Problèmes de l'Adaptation Filmique d'un Texte Littéraire: Études Comparées de Madame Bovary de Gustave Flaubert et du Colonel Chabert d'Honoré de Balzac (open access)

Problèmes de l'Adaptation Filmique d'un Texte Littéraire: Études Comparées de Madame Bovary de Gustave Flaubert et du Colonel Chabert d'Honoré de Balzac

The release of the two films, Madame Bovary (1992) by Claude Chabrol and Le Colonel Chabert (1994) by Yves Angelo, arouses an interest in a method which studies the rapport between the seventh art and literature. Following the studies of the narratologists, Gerard Genette, Yves Reuter, Gerard-Denis Farcy, Celestino Deleyto, Andre Gaudreault and Francois Jost, a method of analyzing and studying the relationship between literature and cinema can be developed. The principal interest of a comparative study can reside in the relationship between the story and the narration of the two genres of works. The study conducted at this level of analysis allows the appreciation of the impoverishments or the enrichments operated by the adapter. The comparative analysis of the works of Flaubert, Chabrol, Balzac, and Angelo reveal the problems relative to the cinematographic adaptation.
Date: May 1998
Creator: Conditto, Kerri L. (Kerri Lee)
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Comparative Analysis of Web-based Machine Translation Quality: English to French and French to English (open access)

A Comparative Analysis of Web-based Machine Translation Quality: English to French and French to English

This study offers a partial reduplication of a 2006 study by Williams, which focused primarily on the analysis of the quality of translation produced by online software, namely Yahoo!® Babelfish, Freetranslation.com, and Google Translate. Since the data for the study by Williams were collected in 2004 and the data for present study in 2012, this gives a lapse of eight years for a diachronic analysis of the differences in quality of the translations provided by these online services. At the time of the 2006 study by Williams, all three services used a rule-based translation system, but, in October 2007, however, Google Translate switched to a system that is entirely statistical in nature. Thus, the present study is also able to examine the differences in quality between contemporary statistical and rule-based approaches to machine translation.
Date: December 2012
Creator: Barnhart, Zachary
System: The UNT Digital Library
L'emploi variable des signes diacritiques dans le français tchaté : une étude variationniste en temps apparent . (open access)

L'emploi variable des signes diacritiques dans le français tchaté : une étude variationniste en temps apparent .

After providing an historical overview of the French spelling system and orthographic variation, this study analyzes selected internal (i.e., linguistic) factors and one external (i.e., social) factor that can influence the use of diacritics in online French-language chat sessions. From a corpus of synchronous computer-mediated communication, 3,855 tokens of graphemes capable of bearing diacritics were coded with the following scheme: Letter, Diacritic, Grapheme (i.e., Letter and Diacritic combined), Date of Participation, and Age Group of Participant. A multivariate (VARBRUL) analysis determined that Grapheme exerts the most influence on variation.
Date: May 2010
Creator: Al-Rashdan, Omar
System: The UNT Digital Library
Présentations de la Grammaire et Représentations du Discours Dans les Manuels de Français Publiés aux États-Unis: une Étude Diachronique (open access)

Présentations de la Grammaire et Représentations du Discours Dans les Manuels de Français Publiés aux États-Unis: une Étude Diachronique

This study partially replicates and re-explores specific dimensions of a textbook analysis of the presentation and use of specific grammatical elements and sociolinguistic variants in textbooks published in the United States for learners of French. Authenticity is situated as a central construct in the analysis of interrogatives, relative pronouns, and the negative particle ne in selected textbooks and ancillary materials. The findings reveal that little progress has been made over the past twenty years in integrating authentic representations of discourse into French-as-a-foreign-language textbooks.
Date: May 2010
Creator: Grall, Christophe
System: The UNT Digital Library
From "y as plus personne qui parle" to "plus personne ne dit rien": The variable use of the negative particle ne in synchronous French chat. (open access)

From "y as plus personne qui parle" to "plus personne ne dit rien": The variable use of the negative particle ne in synchronous French chat.

