Дипломная работа: Linguistic Аspects of Black English
- Only the forms is and are (which in any case is often replaced by is) can be omitted
- These forms cannot be omitted when they are pronounced with a stress (whether or not the stress serves specifically to impart an emphatic sense to the verb's meaning).
- These forms cannot be omitted when the corresponding form in Standard English cannot show contraction (and vice-versa). For example, I don't know where he is cannot be reduced to *I don't know where he because in Standard English the corresponding reduction *I don't know where he's is likewise impossible. (Though I don't know where he at is possible.)
Possibly some other minor conditions apply as well.
Present-tense verbs are uninflected for number/person: there is no -s ending in the present-tense third-person singular. Example: She writes poetry ("She writes poetry"). Similarly, was used for what in Standard English are contexts for both was and were.
The word it or is denotes the existence of something, equivalent to Standard English there in "there is", or "there are". This usage is also found in the English of the US South. Examples Is a doughnut in the cabinet ("There's a doughnut in the cabinet") and It ain't no spoon ("There isn't a spoon", also "They ain't no spoon").
Altered syntax in questions: In “ Why they ain't growin'?” ("Why aren't they growing?") and “Who the hell she think she is?” ("Who the hell does she think she is?") lack the inversion of standard English. Because of this, there is also no need for the auxiliary DO. (29, 48)
| GRAMMAR AND STRUCTURE RULE IN WEST AFRICAN LANGUAGE, | BLACK ENGLISH |
| construction of sentences without the form of the verb to be | He sick today. They talkin about school now. |
| Repetition of noun subject with pronoun | My father, he work there. |
| Question patterns without do | What it come to? |
| Same form of noun for singular and plural | one boy; five boy |
| No tense indicated in verb | I know it good when he ask me |
| Same verb form for all subjects | I know; you know; he know; we know; they know |
| Sound Rule in West African Languages | Black English |
| No consonant pairs | jus (for just); men (for mend) |
| Few long vowels or two-part vowel (diphthongs) | rat (for right); tahm (for time) |
| No /r/ sound | mow (for more) |
| No /th/ sound | substitution of /d/ or /f/ for /th/; souf (for south) and dis (for this) |
Copula Deletion with "To Be" and Other Characteristics
| Example | Name | SE Meaning / Notes |
| He workin'. | Simple progressive | He is working [currently]. |
| He be workin'. | Habitual/continuative aspect | He works frequently or habitually. Better illustrated with "He be workin' Tuesdays." |
| He stay workin'. | Intensified continuative | He is always working. |
| He been workin'. | Perfect progressive | He has been working. |
| He been had dat job. | Remote phase (see below) | He has had that job for a long time and still has it. |
| He done worked. | Emphasized perfective | He has worked. Syntactically, "He worked" is valid, but "done" is used to emphasize the completed nature of the action.[25] |
One of the most famous grammatical characteristics of Black English is the use of the verb to be. Omission of the verb to be, or copula deletion, is very typical of Black English. The "is" can be omitted completely ("He Michael, too"). On the
other hand, in sentences where the is or other forms of be are not contracted in general Standard English usage, it is not deleted in Black English
| He finna go to work. | Immediate future | He's about to go to work. Finna is a contraction of "fixing to"; though is also believed to show residual influence of late 16th century archaism "would fain (to)", that persisted until later in some rural dialects spoken in the Carolinas (near the Gullah region). "Fittin' to" is commonly thought to be another form of the original "fixin' (fixing) to", and it is also heard as fitna, fidna, fixna, and finsta.[26] |