What do we know about French liaison today?

Sanford Schane's 1965 thesis inaugurated a long tradition of work wherein liaison is envisaged firstly as an essentially phonological question, secondly as the passive result of the non deletion of underlying segments, thirdly as easily explicable if the right theoretical tools are used (be they distinctive features, boundaries, rules or constraints). In this article, we present an alternative methodology for the study of liaison followed within the PFC programme (Phonologie du Francais Contemporain: usages, varietes et structure). We argue that a better empirical basis yields a different picture of liaison as a multifactorial and multilevel phenomenon highly sensitive to frequency effects. We present a number of results ranging from "enchainement" to the influence of sociostylistic factors such as age, education, gender or geographical location. Adapted from the source document