When a linguistic variable doesn’t vary (much): The subjunctive mood in a conservative variety of Acadian French and its relevance to the actuation problem

• Published in: Journal of French language studies Vol. 30; no. 1; pp. 21 - 46
• Main Author: Comeau, Philip
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Cambridge University Press 01.03.2020
• Subjects: Acadian French; Canadian French; Community; Emotions; French language; Grammatical mood; Hypotheses; Language varieties; Latin language; Linguistics; Modality (Semantic); Morphology; Norms; Researchers; Semantics; Subjunctive; Tense; Nova Scotia Canada

This study considers the subjunctive mood in one of the most conservative varieties of Acadian French, that spoken in the Baie Sainte-Marie region in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. A number of claims made in the literature are considered: whether the subjunctive mood is undergoing loss, wheth...