English [r]-sandhi - a sociolinguistic perspective

Although [r]-sandhi is one of the most widely discussed topics in English phonology, it has not previously been studied via analysis of a large representative corpus. This paper bridges that gap, describing a sociolinguistic study carried out in the cities of Newcastle upon Tyne and Derby. Patterns of [r] usage are shown to be more complex than previously assumed, a finding which has interesting implications for phonological models. The study as a whole demonstrates how productive corpus-based methods can be for theoretical issues1.