Use of restrictive expressions juste, seulement, and rien que in Ontario French, in Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics

Abstract

This work examines the social, geographic and syntactic distribution of the synonymous French restrictives SEULEMENT, RIEN QUE, and JUSTE in the speech of adolescent Franco-Ontarians, and compares its findings with two studies of Montreal French. The trends uncovered include: the increased frequency of the expression JUSTE favoured most by females, the working class, and infrequent users of French; the association of RIEN QUE with males; and the marginal use of SEULEMENT. Restriction of infinitives and circumstantial complements is associated with the use of JUSTE.