Abstract
This paper studies the use or nonuse of the word
« que » in Quebec French. Historical records show that in
Old French and in 17th century French, the word « que » is
optional in sentences such as « Je pense que »... Looking at
the occurrences of « que » found in the Sankoff-Cedergren
and Montreal 84 corpora of spoken French, the author
shows that the occasional absence of « que » in Quebec
French today is not the resuit of an ill-educated misuse
of the language, but is rather an option which has developed
within a systematic grammar distinctive to
Quebec. For reasons linked to the linguistic norm, this is
an option that many people choose not to exercise.
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