Etude sur les nasales du français canadien by René CharbonneauReview by: Norman A. PoulinThe Modern Language Journal, Vol. 58, No. 8 (Dec., 1974), pp. 424-425Published by: Wiley on behalf of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers AssociationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/325844 .

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since Rousseau and attempts to extract certain hermeneu- tical principles which he applies in the four chapters which form his exegesis. This primary thesis, that "the Promethee reflects the ironic dichotomy between Gide's aesthetic pur- suit of purity (in literature) and his amoral ethics (in life)" (xi), is well substantiated throughout the study.

Weinberg reveals the ambiguities of Gide's language, his subtle irony, his awareness of the problems of free will versus predestination. At each point he surprises us by exposing the richness of the Gidean technique in what he calls a clerical sotie h miroirs in which the basic image is relected and re- fracted in a rather dazzling, and at first bewildering, manner. Cocles, the heir of internal grace, and Damocles, who followed the letter of the law and perished, are seen as symbolic of the divided congregation of believers. The death of Damocles leads Prometheus to gain his own freedom by killing and devouring his eagle. By this act he gains grace and is liberated from the logical self-satisfaction in much the same way that Gide succeeded in ridding himself, at least temporarily, of his Calvinist heritage in the pages of his Promethee. Prometheus-Gide is then able by the acte

gratuit to escape history and live in the present. Gide's Promethee is also revealed as a sotie in which the

author exposes wittily the corruption of the teachings of Christ by his apostles, the Church, and the Protestants. Orthodox religion, by stressing the Pauline teachings, has lost the essential freedom characterizing the true Church

proposed by Christ.

Weinberg's third chapter "Histoire de Tityre" shows how the parable of Tityre and his oak three mirrors literarily the essential theological message of the sotie. Some interesting but largely undeveloped comments relate this chapter to Gide's controversy with Barres over the question of deracine- ment, as the source of modern decadence.

A brief review can hardly do justice to Weinberg's bril- liant study of this neglected work. Time after time he demonstrates the multiple layers of meaning and unravels the difficulties inherent in this work. Weinberg's knowledge of the classics and of theology, as well as his skillful textual

analysis, tend to make this essay an Ariadne's thread, indis-

pensable to those who wish to pursue the Gidean oeuvre into the labyrinth of myth to discover the link between the Prometheus and Gide's total work.

LAWRENCE D. JOINER Winthrop College

Helbling, Robert E. and Andree M. L. Barnett. Introduction au francais actuel. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973. Pp. xiii + 468. $10.95. Lab manual $2.75. Instruc- tor's manual $2.00. Accompanying tapes $200.00.

Attempting to be "actuel" in their method, the authors have combined audio-lingual and grammatical approaches with contemporary topics in this first-year college text.

Each lesson consists of an illustration (a short dialogue or a series of sentences or narration) which presents usually no more than three new grammatical or syntactical items; a

grammatical explanation in English for these items, al-

though larger problems such as past participle agreement may require two or three lessons; oral drills in the form of

pattern practice and substitution exercises with restricted

since Rousseau and attempts to extract certain hermeneu- tical principles which he applies in the four chapters which form his exegesis. This primary thesis, that "the Promethee reflects the ironic dichotomy between Gide's aesthetic pur- suit of purity (in literature) and his amoral ethics (in life)" (xi), is well substantiated throughout the study.

Weinberg reveals the ambiguities of Gide's language, his subtle irony, his awareness of the problems of free will versus predestination. At each point he surprises us by exposing the richness of the Gidean technique in what he calls a clerical sotie h miroirs in which the basic image is relected and re- fracted in a rather dazzling, and at first bewildering, manner. Cocles, the heir of internal grace, and Damocles, who followed the letter of the law and perished, are seen as symbolic of the divided congregation of believers. The death of Damocles leads Prometheus to gain his own freedom by killing and devouring his eagle. By this act he gains grace and is liberated from the logical self-satisfaction in much the same way that Gide succeeded in ridding himself, at least temporarily, of his Calvinist heritage in the pages of his Promethee. Prometheus-Gide is then able by the acte

gratuit to escape history and live in the present. Gide's Promethee is also revealed as a sotie in which the

author exposes wittily the corruption of the teachings of Christ by his apostles, the Church, and the Protestants. Orthodox religion, by stressing the Pauline teachings, has lost the essential freedom characterizing the true Church

proposed by Christ.

