Rights statement: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-language-and-linguistics/article/sociophonetic-variation-of-like-in-british-dialects-effects-of-function-context-and-predictability-1/0EFFDF327F80E05BA7B79279627C8740 The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, English Language and Linguistics, 22 (1), pp 35-75 2018, © 2016 Cambridge University Press.
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Final published version
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| <mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 1/03/2018 |
|---|---|
| <mark>Journal</mark> | English Language and Linguistics |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Number of pages | 41 |
| Pages (from-to) | 35-75 |
| Publication Status | Published |
| Early online date | 19/09/16 |
| <mark>Original language</mark> | English |
This study examines sociophonetic variation in different functions of like among adolescents in London and Edinburgh. It attempts to determine the factors that may explain this variation. Our results suggest that the function of like correlates primarily with contextual factors, rather than the phonetic factors of vowel quality, /l/ to vowel duration and /k/ realisation. In particular, the preceding and following segments and their bigram predictability emerge as highly significant, in addition to the boundary strength following like. In both London and Edinburgh, the vowel appears to be the only non-contextual feature that is sensitive to the function of like: quotative be like is more likely to be monophthongised than other functions of like. We argue that the more monophthongal nature of quotative like is due to the syntactic and prosodic context in which it occurs.