Imagine an English lesson in a fifth grade somewhere in the USA. The class consists
of 25 pupils – ten of them are noticeably of African descent. The white teacher gives
instructions to the pupils, wanting them to write an imaginative story about a topic of
their own choice. A black boy in the last row raises his arm, asking: “So there ain’t no
restriction at all?” The teacher – visibly annoyed by the pupil’s interrogation – shouts
in his direction: “I don’t want no double negation in your texts!”
Although this story arose from my imagination, this little anecdote directly leads me to
the topic of this paper: Negation in African American Vernacular English (AAVE).
The situation described above might seem funny – especially because the teacher
uses double negation in his answer himself – but its content appears to be sad reality
for millions of black students all over the United States of America:
White teachers do not accept ‘Black Talk’ as a proper language to be used in official
institutions like schools but tend to call its speech patterns and expressions – that
have been proved by many linguists in the past decades to be part of an own scientifically
accepted language system – orthographically and grammatically wrong.
As
Geneva Smitherman states it in the preface of her book “Talking That Talk” (2000):
It [is] obvious that despite decades of research and scholarly work on Ebonics, there
are still large numbers of people who do not accept the scientific facts about this
language spoken by millions of Americans of African descent.1
Since this is the case I became interested in the specific features that make AAVE so
distinctive from other varieties of English. During my researches I found one grammatical
phenomenon that might not be completely unique to AAVE but which contains
a variety of smaller distinctive features, namely the field of negative construc-tions in AAVE. In this paper I want to investigate the various grammatical phenomena related to ne-gation in the African American vernacular. Since grammar always becomes a more lively and joyful thing to look at when it is explained with the help of examples from real life conversations or other authentic speaking situations I decided to use lyrics of Rap music written and performed by Afro-American Hip Hop artists Eric B., Rakim, Tupac Shakur and his Hip Hop group Thug Life to illustrate the grammatical rules and features discussed in this paper.
[...]
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- Negation in Standard English
- Formation of negative clauses in Standard English
- The Scope of Negation
- Semantic confusion with multiple negation
- Negation in African American Vernacular English
- The negator ain't
- Multiple negation and negative concord
- Negative concord to verbs within the same clause
- Negative concord to indefinites in the same clause
- Negative concord across clause boundaries
- Undefined types of negation
- Conclusion
- Sources
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This paper explores the grammatical features of negation in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), comparing its usage to Standard English (SE). The paper aims to highlight the unique features of negation within AAVE, analyzing its specific grammatical constructions and providing real-life examples from Hip Hop lyrics.- The Formation of Negative Clauses in SE and AAVE
- Multiple Negation and Negative Concord in AAVE
- The Use of the Negator 'ain't' in AAVE
- The Scope of Negation and Its Implications
- The Social and Linguistic Context of AAVE
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
The Introduction establishes the context of the paper, focusing on the social and linguistic dynamics surrounding AAVE and its acceptance in formal settings. It highlights the importance of understanding the unique grammatical features of AAVE, using the example of a hypothetical classroom scenario where a teacher rejects the use of double negation in a student’s writing. This scenario serves as a springboard to delve into the complex topic of negation in AAVE.
The second chapter introduces the concept of negation in Standard English, outlining the formation of negative clauses and exploring the scope of negation in SE. The author emphasizes the role of auxiliary verbs and the use of the negative particle 'not' in SE, offering examples to illustrate the grammatical rules governing negation. This chapter sets the stage for contrasting these rules with those found in AAVE.
The third chapter dives deeper into the specific features of negation within AAVE, examining the unique use of the negator 'ain't' and the phenomenon of multiple negation or negative concord. The chapter analyzes various types of negative concord in AAVE, demonstrating its application across different grammatical structures, such as within the same clause, across clause boundaries, and in relation to indefinite pronouns. The author provides examples from Hip Hop lyrics to illustrate these concepts in real-life context.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
This paper focuses on the unique grammatical features of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), specifically the use of negation in various contexts. The primary themes explored include: negation, Standard English, AAVE, negative concord, multiple negation, ain't, Hip Hop lyrics, sociolinguistics, and language variation. This research examines the impact of social and linguistic factors on the development and usage of AAVE, challenging the perception of AAVE as a substandard form of English and highlighting its unique grammatical system.- Quote paper
- Markus Mehlig (Author), 2009, “I don’t want no double negation!”, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/126194
