African American Vernacular English in Contemporary Music: A linguistic analysis

William Labov states there are no major regional differences in the grammar of AAVE however, there are some discrepancies which can appear between different states, and they are as following: African American English Vernacular is seldom treated like a regular language and often labeled as slang or broken English. However, AAVE has a consistent patterns and rules which cannot be broken, and it has even its own, characteristic Tense which is not present in Standard English.

Many of these rules come from Standard English. Traits such as a- prefixing are lost. This featured is shared with some of Southern dialects Copula can be explained as typical construction used for presenting present-tense actions or states. Nonetheless, there are rules which apply to cases when copula cannot be omitted49 and they are as following: In the past tense — I was cool 5. When it is in the beginning of a clause- Is that you? Oftentimes, a copula verb can also be substituted with is in first and second person singular.

Below, most common approached to a copula verb are exemplified: And funny how these black-killer companies Is makin' money off us50 2. The most common are invariant be and habitual be. Invartiant be marks an unique aspect referring to an intermitten activity.

AAVE has many distinctive ways of marking the tense. The most common is so called Habitual Be, followed by a gerund, which is used to express the regularity of the action This phenomena is due to this structure being continuously popularized within Black youth culture, especially hip-hop and serves as a mean to highlight the status. I be music biz number one supplier54 In this example, the author does not inflect a copula verb which is referred to as invariant be. They be askin' us questions, harass and arrest us55 50 https: Often it is confused with Present Continuous tense.

Completive done is used with the past tense verbs and appears only in preverbal auxiliary position. Sequential be done marks a future conditional state, often connected with warnings or threats. Such structure used to be common in rural variety, but modern urban AAVE reduces the use frequency If you love your enemy, they be done eat you alive in this society Remote been marks an activity that took place in the distant past. Been in this case is followed by a past participle verb. This form may be regarded as a simplification of the perfect tense.

I been known him Both constructions are not present in Standard English.

This is now currently a receding trait, but still can be found sometimes. Below such auxiliaries are exemplified: Finna as a verb to mark the future tense.

This is for my niggas outside all winter Cause this summer they ain't finna say: Done followed by a simple verb to mark the finished state of a past action. What I'mma hit you with you motherfuckers better duck65 Negation The most controversial grammatical feature of AAVE is a multiple negation. AAVE allows its speakers to use more than one negation in a sentence while Standard English accepts only one.

It happens sometimes that in some white dialects, the negative can be attracted to other indefinites, or indefinite in preverbal position. In AAVE grammar, the negative is obligatory to be attracted to all indefinites within the clause, and it may be added to preverbal position as well. However, it is the same negative concord as in Italian, for instance.

Anglo Saxon authors of the Peterborough Chronicles used multiple negation as well Multiply marked negation is 61 Labov. It is most frequently used by low-status speakers, and rarely by a middle- class. This inversion is very unlikely to be found in a clause when the subject is known. It does not represent any tense, only a point-action. I get down for my grandfather who took my mama Made her sit in that seat where white folks ain't want us to eat 75 2. It's be no question it's them, bust the second guessings76 3.

They robbin' niggas on the daily Can you blame a nigga that ain't never had things? It's called love, niggas don't sing about it no more Don't nobody sing about it no more, no more 78 AAVE has various ways of negation. A special attention should be paid to the second example, which is a rather non-standard one, and uses two copula verb: It is a really interesting example which comes from a song influenced by Jamaican English speech patterns, therefore it may be assumed this pattern is also used in Jamaican English.

Nouns and pronouns AAVE tends to delete the possessive —s and plural —s. AAVE makes use of auxiliaries verbs, which are intended to fill specialized semantic- pragmatic roles. Although these auxiliaries are currently receding, they definitely set apart AAVE from other vernaculars. Examples of these auxiliaries are as follows: The usage or irregular verbs also differs from SE. Often, AAVE uses the participle or bare root to express the past, does not vary between regular and irregular past verbs and extends past as a participle.

Lack of subject-verb agreement in 3rd person singular is also observed, especially among the youth. This pattern has been intensified in the past years. Present and past forms of be are regularized; present tense be is leveled to is and past tense be- to was. Past tense leveling appears more frequently AAVE is also characterized by multiple phonological features which are also realized in the orthography of a dialect. Phonological distinctions are as following: Monophthongization A process in which diphthong forms are reduced to monophthongs.

