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Article published In: Selected Papers from Constructionist Approaches to Language Pedagogy 4
Edited by Thorsten Piske and Thomas Herbst
[Pedagogical Linguistics 7:1] 2026
► pp. 17–37

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A comprehensive grammar of spoken and written French as the first fully corpus-informed grammar of French

ORCiD logo with link | University of Osnabrück
 | University of Paderborn
Published online: 14 November 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pl.25002.sie
Abstract
A Comprehensive Grammar of Spoken and Written French (CGSWF) is a novel academic grammar informed by the Corpus de référence du français contemporain (CRFC, Siepmann, Bürgel, and Diwersy, 2015) and other mega corpora. Designed for university-level learners of French as a Foreign Language (FFL), this work identifies and resolves gaps found in existing grammars. The present article outlines the guiding principles behind the grammar’s development and illustrates its distinctive approach with examples of specific grammar points, including time adverbials, the preposition en, adverbial adjectives, nominal constructions, and the adjectives maint and moult. Comparison is made with the Grande Grammaire du français (GGF, Abeillé, A., & Godard, D. (2021). La Grande Grammaire du français. Arles: Actes Sud.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) to bring out CGSWF’s originality and relevance for non-native learners at an advanced level.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Principles guiding the development of GggF and CGSWF
  • 3.A Reality check for French grammars: Everyday constructions under scrutiny
    • 3.1Time adverbials
    • 3.2The spatial preposition en
    • 3.3Adjectives functioning as adverbs
    • 3.4Nominal constructions
    • 3.5The adjectives maint and moult
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Bibliography
References (50)
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