Weinberg's third chapter "Histoire de Tityre" shows how the parable of Tityre and his oak three mirrors literarily the essential theological message of the sotie. Some interesting but largely undeveloped comments relate this chapter to Gide's controversy with Barres over the question of deracine- ment, as the source of modern decadence.

A brief review can hardly do justice to Weinberg's bril- liant study of this neglected work. Time after time he demonstrates the multiple layers of meaning and unravels the difficulties inherent in this work. Weinberg's knowledge of the classics and of theology, as well as his skillful textual

analysis, tend to make this essay an Ariadne's thread, indis-

pensable to those who wish to pursue the Gidean oeuvre into the labyrinth of myth to discover the link between the Prometheus and Gide's total work.

LAWRENCE D. JOINER Winthrop College

Helbling, Robert E. and Andree M. L. Barnett. Introduction au francais actuel. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973. Pp. xiii + 468. $10.95. Lab manual $2.75. Instruc- tor's manual $2.00. Accompanying tapes $200.00.

Attempting to be "actuel" in their method, the authors have combined audio-lingual and grammatical approaches with contemporary topics in this first-year college text.

Each lesson consists of an illustration (a short dialogue or a series of sentences or narration) which presents usually no more than three new grammatical or syntactical items; a

grammatical explanation in English for these items, al-

though larger problems such as past participle agreement may require two or three lessons; oral drills in the form of

pattern practice and substitution exercises with restricted

since Rousseau and attempts to extract certain hermeneu- tical principles which he applies in the four chapters which form his exegesis. This primary thesis, that "the Promethee reflects the ironic dichotomy between Gide's aesthetic pur- suit of purity (in literature) and his amoral ethics (in life)" (xi), is well substantiated throughout the study.

Weinberg reveals the ambiguities of Gide's language, his subtle irony, his awareness of the problems of free will versus predestination. At each point he surprises us by exposing the richness of the Gidean technique in what he calls a clerical sotie h miroirs in which the basic image is relected and re- fracted in a rather dazzling, and at first bewildering, manner. Cocles, the heir of internal grace, and Damocles, who followed the letter of the law and perished, are seen as symbolic of the divided congregation of believers. The death of Damocles leads Prometheus to gain his own freedom by killing and devouring his eagle. By this act he gains grace and is liberated from the logical self-satisfaction in much the same way that Gide succeeded in ridding himself, at least temporarily, of his Calvinist heritage in the pages of his Promethee. Prometheus-Gide is then able by the acte

gratuit to escape history and live in the present. Gide's Promethee is also revealed as a sotie in which the

author exposes wittily the corruption of the teachings of Christ by his apostles, the Church, and the Protestants. Orthodox religion, by stressing the Pauline teachings, has lost the essential freedom characterizing the true Church

proposed by Christ.

Weinberg's third chapter "Histoire de Tityre" shows how the parable of Tityre and his oak three mirrors literarily the essential theological message of the sotie. Some interesting but largely undeveloped comments relate this chapter to Gide's controversy with Barres over the question of deracine- ment, as the source of modern decadence.

A brief review can hardly do justice to Weinberg's bril- liant study of this neglected work. Time after time he demonstrates the multiple layers of meaning and unravels the difficulties inherent in this work. Weinberg's knowledge of the classics and of theology, as well as his skillful textual

analysis, tend to make this essay an Ariadne's thread, indis-

pensable to those who wish to pursue the Gidean oeuvre into the labyrinth of myth to discover the link between the Prometheus and Gide's total work.

LAWRENCE D. JOINER Winthrop College

Helbling, Robert E. and Andree M. L. Barnett. Introduction au francais actuel. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973. Pp. xiii + 468. $10.95. Lab manual $2.75. Instruc- tor's manual $2.00. Accompanying tapes $200.00.

