Grammatical Reanalysis and the Multiple N-Words in African American English

2019 ◽  
Vol 94 (4) ◽  
pp. 478-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor Jones ◽  
Christopher Hall
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American English ◽  
African American Vernacular English ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Role Assignment ◽  
Taboo Word ◽  
Vernacular English ◽  
Theta Role ◽  
Binding Agreement

African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is developing a class of previously undescribed function words, facilitated by the semantic generalization of the word nigga. The authors demonstrate that nigga is unspecified for race, gender, or humanness. They argue that there are multiple n-words, fulfilling different grammatical and social functions. Using a variety of sources, they show that there are new pronouns in AAVE based on nigga—moreover, they pattern with pronouns, not imposters, with respect to binding, agreement, and theta-role assignment. Vocatives and honorics are also explored. The article concludes with a discussion of the origin of these forms and their relevance both to linguistic controversy and to societal controversy around the taboo word and the stigmatized dialect.

scholarly journals Folk Perception of African American English Regional Variation

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Mitchell ◽  
Marivic Lesho ◽  
Abby Walker
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
American English ◽  
African American Vernacular English ◽  
Uniform Structure ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Map Labeling ◽  
Perceptual Dialectology ◽  
Vernacular English ◽  
The Us

Contrary to previous “sociolinguistic folklore” that African American (Vernacular) English has a uniform structure across different parts of the US, recent studies have shown that it varies regionally, especially phonologically (Wolfram, 2007; Thomas & Wassink, 2010). However, there is little research on how Americans perceive AAE variation. Based on a map-labeling task, we investigate the folk perception of AAE variation by 55 participants, primarily African Americans in Columbus, Ohio. The analysis focuses on the dialect regions recognized by the participants, the linguistic features associated with different regions, and the attitudes associated with these beliefs. While the perceived regional boundaries mostly align with those identified by speakers in previous perceptual dialectology studies on American English, the participants consistently identified linguistic features that were specific to AAE. The participants recognized substantial phonological and lexical variation and identified “proper” dialects that do not necessarily sound “white”. This study demonstrates the value of considering African Americans’ perspectives in describing African American varieties of English.

Negation and the history of African American English

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darin M. Howe
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
American English ◽  
African American English ◽  
African American Vernacular English ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Vernacular English ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nova Scotian ◽  
Negative Form

ABSTRACTThis article describes the use of negation in three corpora representative of early to mid-19th century African American English: the Ex-Slave Recordings (Bailey, Maynor, & Cukor-Avila, 1991), the Samaná Corpus (Poplack & Sankoff, 1981), and the African Nova Scotian English Corpus (Poplack & Tagliamonte, 1991). The specific structures studied are the negative form ain't, negative concord to indefinites and to verbs, negative inversion, and negative postposing. It is found that Early African American English (i) is far more conservative than modern African American Vernacular English; (ii) is generally similar to Southern White Nonstandard English; and (iii) displays no distinct Creole behavior. In other words, our study suggests that the negation system of Early African American English derived directly (i.e., without approximation or creolization) from colonial English, contrary to the findings of Rickford (1977, 1995), Labov (1982), Winford (1992), De Bose and Faraclas (1993), DeBose (1994), and others.

Dialect accommodation in a bi-ethnic mountain enclave community: More evidence on the development of African American English

2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 743-775 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTINE MALLINSON ◽  
WALT WOLFRAM
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Language Change ◽  
American English ◽  
African American English ◽  
African American Vernacular English ◽  
Dialect Contact ◽  
Vernacular English ◽  
Local Dialect ◽  
Western North Carolina

The investigation of isolated African American enclave communities has been instrumental in reformulating the historical reconstruction of earlier African American English and the current trajectory of language change in African American Vernacular English (AAVE). This case study examines a unique enclave sociolinguistic situation – a small, long-term, isolated bi-ethnic enclave community in the mountains of western North Carolina – to further understanding of the role of localized dialect accommodation and ethnolinguistic distinctiveness in the historical development of African American English. The examination of a set of diagnostic phonological and morphosyntactic variables for several of the remaining African Americans in this community supports the conclusion that earlier African American English largely accommodated local dialects while maintaining a subtle, distinctive ethnolinguistic divide. However, unlike the situation in some other African American communities, there is no current movement toward an AAVE external norm for the lone isolated African American teenager; rather, there is increasing accommodation to the local dialect. Contact-based, identity-based, and ideologically based explanations are appealed to in describing the past and present direction of change for the African Americans in this receding community.

