Standard English and AAVE

This lesson borrows heavily from

Peter Trudgills paper Standard
English: What it isnt (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 weekends 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

Sowhat is it? A social dialect of

English that
Has unusual and irregular present tense
morphology
I go; you go; we go; they gobut he/she/it goes

Lacks multiple negation

I dont want none vs. I dont wand any.

Fails to distinguish between singular and

plural second person pronouns
You bother me (not you all, youse, youse guys, yall, thou

The Linguistic Society of Americas

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
VBEis systematic and rule-governed like all
natural speech varieties. In fact, all human
linguistic systemsspoken, 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 gobut he/she/it goes

Lacks multiple negation

I dont want none vs. I dont wand any.

Fails to distinguish between singular and

plural second person pronouns
You bother me (not you all, youse, youse guys, yall, 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 Shes nice

He in the kitchen for Hes 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!