The Quiet Demise of Variable Rules

Abstract

T HE VARIABLE RULE WAS INTRODUCED BY William Labov in a classic analysis of the copula/auxiliary in Vernacular Black English (Labov 1969). However, the most thoroughly examined variable phenomenon in linguistics may well be the deletion of a final [t] or [d] in English. This deletion has almost always been examined in nonstandard kinds of English such as VBE and the English of Puerto Rican speakers in cities of the northeastern United States, but there is no doubt that it is a general variable process in anyone's English. One of the most detailed studies was done by Wolfram (1974). He presents detailed quantitative data on the deletion of [d] after English vowels. Although the speakers providing the data were young men of Puerto Rican ethnicity from New York City, other research indicates that the variable constraints Wolfram confirmed have nothing to do with these speakers' Spanish-speaking background but are generally valid for English. He tested the following three pairs of variable constraints. The symbol # is a formative boundary marker and means the following [d] is GRAMMATICAL, that is, it represents the -ed suffix.1

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