In this article, I discuss a piece of occassional poetry commemorating a treaty concluded between the city of Ghent and the episcopal court of Tournai in 1439. The short poem is found in a... Show moreIn this article, I discuss a piece of occassional poetry commemorating a treaty concluded between the city of Ghent and the episcopal court of Tournai in 1439. The short poem is found in a collection of official documents, now kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It was first copied in Dutch after which a second user (probably a native speaker of Dutch) added a French translation. Show less
In late medieval and early modern times, books, as well as the people who produced and read (or listened to) them, moved between regions, social circles, and languages with relative ease. Yet, in... Show moreIn late medieval and early modern times, books, as well as the people who produced and read (or listened to) them, moved between regions, social circles, and languages with relative ease. Yet, in the multilingual Low Countries, francophone literature was both internationally mobile and firmly rooted in local soil. The five contributions collected in this volume demonstrate that while in general issues of ‘otherness’ were resolved without difficulty, at other times (linguistic) differences were perceived as a heartfelt reality. Show less
This chapter focuses on translation in the Low Countries from c. 500 CE to 1550 CE. While the focus is on literary translation from Latin and French into Dutch, there is also attention for... Show moreThis chapter focuses on translation in the Low Countries from c. 500 CE to 1550 CE. While the focus is on literary translation from Latin and French into Dutch, there is also attention for translation into French and Latin, devotional and religious texts, practical 'Artes' literature, and the translation of official documents. Show less
This study compares the prosodic properties of French wh-in-situ echo questions and string-identical information seeking questions in relation to focus. Thirty-six (12 × 3) wh-in-situ questions... Show moreThis study compares the prosodic properties of French wh-in-situ echo questions and string-identical information seeking questions in relation to focus. Thirty-six (12 × 3) wh-in-situ questions were embedded in dialogues designed to elicit (A) echo questions expressing auditory failure, (B) information seeking questions with broad focus or (C) information seeking questions with narrow focus on the wh-phrase, i.e. a focus structure similar to the one of echo questions. Analyses regarding the F0, duration and intensity of the utterances produced by 20 native speakers of French show clear prosodic differences between the three conditions. Our results indicate that part of the prosodic properties of echo questions can be attributed to the presence of narrow focus (A and C vs. B) while another part is truly characteristic of echo questions themselves (A vs. B and C). In combination with known differences regarding their pragmatics, semantics and syntax, this sets echo questions apart as a separate question type. At the same time, our results offer evidence for prosodic encoding of focus in French wh-in-situ questions, confirming and adding to existing claims regarding the prosody of focus marking in French on the one hand and the presence of focus marking in wh-interrogatives on the other. Show less
The phoneme /h/ is absent in French and its acquisition has been described as being difficult for second language learners of Dutch, a language with /h/ in its phoneme inventory. In this study,... Show moreThe phoneme /h/ is absent in French and its acquisition has been described as being difficult for second language learners of Dutch, a language with /h/ in its phoneme inventory. In this study, several factors were examined that may affect the production of /h/ by Belgian-French learners of Dutch. Specifically, the factors included in this exploratory study were (1) L1-to-L2 transfer, (2) semantic contrastiveness, (3) the monitoring of one’s speech, and (4) educational grade. L1-to-L2 transfer was operationalized as the effect of liaison/elision contexts on /h/-production. The expectation was liaison contexts might transfer and would therefore hinder /h/-production. Semantic contrasts in minimal pairs including an h-initial word would elicit more /h/-productions if that word was contrasted with an empty onset than an onset (oor-hoor) filled by some other consonant (hand-tand). If a speaker pays more attention to his/her speech in an increased-monitoring task, the speaker is expected to produce /h/ more often, and finally it was expected that increased exposure to Dutch would result in more correct productions.In a cross-sectional study, students from the first, third and sixth grades of secondary education (60 in total, aged between 12 years and 19 years old) took part in two reading-aloud tasks, which were assumed to differ in the degree of speech monitoring they require. The first task was a text, with which L1-to-L2 transfer was assessed, and the second a list of minimal pairs containing h-onsets contrasting with either empty or filled onsets. Monitoring was assessed by comparing results between reading tasks.Results showed that increased monitoring positively influenced the numbers of [h]s produced, but that L1-to-L2 transfer of liaison/elision contexts did not occur. A small difference between conditions was found, but in the opposite direction. There was large between-learner variability and no performance increase with amount of exposure from first to sixth grade. Overall, performance left much room for improvement relative to native Dutch speakers and to the learners’ teacher. Further research is needed to better understand the development of French-speaker learners’ production of Dutch /h/. Show less
In two experiments, we examined the functional locus of plural dominance in the French spoken word production system, where singulars and plurals share the same phonological word form. The... Show moreIn two experiments, we examined the functional locus of plural dominance in the French spoken word production system, where singulars and plurals share the same phonological word form. The materials included singular-dominant (singular more frequent than plural) and plural-dominant nouns (plural more frequent than singular). In Experiment 1, partici- pants were instructed to produce determiner-noun phrases in response to singular and plu- ral depictions of objects. In contrast to the dominance-by-number interaction that is typically observed in English, Dutch and German, the French picture-naming data revealed a main effect of number, but no effect of plural dominance. When participants were instructed to produce determiner-noun phrases in a reading aloud task (Experiment 2), where number is orthographically marked, a number-by-dominance interaction emerged. Our data suggest that plural dominance is encoded at the word form level within the context of recent theories of spoken word production. Show less
The French early modern empire is usually perceived as centralized and controlled by the monarchy. In her dissertation Elisabeth Heijmans probes below the surface of French overseas companies... Show moreThe French early modern empire is usually perceived as centralized and controlled by the monarchy. In her dissertation Elisabeth Heijmans probes below the surface of French overseas companies to reveal strategies and connections of individual actors. Through this study of French company directors it becomes apparent that these companies had other motivations and goals than economic profitability or institutional efficiency alone. Taking the points of view of the directors of the companies operating in Pondichéry (Coromandel Coast in India) and those active in Ouidah (Bight of Benin, West African Coast), Heijmans examines the inter-dependence between institutions and individual agency in the early modern French empire. This research showcases that the French early modern empire relied on cooperation with other European empires, on the participation of private merchants and on the integration in local political and trading context of overseas agents. This situation was made possible by leaving some space for individual agency inside the institutional organization of these companies. Through this focus, Heijmans contributes to a better understanding not only of the expectations of members of French companies but also to the goals of these companies, oriented towards offering a platform for individual agency to stimulate the expanding early empire. Show less
