Developmental perspectives on the role of French on in written and spoken expository texts

This article focuses on the ability to use linguistic forms in ways that are appropriate to the constraints of genre (expository discourse) and modality (writing and speech) in the course of monologic text production, as an ability whose development spans many years and requires considerable experience and schooling. The use of the French subject clitic on is examined in written and spoken expository texts produced by French speakers in four age groups (9-10-, 12-13-, 15-16-year-olds, and university graduate adults). The analysis reveals that the use of on decreases with age, while the use of another construction, the passive, which carries some of the same functional load, increases with age. This development is particularly marked in the written texts. We conclude that the study of later language development requires careful consideration of both written and spoken modalities as well as a variety of text genres. In the absence of such cross-modal and cross-genre investigation, ideas of children's developing linguistic competence across school-age and adolescence are liable to be partial or even misleading.