official course lessons will take place in the computer room. Because of the practical nature of the course, students are strongly invited to attend the classes regularly. They will also be invited to follow some conferences given by academics and professionals.

Assessment methods

PRACTICAL LANGUAGE CLASSES (K. Gendron)

Directed work: blog entries (30 %)

Even though we will be working the 4 sections of every blog page in class, each student will have to email me a definitive version of each of the sections during the session, before I put them online definitively. Each type of text will have a score of 10 points, but only the three best results will be counted for the final grade.

The evaluation remains the same for "non-attending" students. However, they will have to inform me of their "non-attendance" at the beginning of the semester and give me a valid e-mail address for correspondence. All the documents and the templates presented in class, as well as the blog entry created in order to give a concrete example of the work to do, will be transmitted to the "non-attending" students by email.

Evaluation criteria:

• Language mastery: orthography, vocabulary, grammar, syntax, punctuation: 50 %
• Consistency of ideas and structure: clarity of purpose, good organization of ideas, balance of parts, adapted tone for each part and for a digital writing context (argumentative, narrative, descriptive, explanatory): 25 %
• Subject mastery and respect of instructions: comprehension of the constitutive elements for every kind of text, rigorous reading of the book, good documentation: 25 %

  *The result for each type of text will be counted on  a base of 100 points and will then be reduced to 10 points (3x10 points: 30 points).

  Final written exam (70 %) 3 h

  Instructions: choose one of the two folders given during the classes, read all the documents in the folder selected and write one blog page, based on the model that we studied during the semester. After that, write a business email by following the given instructions.

  Evaluation criteria:

• Language mastery: orthography, vocabulary, grammar, syntax, punctuation: 50 %
• Consistency of ideas and structure: clarity of purpose, good organization of ideas, balance of parts, adapted tone for each part and for a digital writing context (argumentative, narrative, descriptive, explanatory): 25 %
• Subject mastery and respect of instructions: comprehension of the constitutive elements for each kind of text and rigorous reading and comprehension of the given documentation: 25 %

*The final exam result will be counted on a base of 100 points and will then be reduced to 70 points.

OFFICIAL COURSE (V. Zotti)

Students who will attend the lessons will be evaluated through an interactive on-line test about the course contents. They will be asked also to write a short essay written in French about the corpus created during the third part of the course. Students will send this essay by email to the teacher at least two weeks before the oral exam. The oral exam will be a discussion on the first theoretical part of the course (one question), on the on-line test result and on the written essay, in order to improve the global evaluation.

Students who will NOT attend the lessons will take an oral exam on the whole course contents. In order to replace the written essay, which will not be demanded to students who will not attend classes, students will have to study a complementary bibliography. Details of required texts and documents will be made available at the beginning of the course and on the institutional platform IOL.

Office hours

See the website of Valeria Zotti