Le développement d'une pédagogie du Français langue étrangère: Les pronoms relatifs en qu- dans les grammaires à l'usage des Anglophones

The French language retained its prestige in England even as its range of functions diminished in English law and other administrative institutions. The first grammars and orthographical treatises of French were composed for an English audience in the 14th and 15th centuries, and the first printed grammars of French in the late 15th and early 16th century were likewise for insular readers. In these printed grammars the category of 'relative pronoun' might include what today are termed locative, possessive, partitive, interrogative, demonstrative and personal pronouns. The description of the qu- forms was sometimes scanty in the early grammars, but expanded rapidly in the 17th century, under the influence of continental works. Given the pedagogical utility of comparison, those features that distinguished French from English usage in this area, such as animacy, received special attention.