This alteration is also expressed in orthography when a grapheme D substituted the grapheme TH. In a one syllable morpheme this situation is not observed. However, this pronunciation can be observed in many dialects of Standard English. Final consonant clusters can only be reduced provided they are articulated in the same place and have the same voicing features Voiceless stop t dropped after voiceless s 2.

Terminology Coordination Unit

Voiceless stop k dropped after voiceless s 3. Voiceless stop t dropped after voiceless f 4. Voiceless stop t dropped after voiceless k spelled c 5. Voiceless stop t spelled —ed dropped after voiceless p 6. Voiced stop d dropped after voiceless n 7. Voiced stop d dropped after voiced l. Foregoing researches demonstrate different hypothesis considering the roots of AAVE. It claims that features such as simplification of consonant clusters, lack of linking words and remote past tenses are directly incorporated from Niger-Congo languages.

This theory states that AAVE had never been neither a pidgin language nor a creole. Creolist hypothesis supporters however find features of AAVE to be results of pidgin and creole stages of language development. Even though it is often labeled as mispronounced or incorrect English, AAVE has developed its own grammatical system and has its own distinguished pronunciation patterns.

The most characteristic 82 Pullum, African…, op. In terms of phonetics, AAVE shows tendencies to simplify or drop certain sounds, especially at the end of words. All these features are not accidental and are govern by a well-developed system of rules. During the process, a translator may find it impossible to render certain elements, not due to insufficient knowledge but rather as a result of differences between source and target cultures.

Such differences are defined as untranslatability. The below chapter will describe what an untranslatability problem is and will look into potential reasons for it. Obstacles, which a translator faces each time when a rendering is attempted, will be described next. As untranslatability may have various reasons, all of them will be discussed in order to facilitate seeking the right solution for this problem.

As poetry often face the issue of proper rendering, I will attempt to describe the untranslatability in poetry. The next subchapter will on different methods which should be used while translating and each should be used according to the purpose of a translation. Such failure is regarded as untranslatability. These features , or in other words differences, create barriers preventing the full rendering of the original message. In such situation, rendering of the message with cultural features is impossible.

Even if the equivalent is found, it would not be complete, and in result, full identity of the original text and its translation will be only theoretical. The second way of analysis assumes reading the meaning of the text through interpretation of semantic relations in the text and rendering them in a target language. Translator is made to explore all creative resources of his own language and to consider the terms in which the rendering will be functioning in a defined pragmatic situation. A rendering is a result of mental cognitive processes, characteristic for an individual.

In the case when untranslatability issue occurs, it can be assumed that the conceptualization of the content of the original text did not allow him or her to render the message in the target language. Throughout years, this issue has evolved dramatically. George Steiner , in , defined language as an underlying structure of universal features which are common to every language.

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He estimated that every translation is possible and differences which exist between languages are only superficial and can be overcome. Before contemporary studies, it was assumed that every communication is possible because everyone speaks of the same universe and about the same human experience. Contemporary Linguistics however, questions the possibility of translation and maintain that only a translation based on analogies and equivalences is possible. In , Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz stated that language does not serve as a vehicle of thought but it is only a determining medium.

Almost hundred years later, Johann George Hamann assumed that each language shapes reality. In his hypothesis, he states that culture and language are two different points, completely unrelated processes. This hypothesis consists of two parts: Linguistic relativity assumes that the way we view the world is either wholly or partially influenced by the native language.

Determinism is much more stronger in its postulates, and concludes that the comprehension of the reality is wholly based on the structures of a native language The most important definition of a language was coined by Ferdinand de Saussure, in , who explained the language as a system of signs, made of a signifier and a signified, where a signifier is understood as the sound-image or written shape, and a signified is a concept.

Both signifier and signified are linked together. Hence, these two cannot exist separately. Culture, on the other hand, is understood by sociology as a set of ideas, attitudes, beliefs, values and knowledge that creates the foundation for various social activities. Anthropology defines culture as activities and ideas which are characteristic for a specific group of people. Sapir concludes that these social behaviors are based on unconsciousness.

