The use of the verbal —<i>s</i>Inflection in BEV

Myhill, John; Harris, Wendell A.

doi:10.1075/cilt.53.05myh

Cited by 75 publications

(40 citation statements)

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“…In most cases, phonological factors immediately preceding and following -s have not been found significant to this variation (Fasold, 1972:125;Wolfram, 1969:125), although Labov et al (1968) reported a slight tendency for a following vowel to favor -s absence in their data (164). Myhill and Harris (1986) found that third-person singular -s inflection occurred almost exclusively in narrative contexts in their Philadelphia data, leading them to the conclusion that third-person singular -s functions as a narrative marker in AAVE (30). It has also been found that in conjoined verb phrases there is a tendency for the first verb to receive -s inflection and for the second to be non-inflected (Fasold, 1972:129;Myhill & Harris, 1986:28).…”

Section: The (Neg Pres) Variablementioning

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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Section: The (Neg Pres) Variablementioning

confidence: 99%

Variability in negation in African American Vernacular English

Weldon

1994

Lang Var Change

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“…The decision to include all of the say examples as present was based on the children's frequent use of historical present with the verb say (e.g, So she says stop it!). Within the sociolinguistic literature, a distinction between regular versus irregular verb forms is not always made, although some (like Myhill & Harris, 1986) exclude the verb say in analyses because it is irregular and typically zero-marked.…”

Section: Zero Irregular Third Presentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our decision here was to accept all verbs that were marked for third person (e.g., he comes) as standard English uses, even though some were clearly produced as overt uses of historical present. Also, unmarked forms of the verb say (e.g., she say stop that) were coded as involving zero-marking of thirdperson present rather than past because (a) this verb is frequently produced in historical present contexts, and (b) when produced in these contexts, this verb is typically unmarked (Myhill & Harris, 1986). All other unmarked verbs were coded as present or past depending upon the context and meaning of the utterance.…”

Section: Language Sample Transcription and Codingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonmainstream Dialect Use and Specific Language Impairment

Oetting

McDonald

2001

J Speech Lang Hear Res

163

121

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Most work looking at specific language impairment (SLI) has been done in the context of mainstream dialects. This paper extends the study of SLI to two nonmainstream dialects: a rural version of Southern African American English (SAAE) and a rural version of Southern White English (SWE). Data were language samples from 93 4-to 6-year-olds who lived in southeastern Louisiana Forty were classified as speakers of SAAE, and 53 were classified as speakers of SWE. A third were previously diagnosed σs SLI; the others served as either age-matched (6N) or language-matched (4N) controls.The two dialects differed in frequency of usage on 14 of the 35 coded morphosyntactic surface patterns; speakers of these dialects could be successfully discriminated (94%) from each other in a discriminant analysis using just four of these patterns. Across dialects, four patterns resulted in main effects that were related to diagnostic condition (SLI vs. 6N), and a slightly different set of four patterns showed effects that were related to developmental processes (4N vs. 6N). More interestingly, the surface characteristics of SLI were found to manifest in the two dialects in different ways. A discriminant function based solely on SAAE speakers tended to misclassify SWE children with SLI as having normal language, and a discriminant function based on SWE speakers tended to misclassify SAAE unaffected children as SLI. Patterns within the SLI profile that cut across the two dialects included difficulties with tense marking and question formation. The results provide important direction for future studies and argue for the inclusion of contrastive as well as noncontrastive features of dialects within SLI research. Keywords dialect; specific language impairment; morphosyntaxIn a recent publication, Tager-Flusberg and Cooper (1999) summarize the comments of participants from an NIH-sponsored workshop that focused on the study of specific language impairment (SLI). The participants included experts in the fields of SLI and other developmental disorders such as autism, learning disabilities, and dyslexia. As part of the report, the authors highlight important study topics to help guide future research. One of the recommendations listed in the report is the development of constructs that are important for defining SLI in individuals who come from many language, cultural, and dialect backgrounds.The goal of the current work is to begin, at an exploratory level, to extend the study of SLI to two nonmainstream dialects of English. Although the grammatical profile of SLI has been explored in a wide range of languages, including Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish, and even Inukitut (an Eskimo- NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptAleut language) (Leonard, 1998), the study of SLI within nonmainstream varieties of these languages has been nonexistent. A primary reason for this has been limited knowledge on the part of researchers about the developmenta...

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“…Clearly, all varieties of English have bare mass nouns, as in (50): (50) (49) and also in (52) and (53): (52) The subject nouns in (52) and (53) also occur -with the same meaning -with the definite article present.…”

Section: Bare Nounsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A third view developed later in the mid-1980s, proposing that AAE had significantly diverged historically from other dialects of American English and that divergence played a key role in producing the distinctiveness of contemporary AAE (Ash & Myhill 1986;Myhill & Harris 1986;Labov 1985Labov , 1987Labov , 1998Labov & Harris 1986;Bailey 1987;Bailey & Maynor 1987. Bailey & Maynor (1989) present one statement of this view, which is that, first, AAVE is diverging from white dialects, especially in the South and that, second, it was previously converging for many years, but that convergence as the major trend had ended (Bailey & Maynor 1989, p.13;see Spears 1992 for further details).…”

Section: The History Of Aae Revisitedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pidgins/Creoles and African American English

Spears

2008

The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies

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The use of the verbal —sInflection in BEV

Cited by 75 publications

References 0 publications

Variability in negation in African American Vernacular English

Variability in negation in African American Vernacular English

Nonmainstream Dialect Use and Specific Language Impairment

Pidgins/Creoles and African American English

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