This study analyzes negative particle variation (i.e., the variable presence or absence of the negative particle ne) in synchronous French chat discourse within a labovian-inspired framework. Selected morphosyntactic, lexical, and phonological constraints are considered. Multivariate analyses performed by GoldVarb 2001 revealed that subject type (i.e., NP, [- overt] subject environment, pronoun) and the phonological environment preceding the position of neregardless of its presence or absenceare determining factors in the variation. In addition, discursive-pragmatic effect was explored in a sub-sample of data. The results indicate that ne is seldom present in verbal negation during explanatory discourse style, yet it is very likely to be retained in ludic, emphatic, and proverbial styles.
Date: May 2007
Creator: van Compernolle, Rémi A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Variable use of ne in Negative Structures: An Apparent-Time Variationist Study of Synchronous Electronic French Discourse (open access)

The Variable use of ne in Negative Structures: An Apparent-Time Variationist Study of Synchronous Electronic French Discourse

This study of the variable use of ne in synchronous electronic French discourse follows the methodological guidelines and the theoretical framework proposed and subsequently elaborated by Labov for analyzing variable features of language. This thesis provides a quantitative variable rule (i.e., VARBRUL) analysis including age as a factor group (i.e., independent variable), thereby making a new contribution to this area of inquiry. The data (50,000 words from the vingtaine 'twentysomething' channel and 50,000 words from the cinquantaine 'fiftysomething' channel) are a subset of 100,000 words from a corpus of one million words collected in 2008 by the thesis director from the public chat server EuropNet. This study aims to answer the following overarching question: To what extent does age-compared to other factors-influence the variable use of ne in verbal negation in synchronous electronic French discourse? In order to answer this question, and possibly others, the VARBRUL analysis will include age, subject (e.g., noun vs. pronoun), type of second negative particle (e.g., pas 'not', jamais 'never', personne 'no one'/'nobody', and so forth), as well as verbal mood/tense.
Date: December 2010
Creator: Gould, Rebecca J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Reflections of Revolution: Le Figaro, Le Monde, and Public Opinion in France during the Algerian Conflict (1954-1962) (open access)

Reflections of Revolution: Le Figaro, Le Monde, and Public Opinion in France during the Algerian Conflict (1954-1962)

This thesis is an examination of the printed media in France (1955-1963), as represented by two mainstream newspapers: Le Monde (left-centrist) and Le Figaro (right-centrist). Using these newspapers, as well as Gallup polls recorded at the time, this study explores correlations of what was reported in newspapers and how French public opinion evolved during the course of the war. These two major sources of information are shown to have given contradictory information, thus accounting for some of the paradoxes found in public opinion polls. Specifically, the paradoxes analyzed in the study concern the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) and the Pieds-Noirs (the European population of North Africa).
Date: December 2002
Creator: Atkins, Michael
System: The UNT Digital Library
Remembering and Narrating in Borges’ “Funes the Memorious” and Camus’ the Stranger (open access)

Remembering and Narrating in Borges’ “Funes the Memorious” and Camus’ the Stranger

In The Stranger, a novel by Albert Camus, and in “Funes the Memorious,” a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, the homodiegetic narrators have a significant effect on the referential aspect of their personal experiences. Chronologically these remembered experiences are positioned before the moment when they are narrated. The act of remembering is thus a form of subsequent narration. In both texts, memory is a project rather than an object because it is recounted and not found. In the sense that it is told, memory is necessarily a creative act and thus not faultless because the story of an experience is not the experience itself. The memories in The Stranger and in “Funes the Memorious” are not reconstituted but narrated. The peculiarity of the two texts lies in the fact that the narrators take an external position when describing their own past, emphasizing the imperfect aspect of the narrators’ memory. With a narratological approach to the texts and a Sartrean interpretation of memory, I study the effects of focalization on the act of remembering. By explaining the relationship between focalization, memory and the narratee, I show that the act of remembering is not a repetition of past events or experiences …
Date: August 2013
Creator: Stroud, Carl Eugene
System: The UNT Digital Library
Learner use of French second-person pronouns in synchronous electronic communication. (open access)

Learner use of French second-person pronouns in synchronous electronic communication.

This study analyzes students' use of the French second-person pronouns tu (T) and vous (V) in small-group (2-3 students) inter-learner online chat sessions. The influence of internal linguistic factors (i.e., turn type and morphosyntactic environment) on learners' appropriate vs. inappropriate use of these pronouns is considered. The study also investigates the influence of Instructional Level on tu-vous use and the extent to which students from different instructional levels provide various types of peer assistance (e.g., lexical, morphosyntactic, and sociolinguistic/pragmatic) . Pronoun use was extremely unstable for learners of all levels, and a Kruskal-Wallis analysis revealed that Instructional Level did not significantly affect appropriate T/V use overall. Instructional Level and Syntax did, however, significantly affect interrogative T/V use, as shown through multivariate analyses. Peer-assisted performance was limited to lexical retrieval. Pedagogical recommendations are presented for teaching and learning second-person pronouns in French.
Date: December 2008
Creator: McCourt, Claire A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Comment peut-on être Persane ou Peruvienne ?: On le devient (open access)

