Canada and France: Main Trends in the Sociolinguistics of French

A review of French studies in Canada & France concentrates on those produced since 1960, & deals only with a selection of the available works. The sociolinguistic situation in both countries is examined on the basis of studies belonging to three major categories: traditional sociolinguistic studies, sophisticated semantic enlargements of traditional methods, & studies of bilingualism. Sociolinguistic activities in Canada & France differ in that the Canadian studies give inductive interpretations to statistical results derived from broad gatherings of data, whereas the French studies rely on deduction & "social introspection." Possible reasons for this difference in attitudes are discussed. B. Annesser