scholarly journals Relativization strategies in Earlier African American Vernacular English

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunnel Tottie ◽  
Michel Rey
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American English ◽  
African American English ◽  
African American Vernacular English ◽  
Existential Sentence ◽  
Vernacular English ◽  
Rule Analysis ◽  
American Vernacular

ABSTRACTThis article, which examines the system of relative markers in Early African American English as documented in the Ex-Slave Recordings (Bailey et al., 1991), is intended as a contribution to two areas of research: African American Vernacular English and the system of relativization in English. We found a significantly higher incidence of zero marking in adverbial relatives than in non-adverbial relatives. Among non-adverbial relatives, a variable rule analysis showed that non-humanness of the head as well as the function of the head as subject complement or subject in an existential sentence strongly favored zero relatives, and that prepositional complement heads disfavored zeroes. The lack of wh-relatives aswell as the frequency of zero subject relatives is interpreted as evidence that African American Vernacular English is a dialect of English.

scholarly journals Winning Spelling Bee Competition: The Representation of Black Girl in Akeelah and The Bee (2006) Movie

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiska Nur Hananto
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American English ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
African American Vernacular English ◽  
American Girl ◽  
Vernacular English ◽  
American Values ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
African American Girl ◽  
Hollywood Movie

<p class="AbstractText">This research examines the representations of African-American stereotype and the struggle of Black American girl in National Spelling Bee contest in Hollywood movie entitled Akeelah and the Bee (2006). The use of African-American English (AAVE) is one of the stereotype often depicted in Hollywood movie. Race theories are used to examine the relationship between race, racism and power. Meanwhile, Roland Barthes’s theory and semiotic film theory are used to examine the meaning portrayed in the movie. Findings show that the representation of Akeelah as a successful participant in the spelling bee competition challenges the stereotype of African American as academic underclass, and as associated with crime, failure and frustration. Akeelah is represented as a successful African American girl as she assimilates (adopts) American values of change/mobility, time and its importance, action and work orientation. The assimilation is achieved through a mentoring process and support from African American community.</p><p class="AbstractText"> </p><p class="AbstractText"><em>Keywords</em>: African-American, African American Vernacular English (AAVE), Stereotype, Spelling Bee</p>

scholarly journals Attitudinal Judgments of Dialect Traits and Colorism in African Americans

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Akiah Watts
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
African American Males ◽  
African American Male ◽  
American English ◽  
African American Vernacular English ◽  
Social Perceptions ◽  
Standard American English ◽  
Vernacular English ◽  
Social Traits

This study demonstrates how language and complexion influence professional and social perceptions of African Americans. This study contains an online verbal-guise survey where participants either saw a photo of a lighter skin-toned African-American male and female or an electronically darkened version. Audio was attached to each photo, which contains traits of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) in the case of the male and Standard American English for the female. The results suggest African-American females are more likely to experience colorism in professional traits while African-American males are more likely to experience colorism in social traits. Additionally, the respondent’s race influences perceptions of AAVE. 

Shanna Poplack (ed.), The English history of African American English. (Language in Society, 28.) Oxford: Blackwell, 2000. Pp. v + 277. Pb $31.95.

2001 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-316
Author(s):  
John Baugh
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistic ◽  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
English Language ◽  
American English ◽  
African American English ◽  
African American Vernacular English ◽  
English History ◽  
Vernacular English ◽  
History Of

Poplack and other contributors to this important volume are to be commended for an exceptionally well crafted book, with a succession of groundbreaking studies of African American English (AAE). Although this work will undoubtedly add fuel to the flames of historical linguistic controversy that continue to swirl around African Americans, Poplack and her colleagues go far to advance hypotheses and analyses that argue in favor of the English origins of African American Vernacular English (AAVE).

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