Next: ``Free Variation"
Up: Variation:
Previous: Variation:
Some of this variation may be
socially conditioned. Rapid vs. slow styles, formal vs. informal,
etc. [-ing] (with [] goes out the window in rapid and casual
speech, but may return in slow/formal speech. Forms like whyncha,
doncha, gonna are not found in formal variety. Speakers VARY
according to their social status, sex, age, education, social setting,
age of interlocutor, etc. Everyone does it. In order to write a
phonemic description, we have to settle on one variant, perhaps the
more formal one, and describe the others in a separate section, known
as the section on ``sociolinguistic variation".
Harold Schiffman
Fri Jan 17 09:48:04 EST 1997