The lateral approximant in General British English (GB) is realised as light when occurring in the onset (leaf), and as dark in the rhyme (help,feel,google). Non-prevocalic positions are typical contexts for lenition, analysed in Element Theory as decomposition in weak positions. However, it is unclear how velarisation can be characterised as element loss if light [l] is represented as |A I|, while dark [ɫ] is represented as |A U|. Therefore, I propose that laterals in GB contain both the coronal |I| and the velar |U| element underlyingly (in addition to |A|), but because these cannot combine in a compound segment in English, they are both floating. Their association at the phrase level is determined by the apophonic chain (Guerssel & Lowenstamm 1996), mapped onto the structure of the syllable: |I| is attracted to the prevocalic position, |A| to the vocalic position and |U| to the postvocalic position. Darkening thus does not involve lenition of /l/, but partial interpretation in all positions. In contrast, I analyse vocalisation of dark [ɫ] as lenition, involving loss of |A| in weak positions. I integrate the lateral into the system of glides in English, and establish a typology of its behaviour across different accents.

中文翻译：

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英语中 /l/ 的变暗和发声：一个元素理论帐户

通用英式英语 (GB) 中的横向近似值在出现在开头 (l电弧炉)，和在押韵中一样黑暗 (他lp,费用l,古格le）。非辩解的立场是 lenition 的典型背景，在元素论中被分析为弱立场的分解。然而，如果光 [l] 表示为人工智能|，而深色 [ɫ] 表示为 |非盟|。因此，我建议 GB 中的支流包含冠状 |一世| 和软膜|ü| 基本元素（除了 |一种|)，但是因为它们不能在英语中组合成一个复合句段，所以它们都是浮动的。它们在短语级别的关联是由音节链决定的（Guerssel & Lowenstamm 1996），映射到音节的结构上：|一世| 被前面的位置所吸引，|一种| 到发声位置和|ü| 到后声位置。因此，变暗并不涉及对 /l/ 的放宽，而是对所有位置的部分解释。相比之下，我将黑暗 [ɫ] 的发声分析为 lenition，涉及丢失 |一种| 处于弱势地位。我将横向融入英语滑音系统，并建立其跨不同口音的行为类型学。