There is no doubt that language is one of the most important part of culture and it can create distinctions on different levels. He classified this problem into four categories which define when loss of meaning can be found: Dagut differed three types of metaphors: Dead metaphors, which are the easiest to translate because their figurative value is ignored both in SL and TL 2. Creative metaphors, which essence is remote from common cultural and semantic associations, hence the more surprising they are, the easier to translate they become 3.

The process of interpretation may be defined as a process of choosing distinctive features and embedding them in the language context and target culture, based on a prognostic analysis of this culture which is possible by means of functional equivalents. In the mind of a translator, a new semantic representation is created.

This representation 95 Ibid. Interpretation is a component of every reading process. In the process of adjusting a message in source language to target language environment and imagining its communication values in a correct way, many changes on different levels are observed. A very important factor is impossibility of rendering every single element of complex structure of the original; hence some of its components are lost or are given different features.

This, however, depends heavily on a method translators choose and the way in which the source text is comprehended. It states that structural differences between the source language and the target language should not be regarded as an obstacle in the process of translation.

Those differences are superficial, as structure of a language is universal for all languages. Louis Trolle Hjelmslev divides languages into restricted such as mathematical languages and unrestricted natural languages. In his opinion, translation between unrestricted languages is possible. Translatability of the text is greater when a translator has cultural and linguistic experience.

Translatability is greater when there is a degree of contact between the SL and the TL 2. Translatability is greater when the SL and TL language are on equal cultural level of development 3. It states that each language restricts the way in which its speaker perceived and interprets the reality. Each language users build reality differently, according to its own linguistic codes.

The reality of speakers of a certain language is decoded by means of its linguistics. Thus, this needs to be taken into consideration while performing a translation. There is no point-to-point correspondence between languages, thus it is nearly impossible to perfectly render the source text content to the target text. The Monadists regard translation more as an adaptation. According to this approach, translation between media i. When the target language text does not have formal items that would correspond to the source text, the text is regarded as linguistically untranslatable.

Untranslatability on linguistic level is mainly caused by ambiguity of the source language text. Polysemy occurs when an item has more than one meaning, and oligosemy, when a source language item meaning is restricted and those restrictions unable translators to match them in the TL. In cultural untranslatability a translator fails to come up with a sufficient equivalent and thus, creates unusual collocation in the TL.

Critical approach… , op. Translation is a process of constant modification of the text. Target text should be regarded as subsidiary of the source text. Translation influences the way in which the translated text is perceived. Because of its special features, included in the text, content and language , the doubt remains whether it is possible to translate any poem in such a way that it as meaningful as in the original. Great scholars, such as Frost, questions the translatability of poetry stating that in endeavors to keep both content and form, the true meaning of poetry is lost.

Others, like Jacobson, completely negate the possibility of poetry translation. On the other hand, other scholars seem to believe that a skillful translator is able to render any kind of poetry. The first strategy, Phonemic translation, is focused on sound qualities of the original and struggles to render the phonemic items first, at the same time producing an acceptable translation of the content. Literal translation refers to aforementioned techniques also discussed by other scholars. Literal translation is an undesirable outcome, because no two languages have a full correspondence between them.

Such translation has no communicative value, but serves as a tool to recognize possible issues a translator may come across during work.

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Another technique suggested by Lefevere is translating poetry into prose, disregarding the rhythm and rhyming patterns existing in ST. On the other hand, a translator can also chose to render all rhymes and rhythms according to the patterns included in ST. This method involves a perfect understanding of ST structure and content, as well as SL culture.

However, if a translator decides to omit rhymes of ST, Lefevere suggests Blank Verse translation, and this method puts more emphasis on rendering cultural peculiarities included in ST. The last strategy focuses on interpretation and assumes a complete change of the form. This approach also allows a paraphrase in a translation process, and in result, a translator creates a new poem but in Samuel.

One of his approaches concerns miming the original so that ST and TT share fundamental similarities. The second suggest substituting traditional poetic form of SL with a traditional poetic form derived from TL. The following two strategies pertain to the content of the text. Organic form allows a translator to create such a TT which can be different from form and content included in ST.