Attempting to be "actuel" in their method, the authors have combined audio-lingual and grammatical approaches with contemporary topics in this first-year college text.

Each lesson consists of an illustration (a short dialogue or a series of sentences or narration) which presents usually no more than three new grammatical or syntactical items; a

grammatical explanation in English for these items, al-

though larger problems such as past participle agreement may require two or three lessons; oral drills in the form of

pattern practice and substitution exercises with restricted

vocabulary; vocabulary for reading purposes; a short pre- miere lecture on a cultural, geographical or historical aspect or on contemporary life, followed by a questionnaire and

vocabulary exercises; a short deuxieme lecture which re-

peats the grammatical elements and seeks to develop a pas- sive reading vocabulary; grammar exercises; and a compo- sition which is re-creative rather than creative.

The tapes include phonetic exercises and pronunciation drills, supplement the text with additional oral drills and

provide dictation exercises. They include the illustrations, followed by short questions.

There are many black and white photos in the text, most are unidentified, and there are no color photos. There is an absence of reproductions or facsimiles of money, tickets,

newspaper ads, etc., so often found in texts with a "deep culture" orientation.

The illustration, premiere lecture and deuxieme lecture are short, but the vocabulary lists are often formidable. For

example, the vocabulary list for the sixth lesson contains 117

items, and the vocabulary for the eighteenth lesson is two and one half pages long.

Like so many language texts, this text also contains a lesson on "Why learn a foreign language," in an attempt to

justify its study to beginning language students. Grammar exercises are completion exercises and do not

offer enough variety. The authors claim that the passe sim-

ple is "used in formal writing but hardly any more in con- versation" (p. 437), yet they include oral drills on it. Also, in

spite of claiming to use modern spoken and written French, the authors list in the verb appendix a past imperative, a rare creature unknown to most French teachers and hardly necessary for inclusion in any basic text.

The tableaux de recapitulation contains a section on

verbs, gender of nouns, numbers, time-telling, a French-

English dictionary only and several maps. The authors claim they tested the first version for one year

with notable success, and incorporated the results of the trial run into the printed text (viii). Therefore, the text can

easily be adapted to a two-semester college course of ap- proximately thirty weeks.

JOSEPH W. ZDENEK

Winthrop College

vocabulary; vocabulary for reading purposes; a short pre- miere lecture on a cultural, geographical or historical aspect or on contemporary life, followed by a questionnaire and

vocabulary exercises; a short deuxieme lecture which re-

peats the grammatical elements and seeks to develop a pas- sive reading vocabulary; grammar exercises; and a compo- sition which is re-creative rather than creative.

The tapes include phonetic exercises and pronunciation drills, supplement the text with additional oral drills and

provide dictation exercises. They include the illustrations, followed by short questions.

There are many black and white photos in the text, most are unidentified, and there are no color photos. There is an absence of reproductions or facsimiles of money, tickets,

newspaper ads, etc., so often found in texts with a "deep culture" orientation.

The illustration, premiere lecture and deuxieme lecture are short, but the vocabulary lists are often formidable. For

example, the vocabulary list for the sixth lesson contains 117

items, and the vocabulary for the eighteenth lesson is two and one half pages long.

Like so many language texts, this text also contains a lesson on "Why learn a foreign language," in an attempt to

justify its study to beginning language students. Grammar exercises are completion exercises and do not

offer enough variety. The authors claim that the passe sim-

ple is "used in formal writing but hardly any more in con- versation" (p. 437), yet they include oral drills on it. Also, in

spite of claiming to use modern spoken and written French, the authors list in the verb appendix a past imperative, a rare creature unknown to most French teachers and hardly necessary for inclusion in any basic text.

The tableaux de recapitulation contains a section on

verbs, gender of nouns, numbers, time-telling, a French-

English dictionary only and several maps. The authors claim they tested the first version for one year

with notable success, and incorporated the results of the trial run into the printed text (viii). Therefore, the text can

easily be adapted to a two-semester college course of ap- proximately thirty weeks.

