Foreign accents can vary considerably in the degree to which they deviate from the listener's native accent, but little is known about how the relationship between a speaker's accent and a listener's native language phonology mediates adaptation. Using an artificial accent methodology, we addressed this issue by constructing a set of three…

Uses data from both sides of the U.S.-Canada border to test a model regarding the way language changes diffuse over space. Two cases are examined: the non-diffusion of phonetic features from Detroit to Windsor and the gradual infiltration into Canadian English of American foreign (a) pronunciations. (Author/VWL)

Suggests that a sociopragmatic approach to the study of forms of address may shed new light on address behavior in general and on the use of forms of address in French and Dutch in particular. "Form of address" is used to encompass not only second-person singular pronouns, but also other devices that can be employed to make reference to…