The last approach assumes that a translation can bear no resemblance to the form of ST. However, this problem has been also present prior to its theoretical definition, as it is linked with both practical and theoretical aspects of translation. Equivalence can be roughly defined as the level of sameness shared by translated texts. Within this paradigm, the concept of different kinds of equivalences and different degrees of sameness was brought to light Jean Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet define equivalence as a situation in which a text can be rendered in two different ways using different stylistics and structural methods.

The same situation can be replicated by using different wording. While dealing with items such as proverbs and idioms, which should be rendered in terms of their meaning, not imaginary. Equivalent expressions should be listed in a bilingual dictionaries which would be the most convenient situation for a translator. But the scholars also realize that such situation is impossible, as oftentimes dictionaries are not enough and do not guarantee a successful translation. The context around the particular term or word is much more essential and should be considered primarily. This begs for creative equivalences, which are chosen based on the overall situation contained in an original text.

The Art of Compromise in Translating Poetry or: Equivalence in Translation…, op. This method is also applied to idioms which cannot be translated by means of calque. Roman Jakobson stresses that full equivalence between two words in different languages does not exist. To exemplify, he makes a remark about the difference between English cheese and Russian syr.

Although he does not imply that translation is impossible at all, he highlights that every person attempting a translation process should be aware of differences between languages which sometimes are impossible to overcome. His views on problem of equivalence share many similarities with the views of Vinay and Darbelnet Eugene Nida divides equivalence into formal and dynamic.

These two forms have a different goal in a translation process. While using formal equivalence, a translator aims at rendering correspondence between texts in both content and form. All elements which ST contains must be accurately rendered into TT. This action is often referred to as gloss translation. This type of translation is usually used when it is crucial for TT reader to learn and understand foreign customs and habits which are incorporated in ST.

In a situation when such correctness and accuracy in rendering from ST to TT is not necessary, a dynamic equivalence is used. Dynamic equivalence is concerned with remaining a natural relation between ST and TT during a translation process. Formal equivalence aims at reproducing as closely as possible formal elements of a text, such as grammatical units, consistency in word usage, meanings in term of source context.

The first one is done by translating noun by noun, verb by verb, etc. Reproduction of consistency in word usage is done by substituting a word from ST with a corresponding one in TL. In case of idioms, formal equivalence renders them as literally as possible. While there are components which cannot be translated literally, a translator must explain them in footnotes. This type of translation should be as natural to TL speaker as possible, but should still remain a translation. In terms of grammar, a text can be easily adapted, as grammatical boundaries are defined by the structure of a given language.

Lexical structure of a text is much more difficult to deal with as there are plenty of alternative possibilities in TL corresponding to a lexical item of SL. A translation may be conducted between relatively closely related languages and cultures, similar cultures but different languages, or completely different cultures and languages.

A translator should be aware that in a situation when languages appear to share a substantial number of similarities, these similarities may be only superficial. When a translator does not consider such scenario, the translation may be of a very poor quality. In a case when languages have many differences between them, but cultures seem to be related, a translator should use shifts in the translation. This scenario does not appear to be very problematic, as usually differences between languages can be overcome by a set of parallelisms included in SL and TL. Definitely, the most difficult to overcome for any translator are differences between cultures.

John Catford, on the other hand divides equivalence into textual equivalence and formal correspondence. A textual equivalence is defined as any text in TL which is equivalent to any text written in SL. In general, a shift is defined as a departure from formal correspondence which occurs during a translation process. He divides this phenomena into two categories: Peter Newmark concludes that what Nida calls dynamic equivalence should not be regarded as the goal of translation, but only a desirable outcome of a translation process.

In case of vocative text, dynamic equivalence is essential and the Ibid. When two texts are culturally remote from each other, it is impossible to create an equivalent effect, therefore TT will not have the same emotional impact as ST and can served only as an informative text. The scenario of dynamic equivalence is more possible in a case of more general texts which contain less culturally specific items.

But even in cases of culturally different texts, equivalent effect is dependent on the sensitivity and acquaintance with other cultures. Newmark mentions cultural concessions, which is a change of a specific word into a generic term, which is possible only when this term is not a key element. Semantic translation reproduces the key and most characteristic elements of ST as much as it is possible, whereas communicative tries to make the rendering satisfying to the reader.