JOSEPH W. ZDENEK

Winthrop College

vocabulary; vocabulary for reading purposes; a short pre- miere lecture on a cultural, geographical or historical aspect or on contemporary life, followed by a questionnaire and

vocabulary exercises; a short deuxieme lecture which re-

peats the grammatical elements and seeks to develop a pas- sive reading vocabulary; grammar exercises; and a compo- sition which is re-creative rather than creative.

The tapes include phonetic exercises and pronunciation drills, supplement the text with additional oral drills and

provide dictation exercises. They include the illustrations, followed by short questions.

There are many black and white photos in the text, most are unidentified, and there are no color photos. There is an absence of reproductions or facsimiles of money, tickets,

newspaper ads, etc., so often found in texts with a "deep culture" orientation.

The illustration, premiere lecture and deuxieme lecture are short, but the vocabulary lists are often formidable. For

example, the vocabulary list for the sixth lesson contains 117

items, and the vocabulary for the eighteenth lesson is two and one half pages long.

Like so many language texts, this text also contains a lesson on "Why learn a foreign language," in an attempt to

justify its study to beginning language students. Grammar exercises are completion exercises and do not

offer enough variety. The authors claim that the passe sim-

ple is "used in formal writing but hardly any more in con- versation" (p. 437), yet they include oral drills on it. Also, in

spite of claiming to use modern spoken and written French, the authors list in the verb appendix a past imperative, a rare creature unknown to most French teachers and hardly necessary for inclusion in any basic text.

The tableaux de recapitulation contains a section on

verbs, gender of nouns, numbers, time-telling, a French-

English dictionary only and several maps. The authors claim they tested the first version for one year

with notable success, and incorporated the results of the trial run into the printed text (viii). Therefore, the text can

easily be adapted to a two-semester college course of ap- proximately thirty weeks.

JOSEPH W. ZDENEK

Winthrop College

Charbonneau, Rene. Etude sur les nasales du francais canadien. Quebec: Les Presses de l'Universite Laval, 1971. Pp. x + 408. Charbonneau presents a highly technical and thoroughly

organized work on nasalization in the popular speech of Montreal. It is a topic that has been sadly neglected in view of the fact that this is one of the main features that distin- guish the dialect from others, especially Standard French.

The author specifically concludes that French Canadian nasal vowels are longer and more closed than those of "mod- ern" French, that there is a retardation in nasalization, and that there is a strong tendency toward diphthongization (a complex vowel nucleus). We must assume that the contrast is made to Standard French, the dialect of the educated in urban centers of France. This uncertainty is due to the au- thor's alternation of the terms modern, general, and paris- ian.

The method of investigation is indeed a sound one. The data were yielded from oscillograms, spectrograms, and lat-

Charbonneau, Rene. Etude sur les nasales du francais canadien. Quebec: Les Presses de l'Universite Laval, 1971. Pp. x + 408. Charbonneau presents a highly technical and thoroughly

organized work on nasalization in the popular speech of Montreal. It is a topic that has been sadly neglected in view of the fact that this is one of the main features that distin- guish the dialect from others, especially Standard French.

The author specifically concludes that French Canadian nasal vowels are longer and more closed than those of "mod- ern" French, that there is a retardation in nasalization, and that there is a strong tendency toward diphthongization (a complex vowel nucleus). We must assume that the contrast is made to Standard French, the dialect of the educated in urban centers of France. This uncertainty is due to the au- thor's alternation of the terms modern, general, and paris- ian.

The method of investigation is indeed a sound one. The data were yielded from oscillograms, spectrograms, and lat-

Charbonneau, Rene. Etude sur les nasales du francais canadien. Quebec: Les Presses de l'Universite Laval, 1971. Pp. x + 408. Charbonneau presents a highly technical and thoroughly

organized work on nasalization in the popular speech of Montreal. It is a topic that has been sadly neglected in view of the fact that this is one of the main features that distin- guish the dialect from others, especially Standard French.

