Regional, social, and stylistic variation in American English pronunciation
Regional, social, and stylistic variation in American English pronunciation

Author(s): Adam Pluszczyk
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: regional and social dialects; variation; variety; pronunciation; American English
Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this article is to present variation in American English pronunciation with respect to such factors as region, sex, age, social status, style, and context. We will select a few variables and analyze them in terms of their possible realizations – so called variants or candidates. With regard to the occurrence of variant realizations of a particular variable, it is crucial to stress that our analysis is not solely linguistically-conditioned since it also encompasses social and contextual factors which definitely contribute to the variation. The analysis from the purely linguistic point of view would be either erroneous or at least incomplete and thus unreliable. Therefore, the variation will be analyzed linguistically, socially, and contextually. We will observe the occurrence of at least two (or more) variants of particular variables (linguistically) and analyze their evaluationas prestigious or substandard (socially, contextually). In other words, we will indicate that with the emergence of the variants, one cannot avoid making judgments about the alleged betterness or worseness of either of them.

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