The first one tends to under-translate, while the second — over-translate. These two methods can be combined in a translation of one text. Newmark states that whenever a text causes a problems referring to which method should be chosen, a communicative strategy should be favored, in order to restrain the creation of odd and unnatural texts. Cultural equivalent is used when a cultural item of SL is translated with another cultural item of TT. Such equivalence is not really accurate and its use is limited only to general texts. Functional equivalent is a generalization of a translated item, especially when this item is culturally specific.

Such method deprives an element of its cultural characteristics. Descriptive equivalence aims at substitution of an element by description. A text is equivalent when a reader of TT is influenced by a rendering as a reader of ST by the original. Two text should be as similar as possible in order to call them equivalent, although the phrase as similar as possible means that there can always be a translator who would be able to find better solutions and hence, create a better translation. Hejwowski stresses that it is improper to talk about the equivalence of texts and that only their mental representations can be equivalent, because, as mentioned before, equivalent effect means Newmark.

The levels by which Hejwowski understand equivalence between two texts are as following: Surface structures are understood as all lexical elements which are more similar to each other than other elements. Intertextuality level can be equivalent in two respects: Werner Koller, a German scholar, in his famous work Introduction into the Science of Translation makes distinction between notions of correspondence and equivalence.

In case of correspondence, differences and similarities between two language systems are described by contrasting, while equivalence considers equivalent elements in context. Koller differs five different types of equivalence: Each of these types deal with different aspects, such as respectively: A well-developed theory of equivalence is offered by Anthony Pym.

He deems equivalence as equal value, a process in which two different languages can express the same value. This value however takes different forms, and it can be contained in form, reference, or function. He states that many of up-to-date equivalence theories are directional, by what it should be understood that a translation is made only from one side to the other, and not back. The weakness of many translation theories is that they stress only one-way relation.

The opposite, so a translation which goes back and forth, can be called natural. Directional and natural classify concepts viewed in different theories of equivalence Natural equivalence exists often in already changed form. It exists between languages prior to translation. Directional equivalence, on the other hand, offers a translator a wide range of Krzysztof Hejwowski, A Cognitive- Communicative Approach. Natural and Directional Equivalence…, op.

Strategies for directional equivalence can be divided into two main groups: Mona Baker adds another categories in which equivalence can be considered and these are grammatical, textual, and pragmatic. Grammatical aspect focuses on difficulties in finding the same grammatical categories between languages during a translation process. She points that using different grammatical categories can also alter the intended meaning of the original. Among most problematic grammatical categories she mentions aspect, tense, person, gender, and voice.

Textual category refers to cohesion between ST and TT. Textual category argues that features of the text are crucial as they facilitate understanding of the ST. Pragmatic equivalence stresses the implied meaning of the text. The topic of equivalence in translation process has been a burning issue since early s. It was first tackled by Vinay and Darbelnet who described is as one of many techniques in translation.

Nida, on the other hand, makes equivalence a main strategy and states that each translation should aim at equivalence, either formal or dynamic. Baker points to the problem of grammar and meaning intended in original, stating that some grammatical elements, such as person, voice, aspect, can alter the overall meaning. In the most general way this process can be explained as a situation in which a translator decodes the content in ST and encodes it again in TL by proper elements, and hence, creates a meaningful and accurate text.

Translation of Poetry … op. Instead of direct translation, oblique can be used. There are seven procedures concerning these techniques. Borrowing is one of the easiest translation methods, used to fill metalinguistic gaps. It is often used when a translator wants to introduce the SL into TT and he decides to substitute an element with a foreign term.

With time, a borrowing may become an inseparable part of TL lexicon. Borrowing enters a new language by means of translation. A special type of borrowing is called a calque. In this procedure, a translator borrows an expression from TL and translates directly all elements of this expression. A calque can either be lexical or structural.

In the first case, a calque introduces a new model of expression saving the syntactic structure of TL at the same time. In the second case, a calque introduces a completely new construction into a language. Just like in the case of borrowing, some calques become an element of the language after some time. While translating within languages of the same family a literal translation is allowed.

