Chapter 5 describes the patterns found in the data set with a focus on /str/-clusters. Theanalysis starts with a general description of data dispersion and the nature of sibilants in the data set. It addresses the distribution of the data, showing that /str/-clusters are more likely to be retracted than pre-vocalic realizations of /s/. This section further establishes how the distance between /s/ and /ʃ/ can be described by center-of-gravity measurements. Following this operationalization, the focus is on internal factors of language change, namely the question of phonetic and lexical gradualness. Both types of gradualness are confirmed in the analysis of the sibilant space.

The following section focuses on a descriptive statistical account of further social factors in the description of /str/-lowering, of which ethnicity and age are the most relevant. Together with the linguistic factors, the final mixed-effects regression model is then developed and fully evaluated, indicating sibilant duration, age, and ethnicity as most important factors in the change. These results are further confirmed by a random forest regression.

In a qualitative extension of the insights gained through the regression analysis, a brief thematic analysis summarizes the patterns found in the commentary part of the interviews.

Chapter 7 presents the implications of the study on a larger scale. It argues that the study not only shows an interesting gender pattern such that not only females are the agents of change but, rather, everyone but White males are agents of the change. This has implications for the entire gender-in-language-change paradigm. It could mean that the gender patterns developed byLabov misrepresent how gender identification influences language change and that an entirely new model needs to be developed when more social complexity is included in studies of language change. It further addresses the need for larger, more diverse datasets and perception experiments to investigate the possibility of a local social meaning of this widespread variant.