THE GRAMMAR OF URBAN AFRICAN AMERICAN VERNACULAR ENGLISH (AAVE)

BY WALT WOLFRAM

PRESENTATION

BY

IYIEGBU ALFREDA

BACKGROUND

• Walt Wolfram’s article is about the emergence of AAVE, its construction, features/structure and its similarities and differences with other varieties of English.

Construction of urban AAVE • The urban AAVE was developed due to the

transplant of the dialect communities of the southern rural speakers who migrated to the non-southern cities during the first half of the twentieth century.

• Part of AAVE construction as an ethnic variety in its urban context is lack of regional accommodation.

• inasmuch as AAVE has shown its independent development and its divergence from European American vernaculars since 1980s, it was influenced by standard English, age, status, topic and setting.

THE GRAMMAR OF URBAN AAVE

Major structures of urban

AAVE grammar

Verb phrase

Negation

Nominals

Question formation

Verb phrase • The most important traits of AAVE have typically been

associated with the verb phrase including the use of tense, mood, and aspect. (Fasold 1972; Labov 1972a, 1998; Dayton 1996; Baugh 1983; Rickford 1999)

Copula/auxiliary absence: The absence of copula and auxiliary for contractible forms of is and are.

She nice she’s nice

Who that? Who’s that?

They acting silly they’re acting silly

The invariant be: In sentences such as sometimes they be playing games, also referred to as non-finite be, habitual be, and b2, is the most salient trait of AAVE.

• The use of habitual be or be2 differs from other uses of be including those derived through the phonological processes that affect contracted forms of will and would, in constructions such as

She be here in a minute she’ll be

If the get a DVD they be fine they’d be

Good bye goob bye / goo’ bye

Completive done: The use of done with the past tense of the verb.

They done used all the good ones

• In AAVE it refers to an action completed in the recent past, but it can also be used to highlight the change of state or intensify an activity, as in

I done told you not to mess up.

Sequential be done: the combination of be and done together, as in My ice cream be done melt by the time we get there

Marks a resultative or a future conditional state.

Remote béen: the stressed use of béen with a past tense form of verb. Example I been had it for about three years

I been known him

She’s been married

Simple past had + verb: Is the narrative use of the auxiliary had with a past tense or perfect form of verb to indicate a simple past tense action, as in

They had went outside and then they had messed up the yard

Specialized auxiliaries: the use of come to indicate a state of indignation, the use of steady to mark a continuative intensifying activity, and the use of finna to indicate an immediate future. Example

He come walkin’ in here like he owned the damned place

The use of steady

Ricky bell be steady stepping in them number nines

I’m finna go

Irregular verbs: These includes the extension of past as participle (e.g. I had went down there),

the participle as past (e.g. They seen it), the bare root as past (e.g. They run there yesterday), and regularization of past tense (e.g. Everybody knowed him)

Subject-verb agreement: the two aspects of subject-verb concord are prominent in urban AAVE, one relating to the attachment of the verbal suffix–s and relating to the conjugated forms of past and present be forms and –S absence. Example -s absence in sentences such as

She walk she walks

She have money she has money

-s attachment

The dogs barks

The conjugated be forms in present tense levels to is

The folks is home

Y’all is here

In past tense the be levels to was

The folks was here

Y’all was here

Other verb phrase structure: The verb beat in AAVE may function as an intransitive verb, as in

we beat we won

The use of verb plus participle as in

Blessed out scold

She blessed him out swear at

NEGATION • AAVE participates in multiple negation in which a

single negative proposition maybe marked both within the verb phrase and on postverbal indefinites, as in

It wasn’t nothing

They didn’t do nothing about nobody having no money

Verbal and preverbal negative

Nobody don’t like him

Ain’t nobody home

AAVE uses ain’t as a general preverbal negative for present tense be (am not, isn’t)and perfect auxiliary haven’t / hasn’t as in

He ain’t here

She ain’t been there lately

The use of ain’t and don’t with but to indicate ‘only’ or ‘no more than’

She ain’t but three years old

He didn’t take but three dollars

NOMINALS • The absence of inflectional –s on possessives and

plurals. The dog_ tail was wagging

The man_ hat was old.

Absence of plural –s I got 50 cent_

It’s four mile_ from here

The extension of the objective form them for attributive demonstratives such as

She likes them apples

QUESTION FORMATION • There are two aspects of question formation that

distinguishes AAVE syntax, both involving subject

auxiliary inversion. The first question maybe formed without subject-auxiliary inversion, as in

Where that is?

Why can’t I go?

Use of simple non-inverted questions order, as in What it is?

Who that is?

Some similarities and differences of AAVE with other varieties of English

• AAVE share copula absence (she nice)with some southern white rural vernacular varieties of English, but it’s not found in Northern urban benchmark

European American varieties.

• AAVE share the use of completive done (They done used all the good ones) with southern European American vernacular varieties of English. In AAVE done is used with the past tense of the verb whereas it occurs with a bare verb stem (e.g. They done go) in Creoles.

Conclusion • Apparently, this descriptive profile of urban AAVE

grammar shows AAVE as an independent dialect, as well as some of its similarities and differences with other varieties of English.

• For more clarity see; Madea goes to Jail or Madea big happy family