The final part of the assignment is to analyse the (r) data (right-click and save as...) collected in our rapid and anonymous study of (r) in Philadelphia. Your task is to look at the data and find out the answers to four of the following questions:

(1)   What is the overall rate of /r/ in Philadelphia based on our sample and is it different from the rate of /r/ in New York City? (consult the paper on the Department Store Study by William Labov)

(2)   Does the dissimilating word Girard show more or less /r/ than Market?

(3)   Is there any correlation between (r) and age?  That is, do we find evidence of change in Philadelphia?—use the three age ranges: 1 (1-30), 2 (31-54), and 3 (54 and up). They have already been created in the Excel file.

(4)   Do men and women differ in their use of (r)?

(5)   Are there any differences between the different ethnic groups in their use of /r/? How does that compare with the situation in New York City as described by Labov in his Department Store Study paper?

Everybody should answer Question 1 and any three of the other questions. Each answer should be in a separate paragraph.

Please note that some calculations are already provided for you at the bottom of the Excel sheet. Feel free to work in pairs or groups on the data in Excel. However, you should write the results up individually.

Remember that we are interested in proportions rather than raw numbers, that is, in our case the proportion of /r/ to all the tokens in a given category. For example, for Market you will need to calculate the proportion of all the /r/s in Market to all the tokens elicited for Market: /r/ divided by (/r/+0s) times 100. Use percentages and not raw numbers in your write-up.

The first draft is due on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 by email. The final version of the write-up is due on December 9, 2004. It should be 1-2 pages long, double-spaced.