Theories and Politics in African American English

Abstract

KEY WORDS: Black English vernacular. language and gender, language and identity, language ideology INTRODUCTION Scholarly research and public attitudes concerning the language behavior of African Americans have evolved throughout the twentieth century, from early theories that described it in relation to various types of US speech spoken by those of British descent (121,122,123,183) to increasing efforts to describe its features, use, and function within or among members of the African Ameri can speech community (42,163, 177) irrespective of other varieties of Ameri can English. To explore and critique this evolution, 1 situate much of this review within the theoretical and political arguments that have portended each analytical shift. These arguments, while centered around language, concern the larger question of how to address the multicultural contact fIrst experienced by Africans and their descendants, who were both sold and born into slavery in the United States, as well as how to interpret the role and constitutive elements of African American culture and language in American society today.In the United States, comments about the language of African Americans are consistently linked to comments about African Americans' cognitive abil ity and culture (eg. 26, 64, 87, 183), so it is not surprising that some linguists lament the sh roud of controversy often accompanying research on African American varieties (12,20,21,160). This controversy reflects the multilay ered political and ideological issues embodying scholarly work with any mar ginalized group that is characterized or marked by language use. It also intro-0084-6570/94/1015-0325$05.00 325 Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 1994.23:325-345. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by New York University -Bobst Library on 02/07/15. For personal use only. Quick links to online content Further ANNUAL REVIEWS Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 1994.23:325-345. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by New York University -Bobst Library on 02/07/15. For personal use only. AFRICAN AMERICAN ENGLISH 327 AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE AND LANGUAGE: IDEOLOGIES AND POLITICS

Yorkville Crossing: White teens, hip hop and African American English

“…3. I adopt Morgan's (1994) de®nition of AAVE as the language varieties used by people in the US whose major socialization has been with US residents of African descent but would like to specify that it is a particular variety of AAVE that young whites are targeting: that variety of AAVE used by rap and hip-hop artists. 4.…”

Metapragmatic comments and orthographic performances of a New York accent on YouTube

“…Naming linguistic varieties, equating them with certain sets of features, groups of people, and/or geographical locations, however, essentializes many people as de facto speakers. The term 'African American English' (AAE), for instance, implies that all African Americans speak in a particular way no matter where they live or what social milieu they inhabit (Blake, 2014;Morgan, 1994). A constructivist standpoint in contrast, reflects an epistemological shift away from a priori categorization of languages, dialects, and social categories (black, white, working class) in favor of observing how these emerge in discourse or other kinds of social and linguistic practice (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).…”

Language and Identity

“…In the United States, these are arguably some of the most socially useful contributions the discipline of variation has made, speaking to communities beyond the scholarly and often having an impact on public policy. Studies on African American English have served to debunk deficit models of African-American language and identity (for critical reviews, see Rickford 1997, Morgan 1994; similarly, studies of Spanish/English bilinguals have served to combat common myths of bilingual speakers as linguistically confused, or worse, "alingual." Research on Puerto Rican English and Spanish (Poplack 1979, Urciuoli 1996, Zentella 1997, and Chicano English and Spanish (Valdés 1981, García 1984) still enriches debates on bilingual education today (for a review on the sociolinguistics of US Latinos see Mendoza-Denton 1999a).…”