A Multiple-Trace-Based Proposal for Linguistically Unconditioned Variability

Abstract

In his study of the casual speech of some East London English (ELE) speakers, Tamimi (2002) finds unconditioned variability in the phonetic behavior of‘ h’under a number of linguistic conditions, including a) different lexical functions (content vs. functional words), b) different stress conditions (stressed vs. unstressed), c) different positions in the utterance/word, and d) different phonetic environments (among other conditions). He also observes the same type of variability in unstressed non-initial function words appearing in the casual speech of some speakers of Southern British Standard (SBS). This paper introduces a Multiple-Trace-Based-Proposal to account for such variability, after revealing some explanatory inadequacies in a number of available phonological theories, including a) Coexistent Phonemic systems, b) Standard Generative Phonology, c) Variable Rules, d) Bailey’s Polylectal Grammar, e) Lexical Diffusion, f) Articulatory phonology and g) Optimality Theory. Unlike these, the proposal, based on the multiple-trace theory and some views already available in the literature, appears to be bale to explain the unconditioned variability of the glottal fricative in ELE..