Liaison as a Sandhi Phenomenon

Liaison - phenomenon of pronunciation, not written
Sandhi phenomenon - change in quality of the sound of a word

Obligatory vs Variable Liaison:

• Les livres vs les‿hommes - follows the French pattern of consonant/vowel/consonant 
• The liaison prevents a double vowel pattern in a sentence
• Liaison not realised before aspirated 'h's eg les halls les haricots, héroes
• Sometimes there's a choice - "c'est‿un village" vs "c'est un village"
• Prescriptive rules - invariable: 
• noun phrase - determiner + noun/pronoun/adj (eg vos‿enfants)
• verb group - pronoun + verb (eg ils‿ont compris), verb+pronoun (eg, allons‿y)
• set phrases - comment‿allez vous, les‿États-Unis etc
• Prescriptive rules - variable: 
•  noun phrase - plural noun + adj/verb (eg des soldats‿anglais, ses plans‿ont réussi)
• verb group - verb + complement (eg, je vais‿essayer, il commencait‿à lire, on est‿obligé etc)
• uninflected words - invariable mono/polysyllabic words (eg, en‿une journée, très‿interessant/pendant‿un jour, toujours‿utile)
• Prescriptive rules - hypercorrect (ie liaison prohibited):
• noun phrase - singular noun + adj/verb (eg, un soldat‿anglais, son plan‿a réussi)
• uninflected words - et + whatever follows (eg et‿on l'a fait)
• special cases - aspirated 'h' (eg des‿héroes), article etc + relevant numerals (eg, cent‿huitième, en‿onze jours, le‿un)
• French speakers have an innate knowledge of when to use the liaison

Segmentation/Processing:

• 'un air' and 'un nerf' are identical sounds (homophones) but native speakers do have ways of distinguishing them 
• 'un nerf' - has a longer consonant to indicate the difference when spoken aloud 
• Children learning French will often attempt to write the liaison - 'un nair' instead of 'un air' 

 Morpho-syntactic link:

•  Question: is liaison use based on morpho-syntactical or lexical rules?
• Seeing as native speakers have innate knowledge of when to use the liaison with any word that falls under the category of liaison possibility, their use of the liaison is an act of generation 
• This suggests that the liaison is based on morpho-syntactical rules

 Types of liaison phonemes: 

•  Phoneme - smallest sound unit to carry meaning
• Most common liaison phonemes:
• nous‿avons /z/
• le grand‿écran /t/
• on‿est /n/
• Rare liaison phonemes: 
• j'ai beaucoup‿aimé /p/
• aller‿en France /r/ (v. rare!)
• du sang‿impur /k/

Enchaînement: 

• Liaison with enchaînement - no hesitation between liaison and following word - i.e. the liaison is 'hooked' directly onto next word e.g. 'tro pambitieux'
• Liaison without enchaînement - hesitation after liaison, e.g. 'trop. ambitieux'

Variation Studies: 

• Average rate of usage - means out of every 100 opportunities to use the liaison, how many of them were realised (NOT what percentage of people used the liaison)
• Ashby - Tours 
• 1981 - average rate of liaison usage - 34%
• 2008 -  average rate of liaison usage - 28% 
• The liaison is evidencing language change, but it is not disappearing - the process of linguistic change is in progress and the end is unclear

Social factors in variation of liaison use: 

• Age - older speakers used the liaison much more frequently than younger speakers 
• Younger speakers only used the liaison at a rate of 11%
• This supports the theory that this feature is changing because younger speakers tend to be quicker to adopt language change, while older speakers are more conservative
• Social Class - middle class speakers used the liaison more frequently than lower class speakers
• classified by occupation into middle and lower class
• Social background conditions us to use liaison in a certain way
• Gender - 1st study - males used liaison more than females
• Unusual because women are generally use prestige forms more often than men 
•  2nd study - pattern reversed - females used it more than males 

 Further comments on Ashby's study: 

• Infrequent liaison use with:
• Forms of avoir,  >0% (e.g. ils avaient. Exception 'ont‿eu')
• Noun + adj, 0% (e.g. 'personnes importantes')
• Verb + complement, rare use (e.g. il regardait un film)
• Pas, 0% (e.g. pas évident)
• Frequent use with:
• Quand - /t/
• Est - /t/
• Negatives - jamais, plus, rien - but not pas 

Prescriptive norms:

• The prescriptive rules for liaison use don't seem to be applied in actual practice
• The study shows that the liaison is used in a very narrow range of morpho-syntactic contexts compared to the full range in which it is possible
• Variation is also sometimes found in contexts considered obligatory by the prescriptive rules
• Failure of prescriptivism

Projet PFC:

• Phonologie due français contemporain - study by Durand and Lyche
• According to their findings, liaison use is frequent in the following contexts:
• Adj + N, e.g. petit avantage
• Adv + Adj, e.g. trop ennuyeux
• Plural N + Adj, e.g. personnes importantes (contrary to Ashby's findings)
• V + Complement, e.g. c'est important