Causes et rythmes du changement langagier en Occident Latin (IIIe-VIIIe s.)

This paper presents a overview of current trends in a new discipline called diachronic sociolinguistics. This perspective leads to an original retrospective look on a thousand years of linguistic evolution, from classical spoken Latin to Protoromance. The author exhorts romanists to take into account the research carried on by sociolinguists who study speech in interaction with communication settings. He further encourages these sociolinguists to stand back when interpreting variation, that is to apprehend variation in the logic of diachronic language movements. One of the main points defended in this paper is that language change is motivated by and that one should explain in terms of the modifications of speakers’mental attitudes.