Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Some Aspects of African American Vernacular English Grammar


         In Today´s post , we are continuing with another point of the AAVE. The African American Vernacular English present some interesting features in its grammar, which makes it little bit different from the Standar English’s grammar.

- Verb Conjunction:

AAVE’speakers use to interchange the past with the past participle:

e.g:    Present                               Past                          Past Participle

     SE          do                                did                           have done
 AAVE        do                               done                        done did 
                                                                                  ( done = have)

For example :   Estándar English : He has eaten his dinner
                           AAVE: He done eat his dinner


The use of ``be´´ :

The verb `` To be´´ can be included in the sentence as it is, without being conjugated in person and number:

E.g:   He be there!  Or She be working all the time.

Also the verb to be is often not included, it can occur in future sentences, before verbs with –ing forms , before adjective and expressions of location and before nouns.

E.g: He all right ; He there ; He run tomorrowShe at home. The club on one corner, the Bock is on the other.

-Future sentences: The future mark to those events that have not occurred yet, is Gonna or gon.  E.g: I don’t care what he say, you gon laugh.

Another  point in verb conjuction is `` the omitting –s of third person singular´´. While in Standard English you must make use of the ``s´´ on third person singular, in AAVE is omitted.
Here is an example:  ‘It seem like the world has gone to hell in a hand basket’

-  Negation

In this case, we can find the ain’t particle, which is used as a general negative indicator. This particle will be used in AAVE, where Estándar English would have used `` don’t ; didn’t, haven’t; isn’t ; aren’t , hasn’t´´.
E.g : ‘I ain’t know that or’  ‘It ain’t my fault; I did everything the right way.’
Also we can emphasize the use of a `` Double negation´´ that means, when we have a negative sentece, we not only use a negative form of the verb but also in other words that can be negated in the same sentence.  This is a contrast with Standar English where a double negation is considerated incorrect in grammar.
 E.g: I don’t know nothing AAVE – I don’t know anything SE

 - The usage of dem

This form is commonly used in AAVE as a way of marking plurality. In the next example `` Give me dem cups over there´´ we can observe that dem is not only used to refer to that there is more than one cup but also to specify to which one you are referring to.



Source:



http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mdover/website/Social%20Welfare%20Policy%20Main%20Folder/Professional%20Writing%20for%20Policy%20Practice/checklistPDF-Urban_AAE.pdf

http://www.northpark.edu/Academics/Undergraduate-Academics/Academic-Assistance/Writing-Center/Faculty-Resources/~/media/Files/PDF/Current%20Students/Writing%20Center/WC_FullAAVE.ashx


Sandra Romero Ferrández

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