The author specifically concludes that French Canadian nasal vowels are longer and more closed than those of "mod- ern" French, that there is a retardation in nasalization, and that there is a strong tendency toward diphthongization (a complex vowel nucleus). We must assume that the contrast is made to Standard French, the dialect of the educated in urban centers of France. This uncertainty is due to the au- thor's alternation of the terms modern, general, and paris- ian.

The method of investigation is indeed a sound one. The data were yielded from oscillograms, spectrograms, and lat-

424 424 424

This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Sat, 20 Dec 2014 09:53:04 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

RE VIE WS RE VIE WS

eral and frontal radio-cinegrams. They were collected in an

x-ray laboratory in Montreal from one principal informant. A second informant was used mainly for checking the prime data and for making comparisons. The voiceprints had to be made from separate recordings because of the noise of the x-ray equipment. The corpus included sentences con-

taining an average of two nasal vowels in final open and closed syllables in the environment of voiceless stop conso- nants. These were read by the informants. Also included were sentences in which oral vowels were followed by nasal consonants. Not measured were vowel tension and the extent of nasal aspiration. The latter might have strength- ened the study in that many charts show both oral and nasal

passages open, leaving unanswered the relationship between the amount of air passing through each cavity. It is not clear what vowel centrality should correspond to: maximum

opening of the nasal cavity, height of nasality, peak of audi-

bility, etc. The basic conclusions are convincing although the

attempt at a final solution to the distinction between a

diphthong and diphthongization, while seemingly logical, will continue to be a problem. One must make the deter- mination that the contrast is made within the dialect and not compare to a prescribed or preferred dialect. At the same time, to establish that in a diphthong, two different vowels are identifiable, one stressed, while in diphthongiza- tion, there is only a slight change in timbre is an over-sim-

plifcation. What is more important is to determine the

phonemic status of the vowels. Two aspects of minor importance were ignored. Close in-

spection of the spectrograms leads us to believe that Cana- dian [ ] and [5] are considerably more closed than Standard French counterparts. It would have been helpful had the author shown open and closed varieties with appro- priate IPA diacritical marks. Also overlooked is the

importance of the nature of preceding stop consonants. The

production of dentals as alveolars and velars as palatals is not incidental and should have been given more attention.

In conclusion, this is an excellent point of reference, a model for methods of investigation, and offers new depar- tures for further studies.

NORMAN A. POULIN

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Moignet, Gerard. Grammaire de l'ancien franvazs. Morphologie-Syntaxe. Initiation a la linguistique, Serie B: Problemes et Methodes, 2. Paris: Editions Klincksieck, 1973. Pp. 445. 48 F Fr.

The publication of Moignet's book will be welcomed by scholars and students of Old French, since a syntax of Old French has been needed to succeed Foulet's classic Petite

syntaxe de l'ancienfrancais. Even though the latter's work

may still be considered very useful and in parts, according to

Moignet himself, irreplaceable (p. 356, reference made to Foulet's analysis of word order in Old French), Moignet's volume has the advantage of (1) being more complete, com-

bining both morphology (pp. 13-82) and an extremely rich section on syntax (pp. 85-368), and (2) incorporating, as

may be expected, work on Old French which has been done since Foulet, presenting these facts within a modern linguis- tic frame work, though not Transformational Grammar. In

eral and frontal radio-cinegrams. They were collected in an

x-ray laboratory in Montreal from one principal informant. A second informant was used mainly for checking the prime data and for making comparisons. The voiceprints had to be made from separate recordings because of the noise of the x-ray equipment. The corpus included sentences con-

taining an average of two nasal vowels in final open and closed syllables in the environment of voiceless stop conso- nants. These were read by the informants. Also included were sentences in which oral vowels were followed by nasal consonants. Not measured were vowel tension and the extent of nasal aspiration. The latter might have strength- ened the study in that many charts show both oral and nasal

passages open, leaving unanswered the relationship between the amount of air passing through each cavity. It is not clear what vowel centrality should correspond to: maximum

