African American Vernacular English
Features, Evolution, Educational Implications
Language in Society
In response to the flood of interest in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) following the recent controversy over "Ebonics," this book brings together sixteen essays on the subject by a leading expert in the field, one who has been researching and writing on it for a quarter of a century.
Series Editor's Preface.
Preface.
Foreword.
Acknowledgments.
Part I: Features and Use.
1. Phonological and Grammatical Features of African American
Vernacular English.
2. Carrying the New Wave into Syntax: The Case of Black English
BIN.
3. Preterit Had+ V- ed in the Narratives of African American
Adolescents: with Christine Theberge Rafal.
4. Rappin on the Copula Coffin: Theoretical and Methodological
Issues in the Analysis of Copula variation in African American
Vernacular English: with Arnetha Ball, Renée Blake, Raina
Jackson, and Nomi.
Martin I.
5. Ethnicity as a Sociolinguistic Boundary.
6. Addressee- and Topic-Influenced Style Shift: A Quantitative
Sociolinguistic Study: with Faye McNair-Knox.
Part II: Evolution.
7. Cut-Eye and Suck-Teeth: African Words and Gestures in New
World Guise: with Angela E. Rickford.
8. Social Contact and Linguistic Diffusion: Hiberno English and
New World Black English.
9. Copula Variability in Jamaican Creole and African American
Vernacular English: A Reanalysis of DeCamp's Texts.
10. Prior Creolization of AAVE? Sociohistorical and Textual
Evidence from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
11. Are Black and White Vernaculars Diverging?.
12. Grammatical Variation and Divergence in Vernacular Black
English.
Part III: Educational Implications.
13. Attitudes Toward AAVE, and Classroom Implications and
Strategies. 14. Unequal Partnership; Sociolinguistics and the
African American Speech Community.
15. Suite for Ebony and Phonics.
16. Using the Vernacular to Teach the Standard.
References.
Index.
Preface.
Foreword.
Acknowledgments.
Part I: Features and Use.
1. Phonological and Grammatical Features of African American
Vernacular English.
2. Carrying the New Wave into Syntax: The Case of Black English
BIN.
3. Preterit Had+ V- ed in the Narratives of African American
Adolescents: with Christine Theberge Rafal.
4. Rappin on the Copula Coffin: Theoretical and Methodological
Issues in the Analysis of Copula variation in African American
Vernacular English: with Arnetha Ball, Renée Blake, Raina
Jackson, and Nomi.
Martin I.
5. Ethnicity as a Sociolinguistic Boundary.
6. Addressee- and Topic-Influenced Style Shift: A Quantitative
Sociolinguistic Study: with Faye McNair-Knox.
Part II: Evolution.
7. Cut-Eye and Suck-Teeth: African Words and Gestures in New
World Guise: with Angela E. Rickford.
8. Social Contact and Linguistic Diffusion: Hiberno English and
New World Black English.
9. Copula Variability in Jamaican Creole and African American
Vernacular English: A Reanalysis of DeCamp's Texts.
10. Prior Creolization of AAVE? Sociohistorical and Textual
Evidence from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
11. Are Black and White Vernaculars Diverging?.
12. Grammatical Variation and Divergence in Vernacular Black
English.
Part III: Educational Implications.
13. Attitudes Toward AAVE, and Classroom Implications and
Strategies. 14. Unequal Partnership; Sociolinguistics and the
African American Speech Community.
15. Suite for Ebony and Phonics.
16. Using the Vernacular to Teach the Standard.
References.
Index.
"John Rickford has been studying AAVE for nearly 30 years and is recognized as one of the experts leading the discussion about AAVE and implementing solutions to a number of associated problems."
--James H. Yang, Language in Society
--James H. Yang, Language in Society
John R. Rickford is the Martin Luther King Centennial Professor of Linguistics and African and Afro-American Studies at Stanford University. He is also the Director of the thirty-year-old degree-granting Program in African and Afro-American Studies, and President of the International Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles, and several books, including Dimensions of a Creole Continuum (1987), editor of A Festival of Guyanese Words (1978), Sociolinguistics and Pidgin-Creole Studies (1988), and co-editor of Analyzing Variation in Language (1987).
