The Role of Phonology and Lexicon in Eliciting Reactions to Dialect Variation

Abstract : The salience of language in French Canada as a political and educational issue has prompted researchers to try to develop techniques to assess people's reactions to various speech styles. Although it is commonly acknowledged that Canadian French is distinct (from a formal linguistic point of view) from European French in its phonology, lexicon, and syntax, it would be interesting to know whether judges perceive this distinction when evaluating CF speech in relation to EF speech, and whether there is any correlation between their acceptance of CF and its usage in different social situations. The authors believe that the present study suggests a methodology for probing some of these questions.