Comment peut-on être Persane ou Peruvienne ?: On le devient

Cette analyse littéraire examine les parallèles entre les deux romans Lettres persanes de Montesquieu (1721) et Lettres d'une Péruvienne de Françoise de Graffigny (1747) en se concentrant sur le sort des femmes et leur rébellion contre la claustration. Leurs révoltes transformatrices révèlent une volonté qui refuse et puis transcende les barreaux de leur captivité pour vivre librement. La philosophie de Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) personnifie leurs luttes pour devenir et exister, ce qui se traduit par leur capacité de dévoiler leur vraie nature. Elles se battent contre le néant de leurs existences où elles ne peuvent que succomber aux contraintes imposées. Elles se battent pour se définir et pour devenir. Cependant, c'est Graffigny qui nous offre une réponse plus proto-féministe dépassant les paramètres masculins de la société. Son livre répond directement aux Lettres persanes pour créer une nouvelle femme iconoclaste qui transcende les barrières de la société pour se réinventer.
Date: May 2016
Creator: Daucourt, Monica Hazan
System: The UNT Digital Library
Daughters of the King and Founders of a Nation: Les Filles du Roi in New France (open access)

Daughters of the King and Founders of a Nation: Les Filles du Roi in New France

The late seventeenth century was a crucial era in establishing territorial claims on the North American continent. In order to strengthen France's hold on the Quebec colony, Louis XIV sent 770 women across the Atlantic at royal expense in order to populate New France. Since that time, these women known as the filles du roi, have often been reduced to a footnote in history books, or else mistakenly slandered as women of questionable morals. This work seeks to clearly identify the filles du roi through a study of their socioeconomic status, educational background, and various demographic factors, and compare the living conditions they had in France with those that awaited them in Canada. The aim of this undertaking is to better understand these pioneer women and their reasons for leaving France, as well as to identify the lasting contributions they made to French-Canadian culture and society.
Date: May 2010
Creator: Runyan, Aimie Kathleen
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Confidant as the Alter-Ego of the Protagonist in the Principal Tragedies of Racine (open access)

The Confidant as the Alter-Ego of the Protagonist in the Principal Tragedies of Racine

The thesis states that the confidant in the tragedies of Jean Baptist Racine evolves from the traditional servant figure to a sophisticated intimate of the principal character. The confidant's identity becomes synonymous with that of the principal character: he appears as his alter ego. The sources used are six of Racine's secular tragedies, in addition to critical works and essays of his writings. The tragedies included in this study are La Thebaide, whose secondary characters serve as a comparison to the more developed confidants as found in Andromaque, B /r/nice, Mithridate, Britannicus, and Phedre. Racine presents a variety of tragic characters whose multifaceted personality emerges through the intervention of their confidant. Representing one side of the protagonist's character, or his "other self, " the confidant becomes Racine's dramatic tool to portray the internal struggle in all its aspects. Racine's preoccupation with moral issues and his desire to instruct his audience pervade his writings. It is thus possible to trace the development of the confidant from his part as self-effacing messenger to his role as alter ego to the principal figure where he dramatically demonstrates the tragic, inner division of man.
Date: August 1976
Creator: Bayles, Rosemarie R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Foreshadowing of Women's Liberation as Seen in Selected Plays of Molière (open access)

A Foreshadowing of Women's Liberation as Seen in Selected Plays of Molière

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of revealing certain liberated female traits that are to be found as early as the seventeenth century in certain plays of Moliere. A study of the major events in Moliere's life and of the social climate and salons of his time, together with a close analysis of the plays themselves, is necessary to understand this important aspect of his works. In essence, this study attempts to show how Moliere's women emerge as independent individuals who refuse the role society usually assigns them. Although these female characters are products of the seventeenth century, their actions and attitudes are used in this thesis to indicate a foreshadowing of the twentieth-century, liberated woman.
Date: May 1977
Creator: Owen, Jacqueline
System: The UNT Digital Library
Computer Applications to Second Language Acquisition (open access)