opening of the nasal cavity, height of nasality, peak of audi-

bility, etc. The basic conclusions are convincing although the

attempt at a final solution to the distinction between a

diphthong and diphthongization, while seemingly logical, will continue to be a problem. One must make the deter- mination that the contrast is made within the dialect and not compare to a prescribed or preferred dialect. At the same time, to establish that in a diphthong, two different vowels are identifiable, one stressed, while in diphthongiza- tion, there is only a slight change in timbre is an over-sim-

plifcation. What is more important is to determine the

phonemic status of the vowels. Two aspects of minor importance were ignored. Close in-

spection of the spectrograms leads us to believe that Cana- dian [ ] and [5] are considerably more closed than Standard French counterparts. It would have been helpful had the author shown open and closed varieties with appro- priate IPA diacritical marks. Also overlooked is the

importance of the nature of preceding stop consonants. The

production of dentals as alveolars and velars as palatals is not incidental and should have been given more attention.

In conclusion, this is an excellent point of reference, a model for methods of investigation, and offers new depar- tures for further studies.

NORMAN A. POULIN

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Moignet, Gerard. Grammaire de l'ancien franvazs. Morphologie-Syntaxe. Initiation a la linguistique, Serie B: Problemes et Methodes, 2. Paris: Editions Klincksieck, 1973. Pp. 445. 48 F Fr.

The publication of Moignet's book will be welcomed by scholars and students of Old French, since a syntax of Old French has been needed to succeed Foulet's classic Petite

syntaxe de l'ancienfrancais. Even though the latter's work

may still be considered very useful and in parts, according to

Moignet himself, irreplaceable (p. 356, reference made to Foulet's analysis of word order in Old French), Moignet's volume has the advantage of (1) being more complete, com-

bining both morphology (pp. 13-82) and an extremely rich section on syntax (pp. 85-368), and (2) incorporating, as

may be expected, work on Old French which has been done since Foulet, presenting these facts within a modern linguis- tic frame work, though not Transformational Grammar. In

the course of this review, I shall have occasion to compare Moignet's methodology to that of another recently published student manual of Old French, E. U. Grosse's Altfranzosis- cher Elementarkurs (Munich 1971), which incorporates phonology and thus contains a decidedly small section on

"Morphosyntax" (ca. 50 pages only), in order to assess its

pedagogical success. In the section on morphology, Moignet proceeds rather

traditionally, discussing each part of speech as it appears in Old French texts of the 12th and 13th centuries, so-called "classical" Old French. He had announced in the Introduc- tion (p. 8), that his approach was to be strictly synchronic, as he contends that Old French should be analyzed as a sys- tem by itself, not dependent on a comparison with Latin or Modern French. Moignet holds to this criterion throughout the book, thus avoiding the characteristics of traditional his- torical grammars, which treat Old French only as the transition between Latin and Modern French. Of course, the preceding does not mean that appropriate comparisons cannot be made with, in particular, Modern French, in both morphology and syntax, since such a procedure is

pedagogically very sound. It does mean, however, that such

comparisons are to be handled like those between two dif- ferent languages, say between French and English, for

example. The section on the noun (pp. 19 ff.) contains data very

useful for a description of Old French morphophonemics, as most of the stem alternations, such as nef-nes, are listed. The same can be said for verb morphophonemics (pp. 52-

53), where alternations such as lef-lavons are given, i.e., those 1st conjugation verbs which have been regularized in their evolution into Modern French. The classification of Old French verbs by Moignet (pp. 59-60) may appear a little

strange, as he divides them into, by infinitives, (a) -er (ier), (b)-ir, and (c) "others." Preferable would be a binary divi- sion as the one given in Rheinfelder's Altfranz6sische Gram- matik (p. 192), (1) verbs with final schwa in the indicative, and (2) verbs with final schwa in the subjunctive, since the function of the one final vowel of Old French, schwa, would thus be underlined. Another peculiarity in Moignet's morphology section concerns possessives and demonstra- tives. He employs the terms "article possessif" and "article demonstratif' for the Old French mes, mon, ma (cas sujet and cas regime singular, masculine, and singular, feminine) and for Old French cist and cil, respectively (pp. 40-42). The author, I believe, decided on these terms because of the existence in Old French of possessives such as miens, meie

