Langages - Année 1992 - Volume 26 - Numéro 108 - Pages 16-33This paper deals with the sociolinguistic problem of the spread of changes accross the speech community, with questions like : what are the relationships between internal and social factors within this process ?, how and to what extent, are social forces able to determine the evolution of the structure ? why are women in advance of men for phonetic changes ? how much can social networks modify a language ? how does transmission operate ? 18 pages Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.