Computer Applications to Second Language Acquisition

This thesis is intended to give a panorama of technology in foreign language pedagogy. Although my field of study is French, the computer applications under scrutiny do not relate solely to the teaching of French. This paper begins with a criticism of the rigid listen-and-repeat language laboratory concept while tracking the rise of communicative language learning theory; follows the microprocessor revolution in language consoles; documents the development of computer-assisted instruction; showcases software evaluations of computer-assisted language learning; explores telecommunications; discusses satellite dishes and other computer peripherals; presents the results of a survey of Texas universities; and concludes with the presentation of the evolving language media center.
Date: May 1991
Creator: Guillory, Helen E. (Helen Elizabeth)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Denis Diderot Lettres à Sophie Volland, 1759 (open access)

Denis Diderot Lettres à Sophie Volland, 1759

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the letters of Diderot to Sophie Volland for the year 1759 as they are a source of important autobiographical, social, and psychological elements that shed light on Diderot's private and public life. In fact a turning point in the sentimental relationship between Diderot and Sophie Volland, the death of his father, the difficulties experienced in publishing the Encyclop6'die and consequently the coolness in his friendship with D'Alembert make 1759 a crucial year in Diderot's life. The conclusion reached is that the stylistically beautiful and modern letters to Sophie Volland of this year are self-revelatory for they show that the events of 1759 made a great psychological impact upon Diderot and started a process of maturity in his character. These letters can undoubtedly be considered a major part of Diderot's work and they can certainly contribute to a deeper understanding of this genius.
Date: August 1976
Creator: Simmons, Marina C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Mariama Bâ: un féminisme né à l'intersection de deux cultures. (open access)

Mariama Bâ: un féminisme né à l'intersection de deux cultures.

Many critics consider Mariama Bâ as a feminist writer, but the reader of her two novels might wonder what characterizes her work as such. Therefore, the aim of each chapter, in order of appearance, is to analyze first the genres, then the elements of African tradition and Western modernity, the characters of both works and the themes of the novels, with the intention of defining the author's feminism, which takes its source in dichotomies, paradoxes and contradictions. In order to expose the author's point of view on the condition of women, it appears important to situate the diegesis in its context. Also, the study is supported by references on the Senegalese culture, by genres, narrative and feminist theories and by critiques on the work itself.
Date: August 2006
Creator: Perret, Arnaud
System: The UNT Digital Library
English Loanwords in French: A Corpus-Driven Analysis of Corporate Websites (open access)

English Loanwords in French: A Corpus-Driven Analysis of Corporate Websites

This thesis explores the use of English loanwords in French discourse found on seven France-based corporate websites and the website of one government ministry in France. The following overarching question guided this research project: To what extent are English loanwords used in French for marketing purposes or other reasons? As expected, the results varied greatly from website to website, but it is clear from my analysis of this relatively small corpus that the use of English is widespread in French discourse. In this thesis, I allowed myself to engage in some speculation based on my own background and experiences. I acknowledge that further research is needed in order to provide a more comprehensive analysis of English loanwords in French since this is a very complicated topic that can be approached from many different angles.
Date: August 2022
Creator: Padilla, Werner G
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Age-based Etic Analysis of Orthographic Variation in Computer-mediated French Discourse (open access)

An Age-based Etic Analysis of Orthographic Variation in Computer-mediated French Discourse

This study examines orthographic variation in synchronous computer-mediated French discourse. All nontraditional variations of selected frequently occuring items are quantified in order to provide an etic (i.e., from an external perspective) analysis. The primary variable of interest is age since this study focuses on providing a comparison of chat participants in their twenties versus those in their fifties. The widespread claim is that younger people communicate using more informal and/or nontraditional forms than older people; however, the results of the present study suggest that this is not always the case. The main finding of the present study is that the twentysomethings and the fiftysomethings produce the nontraditional orthography in a similar fashion in 52.2% of the terms, and in a non-similar fashion in 47.8% of the terms. Following the presentation and discussion of the results, directions for future research are provided.
Date: December 2013
Creator: Kharrat, Laila Kiblawi
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dynamic Assessment as an Approach to French Pronunciation Instruction (open access)