It is a process of word-by-word rendering, a direct transfer of from SL into TL by means of idiomatically and grammatically suitable and correct element. A corresponding method is suggested by Hejwowski, called syntagmatic translation, either with explanation or without. He points out syntagmatic translation without explanation tends to be confusing for a reader who is not very well-versed with a given culture.

Often, translating an element literary may conceal the true meaning intended by the author and in result a recipient will not be able to recognize the significance of such phrase. In such case, Hejwowski suggests adding a footnote. A translator should also be aware of the fact that such translation may be a trap or may cause confusion by using inappropriate phrases. Such technique should be applied during a pre-translation process in order to facilitate recognizing potential issues.

A process of word-for-word translation is similar, and its aim is to uncover the system of SL. In this technique, a translator needs to change the form of the translated part by changing the point of view. Modulation can be fixed, obligatory, optional, or free. Free and fixed modulation have different degree.

African American Vernacular English in Contemporary Music - A. Glatz - Google Книги

Fixed modulation can be used by a translator with great competence of language because they will be aware of the frequency of usage and acceptance of a modulation in a given Hejwowski. Free modulations are not yet embedded in a language and each time they are used in a translation, they are introduced into TL.

One element can be rendered by two texts using completely different stylistics and structural methods, hence by an equivalence. Most equivalences are fixed in the language and hence, belong to its collection of phraseological means, such as idioms, proverbs, adjectival phrases, etc.

Recognized equivalent is the one already known in TL. On the other hand, functional equivalent is a technique which should be used in case of translating elements of a minor importance. In some cases this technique may facilitate the process of understanding the text, especially when the text mentions culture-related details. On the other hand, this technique may bring connotations very different from intended by the author or may domesticate too much. When an item does not repeat throughout the text, a translator can also use a descriptive equivalence in order to substitute SL item with a descriptive phrase.

Nida differs two types of equivalents: Formal equivalent is focused only on a message and takes into consideration both form and content of a given message. The message in SL should match closely with TL message. On the other hand, dynamic equivalent is concerned with relation the receptors and the message and stress that this relation must be identical with the one existing in the original.

Dynamic equivalence treats naturalness as the most important factor of a translation. It does not require understanding the cultural patterns included in the ST. A translator is able to do this, provided he or she: There are three cases when it is advised to make changes in lexicon: A translator needs to create a situation which could be deemed as equivalent. This mean can be therefore described as a situational equivalent. The most important components remain unchanged; all cultural details are just rewritten in TL language. Nonetheless, a translator should be very cautious while adapting as this process can often result in a very poor and unsuitable TT.

If so, one has definitely heard artists saying something like: For an English grammar police, the latter sentence probably sounds like Standard English with mistakes. However, Geoffrey Pullum argued in his academic study conducted in , that this is not the case. He states that African American Vernacular English is neither slang nor a dialect. His argument is based on an incident which occurred in a small town high school in Oakland, in the United States, where the school board decided to recognise African American Vernacular English AAVE as a dialect and accepted its use in all classroom activities.

Pullum has gathered the most distinctive grammar rules of the AAVE. One example is double negation. The question of who the speakers of AAVE are is a major interest in current research. Another interesting topic is the origin of AAVE. There is only a limited amount of data available on the early stages of the language of Africans in America, i. For this reason, there is no definite answer that can be given on the origin of AAVE, but several hypotheses were offered by Wolfram and Schilling-Estes , which I am going to present in the following section.

According to this theory, English was the main factor that influenced the language of Africans in America. During the time they were held in bondage as slaves, they were forced to interact with their masters and other white people from their local and regional area who were the ones in power. This is the reason why many slaveholders often tried to prevent the contact with other slaves on the plantations.

Evidence for this theory is the fact that certain features of AAVE were also found in other American regional or social varieties, such as in the Southern dialect. Before a creole can develop in a speech community, a pidgin has to be used first. As the language situation was quite difficult with English, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese slave traders and African slaves, they had to develop a way of communication to understand each other. If speakers of a pidgin have children and these children continue to speak this language and develop further grammatical and other linguistic features, we are talking of a creole, which can be seen as a full-fledged new language.

According to them, the former creole adopted almost all features from SAE and only some features of the creole remained, such as the copula be absence, which is dealt with in this paper later on.

