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Reconsidering the variable context

A phonological argument for (t) and (d) deletion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2020

Jenny Amos Open the ORCID record for Jenny Amos [Opens in a new window] ,
Jonathan R. Kasstan Open the ORCID record for Jonathan R. Kasstan [Opens in a new window]  and
Wyn Johnson
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Extract

Final consonant cluster simplification, or what variationists have traditionally labelled (t, d)-deletion, remains one of the most well studied variables in the analysis of English (e.g. Labov, 2001: 13). In this body of work, (t, d)-deletion refers to the process whereby /t/ or /d/ can be omitted in word final Ct or Cd coda clusters (e.g. last, mind). However, despite the attention paid to this feature of connected speech, very little (if any) focus has been dedicated to the complementary distribution of the coronal stops /t/ and /d/ in monomorphemic final clusters, as well as other phonological influences, such as the effect of intonational boundaries (IBs) on deletion patterns. This has led to a consistent practice of analysing (t, d) as a single linguistic variable, instead of considering the value of their separation, based on both sound linguistic reasoning and empirical evidence. After a brief review of current literature on multivariate analyses of (t, d)-deletion, this paper presents a socio-phonologically oriented research design that has been used to gather data from a peripheral southeastern variety of English. We martial these data to illustrate how (t) and (d) can be modelled as distinct dependent variables that are sensitive to particular factor groups: we focus in particular on the role of IBs in the deletion process.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 36 , Special Issue 3: Special Issue: Language in the South of England , September 2020 , pp. 6 - 13
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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