Are Black and White Vernaculars Diverging? Papers from the NWAVE XIV Panel Discussion

BE, DO, and Modal Auxiliaries of 3-Year-Old African American English Speakers

“…At least 20 child AAE studies have included auxiliaries within the analyses (Burns, Paulk, Seymour, & Pearson, 2000;Cleveland & Oetting, 2013;Fasold et al, 1987;Green, 2011;Green, Wyatt, & Lopez, 2007;Horton-Ikard, 2002;Horton-Ikard, Ellis Weismer, & Edwards, 2005;Jackson & Roberts, 2001;Oetting & Garrity, 2006;Oetting & McDonald, 2001;Oetting & Pruitt, 2005;Roy, Oetting, & Moland, 2013;Seymour, Bland-Stewart, & Green, 1998;Thompson, Craig, & Washington, 2004;Van Hofwegen & Wolfram, 2010;Washington & Craig, 1994, 2002Washington, Craig, & Kushmaul, 1998). As mentioned earlier, most of these studies have focused on isolated aspects of the AAE grammar, such as those that show differences (or a contrast) between AAE and MAE.…”

“…Higher rates of overt marking have been observed for auxiliary forms that are succeeded by V-ing (e.g., "he is walking") than for those that are succeeded by gon/gonna and finna/fixing to (e.g., "he is gonna walk"; "he is finna walk"). For example, using language sample data from AAE-speaking adolescents, Fasold et al (1987) calculated a 59% rate of overt marking for is and are when succeeded by V-ing compared with 11% when succeeded by gon/gonna (but see Green et al, 2007, for a 4% rate of overt marking for auxiliary is and are, regardless of the succeeding element by 11 three-, four-, and five-year-olds).…”

Sorting out the Variables in Sociolinguistic Theory

“…Since the Status dimension (here region) does not create a variety space as large as (and is contained within) that of the linguistic dimension (following stress), I would be tempted to say that the groups do not constitute two different speech communities. This is a claim about areal difference and, therefore, different from one which suggests that individuals might not be members of a speech community if they do not share variable rules (or even subcharacteristics of such rules, such as constraint ordering), the so-called "variable rule speech community" (see Fasold 1991). It would be interesting to see how some of the data which form the basis for recent claims about divergence between black and white speech communities (e.g., Bailey 1987, Fasold 1987, Labov 1987, Rickford 1987, Spears 1987, Vaughn-Cooke 1987, Wolfram 1987, Butters 1989, and a number of studies in Sankoff 1986) might be treated from this perspective, but many such studies provide no VARBRUL analyses (and no frequency data permitting such analyses), or they combine frequency data and VARBRUL probabilities in ways which do not allow investigation of the point raised here.…”

Comparability of the Black-White Divide in the American Speech Community and the Coloured-White Divide in the Afrikaans Speech Community

“…Some studies of AAVE and EAVE may provide evidence of divergence, as detailed by Labov (see Fasold et al 1987) and Bailey & Maynor (1989), but there is also considerable counterevidence, of which Butters (1989) provides a comprehensive overview. At a quantifiable level, it could be that both convergence and divergence are taking place concurrently, convergence at one linguistic level (or convergence involving one given variable), divergence at another (or divergence involving another given variable) 1 .…”