Date:  Tue, 7 Mar 1995 15:31:47 -0500

From:  "William A. Kretzschmar, Jr." <billk[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ATLAS.UGA.EDU>

Subject: Re: VBE and 60 Minutes



Assignment of final cluster reduction to Nigerian influence has not been

a prominent part of the debates about VBE. Then again, I am underwhelmed

by "naturalness" as an explanation also (then why do we have *any*

clusters left?). Neither of these possible explanations says why

clusters tend to be reduced in some varieties and styles but not others.

If I remember right, final cluster reduction was one of the features

(along with -g dropping, and several others) that Jack Chambers claimed,

in an NWAV plenary address in Ottawa, to appear very widely in English

"vernaculars", wherever and whatever the vernacular (VBE, Canadian

farmers, etc.). If not "naturalness", then perhaps there is still

some process, or group of processes, that might be identified as belonging

to a vernacular variety or style to match the appearance of similar

surface realizations held in common by many actual vernacular

varieties/styles.



Regards, Bill

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Bill Kretzschmar         Phone:  706-542-2246

Dept. of English         FAX:   706-542-2181

University of Georgia      Internet: billk[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]hyde.park.uga.edu

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