Transcript Standard English and AAVE - Welcome to oak.ucc.nau.edu

Standard English and AAVE
This lesson borrows heavily from
Peter Trudgill’s paper “Standard
English: What it isn’t” (in Trudgill, P. (2002).
Sociolinguistic Variation and Change. Washington, DC
George Washington University Press.
How does a language becomes
standardized?
Selection: Deciding what version of a
language will be standardized
– How did this happen in English?
Codification: giving a variety a publicly
recognized form
– How did this happen in English?
Stabilization: the fixing of a variety to
contain less variation
– How did this happen in English?
Is Standard English a language?
Languages contain many varieties
(dialects)
Standard English is a very important
variety of English (found in most writing, it is the
language of the Educated elite, it is the variety taught to
non-native speakers of English)
Most native speakers of English are not
standard English speakers
Standard English cannot be a language
Is Standard English an accent?
Accent is concerned with pronunciation
Take a well-recognized highly prestigious
accent (RP)
– Do RP speakers speak Standard English?
– Do Standard English speakers speak RP?
Do newscaster speak standard English?
– Do all newscasters have the same accent?
Given that people can speak standard
English with different accents, then
Standard English cannot be an accent.
Is Standard English a style of
speech?
Styles are varieties of language that can be
spoken in formal and informal contexts
Given this definition, then single speakers have
a number of different styles that they use in
different contexts. The same speakers could
say:
– I was exceedingly fatigued after this weekend’s copious
consumption of alcoholic intoxicants
– I was totally hung over from drinking too much this weekend
Is it possible to say either of these in a formal or
informal setting? If so, then SE is not a style
So…what is it? A social dialect of
English that…
Has unusual and irregular present tense
morphology
– I go; you go; we go; they go…but he/she/it goes
Lacks multiple negation
– I don’t want none vs. I don’t wand any.
Fails to distinguish between singular and
plural second person pronouns
– You bother me (not you all, youse, youse guys, ya’ll, thou
The Linguistic Society of America’s
resolution to the “Ebonics” issue
In January of 1997, the LSA passed a resolution
on AAVE. Here are some selected quotes from
it:
The variety known as Ebonics, “ AAVE” or
“VBE”…is systematic and rule-governed like all
natural speech varieties. In fact, all human
linguistic systems—spoken, signed, and
written—are fundamentally regular.”
“Characterizations of Ebonics as “slang.
“mutant,” lazy,” “defective,”
“ungrammatical,” or “broken English” are
incorrect and demeaning.
The distinction between “languages” and
“dialects” is usually made more onsocial
and political grounds than on purely
linguistic ones.”
“For those living in the United States there are
also benefits in acquiring Standard English and
resources should be made available to all who
aspire to mastery of Standard English.”
“There is evidence from Sweden, the US, and
other countries that speakers of other varieties
can be aided in their learning of the standard
variety by pedagogical approaches which
recognize the legitimacy of other varieties of a
language.”
Features of Standard American
English
Has unusual and irregular present tense
morphology
– I go; you go; we go; they go…but he/she/it goes
Lacks multiple negation
– I don’t want none vs. I don’t wand any.
Fails to distinguish between singular and
plural second person pronouns
– You bother me (not you all, youse, youse guys, ya’ll, thou
Features of AAVE
1.
Present tense/3rd person absence
he walk for he walks
she raise for she raises
2. Plural absence on general plural (but not
plurals for weights and measures)
four girl for four girls
some dog for some dogs
But not
four cup for four cups
3. Remote time been (something that
happened a long time ago and is still
relevant)
You been paid your dues.
I been known him for a long time
But not
You been gone to school today.
4. Copular be deletion
She nice for She’s nice
He in the kitchen for He’s in the kitchen
You ugly for You ugly
Questions
Identify some social groups you belong to
that make your dialect what it is.
Which recent US presidents spoke (or
speak) with a distinct regional accent?
When you were in elementary school, did
any or all of your elementary school
teachers use the variety of the region
where your school was located?
Did any of your elementary or secondary
school teachers speak a variety of English
that differed from the region where you
studied>
Think of reasons why a junior high
school student might want to know
Standard English, apart from traditional
educational values. What might
Standard English do for this type of
student right now? What do you
conclude about the utility of Standard
English at this point in their lives?
Consider the following quotation, taken from an editorial by
William Raspberry in the Washington Post (10/1/1986) in
an article titled: “Black Kids Need Standard English”.
And how could teachers help them [i.e., AAVE
speakers] to acquire Standard English without
eroding their innate pride in Black Culture?
One retired teacher of my acquaintance used to do
it by explaining that so-called Black English is
nothing more than the language slaves learned
from their ignorant white overseers.
Do you see any potential pitfalls in using
such reasoning as a motivation for
standard English? If so, what would you
replace it with?
How does this reasoning relate to the
information we have read on the different
positions of the origins of AAVE?
Quiz time!