A study of utterances marked by exemplification particles ("par exemple, disons") in Montreal oral French attempted to describe constraints governing choice of discourse variant. Variables examined include position of particle in the utterance, extendibility and reality of the example, order of constituent elements in argumentation, and…

A study investigated the use of three pragmatic expressions ("you know, you see, I mean") by female and male British English speakers to (1) establish actual differences in usage over a number of functions of the three expressions, and (2) discover any correlation of usage with same-sex vs. mixed-sex interaction. (Author/MSE)

Demonstrates the importance of investigating language variation and change both within and across ethnic groups, especially those that have been relatively insular historically. Focus is on the variable patterning of /ay/ in the variety of English spoken by the Lumbee Indians in tri-ethic Robeson County, North Carolina. (Author/VWL)

Compares models of Optimality Theory (OT) and Variable Rules (VR), arguing that VR is superior on theoretical and empirical grounds: constraint effects are stable, transparent, learnable. Moreover, VR's probabilistic treatment of constraint effects allows successful modeling of cases in which multiple violations of a single constraint lead to…

Combinational characterization and statistical and computational techniques for generalizing rule analysis to the inference of rule order are applied to the problems of the reduction of the syllable-final consonants s, n, and r in Caribbean Spanish. Results show that aspiration and deletion can be seen as intrinsically ordered in both s and r…

Quantitative evidence is presented for a change in vernacular Black English (VBE) that appears to involve increasing similarities between VBE and other varieties. It is suggested that, although Black varieties and White varieties of English remain distinct and undergo certain changes separately, this need not be regarded as absolute divergence.…

Analysis of the distribution of punctors, a class of markers commonly classified as nervous tics, fillers, or signs of hesitation, in one corpus of French is presented. Some aspects of their conditioning are explained in terms of the interaction of etymological, discursive, syntactic, and social constraints. (Author/MSE)

Offers an optimality theoretic account for the phonological process of across-word regressive assimilation (AWRA) in Picard, a Gallo-Romance dialect spoken in the Picardie region in Northern France and Southern Belgium. Focuses on the varieties spoken in the Vimeu region of France. Examines one particular topic in the analysis of AWRA: the…

Examines the pattern of variation of the auxiliary "avoir" and "etre" in the passe compose tense in Vermont French in 22 adult speakers who immigrated from Quebec or are first-generation Franco-Americans. The purpose of the study was to determine if the process of replacement of "etre" by "avoir" in progress…

Focuses on the directionality observed in the processes of change and acquisition of the prepositions that replaced Latin cases in the speech of Rio de Janeiro and in the contact Portuguese spoken by Brazilian Indians in the region of Xingu. (Author/VWL)

Studies of (TD) and (ING) in King of Prussia (Pennsylvania) families show that children have matched their parents' patterns of variation by age seven, before many categorical phonological and grammatical rules can be established. Some dialect-specific and socially marked constraints are acquired before constraints with general articulatory…

The analysis of interviews with 14 speakers of Honduran Spanish found that group "r,""l" glides, and "s" inhibit spirantization variably, much as they do in Colombian Spanish, presenting a view that attributes spirantization to syllable structure for a more comprehensive explanation of the variable processes. (29…

The marking of past temporal reference in Black English Vernacular (BEV) and Trinidadian English is compared. Similarities in the patterns of variation according to verb type and phonological conditioning suggest that past marking in contemporary BEV preserves traces of an earlier shift from a creole pattern to one approximating the Standard…

Examined a nonstandard pattern of agreement found in certain varieties of Atlantic Canada Acadian French. Quantitative analysis of subject-verb agreement patterns in Newfoundland French revealed consistent invariant behavior in this dialect, or, where there is variation, variation constrained according to specific linguistically based factors. (19…

The empirical basis for this article is a series of studies of glottalization in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. These studies show that, while females lead in the use of glottal replacement, males prefer glottalization. This pattern is interpreted in terms of a preference of males for localized variants, whereas females lead in adopting supra-local…