African American Vernacular English in Contemporary Music

Coming to the next hypothesis about the origin of AAVE, it is important to know that in the s and s, a lot of new data on the language of African Americans emerged and showed that their language was much more similar to European American English than assumed before. Linguists started to doubt that AAVE had its origin in a presumed creole. For this reason, the Neo-Anglicist Hypothesis emerged. This hypothesis states the two dialects have influenced each other in so far that substrates such as inflectional —s absence or copula absence came into being.

Though researchers were able to find evidence for all of the above hypotheses, no clear answer about the origin of AAVE can be given. Given the limitations of data, a final answer seems to be impossible. For now, one has to accept the fact that there are only hypotheses trying to explain the origins of AAVE. Another controversial topic on AAVE is the attitude towards it in educational or professional settings. A big problem is that too many African American students have very poor reading skills and a low academic achievement in general.

The issue is that Standard English is required in all professions and seems to be the most accurate form to talk when being at work cf. Attitudes in professional settings are very negative towards AAVE, but to other non-standard dialects as well. The general public often perceives AAVE as unintelligible speech not to be taken seriously as a dialect on its own.

For this reasons, researchers such as Lisa Green demand an adjustment of African Americans to the linguistic requirements at work:. As dialects in general are often evaluated negatively, speakers should try to speak SAE without being offended that they are not allowed to speak however they want. The same counts for the use of AAVE in the classroom. If a teacher has a negative attitude towards a dialect which could be any dialect in this case, not only AAVE , he might already have low expectations for this student.

Another reason might be that they often interact with people speaking the same dialect. Because of the fact that society wants them to speak SAE in official situations, some AAVE speakers might have a very bad motivation, thinking that SAE is a characteristic of the majority, i. The fact that they interact mostly with people speaking the same dialect and identifying the most with them lead to a negative perception towards SAE.

In this section, I will give an overview of the most important phonological, grammatical and lexical features of AAVE in comparison to SAE as presented by Tottie and Rickford I will first introduce a few of the phonological features of AAVE. The largest differences with regard to phonology can be found in the consonant system.

One prominent feature of AAVE is that it is non-rhotic, which basically means that the letter r is not pronounced in certain contexts. Besides the word-final r as in the word letter , it is also possible to leave out an intervocalic r , i. Another interesting feature is the devoicing of word-final voiced stops after a vowel, i. The verb phrase is probably the most prominent aspect of the grammar with regard to AAVE. AAVE speakers use an invariant form of the verb be to indicate that an action is habitual. Another feature is the use of stressed been , spelled BIN, which refers to the fact that an action started a long time ago in the past and is still going on.

In case AAVE speakers want to express future meaning, they use the word will , but because of l -deletion l is sometimes vocalized in the end of words it often sounds as if will is not used. People who are not familiar with this variety aspect might assume that AAVE speakers simply leave out will.

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The form will have is expressed by substituting will have with be done as in the following example by Rickford: The third person singular is often not indicated in AAVE, i. Beside this, AAVE has a feature called double or multiple negation , which means that there are two or more words that express negation but do not cause a change in meaning. Tottie quotes a sentence, in which we find four! The last grammatical feature I would like to describe is the most significant one for this paper: It is important to mention that the absence of to be almost never occurs in the first person singular, i.

The copula is one of the most studied features in the course of AAVE studies and therefore an interesting one to look at when it comes to music as there has not been a lot of research so far. As the copula absence is the linguistic item to be analyzed later in this thesis, we should have a closer look on the historical and current development of this feature.

Dialectologists and creolists oppose each other when talking about the origins of the AAVE pattern of copula deletion usage. The crucial question is the following one: Dialectologists maintain that AAVE speakers actually have in mind that the copula is used in certain positions and that a natural process in the development of the AAVE dialect caused the absence. Creolists, on the contrary, are of the opinion that the null copula derived from English-based creoles and pidgins that were spoken in the African diaspora. As speakers had to deal more and more with the English language proper and its copula use, speakers adopted this feature in some cases as part of decreolization.

However, AAVE speakers still leave out the feature in some positions. All in all, it is quite well possible that several causes led to the development of copula absence in AAVE.