Resumen de Is Medieval French diglossic? New evidence on remnant V2 and register

Pierre Larrivée

• An ongoing debate concerns the degree of diglossia of contemporary French, by which vernacular and normative registers display significant grammatical differences. Was diglossia characterizing Medieval French? This question is explored through the study of unambiguous V2 configurations. The word order has been shown to display rates of use and informational behavior correlating to register. The correlation is investigated in novel data relating to narration vs. dialogue and to correspondence by members  of different social classes. Quantitative analysis shows that variation in V2 behavior remains determined by formality. The proposed methods thus help measure diglossia of previous states of languages.