French 2160
Advanced French for First-Year Students II
What’s the underlying difference between these two French sentences, both of which describe the same facts?
« Mon frère a acheté cette auto. »
« Cette auto a été achetée par mon frère. »
Why does "appelés" in the following sentence have "s" added to it while "parlé" does not?
« Mes amis se sont appelés hier soir et se sont parlé pendant deux heures. »
What’s wrong with saying « Nous avons été montrés le campus pendant notre visite » ? What’s the real difference between the passé composé and the imparfait? Why is the subjunctive so important in French when we hardly even seem to need it in English? These and similar questions, and the answers to them, are likely to crop up in French 2160. In case you’re wondering, the difference between the first two sentences is that the first one uses the active voice to identify the subject of the sentence with agent of the action expressed, while the second one, in the passive voice, identifies the subject of the sentence with the object of the action, and puts the agent into a verbal complement. In the second example, "appelés" takes an "s" because it has to agree with the direct object pronoun "se", whereas the "se" before "parlé" is an indirect object not requiring agreement of the past participle. For answers to the other questions, take French 2160!
Course Content
French 2160 builds on the work done in French 2159, focusing on understanding some of the basic notions that allow us to talk about language in French. These include such concepts as subject, complement, agent, and object; the distinction of active and passive voice, the various uses of voice, aspect, tense and mood to express shades of meaning in French, the idea of register and tone, and so forth. Some of these topics will already have been covered in French 2159, but 2160 demands a higher standard of performance. Problems of usage such as the use of relative pronouns to create complex sentences, and the use of the subjunctive to convey a speaker’s point of view may also be considered. French 2160 also continues the composition work begun in 2159, focusing on narrative writing (including the distinction between an actual series of events and a deliberately composed narrative of those events) and expository or argumentative writing, in which we state our own point of view as forcefully and convincingly as possible. Vocabulary expansion will also be stressed, for example through work on morphological derivation of words from one another. Students will also normally read a full-length literary work in French and will be expected to be able to discuss it in class.
Prerequisite
To take French 2160, you will normally need to have completed French 2159. Students who enter Memorial with advanced knowledge of French, especially those who for some reason are not able to register for French 2159 in the Fall Semester, may apply to the Head for permission to register for 2160.
Textbooks
Textbooks used in recent years include Grammaire française by Jacqueline Ollivier; Pratique de l’écriture by Diane Beelen Woody; and novels by Annick Perrot-Bishop and Anne Hébert.
Assessment
Term mark, assigned to a combination of compositions, tests and assignments, is usually given a weight of 60%, while a written final examination counts 40%.
Frequency
French 2160 is normally offered in the Winter Semester.
After 2160
Students who have completed French 2160 are advised to continue with 3100 or 3101. They may also register for French 2300, 2601 or 2602 and 2900.
