ERIC ED095713: A Variable Rule Analysis of pdf

ERIC ED095713: A Variable Rule Analysis of

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This variable rule analysis of the indefinite article “an” was done by means of a computer program developed by H. Cedergren and D. Sankoff of Montreal. The data was collected from 45-minute interviews with three different groups of college students essentially alike in age: (1) 13 whites from Louisiana, (2) 12 blacks from southwestern Ohio, and (3) 10 whites from southwestern Ohio. Attempts were made to induce the production of “an” by three different tests or linguistic “games.” The following conclusions were drawn: (1) There is a wide variation in the pronunciation of the indefinite article before beginning with a vowel. It is often “schwa,” and sometimes the article is dropped entirely. Reduction of “an” to “schwa” occurs most frequently for black speakers. (2) Where there is evidence of style shifting for the black informants because of the race of the interviewer, the variation between “schwa” and “an” does not show style shifting.

(3) The feature that favors the deletion of /n/ the most is a pause between the article and the following word. It is noted that more data from a wider range of social classes, ages, and styles, and from more varied geographic regions, are needed to substantiate this work. (PP

• Creator/s: ERIC
• Date: 12/28/1973
• Year: 1973
• Book Topics/Themes: ERIC Archive, Analysis of Variance, Black Dialects, Computer Programs, Descriptive Linguistics, Determiners (Languages), Language Patterns, Language Usage, Linguistic Theory, Nonstandard Dialects, North American English, Speech Habits, Standard Spoken Usage, Tables (Data), Terrebonne, Robert A

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