Language Variation in Online Personal Ads from Quebec: The Case of ne

Abstract

This article analyzes the distribution and variable deletion of French ne, the first marker of verbal negation, in a corpus of online personal advertisements from Quebec. While ne deletion rates are nearly categorical in informal spoken Canadian French, ne use remains strong in online personals. At the same time, online dating site members productively demonstrate variation in their personals, in that they delete ne in over 20% of variable contexts. VARBRUL analyses reveal that the variable presence of ne is conditioned by the age of the advertiser and the presence vs. absence of second-person address. The results are discussed within the broader context of the progressive loss of ne in French as well as self-presentation and audience design in online communication contexts.

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