Rodney Sampson: Introduction / R. Anthony Lodge: Ideology of the Standard Language in France, 1500-1800 / Peter Rickard: Linguistic Authority in Seventeenth-Century France / Wendy Ayres-Bennett: The Authority of Grammarians in 17th-Century France and Their Legacy to the French Language / Rodney Ball: The Purist and the Elusive Norm: Prescriptivism in Modern France / Anne Judge: Linguistic Legislation and Practice / T. D. Hemming: Authority and Orthography / John Charles Smith: The Agreement of the Past Principle Conjugated with avoir and a Preceding Direct Object – A Brief History of Prescriptive Attitudes / Index nominum