Dynamic Assessment as an Approach to French Pronunciation Instruction

This thesis is focused on dynamic assessment (DA), an instructional approach based on Vygotskian sociocultural theory, applied to French pronunciation instruction, which can be neglected or inconsistent in the foreign language curriculum. DA aims to combine instruction and assessment into a cooperative, mediated approach in which the mediator works with the learner to identify and develop emergent abilities. These emergent abilities can appear in what is often referred to as the zone of proximal development (ZPD), or the difference between what a learner can do independently and what he/she can do with mediation, which in the present study was the difference between what the participant could pronounce correctly with or without mediation. In carrying out an individual DA session with a learner, the author aimed to find suggestions of potential benefits by applying DA to French pronunciation instruction and gain a more detailed understanding of the learner's performance than is generally possible from a traditional assessment, which is totally devoid of mediation for the sake of validity and reliability. The study includes a discussion of some potential benefits and limitations related to the use of DA for teaching French pronunciation to intermediate L2 learners based on what was observed in …
Date: May 2021
Creator: Center, Sarah M
System: The UNT Digital Library
Same-Sex Parent Families in France: Past, Present, and Future (open access)

Same-Sex Parent Families in France: Past, Present, and Future

This thesis contains four chapters. The first chapter gives an overview of the current situation concerning same-sex parent families in France. This involves discussions of the PACS (Pacte civil de solidarité), adoption, and marriage, as well as the societal influences that caused the massive negative response to the Taubira law. The second chapter goes into more detail concerning portrayals of homosexuality in French media throughout the years. There is a focus, however, on one of the earliest portrayals of lesbianism in French literature: The Nun by Diderot. Lastly, the third chapter involves further explanation of the history of homosexuality and same-sex parent families. This chapter explores these ideas specifically in the context of French history, as well as how conditions for same-sex parent families have changed in recent years. The fourth and final chapter presents conclusions of the research.
Date: May 2018
Creator: Griffin, Janna Lee
System: The UNT Digital Library
Mobile Technologies for Language Learning: A Case Study of Beginning Learners of French (open access)

Mobile Technologies for Language Learning: A Case Study of Beginning Learners of French

Over the past 25 years, research on the effectiveness of new technologies in teaching has been constantly evolving as teachers try to keep up with educational trends. With the current evolution of technology, it is important to find out how students feel about the use of technologies in both the classroom setting and the non-traditional learning environment. The objective of this project is to determine which applications the students of French 1010 (first semester of college-level French) at the University of North Texas use for language learning to supplement and reinforce the concepts learned in class. Two questions guided this project: (1) what are the new technologies that students in French 1010 use? and (2) if UNT were to implement hybrid classes, would students be interested in taking them? In order to answer these questions, a survey was distributed to 184 students of French 1010 at UNT during the fall 2019 semester. From these surveys, 100 were selected for analysis in the present study, and three students were interviewed as a way to collect additional data. The results of the survey showed that Duolingo was the most used application for language learning purposes, while the interviews showed that the students …
Date: May 2020
Creator: Dikosso-Bebe, Lydie Marina
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Great Rivalry: The Planning Legacies of London and Paris in the Modern Era (open access)

The Great Rivalry: The Planning Legacies of London and Paris in the Modern Era

This thesis seeks to examine the respective histories of London and Paris, two of the most influential and iconic cities in the world, in order to better understand how each respectively developed and their impact upon modern urban planning. Comparisons are made between, not only the history, but also the noble classes and gentry, religions, and cultural values which influenced the development of each capital city. Additionally, this thesis also seeks to explore how the development of Paris can still greatly assist modern developers in the twenty-first century.
Date: May 2018
Creator: Wilson, Aubrae N.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Passage of the Comic Book to the Animated Film: The Case of the Smurfs (open access)

The Passage of the Comic Book to the Animated Film: The Case of the Smurfs

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of history and culture on the passage of the comic book to the animated film. Although the comic book has both historical and cultural components, the latter often undergoes a cultural shift in the animation process. Using the Smurfs as a case study, this investigation first reviews existing literature pertaining to the comic book as an art form, the influence of history and culture on Smurf story plots, and the translation of the comic book into a moving picture. This study then utilizes authentic documents and interviews to analyze the perceptions of success and failure in the transformation of the Smurf comic book into animation: concluding that original meaning is often altered in the translation to meet the criteria of cultural relevance for the new audiences.
Date: August 2011
Creator: Baldwin, Frances Novier
System: The UNT Digital Library
Les Femmes Dans les Romans Principaux de Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz: Role et Presentation (open access)

Les Femmes Dans les Romans Principaux de Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz: Role et Presentation

The thesis states that women characters in the works of Ramuz have much more depth, life and variety than first meets the eye. In order to demonstrate this, it was decided to show women characters, main, secondary and in groups, and to look at their presentation in the novels recognized generally as the most important.
Date: August 1971
Creator: Williams, Gudrun B.
System: The UNT Digital Library