美国黑人英语与美国主流英语的差异分析

葛晓妍

摘要

在過去几十年间，美国黑人英语在美国乃至世界上产生了巨大的影响，其影响范围涉及文学，影视，音乐等，可以说美国黑人英语已发展成为标志性的重要文化符号。然而美国黑人英语曾一度被认为是次等或低级的语言变体，这在语言学上是没有具体根据的。本文从社会语言学及应用语言学的角度对一名记者与美国黑人青年的对话文本进行深入分析，旨在探究美国黑人英语在词汇应用，句法结构及语用等方面与标准美国英语间的差异及意义。

关键词

美国黑人英语； 美国标准英语； 方言； 差异

Introduction

'A city is a speech community' （Holliday， 1978： 155）. There are a variety of social dialects co-exist in the urban speech community which reflects various subcultures， social class， gender， generation， ethnics or economic and educational status. As Holliday （1978， 159） claims， a social dialect is a dialect， a configuration of phonetic， phonological， grammatical and lexical features， that is associated with and stands for a social group. Riley （2007：94） also made his point clear that “language variation is a systematic and iconic representation of social structures.” In this paper， a conversation between a field worker and a black teenager Larry from American inner city （Labov， W. 1972.p.214-7） will be evaluated according to Labov's （1972） findings in the linguistic features of AAVE （African American Vernacular English） and compared with the so-called “developed English” or standard English to reveal the difference between them.

The Verb “Be”

In standard English， different sentences may use conjugated 'be' verb in different situation. The variant can be： is， am， are， was， were etc. In AAVE， such verb variants are often not included：

（1） An' when they be sayin' … ...

In standard English， copular is strictly embedded in sentences like： S. + be+ adj. Or S. + be+ doing. On the contrary， optional copula deletion is AAVE's another significant feature. For example：

（2）your spirit goin' t' heaven... …

（3）'n' if you bad， your spirit goin' to hell.

（4）… if you good， you goin' t' heaven.

Negatives

There are a number of ways of marking negation in AAVE. Different from standard English， AAVE uses 'ain't' to negate verb in simple sentence， for example：

（5） cause you ain't going to... ...

（6） cause it ain't no heaven for you... ...

（7） it ain't no hell.

And also， AAVE allows negation to be marked in more than one position， which is called Negative Concord， or double negation. For example：

（8） cause you ain't goin' t' no heaven.

（9） cause it ain't no heaven for you to go to.

What's more， AAVE also has a special negative construction， which is called Negative Inversion. For example：endprint

（10） ...doesn't nobody really know that it's a God... ...（it is also a double negation form）

which should be 'nobody knows that it's a God' in standard English.

'It' Stands for 'There' and Full Forms of Auxiliaries

AAVE uses 'it' instead of 'there'， such as （11） 'it ain't no hell' means 'there is no hell'. Although AAVE always deletes， changes and switches necessary utterances of sentences， it seems that they always keep auxiliaries in full forms， for example： （12）I mean I have seen black gods， pink gods， ...

Comments

The above analysis somehow proves Labov （1972）'s conclusion， that the highest concentration of verbal skills is to be found in the Black English vernacular culture （p XIV）. The simplification and concentration of the grammar and vocabulary in AAVE can be more plain and understandable for listener and can better express one selfs instant feeling and opinion. As Larry， he uses AAVE to express his opinion about afterlife in simple language with few variants and in simple logic which can draw listeners attention more effectively. What's more， a constant rhythm can be found in Larry's speech， just like a piece of music， it allows listener or reader to follow the speaker with his beats and his own pace of speaking. Labov （1972， 395） comments that the most highly evaluated form of language is that which translates our personal experience into dramatic form. In this sense， AAVE seems to have a distinct advantage over the standard styles. The discriminative and negative stereotypes of judging AAVE as inferior and low social dialect should be abandoned as it is equal with standard English with its own complete structure and system. Standard English is in no way superior than any other social dialects as each of them has particular value and specialized characteristics.

Conclusion

This paper has evaluated a AAVE speech from linguistic and social-linguistic perspectives. Several AAVE's linguistic features， such as simplification of “Be” variant， optional copula deletion， negative concord and the full forms of auxiliaries， etc. have been revealed in comparison with standard English. We should condemn such prejudices that African American Vernacular English is inferior than the so-called “developed English” or standard English as Halliday （1978） claims that no language has a permanent status of ‘developed： it is a matter of how it used. Although they are different in form and grammatical structure in some way， their value should always be treated equal. Just as Hawes （2011） says all languages are equal and have the same potential.

References：

Holliday， M. K. 1978. Language as social semiotics. London： Edward Arnold.

Labov， W. 1972. Language in the Inner City. Oxford： Blackwell.

Riley， P. 2007. Language， Culture & Identity， p. 94.

Hawes， T. 2011. Accents & Dialects [EB/OL]. PowerPoint.

Wardhaugh， R. 1998. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics [M]. Blackwell Publishers.endprint