Syntactic variation in spoken French

International audienceThis chapter is dedicated to the syntax of spoken French. Section 1, which focuses on ‘orality’, presents some phenomena related to ‘oral’ situational parameters with reference to spoken French: speech production processes, ‘ellipsis’, the use of deictics, and discourse markers. Section 2 considers whether we speak in sentences or not, and examines the use of tenses, moods, and voices in spoken French, the frequent non-use of negative ne, as well as the use of interrogative constructions. Section 3, entitled ‘Between syntax and discourse’, evokes the so-called ‘syntax of spoken French’, and mentions some preferred constructions in spoken French, i.e. left detachment (or dislocation) and presentational structures, before closing with a brief reflection on whether spoken French can be considered as an illustration of syntactic variation