De facto segregation of black and white vernaculars

Labov, William; Harris, Wendell A.

doi:10.1075/cilt.53.04lab

Cited by 188 publications

(73 citation statements)

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“…Indeed, support for a conflict model of society is provided by Labov's own recent work in Philadelphia, where he found progressive segregation and linguistic differentiation between black and white networks (Labov & Harris 1986). Furthermore, a conflict model is essential if we are to account for the phenomenon of linguistic change, with which some kind of social conflict is generally associated.…”

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confidence: 97%

Social network and social class: Toward an integrated sociolinguistic model

1992

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In sociolinguistics, approaches that use the variables of socioeconomic class and social network have often been thought to be irreconcilable. In this article, we explore the connection between these variables and suggest the outlines of a model that can integrate them in a coherent way. This depends on linking a consensus-based microlevel of network with a conflict-based macrolevel of social class. We suggest interpretations of certain sociolinguistic findings, citing detailed evidence from research in Northern Ireland and Philadelphia, which emphasize the need for acknowledging the importance of looseknit network ties in facilitating linguistic innovations. We then propose that the link between network and class can be made via the notion of weak network ties using the process-based model of the macrolevel suggested by Thomas Hejrup's theory of life-modes. (Sociolinguistics, sociology, quantitative social dialectology, anthropological linguistics)One of the most important contributions of Labov's quantitative paradigm has been to allow us to examine systematically and accountably the relationship between language variation and speaker variables such as sex, ethnicity, social network, and -most importantly perhaps -social class. Language variation in large and linguistically heterogeneous cities as well as in smaller communities has been revealed not as chaotic but as socially regular, and Labov and others have shown how investigating this socially patterned variation can illuminate mechanisms of linguistic change. In this article, we focus on the variables of social class and social network, both of which have appeared in some form in a large number sociolinguistic studies of variation and change. Our principal interest lies not in the complex sociological issues associated with class and network, some of which we discuss here, but in understanding the role of class and network in patterns of linguistic variation and mechanisms of linguistic change.

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confidence: 97%

Social network and social class: Toward an integrated sociolinguistic model

1992

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“…Later studies hinted at the notion of a "consensus" between these two opposing camps, such that many of the creole features of AA VE were said to have undergone "decreolization" to the point where contemporary AAVE could be described as a dialect of English (Fasold, 1981;Labov, 1982). However, this position also became subject to an adequate amount of debate, which was particularly complicated by claims that black vernaculars and white vernaculars were, in fact, "diverging" from one another (G. Bailey & Maynor, 1987;Labov & Harris, 1986).…”

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confidence: 99%

Variability in negation in African American Vernacular English

Weldon

1994

Lang Var Change

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For quantitative sociolinguists, one of the goals of investigating variability in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is to understand better the nature of the grammar. Specifically, researchers have been interested in whether the variation observed in AAVE is inherent to a single system or the result of interaction between two separate systems of AAVE and Standard English (SE). Variability in negation is an area of the AAVE grammar that has received minimal attention, but one that may offer some interesting insights into the nature of the system or systems at work. This article provides a framework to describe the variability between negative auxiliaries in predicative constructions based on a quantitative analysis of data collected in Columbus, Ohio. Five variables are investigated in this study. One involves interaction between third-person singular inflection and non-inflection in present do-support constructions (NEG pres). A second involves variation between ain't and don't with the predicates got or gotta (NEG GOT(ta)). And the other three involve interaction between ain't and negative auxiliaries in present copular (NEG COP), present perfect (NEG perf), and past do-support (NEG past) constructions. The results of this study show that, with the possible exception of the (NEG pres) variation, these alternations all appear to belong to one underlying system.

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“…From an aggregate point of view, the coloured samples are typified by selective convergence with and divergence from white/standard norms. However significant the levels of interspeaker variation observed, some data presented in figures 2 and 3 could be reminiscent of the North American trends of divergence involving invariant habitual be, whose frequency of occurrence is on the rise from middle- aged to younger Black generations in all U.S. metropolitan locations where it was studied, among which are Detroit (Wolfram 1969), New York (Labov 1969), Philadelphia (Labov & Harris 1986), East Palo Alto (Rickford 1999: 263-4), Washington (Fasold 1972), as well as in rural Hyde County (Wolfram & Thomas 2002). An example is irregular ge-prefixation of double infinitives.…”

Section: Fig 3 Use Of Nonstandard Variants In the Northwestern Colomentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparability of the Black-White Divide in the American Speech Community and the Coloured-White Divide in the Afrikaans Speech Community

Stell

2012

American Speech

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This article attempts to place the discussion on the relationship between African American and European American vernacular Englishes within a broader context involving another speech community split along ethnic lines, namely South Africa's Afrikaans speakers. It specifically attempts to compare observations on the coloured-white linguistic divide within South Africa's Afrikaans speech community with those made on the black-white linguistic divide in the Uni ted States, wi th the aim of shedding light on the correl ati on between ethnicity and language variation. The article first presents ethnicity and its social and linguistic correlates, drawing on literature on AA(V)E and South Africa. It then identifies the social and linguistic specificities of the American English and Afrikaans speech communities. After presenting a range of grammatical variables and their comparability across both speech communities, it provides an overview first of the various trends of grammatical variation from a mainly variationist perspective, then of Afrikaans-English code-switching, which is treated as a phenomenon that correlates with grammatical variation. It finally attempts to answer the general question whether the U.S. black-white linguistic divide in South Africa's Afrikaans speech community can be referred to as complementary in the study of ethnicity and language variation.

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De facto segregation of black and white vernaculars

Cited by 188 publications

References 0 publications

Social network and social class: Toward an integrated sociolinguistic model

Social network and social class: Toward an integrated sociolinguistic model

Variability in negation in African American Vernacular English

Comparability of the Black-White Divide in the American Speech Community and the Coloured-White Divide in the Afrikaans Speech Community

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