In Black English (BE), in addition to the motion verb "come," there exists a modal-like "come" which expresses speaker indignation. This "come" is comparable to other modal-like forms, identical to motion verbs, which occur in Black and non-Black varieties of English, and which signal various degrees of disapproval.…

Special issue on Black Dialect: Historical and Descriptive Issues'' edited by William A. Stewart. (RS)

A corpus of Black English (BEV) data is re-examined with exclusive attention to the "is" form of the copula. This analysis differs from previous examinations in that more constraints have been introduced, and the Cedergren/Sankoff computer program for multivariant analysis has been employed. The analytic techniques that are used allow for a finer…

This study was conducted to discover how Nonstandard Negro English speaking kindergarten children form verb phrases and what they mean by the various forms. It was limited to the main verb in each sentence; passive forms and imbedded sentences were excluded. Only verb phrases from four types of sentences were analyzed: declarative, negative,…

The marking of past temporal reference in Black English Vernacular (BEV) and Trinidadian English is compared. Similarities in the patterns of variation according to verb type and phonological conditioning suggest that past marking in contemporary BEV preserves traces of an earlier shift from a creole pattern to one approximating the Standard…

AFTER TAPE RECORDING AND ANALYZING INFORMAL CONVERSATIONS WITH KINDERGARTEN AND THIRD-GRADE NEGRO CHILDREN IN THE CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS, A PROGRAM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INSTRUCTION WAS DRAWN UP TO (1) USE ACTUAL STATEMENTS MADE BY THE CHILD IN HIS DIALECT FOR CONTRAST WITH STANDARD ENGLISH, (2) LIMIT PATTERN PRACTICE TO VERBS AND TO STATEMENTS EASILY…

Essays on the history of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) include: an introduction to the evolution of AAVE within the African American diaspora (Shana Poplack); "Rephrasing the Copula: Contraction and Zero in Early African American English" (James A. Walker); "Reconstructing the Source of Early African American English…

A review of recent language research regarding the black English vernacular (BEV) considers new developments involving (1) the grammars of elderly and young speakers; (2) indications that BEV is not decreolizing but is actually diverging from white speech; and (3) the effect of contemporary developments on differences between black and white…

The dangers and misuses of literary dialect as a source of information for linguistic evaluation are analyzed. "Literary dialect" is used to refer to writing in which the main purpose is the artful construction of a narrative, where the dialect representation is apt to be concerned more with giving an artful impression of a dialect than…

Identifiable relational entities in the Auxiliary (Aux) structure of Nonstandard Negro English (NNE) enter into different sets of relationship from identifiable relational entities in the Aux structure of Standard English (SE). Specifically, there is an absence of "have + en" structures; there is no agreement between subjects and verbal forms…

This report presents some of the findings of several years research on the relations between the non-standard English used by Negro speakers in various urban ghetto areas (NNE) and standard English (SE). The immediate subject is the status of the copula and auxiliary "be" in NNE. The approach to the problem combines the methods of…

This paper focuses on the two main schools of thought concerning the structure of Black English and its relationship to other dialects. One approach is that of the social dialectologists who claim that Black English shares features and origins of white non-standard Southern speech; the frequency with which specific features occur in actual speech…

A study was conducted to compare the language of preschool children from low-income homes to that of their parents, as affected by the adult participation in training sessions planned to encourage language development. The study was conducted in three preschools in the Detriot metropolitan area. A total of 96 children from ages 2 1/2 to 5…

In recent years a considerable amount of interest has developed in language variability and in the educational problems connected with it. This volume is a report of linguistic research on the variable language behavior in a community of American English speakers, specifically on some aspects of tense marking in Black English. The following topics…

The 25 selected papers contained in this volume reflect the current diversity of interests and research methods within the field of sociolinguistics. Titles include: "What is a Language?"; "The Unreality of Quantitative Figures"; "Addressee-Oriented Features in Spoken Discourse"; "Women's Speech, Women's…