(cas sujet masculine, singular, feminine, singular), which are called "adjectifs possessifs." But it is much better to dis-

tinguish mes and miens by tagging the first "unstressed," the second "stressed," which can also function as a pronoun, like in Modern French. (More on the modifiers of the noun, below, in the discussion on syntax.) Overall, however, Moignet's presentation of Old French morphology is well done, including all the salient features. Pedagogical orien- tation is shown by an appendix containing the most impor- tant Old French verbs, such as avoir, estre, aler, etc., not unlike a listing found in any textbook on Modern French

(pp. 80-82). I shall discuss a few details of Moignet's syntax section,

choosing those which can be briefly and clearly compared and contrasted to their counterparts in Modern French. The Old French noun phrase, as is well known, is marked for

the course of this review, I shall have occasion to compare Moignet's methodology to that of another recently published student manual of Old French, E. U. Grosse's Altfranzosis- cher Elementarkurs (Munich 1971), which incorporates phonology and thus contains a decidedly small section on

"Morphosyntax" (ca. 50 pages only), in order to assess its

pedagogical success. In the section on morphology, Moignet proceeds rather

traditionally, discussing each part of speech as it appears in Old French texts of the 12th and 13th centuries, so-called "classical" Old French. He had announced in the Introduc- tion (p. 8), that his approach was to be strictly synchronic, as he contends that Old French should be analyzed as a sys- tem by itself, not dependent on a comparison with Latin or Modern French. Moignet holds to this criterion throughout the book, thus avoiding the characteristics of traditional his- torical grammars, which treat Old French only as the transition between Latin and Modern French. Of course, the preceding does not mean that appropriate comparisons cannot be made with, in particular, Modern French, in both morphology and syntax, since such a procedure is

pedagogically very sound. It does mean, however, that such

comparisons are to be handled like those between two dif- ferent languages, say between French and English, for

example. The section on the noun (pp. 19 ff.) contains data very

useful for a description of Old French morphophonemics, as most of the stem alternations, such as nef-nes, are listed. The same can be said for verb morphophonemics (pp. 52-

53), where alternations such as lef-lavons are given, i.e., those 1st conjugation verbs which have been regularized in their evolution into Modern French. The classification of Old French verbs by Moignet (pp. 59-60) may appear a little

strange, as he divides them into, by infinitives, (a) -er (ier), (b)-ir, and (c) "others." Preferable would be a binary divi- sion as the one given in Rheinfelder's Altfranz6sische Gram- matik (p. 192), (1) verbs with final schwa in the indicative, and (2) verbs with final schwa in the subjunctive, since the function of the one final vowel of Old French, schwa, would thus be underlined. Another peculiarity in Moignet's morphology section concerns possessives and demonstra- tives. He employs the terms "article possessif" and "article demonstratif' for the Old French mes, mon, ma (cas sujet and cas regime singular, masculine, and singular, feminine) and for Old French cist and cil, respectively (pp. 40-42). The author, I believe, decided on these terms because of the existence in Old French of possessives such as miens, meie

(cas sujet masculine, singular, feminine, singular), which are called "adjectifs possessifs." But it is much better to dis-

tinguish mes and miens by tagging the first "unstressed," the second "stressed," which can also function as a pronoun, like in Modern French. (More on the modifiers of the noun, below, in the discussion on syntax.) Overall, however, Moignet's presentation of Old French morphology is well done, including all the salient features. Pedagogical orien- tation is shown by an appendix containing the most impor- tant Old French verbs, such as avoir, estre, aler, etc., not unlike a listing found in any textbook on Modern French

(pp. 80-82). I shall discuss a few details of Moignet's syntax section,

choosing those which can be briefly and clearly compared and contrasted to their counterparts in Modern French. The Old French noun phrase, as is well known, is marked for

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