In analyzing not-negation variation in English it
becomes clear that specific strategies are used for prosodic
emphasis and reduction of not in different social
situations, and that contraction strategies vary independently
of prosodic reduction. This article focuses on the factors
influencing contraction strategies that are clearly dialect
related and attempts to tease out those factors that are related
to register and speaker stance. First, we review background
information critical to an adequate analysis of
not-negation and not-contraction. We then
describe the corpora chosen for the present study, the research
methods employed in the analysis, and the results of the analysis.
The variable under analysis is the choice between uncontracted
and not-contracted forms and between
not-contracted and Aux-contracted forms in well-formed
declarative sentences, for verbs which permit both. We end with
some suggestions for corpus composition that will enable meaningful
comparisons between social situations and between speakers,
or characters, within one corpus. As researchers we can assure
that future corpora will permit increasingly inclusive and
interesting comparative studies; we close with some suggestions
for those who wish to carry out studies.